Madrid, Oct 31 (IANS) Real Madrid remain on top of the Spanish League standings after the 10th round of matches and a 4-1 win away over Alaves.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, which included a penalty and a deflected shot, and missed another penalty as Madrid made hard work of the game against the recently-promoted Basque side, reports Xinhua.
After the final whistle, Alaves captain Alexis complained that the referee's performance was "lamentable" as replays showed that the penalty which led to Ronaldo equalising Deyverson's opening goal was called as a handball when it had actually hit Deyverson's head.
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Barcelona moved into second place on the table after Rafinha's 48th minute goal gave them a 1-0 win over bottom of the table Granada, who put up much stiffer resistance than expected.
The first half saw Luis Suarez miss chances to make the score more comfortable, while the crowd also protested declarations from Spanish Football League President Javier Tebas, who had criticized the celebrations after the winning goal in Valencia a week ago.
Yannick Carrasco and Kevin Gameiro starred as Atletico Madrid defeated Malaga 4-2 in the Vicente Calderon Stadium in a game which threatened to become complicated for the home side.
Carrasco opened the scoring in the 7th minute, and Atletico looked to be cruising after Gameiro made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute.
Sandro Ramirez reduced the distance with a well-taken free kick on the half hour, but after Gameiro scored his second on the brink of halftime, the result looked a foregone conclusion.
That changed on the hour, when Stefan Savic saw two quick yellow cards to leave Atletico with 10 men and Ignacio Camacho' s header gave Malaga a second goal for the night.
There were some nervous fans in the Calderon before Carrasco's powerful run and shot three minutes from time finally sealed the win.
Sevilla and Sporting Gijon shared the points in a 1-1 draw. Luciano Vietto opened the scoring after 4 minutes, but Moi Gomez equalized in the 19th minute of an entertaining game.
Villarreal missed the chance to move into third place as they lost for the first time in 12 games, as Eibar overturned a Bruno Soriano penalty in the Ipurua Stadium.
Bruno Soriano's 40th minute put Villarreal ahead, but Eibar improved in the second half and after being denied by a series of saves from Sergio Asenjo. Late goals from Ivan Ramis and Pedro Leon turned the game around.
Oriol Riero gave Osasuna a surprise first half lead away to Athletic Bilbao although the home side took a share of the points with a Raul Garcia goal shortly afterwards, and Osasuna keeper Nauzet Perez earned his side a point with a series of good second half saves.
Diego Reyes' second half goal gave Espanyol a much-needed win away to Betis, who are now in trouble themselves, before Las Palmas and Celta Vigo produced the thriller of the weekend.
Celta must have thought they had sealed the points when two goals from Iago Aspes and Daniel Wass put them 3-0 ahead after just 21 minutes, but 3 second half goals in 17 minutes from Bigas, Jonathan Viera and Kevin Prince Boateng assured a draw which had looked unlikely at halftime.
--IANS
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