Struggling Almeria stun Sevilla at home

Lowly Almeria produced an inspired performance to beat Sevilla 3-1 and pile the pressure on the troubled Andalusian side on Saturday.

It was the first victory for new coach Jose Luis Oltra on his third attempt after taking charge following Almeria’s 8-0 thrashing by Barcelona last month.

Under-performing Sevilla looked tense as they started the game on the back of three straight defeats and their mood did not improve when Frederic Kanoute missed a penalty following a Fabian Vargas handball inside the area.

Almeria had plenty of good possession and scored with their first real chance at the start of the second half when a Vargas header just crept over the line.

A thunderbolt by Pablo Piatti increased the advantage and although Kanoute pulled a goal back, Piatti made certain of the points in injury time.

Villarreal dropped valuable points in the championship race as they crashed 1-0 away to nine-man Getafe who scored in the dying minutes.

Getafe had the better of the opening exchanges and Villarreal badly missed the suspended Giuseppe Rossi in attack but they grew as the first half went on.

In the run-up to half time the sprightly Nilmar skipped past Daniel Diaz and was hauled down with the defender given a red card.

Villarreal struggled to make their extra-man count and the game was fizzling out when Getafe’s Juan Albin struck with two minutes to go. He celebrated by taking off his shirt and was sent-off for his second yellow card offence.

Later Atletico Madrid take on Deportivo La Coruna looking to move up the table into European contention after their own bad run.

On Sunday top of the table Barcelona take on Real Sociedad in a rich vein of form having scored 14 goals in their last three games and crucially notched up five against Real Madrid in their last home game which put them top of the table.

Coach Pep Guardiola realises though that they cannot relax against Sociedad who are riding high in the table.

“We are on a good run but we have been scoring a lot of goals for the last two or three years as well as conceding few. This is the basis of this team and we look to maintain it through our style of football but there are still moments when you are doing better than others,” he said.

“We have to be ready as we could find ourselves in a difficult situation very quickly and we have to be careful against Real Sociedad because they have been a big surprise this season and are capable of producing a shock.”

Real Madrid responded to their mauling by Barça with a 2-0 win over Valencia and they will now be a tough test for bottom side Zaragoza.

“We know what we are up against but if we can beat Real Madrid then it would really turn things around for us and so it would be worth more than just three points,” said Argentine Nico Bertolo.

Espanyol have put their confidence in youth products like Javi Marquez and Jose Callejon and so far it has been a major success with the team sitting in a Champions League place. They face a big test this weekend though with a trip to face Athletic Bilbao in their intimidating stadium.

Valencia’s form has dropped off with just one win in three games but they will look to get back on track against Osasuna and Mallorca, on the fringes of the European places play Racing Santander.

At the other end of the table, third from bottom, Sporting Gijon have a crunch match against Levante, while Malaga one place above take on Hercules.