La Liga Roundup: The two-horse race continues, Sevilla and Atlético break losing streaks

Barca and Real moved further ahead of the pack as they chalked up wins during a weekend which saw both Valencia and Villareal play out draws and Sevilla and Atlético shake off their losing streaks.

The weekend started with another record for Jose Mourinho. The “Special One” made it 9 years without a home league defeat after Real defeated Levante 2-0 comfortably on Saturday. First half goals from a renewed Karim Benzema and Ricardo Carvalho ensured them a comfortable victory to put them within 2 points of Barca who played on Sunday. The “Special One” now has a record unbeaten run from his time with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real extending up to 148 matches, and includes a 100 per cent 12 wins from 12 since he moved to the Bernabeu.

Valencia played out a drab 0-0 draw against a resolute Sporting Gijon at home to stay third in the La Liga. Sporting had ended leaders Barcelona‘s 16-match winning streak with a 1-1 draw last weekend, and put in another disciplined display to leave their hosts fighting for a point. Valencia, failed to impress during the game with very few chances, perhaps feeling the aftereffects of a midweek 1-1 draw to Schalke 04 in the Champions League. To their further frustration, striker Aritz Aduriz was carried off with an ankle injury and will be out for a month making him unavailable for the second leg at Schalke.

Atlético Madrid ended a streak of five straight defeats after defeating Real Zaragoza in a closely fought encounter which ended 1-0. Sergio Aguero scored the only goal of the match in the 66th-minute to separate the teams. Zaragoza must be cursing their luck after hitting the crossbar on two occasions in the dying moments messing up their chance of a fabulous comeback.

After Real’s victory on Saturday, all eyes were on Barcelona after their defeat to Arsenal in the Champions league midweek and last weekend’s draw to lowly Sporting Gijon and they were given a stiff examination by Athletic Bilbao. David Villa fired his side ahead just after 4 minutes but Sporting pulled it back in the second half as Busquets brought down Llorente in the box and Andoni Iraola converted the resulting penalty. With Messi relatively subdued in the first half, things were looking dire for Barca. Messi eventually showed his class in the 78th minute chipping a Dani Alves cross into the net to keep Barca five points ahead at the top.

Villareal had the chance to leapfrog Valencia into third place after Saturday’s results but failed to do so after they too played out a 1-1 draw against last-placed Malaga. Marco Ruben put Villarreal ahead in the 36th minute, but Malaga’s Sebastian Fernandez brought the visitors back into the game to salvage a draw just 8 minutes from time.

Sevilla broke their 3 match losing streak with a 1-0 victory over Hercules FC. Rakitic scored the only goal of the match for the home side giving them some hope of playing European football next season.

Other results included a 4-0 thrashing of Espanyol by Osasuna to welcome their new coach Jose Luis Mendilibar. Definitely their biggest win of their season. Almeria shared the points with Deportivo La Coruña after a last minute header by Deportivo keeper Daniel Aranzubia for a 1-1 draw. Racing Santandar beat Getafe 1-0 with a late penalty settling the game.

Atlético