La Liga Roundup – Week 29

1st place Barcelona got a 40th minute goal from Samuel Eto’o to beat Valladolid to maintain their 6-point lead over Real Madrid. Los Merengues got a 49th minute goal from Gonzalo Higuain to defeat Malaga and stay within striking distance of Barca. Sevilla remains solidly in 3rd on the strength of Frederic Kanoute’s PK in the 33rd minute as they dropped Recreativo.

Valencia made up ground on Villarreal in the race for 4th place with a big 4-1 win at the Mestalla versus Getafe. David Villa converted 2 PKs to lead Los Che to within 2 points of Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine suffered an embarassing 3-0 road loss to Almeria and lost star midfielder Santi Cazorla for the rest of the season with a broken shin.

Atletico Madrid’s hopes of Champions League play took a big hit as Osasuna defeated Los Colchoneros 4-2 at the Vicente Calderon.  Walter Pandiani scored twice to give Osasuna the 3 points.  Osasuna has lost once since February and find themselves 2 points out of the relegation zone.

Here are the results & standings from Week 29:

Saturday, April 4th

Athletic Bilbao 2 – 1 Mallorca
ATH: Yeste (pen 3′) & Javi Martínez (83′)
MAL: Jurado (71′)

Valladolid 0 – 1 Barcelona
BAR: Eto’o (40′)

Real Betis 3 – 3 Numancia
BET: Sergio García (9′), Capi (84′), Ricardo Oliveira (pen 89′)
NUM: Aranda (39′), Barkero (pen 75′), Aranda (pen 90′)

Recreativo 0 – 1 Sevilla
SEV: Kanouté (pen 33′)

Almeria 3 – 0 Villarreal
ALM: Negredo (7′), Piatti (20′), Mane (35′)

Malaga 0 – 1 Real Madrid
RMA: Higuaín (49′)

Sunday, April 5th

Espanyol 3 – 1 Deportivo La Coruna
ESP: Iván Alonso (12′), De la Peña (39′), Lopo (og 91′)
DLC: Lassad (42′)

Valencia 4 – 1 Getafe
VAL: Mata (19′), Villa (pen 25′ & pen 60′), Albiol (56′)
GET: Casquero (pen 48′)

Atlético Madrid 2 – 4 Osasuna
ATM: Forlán (14′) & Pablo (73′)
OSA: Pandiani (7′ & 48′), Vadocz (44′), Masoud (69′)

Sporting Gijon 0 – 2 Racing Santander
RAC: Zigic (54′) & Colsa (89′)

STANDINGS