La Liga Re-Cap:-: Celta leave it late as Barca and Madrid pull clear

Barcelona avoided another away day defeat at the
weekend while Real Madrid remain unbeaten in La
Liga.

Real Madrid and Barcelona sit three points clear at the top of La
Liga following routine victories against Las Palmas and Getafe
respectively on Saturday.

Following Atletico Madrid's draw with Deportivo La Coruna on
Friday, Madrid and Barca took their chance to apply pressure at
the top with the latter easing to a 3-1 success at the Santiago
Bernabeu.

Isco and Cristiano Ronaldo gave the hosts a two-goal cushion
15 minutes in before Hernan reduced the arrears. Jese
Rodriguez completed the scoring before half-time with Barca
joining them on 24 points later in the day.

Following defeats on the road to Sevilla and Celta Vigo, Barca
were seeking to avoid losing a third away game on the spin in
the league for the first time since 2002.

And Sergi Roberto proved crucial as the midfielder supplied the
assists for Luis Suarez and Neymar in Madrid - ensuring Luis
Enrique's men continue to pick up points in Lionel Messi's
injury-enforced absence.

Fellow high-flyers Villarreal briefly went fourth after they beat
Sevilla prior to Celta Vigo's dramatic 3-2 victory over Real
Sociedad.

Sevilla were in fine form ahead of their trip to El Madrigal but
goals from Mario and Cedric Bakambu put the hosts in control
prior to Fernando Llorente's consolation 14 minutes from time.

That put Villarreal in the top four ahead of Celta's trip to the
Anoeta, which saw the visitors twice fall behind before fighting
back to earn a victory.

Iago Aspas twice cancelled out Imanol Agirretxe before Pablo
Hernandez scored a minute from time to send Celta back third.

In the local derby at the Mestalla, Valencia ran out comfortable
3-0 winners against rock-bottom Levante courtesy of goals
from Paco Alcacer, Sofiane Feghouli and Zakaria Bakkali.