MADRID, March 15 — Real Madrid enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 win at home to Elche to move to within a point of FC Barcelona at the top of La Liga on Saturday night.
Antonio Rudiger opened the scoring in the 39th minute with a powerful shot after Elche failed to clear a free kick into its area.
Fede Valverde followed his midweek hat-trick against Manchester City with another goal as he doubled his side’s lead from the edge of the area to make it 2-0 with an impressive shot, and Dean Huijsen added the third with a powerful header in the 66th minute.
Real Madrid youngster Manuel Angel was unfortunate to put the ball in his own net to give Elche a consolation goal, but it was 4-1 when Arda Guler scored from inside his own half after spotting Elche goalkeeper Matias Dituro out of his area.
Elche will drop into the bottom three if Mallorca beats Espanyol on Sunday. Nahuel Molina’s stunning seventh minute goal was enough to give Atletico Madrid three points with a 1-0 win in a tough derby at home to Getafe.
Getafe defender Abdel Abqar was sent off for an incident with Atletico striker Alexander Sorloth in the 54th minute, where he appeared to touch Sorloth’s genital region, with Sorloth seeing a yellow card after hauling the Getafe player to the ground afterwards.
Oviedo captain David Costas scored the only goal of the game with a powerful shot to keep Oviedo’s hopes of survival intact with a 1-0 win at home to Valencia.
Costas scored following a corner as his side showed it is not ready to resign itself to relegation just yet. Girona moved comfortably clear of the bottom three with a 3-0 win at home to an inept Athletic Bilbao.
Hugo Rincon, who is on loan at Girona from Athletic, opened the scoring with an angled drive in the third minute and after the visitors wasted two good chances to level in the second half, Azz-Eddine Ounahi and Claudio Echeverri sealed an important win for Girona.
On Friday night, Alaves was frustrated again by a late goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Villarreal. It looked as if an own goal from Villarreal’s Rafa Marin would give the home side a vital win, but Nicolas Pepe’s turn and curling shot in the 98th minute denied Alaves three points, just a week after they conceded two late goals to go from 2-1 ahead to lose 3-2 in Valencia.
Barcelona is at home to Sevilla on Sunday, on the same day the club holds elections for a new club President. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
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