Villarreal salvage draw as Deportivo win at last

Villarreal looked set to suffer only their second league defeat of the season after falling behind to Diego Castro's 69th-minute penalty and then losing captain Gonzalo Rodriguez to a red card eight minutes later.

But, after Sporting had missed two good chances to finish the game off, Villarreal won a spot-kick of their own deep into injury time, which Rossi coolly slotted home in what was his 100th league appearance for the Yellow Submarine.

Deportivo La Coruna lifted themselves off the foot of the La Liga table with an emphatic 3-0 win at home to fifth placed Espanyol, easing the pressure on coach Miguel Angel Lotina.

Adrian Lopez scored the vital opener after 28 minutes and the Galicians sealed victory thanks to late strikes from Alberto Lopo and Diego Colotto.

Atletico Madrid endured a frustrating evening as they missed the chance to climb into the top five after being held to a 1-1 draw at home to lowly Almeria.

Atletico laid siege to the visiting side's goal early on and deservedly took the lead in the 33rd minute when Sergio Aguero scored his fourth goal in three games since returning from injury.

However, the Rojiblancos could not build on that advantage and they were stunned on the strike of half-time when Pablo Piatti lashed in a superb equaliser for fourth-bottom Almeria.

A Markus Rosenberg brace handed Racing Santander a resounding 4-1 victory over Osasuna at the Estadio El Sardinero.

Kennedy Bakircioglu and Rosenberg gave Racing a 2-0 lead at the break, before a Javad Nekounam penalty gave Osasuna hope. But Rosenberg grabbed his second in the 62nd minute, before Marc Torrejón rounded off victory five minutes from time with the fourth.

At the Estadio La Rosaleda, Real Sociedad held on for a 2-1 win over Malaga, who were made to rue Apono's 77th minute penalty miss.

Antoine Griezmann and Joseba Llorente put the visitors 2-0 up and Apono squandered the chance to halve the deficit when Claudio Bravo saved his spot-kick. Juanmi found the net moments later but there was no comeback and Malaga slipp into the bottom three.

Athletic Bilbao maintained their strong home form with a resounding 3-0 victory over Getafe.

The Basque side have now won three of their last four games at San Mames - the one defeat in that run coming against Barcelona - after Getafe were dispatched with ease.

Defenders Andoni Iraola and Mikel San Jose had the hosts 2-0 up inside 12 minutes and substitute Igor Gabilondo rounded off the win seven minutes from time.

In matches the day before Barcelona produced the performance of their season so far as they dished out a 5-0 thrashing to Sevilla at the Nou Camp.

Just four minutes in, Lionel Messi opened the scoring as Pedro's shot was palmed into his path by the goalkeeper.

David Villa, who has so far struggled for goals since his big-money move in the summer, made it 2-0 as he cut inside with typical panache - following an excellent piece of skill from Messi - before bending home a beautiful left-footed shot.

Sevilla's hopes were effectively ended by a red card for Konko just before the break, after two bookings. But Barca were ruthless, Dani Alves capitalising on a sloppy backpass to lift a third into the net, Messi adding a cool fourth and Villa joining him on two goals with a late Barca fifth.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck two late goals and had a hand in the other as Real Madrid fought back from an early deficit to down giant-killers Hercules 3-1 and ensure Jose Mourinho's in-form side remain top of the Primera Division standings.

Promoted Hercules have already beaten Barcelona and Sevilla this season as well as holding Villarreal to a draw, and they were on course to add Madrid to that list after taking a third-minute lead through David Trezeguet.

However, Madrid stormed back after half-time to take the points, with Ronaldo once again to the fore.

The world's most expensive player, who struck four times in last weekend's 6-1 victory over Racing Santander, took his league tally to 11 for the season with two goals in the last eight minutes to seal the victory after Angel Di Maria had struck a 52nd-minute equaliser.

Maurizio Lanzaro scored at both ends as bottom club Real Zaragoza held high-flying Valencia to a creditable 1-1 draw at the Mestalla despite being reduced to 10 men for the fourth successive league game,

Lanzaro gave winless Zaragoza the lead with a superb early finish, but went from hero to villain just before half-time when he glanced the ball over his own goalkeeper Antonio Doblas and into the net.

Zaragoza had to play out the final 23 minutes with 10 men after picking up yet another red card, Ander Herrera the man given his marching orders.

Source: espnsoccernet.com