A second half goal from Rafinha gave FC Barcelona a tougher than expected win at home to bottom of the table Granada in the La Liga on Saturday night.
Following a first half in which the biggest highlight was a mass protest against Spanish Football League President Javier Tebas, Rafinha’s overhead kick three minutes after the break was all that separated the two sides and enough to move Barca into second on a night when Luis Enrique rested Sergio Busquets ahead of next week’s trip to play Manchester City in the Champions League.
Real Madrid remain top of the table after a slightly flattering 4-1 win away to Alaves.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, which included a penalty and a deflected shot and missed another penalty as Madrid made hard work of the game against the recently promoted Basque side, who complained that the penalty which led to Ronaldo equalizing Deyverson’s opening goal was given for handball when it had actually hit Deyverson’s head.
Alvaro Morata scored the third goal for Real Madrid from a Marcelo pass.
Kevin Gameiro and Yannick Carrasco were the heroes as Atletico Madrid defeated Malaga 4-2 in the Vicente Calderon Stadium.
Carrasco opened the scoring in the 7th minute and after Gameiro made it 2-0 in the 23rd minute, Atletico looked to be cruising, but Sandro Ramirez quickly reduced the distance with a well-taken free kick.
Gameiro used his pace to restore the two-goal lead before halftime, but the game got complicated on the hour when Stefan Savic saw two quick yellow cards to leave Atletico with 10.
Ignacio Camacho then scored Malaga’s second and a surprise looked to be on the cards until Carrasco scored his second following a powerful run three minutes from time.
Sevilla, who last week defeated Atletico 1-0 to move second in the table, were unable to win away from home to a Sporting Gijon side that has not won its last 7 games in La Liga.
Things started well for Sevilla when Luciano Vietto put them ahead following a long clearance in the fourth minute, but Moi Gomez’s 19th minute volley leveled the score and despite chances for both sides, neither was able to claim a winner in La Liga.