Barcelona: Real Madrid continued its dominance over Atletico Madrid with a 2-1 win at Vicente Calderon Stadium, while front-runner Barcelona stayed five points ahead after downing Getafe 2-1 in the Spanish league on Saturday.
Karim Benzema opened the scoring for Real in the 11th minute, and Mesut Oezil doubled the advantage in the 32nd after Iker Casillas withstood a surge from Atletico with several saves.
Atletico finally scored in the 86th through Sergio Aguero.
Madrid has beaten Atletico four times this season in the league and Copa del Rey, and was undefeated in 21 straight Spanish capital derbies dating to 1999.
"Someday (Atletico) has to win," Casillas told La Sexta TV. "(But) I hope it is as far away as possible."
Earlier, Barcelona broke a club record that had stood since the 1973-74 season with its 27th league game without a loss.
Dani Alves scored Barcelona's first goal with a blast from outside the area in the 17th minute, and Bojan Krkic made it 2-0 in the 50th.
Manuel del Moral pulled one back for Getafe in the 88th.
"I hope we continue to play well to reach the end of the season with a greater lead," said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
In Madrid, Real coach Jose Mourinho deployed three defensive midfielder with Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira and Lass Diarra as the team looked to counterattack.
The strategy immediately paid off when Khedira slipped the ball between two defenders for Benzema to chip over helpless Atletico goalkeeper David De Gea.
The France striker — heavily criticized in the first half of the season— has eight goals in the last five games in all competitions and 10 goals in league play.
Down a goal, Atletico began to create offense after Jose Antonio Reyes forced Casillas to deflect a free kick over the crossbar in the 14th.
"I like to have my goalkeeper with less work, but Casillas had a lot of work and he played well," Mourinho said.
Atletico then attacked in waves. Casillas denied Sergio Aguero twice from close range, a Diego Godin header, and a strike by Reyes before Oezil beautifully curled his first-touch shot off a pass from Marcelo over a surprised De Gea.
Atletico wilted after Oezil's sixth goal of the season, with Aguero failing to better Casillas one-on-one in the 53rd.
Aguero combined with Jorge "Koke" Resurreccion inside the area to finally fire past Casillas for his 12th goal of the season, but it was too late for a comeback.
"We didn't have the energy to counterattack in the second half and we had to defend as well as we could," said Mourinho, whose team played its third game in eight days.
"(The players) were dead tired but they left it all on the pitch."
At Camp Nou, a video supporting Barcelona defender Eric Abidal, who underwent surgery for a liver tumor on Thursday, was played and his teammates wore shirts that read "We love you Abi" before the game.
Lionel Messi came close to opening the scoring in the eighth when he controlled a pass from Xavi Hernandez with his chest, but his acrobatic kick with his back to the goal was blocked by Getafe goalkeeper Jordi Codina.
Alves' goal was pure power as the Brazil right back charged forward to rocket a ball cleared by the Zaragoza defense into the right corner of Codina's goal.
Alves dedicated the goal to Abidal.
"He is hurt now, but he is strong and I am sure he will get through this," Alves said.
Four minutes later the hosts had a pair of chances to double the lead when Andres Iniesta robbed Dani Parejo and set up Messi, who dribbled past Codina only to have his shot cleared off the line by a diving defender. The ball fell to David Villa, but his close-range shot sailed high.
Although Getafe lost ball after ball in its own half to Barcelona's pressure, the Madrid side remained dangerous when it managed to cross midfield and a nice team buildup ended with Barcelona goalie Victor Valdes saving Francisco Casquero's shot in the 33rd.
Barcelona dominated the scoring chances, and Bojan sealed the win when his shot from the right side took a deflection off Getafe center back Daniel Diaz, finding Codina out of position. It was the second goal in as many games for the 20-year-old striker, appearing in his 100th game for the Catalan club.
Del Moral halved Getafe's deficit late when he volleyed home a pass from Victor Sanchez, but Barcelona held on for the win.
Xavi received his fifth yellow card and will miss the match at Villarreal.
Elsewhere, Mallorca beat a 10-man Zaragoza 1-0 on a second-half goal by Jonathan De Guzman.
Zaragoza went a man down when goalkeeper Toni Doblas was sent off for handling outside the area, and Canadian midfielder De Guzman curled the resulting free kick by replacement goalie Leo Franco to give Mallorca its 67th-minute winner.
Third-place Valencia hosts Sevilla and fourth-place Villarreal visits Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Also, it's: Sporting Gijon vs. Almeria, Hercules vs. Osasuna, Racing Santander vs. Real Sociedad, Malaga vs. Espanyol, and Deportivo La Coruna vs. Levante.
Comments
0 comment