First Division - Day 32

Almería 1 - Real Madrid 2

Almería: Diego Alves; Miguel Macedo (Corona 73'), Pellerano, Cisma; Vargas (Juanma Ortíz 55'), Bernardello, M'bami (Goitom 84'); Piatti, Soriano, Crusat; Kalu Uche. 3-3-3-1.
Madrid: Casillas; Arbeloa, Sergio Ramos, Raúl Albiol, Marcelo; Gago (Diarra 46'), Xavi Alonso, Van der Vaart, Guti (Lass 77'); Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuaín (Benzema 86'). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 14. Crusat. Got on the end of Uche's long cross to beat Casillas on far post.
1-1. 26. Ronaldo. Dribbled past three defenders and beat Alves with angled shot.
1-2. 68. Van der Vaart. Picked up Higuain pass and struck shot past keeper.

Yellow cards: Gago 15', Bernardello 37', Cisma 41', Diarrá 62', Guti 77', Albiol 78', Pellerano 88'.

Despite their weekend defeat against Barcelona, Real Madrid have still not given up the fight, and they stay within three points of their rivals after coming from behind to beat Almería 1-2 on Thursday evening.

Crusat put Lillo's side ahead on the quarter hour mark after Uche rolled the ball across the area, and Casillas had to be on his toes to tip a Cisma free kick round the post soon afterwards.

But Cristiano Ronaldo produced a moment of magic to ghost past three defenders before beating Diego Alves with an angled shot a few minutes later, and Guti almost made it two when he drove a shot against the foot of the post, Higuaín only able to fire the rebound wide of the target.

Uche wasted a good chance before the break, but Higuaín had a shot cleared off the line by Michel before Van der Vaart picked up a pass from the Argentinian striker to drill a low shot past the excellent Alves for the winner.

Six games to go and nothing decided so far, although the win did make mathematically sure that Pellegrini's side will at least finish second.