Status quo unharmed in the La Liga as Real Madrid and Barcelona register convincing wins
It was a weekend in the Spanish Premiera Liga when the status quo remained unharmed for yet another week as both Real Madrid and Barcelona won their respective matches to remain the top two in the La Liga.
Elsewhere in the league, on Sunday Athletic Bilbao and Racing Santander also registered crucial wins but the day belonged to Barcelona who continued their impressive form in the league to churn up another five star
performance to beat Real Sociedad by a whopping margin of 5-0.
Barcelona’s vicat the gap between itself and Real Madrid remains apart by only two points atory means ths Real Madrid notched up three points on Sunday with a 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza.
Barcelona were inspired by another scintillating performance from their Argentine superstar Lionel Messi, who scored another brace in the league to take his goal tally in the league to 17 for the season.
The flood gates opened on Sunday night when David Villa put the Blaugranas ahead early in the second half and soon after Andres Iniesta doubled their advantage at the 33rd minute.
Just two minutes after the restart, Messi put daylight between the two sides’ score line by making it 3-0 after exchanging passes on the edge of the box with Dani Alves.
Messi then added another goal on the night to make it 4-0 and Bojan Krikic made it 5-0 just minutes before the final whistle to move his side to the top of the La Liga standings.
The victory for Barcelona meant that the Catalans have won their last 8 games in the leagues and have scored 26 goals in their last six outings.
Earlier on Sunday, Real Madrid had moved temporarily to the top of the standings with a 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza with goals from Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria.
Madrid opened the scoring in the 15th minute when Mesut Ozil finished clinically after a quick counter attack by Real and firing his shot under the legs of Leo Franco.
Ronaldo then doubled his side’s advantage with a sublime free kick just before the break when his stinging shot left Franco flat footed on the goal line as he stood helpless to see Ronaldo’s shot bulge the back
of the net.
Angel Di Maria then made three points safe on the night when he chipped Franco just after the restart after being played in by a pin pointed Xabi Alonso through ball.
Zaragoza got one goal back late in the game when Ricardo Carvallho fouled Nicolas Bertolo in the box and Fernandez beat Casillas easily from the spot but the goal only proved to be a consolation for the hosts as
Real held on to win the game.
Fernando Llorente was the start for Athletic Bilbao as his 10th goal of the season helped his side register a priceless win.
Llorente equalized for his side in the 73rd minute after Espanyol had gone ahead earlier in the game through Osvaldo.
And just five minutes after the equalizer, Llorente won a free kick for his side on the edge of the box and a superb curling shot by David Lopez left the keeper with no chance, as his side took the lead for one
last time in the game.
The defeat of Espanyol meant that they failed to claim the third spot in the league above Villareal who lost points on the weekend.
In another match on the weekend Mallorca failed to bounce back from a 3-0 drubbing by Getafe last week as they lost 1-0 to Racing Santander on the night with Oscar Serrano grabbing the solitary goal of the game in the final minute.
The results of the matches played on Sunday are as follows:
Athletic Bilbao 2 Espanyol 1
Hercules 4 Malaga 1
Mallorca 0 Racing Santander 1
Sporting Gijon 1 Levante 1
Real Zaragoza 1 Real Madrid 3
Barcelona 5 Real Sociedad 0
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