La Liga Review: Good weekend for Real as Sevilla only top-6 side not to win

Madrid, Feb 21 (IANS) Real Madrid reopened a six-point lead at the top of La Liga after they won 3-0 at home to Alaves, while second-place Sevilla were held to a 1-1 draw away to Espanyol on Sunday evening.

Marco Asensio, Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema were all on target as Real Madrid scored three goals in the last 27 minutes to claim a 3-0 win at home to struggling Alaves.

Real Madrid had struggled in the first half and were booed off the pitch at halftime by a sector of their fans, but that changed in the 63rd minute when Asensio produced a goal out of nothing with a curling left-foot shot.

Vinicius Jr then doubled their lead with 10 minutes left to play as Madrid were able to play on the break and Karim Benzema scored an injury-time penalty to make it 3-0, Xinhua reports. Sevilla looked to be on track for a win away to Espanyol when Rafa Mir finished at the far post to put them 1-1 up in the 36th minute, but Sergi Darder's second goal in two games, early in the second half saw the points shared.

Jules Kounde was then shown an extremely harsh red card to leave Sevilla with 10 men and Lucas Ocampos also got a booking that will see him miss next weekend's derby against Betis.

Betis remain just a place behind their neighbors after a tight 2-1 win at home to Mallorca which came thanks to an 83rd minute Willian Jose penalty for handball.

Alex Moreno had put the home side in front in the 25th minute, but recent Mallorca signing Vedat Muriqi leveled for the visitors with a powerful header that would ultimately be in vain.

FC Barcelona remain fourth with a convincing 4-1 win away to Valencia in the Mestalla Stadium.

Barca were hugely effective in attack, getting all six of their shots in the game on target, with four of them hitting the new. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice, while Frenkie de Jong also netted to finish off an excellent move as Barca went in 3-0 at the break.

Although Carlos Soler pulled a goal back with a header, Pedri, who came on as a second-half substitute netted Barca's fourth with a thumping shot with 27 minutes still to play.

Athletic Club Bilbao kept in touch with the battle for Europe on Sunday evening with a 4-0 thrashing of local rivals, Real Sociedad in the Basque derby.

Iker Muniain saw a penalty saved in the first half, but in the end, it didn't matter as Athletic rolled over their rivals in the second half with goals from Dani Vivian, Oihan Sancet, Inaki Williams and Muniain. All of the goals came in a 20-minute spell after Vivian opened the scoring with a powerful header from a corner.

Goals from Joao Felix, Luis Suarez (who scored from almost halfway) and Angel Correa, gave Atletico Madrid a much-needed win away to Osasuna, who had more chances but lacked effectiveness in front of goal.

Arnaut Danjuma's scored a hat-trick as Villarreal continued good form with a 4-1 win away to Granada, which leaves the home side in trouble.

Danjuma put Villarreal 2-0 up by halftime and although Luis Milla's penalty gave Granada hope of a comeback, Danjuma also scored a penalty, before Moi Gomez added a fourth in injury time.

Alvaro Negredo scored in the second minute of first-half injury time to save a point for struggling Cadiz at home to Getafe, who opened the scoring with Borja Mayoral's sixth-minute penalty.

Elche took another step away from the bottom three after goals from Guido Carrillo and Ezequiel Ponce saw them first back from a goal down at home to Rayo Vallecano.