Atletico Madrid continued their push towards their first
La Liga title since 1996 with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Villarreal.
A 12th minute header from Raul Garcia proved to be enough
for the hosts, much to the delight of coach Diego Simeone and the home faithful
at the Vincente Calderon.The win stretches Atleti's unbeaten run at home to 18
league games and opened up a four point lead at the top of the table.
That gap was cut to one by second-placed Barcelona later
on Saturday, as the Catalan club secured a 3-1 win over Real Betis at the Camp
Nou to end a difficult week on a high note.
The reigning champions hit the headlines for the wrong
reasons after being hit with a transfer embargo by FIFA for next season in
relation to irregularities in their youth set up.
Any suggestions of Gerado Martino's side being distracted
by those events were banished after 15 minutes, when Lionel Messi stroked home
a well-struck penalty, following a foul from Jordi Figueras on Alexis Sanchez.
It went from bad to worse for Figueras, who put the ball
into his own net after attempting to cut out an Adriano cross after 67 minutes.
Betis were handed a lifeline just a minute later, when
Ruben Castro turned in Alfred N'Diaye's cutback, setting up a nervy finish for
Martino's men, but any hopes of a comeback were extinguished four minutes from
time, when Juanfran was adjudged to have handled Neymar's cross in the box.
Messi saw his resulting spot-kick saved by Adnan but was
first to the rebound to wrap up a hard-fought win.
That left third-placed Real Madrid in need of a win to
stay in touch with the top two at Real Sociedad.
Former Sociedad midfielder Asier Illarramendi gave Madrid
the lead just before half time, poking home Karim Benzema's effort that was
well saved by Claudio Bravo.
That lead was doubled after 66 minutes when Gareth Bale
took advantage of Bravo's poor kick to smash home from 30 yards, before Pepe
added a third late on.
Angel Di Maria came off the bench to extend his side's
lead further two minutes from time, following some terrific link-up play with
Alvaro Morata, completing a convincing win for the visitors.
In the day's only other game, 10-man Rayo Vallecano gave
their survival hopes another significant boost with a 3-0 win at home to Celta
Vigo, courtesy of a second-half brace from Alberto Bueno, who added to Ruben
Rochina's 26th minute opener.
Razvan Rat saw red for an off the ball incident after 64
minutes but it failed to have an impact on proceedings as Paco Jemez's side
held on for their fifth straight home win.
Culled from Soccerway
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