Espanyol stuns Real Madrid in La Liga

Madrid, Feb 2 (IANS) Espanyol left back Carlos Romero scored the only goal of the game six minutes from time as his side stunned Real Madrid 1-0 in La Liga.

Espanyol had withstood a lot of second half pressure from Real Madrid, with goalkeeper, Joan Garcia making a series of important saves to keep his side in the game, before the side who had kicked off third from bottom of the table, caught Madrid flat-footed.

Perhaps the worst news for Real Madrid was a muscle injury that forced Antonio Rudiger out of the game after 13 minutes, robbing his side of the best defender this campaign, reports Xinhua.

Atletico Madrid took advantage of its neighbor's defeat to move to a point off the lead with a 2-0 win at home to Mallorca a week ahead of the Madrid derby.

Samuel Lino opened the scoring after a counter-attack in the 25th minute, although the three points were not safe until well into injury time when Antoine Griezmann scored with a neat chip.

Villarreal strengthened its place in fifth and closed the gap on Athletic Club Bilbao with a 5-1 win at home to bottom of the table Valladolid.

Ayoze Perez broke Valladolid's resistance in the 41st minute to put Villarreal ahead, with Pape Gueye, Santi Comesana, Thierno Barry, and Denis Suarez adding to the score before Selim Amallah's consolation goal for Valladolid in the 93rd minute.

Getafe and Sevilla kicked off on Saturday with a 0-0 draw that doesn't help either side, although it does continue to edge Getafe closer to safety.

Sevilla had more efforts on goal, but a scrappy affair with 10 yellow cards saw each team only manage one shot each on target.

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