Defending champions Real Madrid went nine points clear at the top of La Liga on Sunday with a 3-2 win over Villarreal.
Barcelona's 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao gave Real the perfect chance to extend their points advantage and they took it with both hands courtesy of a brace from Brazilian winger Robinho, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Friday, and a Wesley Sneijder strike.
"This has been a great birthday for me," Robinho said. "The title race is not over yet because there are lots of games left but we have taken an important step for sure."
PHOTO: REUTERS
It was an eighth consecutive win for Real who have not dropped a single point at home and are ruthless are on the road.
"We won at Camp Nou, at the Calderon and other tough venues to put this pressure on our rivals," said Real coach Bernd Schuster.
Last season, they were six points behind Barcelona at a similar stage and went on to win the title but nine points now looks too tall an order for their rivals to chase.
Real have made a habit of scoring early goals this season and they did it again with Robinho racing onto Guti's brilliant defense-splitting pass to put his side in front after eight minutes.
With the 5-0 drubbing by Real earlier this season still fresh in their memories Villarreal could have feared the worse but showed real character to equalize through Guiseppe Rossi on the quarter-hour mark.
It was the first league goal Real keeper Iker Casillas had conceded in 564 minutes.
But Villarreal always looked fragile at the back and Robinho put the champions back in the lead after goalkeeper Diego Lopez had produced two fine saves.
Joan Capdevila then equalized after some awful marking from a corner but the lead lasted barely sixty seconds as Sneijder scored the winner.
Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard refuses to throw in the towel despite watching Bilbao peg back his team with a Lilian Thuram own-goal cancelling out Bojan Krkic's first half opener.
"We are not going to give up," Rijkaard said. "Psychologically it is a big blow for the team but it doesn't mean that we have given up. The team fought a lot and if we continue like this we can cut the gap."
Ronald Koeman's three-month grip on power at Valencia looks to be slipping as fans called for his head after the embarrassing 1-0 home defeat against Almeria.
Valencia's league form is awful and Almeria became the sixth team to win at the Mestalla this season.
It was a day of surprises in the Spanish top-flight with Champions League contenders Athletico Madrid and Espanyol both falling to defeats.
Atletico lost for the third time in a week with Mallorca coming out 1-0 winners thanks to a Juan Arango goal.
Espanyol could have gone above Atletico into fourth but fell to a late 2-1 home defeat against Real Betis.
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