La Liga Round Up: Real Madrid continue to remain at the top, Valencia steer clear from relegation zone

It was in the first half when Madrid took the lead courtesy of an Alvaro Morata header from Isco’s cross. In the second half when Bale, who came on as a substitute for Morata, collected another pass from Isco and slotted it past opposition goalkeeper Diego Lopez.

Zinedine Zidane had made seven changes to the Real Madrid side from the one that started against Napoli in Wednesday’s 3-1 Champions League first-leg win. The victory now leaves Real on 52 points from 21 games, three points ahead of third-placed Sevilla, who beat Eibar 2-0 and one point ahead of rivals Barcelona.

In Saturday’s late match, Sevilla secured a 2-0 win against Eibar at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium, which put them into second place momentarily (before Barcelona won on Sunday). Goals from Pablo Sarabia in the 30th minute and Vitolo in the 91st minute saw the job done for Jorge Sampaoli’s side who now sit at the third spot with 49 points.

Later, on Sunday, Barcelona grabbed a crucial victory to go back to the second spot. Lionel Messi’s 90th-minute penalty saw off the challenge from a gutsy Leganes and spared Barcelona from another embarrassing result after their 4-0 capitulation against Paris St. Germain in the Champions League. Barcelona have now gathered 51 points from 23 games.

Under-pressure Barcelona manager Luis Enrique criticised fans jeering their own players during the team’s 2-1 victory over Leganes and said that such an attitude was unhelpful for his team.

At the bottom half of the table, Valencia got a much-needed 2-0 victory against eighth-placed Athletic Bilbao. Goals from  Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha and Simone Zaza saw them climb up to the 15’th spot, seven points clear of the relegation zone.

Meanwhile, the team from other half of Madrid saw Kevin Gameiro come off the bench to score a hat-trick in just five minutes as Atletico Madrid won 4-1 against Sporting Gijon. Gameiro came on to replace Fernando Torres and as a result of his three goals, Atletico Madrid now sit at the 4th spot with 45 points.