Madrid, Dec 1 (IANS) Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid enjoyed easy victories in the Spanish Primera Liga football to put pressure on Barcelona at the top of the table.
Atletico Madrid picked up three points against Elche to draw level on points with Barca, with an extra game, Saturday night, reports Xinhua.
A Gareth Bale hat-trick showed Real Madrid that there is life without Cristiano Ronaldo as they enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 victory at home to struggling Valladolid.
Ronaldo was rested to avoid any problems with the muscle injury which kept him out in midweek, but Bale took up the responsibility to score three goals and showed that Ronaldo is not essential.
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Bale opened the scoring after the half hour and then set up Karim Benzema with an in-swinging cross five minutes later to make it 2-0 ahead of the break.
Bale then scored his second of the night after 63 minutes to secure the win, although the truth is Valladolid rarely looked as if they were going to get anything from the goal and apart from one flying save, Madrid keeper, Diego Lopez was a virtual spectator.
Marcelo again set up Bale for his hat-trick in the last minute of the game, leaving Bale with a simple tap-in from close range.
Meanwhile Atletico Madrid’s exceptional season continued with a 2-0 win away to Elche.
Jorge ‘Koke’ Resurrecion gave Atletico the lead early in the second half after a goalkeeping error and Diego Costa’s 15th league goal of the campaign made the points safe midway through the second half.
The win allows Diego Simeone’s side to sleep level on points with Barca, who have a difficult away game against Bilbao.
Celta Vigo defeated 3-1 Almeria in an exciting to finally win in front of their home fans at the eighth time of asking.
Almeria took the lead after nine minutes following a fine shot from Suso, but Fabian Orellana also produced a moment of magic after 26 minutes to level the score and in the second half goals from Borja Oubina and former Almeria striker Charles secured Celta’s home win of the campaign.
Finally Real Sociedad came back from a goal down to win 2-1 away to Espanyol in a hard fought game decided by a horrible error by Espanyol striker, Cristiano Stuani, who sliced a tame cross into his own net.
Espanyol had taken the lead through Jhon Corboba and looked comfortable until Antoine Griezmann headed his side level with 22 minutes remaining.
The game looked to be heading for a draw until Stauni’s error three minutes from time, which sent the 3 points back to San Sebastian.
