News Archive

Match round-up - First Division, Day 31

Villarreal missed out on a chance to move back up to fifth after they lost 1-3 to Athletic Bilbao in the Monday night game, and their place in next season’s Europa League is now in doubt after a second defeat in a row. Strikes by Córdoba and Willams put the visitors two up, and although Bacca got one back midway through the second half, Muniain celebrated his return after a long injury lay-off with the third near the end. (09.04.18)

Honours were shared in the latest Madrid city derby, Real Madrid and Atlético drawing 1-1 on Sunday to keep Simeon’s side four points clear of their rivals in the table. Ronaldo opened the scoring from Bale’s cross early on in the second half, but Griezmann equalised soon afterwards to make it five years in a row that the Colchoneros have taken points away from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. The result leaves Atleti eleven points behind Barcelona, and Valencia took advantage to move ahead of Real Madrid to third after a 1-0 victory over Espanyol later in the evening. Rodrigo got the only goal in the seventh minute to keep the Ches fifteen points ahead of fifth placed Betis, and with seven games to go, the four Champions League places seem to be tied up. The relegation spots are already pretty sure as well though after Levante beat Las Palmas 2-1 in the mid-day kick-off to open up a gap of eight points with the drop zone. A goal by David García cancelled out Coke’s opener and gave the Canary Islanders sone hope, but Campaña struck in injury time to virtually ensure another year of top flight football for the Valencia based side. The only thing really left to decide after that is which three teams will qualify for the Europa League. Girona lost ground on their rivals however after they were thrashed 5-0 by Real Sociedad, strikes by Canales and Januzaj putting the Basques two up at the break, Oyarzabal adding two more after the restart, and Juanmi getting the fifth to give caretaker coach Imanol his first victory. (08.04.18)

Barcelona matched Real Sociedad’s 38-year-old record of 38 league matches without defeat when they beat Leganés 3-1 on Saturday evening. Two goals by Leo Messi around the half hour mark, the first a direct free kick and the second following an assist by Coutinho, started things off, and although El Zhar got one back after the break, Messi completed his hat-trick near the end to open up a twelve point gap over their nearest rivals pending tomorrow’s Madrid derby. Earlier in the evening Betis won 2-0 against Eibar to move up to fifth, a strike by Sergio León and an Arbilla own goal taking Quique Setien’s side three points above their city neighbours Sevilla, who lost 4-0 at Celta. The Andalusians were looking for a boost after their midweek Champions League defeat, but an Arana own goal and a second half hat-trick by Iago Aspas left them down in seventh spot, now just a point above their hosts in the table. Several teams are still in the race for the Europa League places, although Getafe are now seven points adrift after they were beaten 2-0 at Alavés in the early kick-off. Second half headers by Laguardia and Munir gave the locals a vital win which takes them twelve points clear of the drop zone. (07.04.18)

The bottom two teams met on Friday evening, Deportivo beating Málaga 3-2 to keep alive their slim hopes of survival. The Andalusians came back twice to level the scores, and it looked as if they were going to save a point until Adrián López got the winner with five minutes to go. (06.04.18)