No change in Spanish soccer top order

By DPA

Madrid : There is no change at the top of Spanish football's "La Liga" with Real Madrid again winning with a last-minute goal and Barcelona romping past atrocious Atletico Madrid.


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Real won 3-2 in injury time at Recreativo Huelva, Barcelona slaughtered Atletico 6-0 and Sevilla came from behind to beat Deportivo Coruna 2-1, Sunday.

These results leave Real level with Barca on 69 points after 35 games, but Real stay top due to the Spanish direct results system, having taken four points off Barca this season.

UEFA Cup winners Sevilla remain third, two points behind Real and Barca, while Valencia – who won 1-0 away to Mallorca Saturday -stay fourth on 65.

Real Madrid have won eight of their last nine matches and have created a new club record by winning no less than 11 away games this season.

They went ahead in Huelva after just eight minutes, when Robinho headed in a precise centre from David Beckham.

In the 53rd minute they were given a penalty when keeper Bernard Laquiat pulled down Robinho. Ruud Van Nistelrooy made no mistake from the spot and stays at the top of the scorers' chart with 21 goals.

Real had chances to increase their lead but then went to sleep. In the 73rd minute Jesus Vazquez pulled one back from the penalty spot after Sergio Ramos had pulled down Ikechukwu Uche.

Uche made it 2-2 in the 85th minute by turning in a corner that the Real defence had surprisingly failed to cut out.

Real's top spot was up in the air but they reacted manfully, going for the win. In the 90th minute Gonzalo Higuain launched a dangerous counter, Fernando Gago found Roberto Carlos down the left and the Brazilian veteran made it 3-2 with a clever chip over Laquiat.

Later on Sunday Barca finally found their form and took Atletico to the cleaners, with two goals from Lionel Messi and one each from Gianluca Zambrotta, Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Andres Iniesta.

Atleti had defender Fabiano Eller sent off midway through the second half, but were already 0-4 down by then. The hammering will likely seal the fate of embattled coach Javier Aguirre.

Sevilla scored a late away win of their own earlier on Sunday, up in La Coruna. With ten minutes left they were trailing to a goal from Rodolfo Bodipo and were looking tired after their UEFA final exertions earlier in the week.

But they won with late goals from Renato and Frederic Kanoute, staying in the hunt in the tightest title race for years.

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