Xavi was Barcelona's hero as he scored the winner as they beat Deportivo La Coruna, while Atletico Madrid also won.
Xavi nets Barca's winner, while Forlan's the hero for nine-man Atletico
Xavi was Barcelona's hero as he scored the winner as they beat Deportivo La Coruna, while Atletico Madrid kept in touch with the top two courtesy of a 1-0 win over Getafe in what was a bad tempered affair.
The Camp Nou faithful were shocked into silence in just the third minute when
Depor's former Barca youngster Cristian got his side off to a dream start in scoring a spectacular swerving effort.
Cristian's dream evening soon soured though, with it being his foul on Andres Iniesta that gave Barcelona a penalty just before the half-time break.
Ronaldinho dispatched from the penalty spot, before in the second half Xavi secured the points for
Barcelona when he slotted home from close range twenty minutes from time.
Atletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan scored the game's only goal against
Getafe, when he converted Simao's pass in the 20th minute.
The second period descended into a somewhat violent clash that saw four players sent off in the space of 12 minutes, as Sergio Aguero and Jose Antonio Reyes of Atletico and Getafe's Lucas Licht and Roberto Abbondanzieri all saw red.
Ricardo Oliveira was 10-man
Real Zaragoza's hero as his late double helped them to a 3-3 draw at
Espanyol.
Zaragoza took an early lead through Argentine Diego Milito but their joy was short-lived as Espanyol netted three goals in the space of seven minutes.
Raul Tamudo got Espanyol level with a clever lob, Valdo put them into the lead with an even better curling effort, before Pablo Zabaleta made it 3-1 before a quarter of an hour was on the clock.
At the start of the second half Peter Luccin was red carded, but Zaragoza refused to be defeated as Oliveira's two goals in the final four minutes earned them an excellent away day point.
Villarreal suffered their second successive defeat as they lost 1-0 to
Real Betis, whose goal was scored by Capi in the ninth minute.
Sevilla finally got their act together domestically as they claimed a comfortable 3-1 win over
Real Murcia.
Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano took his season's goal tally to 10 with efforts in the fifth minute and stoppage time.
Enzo Maresca scored from the penalty spot just shy of the hour mark, rendering Fernando Baiano's (66) effort a mere consolation.
Recreativo Huelva were away day winners as they beat
Levante 2-0 thanks to goals from Javier Camunas (39) and Jesus Vazquez (55).
Racing Santander made light of having Oscar Serrano sent off in the 32nd minute, as they won 3-1 against
Real Mallorca - who ten minutes earlier had had Pierre Webo red carded.
It was Webo that opened the scoring in the 11th minute, but Santander struck back thanks to goals from Jorge Lopez, Aldo Duscher and Pedro Munitis.
Alvaro Negredo's 76th minute effort was enough to hand
Almeria a 1-0 win over
Real Valladolid, who had Jose Garcia Calvo sent-off a minute earlier.
Match summaries
