USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Sports
Home / Sports / Soccer

Messi scores late goal but Madrid tighten grip on title in La Liga

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-01-09 11:19
Messi scores late goal but Madrid tighten grip on title in La Liga

Barcelona's Lionel Messi shoots to score during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Villarreal and Barcelona at the Ceramica stadium in Villarreal, Spain, Jan 8, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

MADRID -- FC Barcelona saw their hopes of retaining the Liga Santander title slip further through their fingers when they were held to a 1-1 draw away to Villarreal on Sunday night.

Although Leo Messi scored his second free kick in just four days in the last minute of the game to cancel out Nico Sansone's opener for Villarreal, the two dropped points saw Barca slip to five points behind Real Madrid, who also have a game in hand, allowing Sevilla leapfrog over them into second place in the table.

Both sides saw good penalty claims for handball turned down by referee Iglesias Villanueva, but Barca were again playing short of their best as Andre Gomes produced another disappointing display, while Ivan Rakitic was again left out of the squad.

On Saturday, Real Madrid enjoyed their 39th unbeaten game thanks to a comfortable 5-0 win at home to struggling Granada.

Zinedine Zidane's side were in control from start to finish in their first league game in almost a month, and took the lead with a 12th minute Isco goal, before Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco (again) made it 4-0 by halftime.

Casemiro added a fifth in the second half in a match which highlighted Granada's problems as they find themselves deep in the relegation zone.

Meanwhile Sevilla, who are preparing to entertain Madrid in one week's time, managed to bag a 4-0 away win to Real Sociedad.

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US