Real Madrid took advantage of a slip up by Barcelona to join city rivals Atletico at the top of the Spanish Primera Liga on Saturday night.
While Los Blancos cantered to a 4-0 win over Almeria at the Santiago Bernabeu, Barca slipped to a shock defeat at Granada that could prove to be a crushing blow to their title bid.
Real are now level on 79 points with Atletico, although they are second in the table on virtue to their record this season against Diego Simeone’s men, with Barcelona a point behind.
Atletico now have the opportunity to open up a three-point gap at the summit with just five games to play with victory at Getafe on Sunday.
Yacine Brahimi scored the only goal for Granada after 15 minutes, the Algerian racing through a Barca defence containing no natural centre-backs and scoring past Jose Manuel Pinto.
That left Madrid knowing they could leapfrog their great rivals with a win against Almeria and Carlo Ancelotti’s men completed the task with the minimum of fuss.
Goals from Angel Di Maria, Gareth Bale, Isco and Alvaro Morata sealed Real’s third successive win in La Liga - a run which has seen them score 13 unanswered goals
Jeremy Perbet headed a winner deep in stoppage-time to sink Levante and keep alive Villarreal’s hopes of securing automatic qualification for the Europa League.
The game looked to be heading for a dour goalless draw well into the 95th minute, when Perbet nodded Manuel Trigueros’ right-wing cross into the bottom corner of Keylor Navas’ net.
The result lifted the Yellow Submarine to sixth spot in the standings – just a point adrift of fifth-placed Sevilla, who visit Real Betis on Sunday – while Levante stayed ninth.
In the day’s other game, Celta Vigo came from behind to salvage a 2-2 draw from a dramatic game with Real Sociedad, despite playing the second half with 10 men.
Sergio Canales gave the Basques an early lead that was cancelled out by Nolito from the penalty spot after 38 minutes.
Antoine Griezmann put the visitors back in front with a thumping finish a couple of minutes before half-time and the afternoon got worse for Luis Enrique’s side when Jon Aurtenetxe’s rash tackle on Carlos Vela was punished by a red card in the 46th minute.
However, substitute Santi Mina levelled with eight minutes to go to take Celta to 37 points and deny Real Sociedad a chance to overtake Sevilla in the table.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE