Barcelona have moved to within four points of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga after this weekend’s matches. Barcelona entertained Valladolid and an early goal from Eto’o and a hat-trick from Bojan saw them ease to a 4-1 victory.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, went down 2-3 to Valencia. David Villa opened the scoring for Valencia after thirty minutes, but Raul scored an equaliser just one minute later. The Real captain then made it 2-1. Not to be outdone, David Villa also grabbed his second goal, albeit from the penalty spot, to make it 2-2 and then, right at the end of the match, Arizmendi sealed victory for the visitors.
Villareal maintained their outside chance of the title with a 2-1 victory over neighbours Levante, Fernández and Franco getting the goals. Villareal are just two points behind Barcelona.
Strangely, only the top seven clubs are actually secure from ‘the drop’.
In Division 2, leaders Numancia also lost so the gap to the Blue and Whites remains at four points after visitors Celta came from a goal down to win 2-1. Julio Alvarez gave the home side the lead before the break, but half time substitute Diego Costa scored twice in the second half to give Celta victory and move them back up to eighth. Celta are now three points behind Castellón, who moved up to sixth in the table after a 1-0 win over Salamanca, Arana scoring the only goal midway through the second half. Hércules are now out of contention for the promotion spots after they drew yet again, this time 1-1 at Racing Ferrol, with Lamatina saving a point for the Galicians in injury time.
In Formula One, Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari was an easy victor in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, after taking over the lead from team-mate Felipe Massa after the first pit stop. Robert Kubica brought his BMW home in second place with third place going to another Finn, Heikki Kovalainen, in a McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton still leads the championship table after finishing in fifth place with Raikkonen now just three points behind.
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari
2. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber
3. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes
4. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota
5. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes
6. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber
7. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
8. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault
9. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault
10. Jenson Button (GB) Honda
11. Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault
12. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari
13. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda
14. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota
15. Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda
16. Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda
17. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota
DNF Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari
DNF Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari
DNF Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari
DNF Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota
DNF Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso
In Tennis, third seed Novak Djokovic saw off the challenge of Mardy Fish, conquerer of Roger Federer, to win the Pacific Open title in Indian Wells. It is the third masters title for the 20 year old Serb and his ninth career title. The score was 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
Ana Ivanovic, also 20 years old, made it a Serbian double by winning the women’s title with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.