Real Madrid's woes increased further as they were beaten at home by Racing Santander.
Real Madrid's woes increased further on Wednesday night after they slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Racing Santander that leaves them 11 points behind leaders Barcelona.The reverse was Juan Ramon Lopez Caro's second in his four-game tenure as caretaker boss and was greeted with whistles and jeers by home fans.
Racing went in two up at the interval and were good value for their lead. They hit the front on 21 minutes when Ayoze Diaz fired home a superlative long-range free kick.
They doubled their advantage just six minutes later when Felipe Melo danced his way past non-existent challenges from Francisco Pavon and Pablo Garcia in the heart of Real's defence and shot home off Iker Casillas to stun the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real inevitably upped the ante after the break and got a foothold midway through the second period when Ronaldo nodded home after Jose Moraton and Sergio Matabuena got in each other's way and contrived to flick on a long throw-in.
Substitute Roberto Soldado spurned two good chances to draw Real level in the closing stages and Ronaldo had a penalty appeal turned down, but Racing held on for a famous victory.
Valencia moved up to third following a second half blitz against Mallorca.
With the scores level at the break, the Che pulled away in the second period with goals from David Albelda, David Villa and Fabio Aurelio handing them a convincing success.
Elsewhere, Villarreal missed the chance to make up ground on Barcelona after being held to a goalless draw at Malaga, while Deportivo La Coruna slipped to a surprise home defeat against Espanyol who claimed a much-needed three points.
The Catalans held off a lot of pressure before opening up a two-goal lead with late strikes from Fredson (76) and Armando Sa (84), Diego Tristan pulled one back shortly afterwards but it was too little too late.
Getafe ended a run of three consecutive defeats with a 1-0 triumph over Sevilla at the Coliseum with Dani Guiza grabbing the all-important goal after 37 minutes.
Athletic Bilbao remain deep in trouble after letting a two-goal lead slip at Real Zaragoza who fought back to clinch a thrilling 3-2 win.
Strikes from Jesus Lacruz and Joseba Etxeberria seemed to have put the Basques in control, but Brazilian striker Ewerthon quickly restored parity with two goals, including a penalty, in ten minutes, and Argentine defender Gabriel Milito capped a superb fightback with the winner a quarter of an hour from time.
Real Sociedad piled on the misery for struggling Cadiz with a comfortable 2-0 victory at the Anoeta with Igor Gabilondo and Xabier Prieto (penalty) scoring in each half.
However, Real Betis, who propped up the table at the start of play, gave themselves a massive shot in the arm with a 3-0 thumping of Alaves.
Once again all the goals came in the second half with Fernando, Xisco and Joaquin helping to lift some of the gloom at the Estadio Ruiz de Lopera.
Match summaries:
Deportivo La Coruna 1-2 Espanyol
Getafe 1-0 Sevilla
Malaga 0-0 Villarreal
Real Betis 3-0 Alaves
Real Madrid 1-2 Racing Santander
Real Sociedad 2-0 Cadiz
Real Zaragoza 3-2 Athletic Bilbao
Valencia 3-0 Mallorca
