Ruud van Nistelrooy scored two late goals as Spanish champions Real Madrid defeated bottom side Levante 2-0 on Sunday to re-establish their seven-point lead over Barcelona at the top of the table.
A staggering 36 points separated Real and Levante before kick off but on the pitch there was little to choose between them before Dutch striker van Nistelrooy stole the points with his 10th and 11th goals of the campaign.
Fernando Gago started in the midfield for Real with Mohamadou Diarra gone for the African Cup of Nations and Miguel Torres replaced the suspended Sergio Ramos at right back.
PHOTO: AP
Goalkeeper Iker Casillas shrugged off a bout of gastroenteritis to start with coach Bernd Schuster seemingly reluctant to field former Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.
Levante started the better with Real Madrid squandering possession far too easily but the champions look so dangerous going forward and Julio Baptista and Raul both had efforts cleared off the goal-line.
In the second half Baptista and Brazilian compatriot Robinho both hit the post as Levante rode their luck.
PHOTO: AP
Real had only failed to score in of the their previous 18 league matches and the breakthrough came on 76 minutes with Jose Serrano unfortunately handling in the penalty area.
Van Nistelrooy made no mistake with the penalty sending the goalkeeper the wrong way and he scored again on 88 minutes as Real took the spoils.
"It was hard work but we got the win and it will be vital for us come the end of the season," Schuster said.
Real's next match is the derby against Atletico Madrid next Sunday and Schuster said his players would require no motivation for the capital clash.
"Sometimes it is difficult to motivate your players to face a team that is theoretically inferior but next week I won't need to say a thing just like it was for the Barcelona match," he said.
Atletico Madrid are riding high in third after a 1-0 home win over Valencia.
Kun Aguero took advantage of a mistake by Valencia goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand to score the decisive goal and Atletico move above Espanyol who saw their 14-match unbeaten run come to an abrupt end with a surprise 1-0 loss at Almeria.
Espanyol had not lost since a 2-1 defeat to Recreativo Huelva at the end of September but an 87th minute goal from Kalu Uche ended that sequence.
"That was our worst away performance of the season," Espanyol boss Ernesto Valverde said.
Villarreal are now breathing down their necks after a 4-3 comeback win over strugglers Deportivo La Coruna.
Turkish international Nihat scored twice in as many minutes to help Villarreal close to within a point of Espanyol.
Villarreal looked to be heading for their seventh defeat of the campaign trailing 2-1 but Nihat struck twice, in the 66th and 68th minutes, to turn the game in their favor.
"We were poor for 65 minutes and good for 25," Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini said. "Conceding so many goals makes it difficult to have a good campaign but reaching 35 points at this stage means there are more positives than negatives."
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