Mallorca slip-up against struggling Malaga

Real Mallorca failed to consolidate their place among the candidates for a place in Europe after crashing 2-1 against lowly Malaga on Sunday.

The visitors success this season has been built on a solid defence but it was the backline that let them down after 23 minutes when Fernando Fernandez seized on a loose ball in the area to score.

Mallorca battled back into the game equalising through Julio Alvarez and were in the ascendancy when Malaga, who had not won since the first week of the season, struck again with Fernando Forestieri heading home.

Villarreal continued their upward march in the table with a 2-0 win over Racing Santander, their third victory in succession.

The home side dominated the game but did not make their advantage pay until the second half with goals from Joseba Llorente and Giuseppe Rossi.

Espanyol scored their first goals in five games to beat Almeria 2-0 and put further pressure on visiting coach Hugo Sanchez.

In his first match in the starting line-up Javi Marquez scored after 45 minutes and Ferran Corominas assured the win late on.

A last minute goal by Haris Medunjanin gave Valladolid a 2-1 victory over Sporting Gijon.

Nivaldo Batista cancelled out a goal from the visitors by Luis Moran and then the winner from Medunjanin was no more than Valladolid deserved having squandered a number of guilt edged chances.

Defeat for Valencia by Real Madrid last weekend means that they are now 11 points off Barcelona and they face another stern test against a rejuvenated Deportivo la Coruna on Sunday evening.

Under-achieving Atletico Madrid will be looking to give some Christmas cheer to their suffering fans when they take on Tenerife but they will be without talismanic striker Sergio Aguero who is injured.

Last night Real Madrid tore apart a sorry Zaragoza side 6-0 and closed the gap at the top of the table to two points.

While Barcelona were away in Abu Dhabi winning the Club World Cup, their sixth trophy this year, Real demonstrated their championship credentials by making light work of the visitors.

Rafael Van der Vaart and Gonzalo Higuain both got two each even before the interval.

Then Cristiano Ronaldo, returning after a one match suspension, teased the Zaragoza defence before adding the fifth and substitute Karim Benzema wrapped up the scoring with 20 minutes to go against the side which has conceded most goals in the Spanish top flight.

“The aim at the start was for the team to be solid in defence and then score as many goals as we could in attack, so we can be very happy at the way it has worked out,” said the Real coach Manuel Pellegrini.

Sevilla’s disappointing home form cost them further points in the championship race as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat by Getafe.

A brace from Roberto Soldado and only a second half strike from substitute Alvaro Negredo in response saw the visitors victorious and it means that Sevilla have now failed to win in three attempts at the Sanchez Pizjuan.

Athletic Bilbao had a comfortable 2-0 win over Osasuna thanks to early goals from Fran Yeste and Fernando Llorente.