Madrid edged Mallorca 1-0 at home with a late goal by Antonio Rüdiger in a match that marked the return of Vinícius Júnior from injury.
Real Madrid and Girona extended their emotional runs to reach the halfway point of La Liga at the top of the standings.
Both brigades won on Wednesday to reach 48 points after 19 games, with third- place Atletico Madrid 10 points back. Real Madrid was ahead of Girona on a tiebreaker. Barcelona can move within seven points of the leaders if it wins at Las Palmas on Thursday.
Girona, the surprise platoon in Spanish football this season, defeated Atletico 4- 3 with a winner by Iván Martín in cessation time.
Álvaro Morata scored a chapeau trick for Atletico, while Antoine Griezmann was held scoreless to remain tied with Luis Aragonés as the club’s all- time top arranger with 173 pretensions.
Faced with another delicate challenge, Girona rose to the occasion yet again, prostrating Diego Simeone’s Atletico to show it can be considered a genuine title contender.
Martín scored the winning thing one nanosecond into cessation time, firing a left- footed shot into the top corner after protecting off a series of Atletico protectors inside the area.
The host led 3- 1 until Morata limited his chapeau trick with an equalizer in the 54th. Valery Fernández, Savinho and Daley Blind scored Girona’s other pretensions at Montilivi Stadium.
The platoon counseled by Míchel has the league’s stylish attack with 46 pretensions, four further than Madrid’s. Girona has 15 triumphs, three draws and a lone loss coming against Madrid.
It went on a 13- match unbeaten band in all competitions since that 3- 0 defeat to Madrid at home in September. Last month, it earned a satisfying 4- 2 palm at defending champion Barcelona.
“We’ll keep going match by match, ” Martín said. “ We’re close to securing a European place, but we’ve to keep this instigation and try to win as numerous points as possible. also at the end of the season we ’ll see where we are. ”
Vinícius was back in action after an absence of nearly two months because of a muscle injury, but the Spanish hustler plodded in attack until Rüdiger broke the impasse with a title into the top corner after a well- placed corner kick taken by Luka Modric in the 78th nanosecond.
“I ’m veritably happy because it was an important thing and an important three points for us, ” Rüdiger said.
The result extended Madrid’s unbeaten band to 18 matches in all competitions, since a 3- 1 league loss at Atletico in September. That was the platoon’s lone loss in a season in which it has won 21 matches and drawn three.
Mallorca, which doubly hit the woodwork at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, stayed in 14th place, four points from the deportation zone. The platoon counseled by Mexican director Javier Aguirre had won two of its last three league matches against Sevilla and Osasuna.
Vinícius hadn’t played since November, when he injured a leg muscle while playing a World Cup qualifier with Brazil. He’d a couple of clear chances on Wednesday but didn’t subsidize on them.
Madrid also had the return of protector Dani Carvajal, but trainer Carlo Ancelotti remained without several crucial players because of long- term knee injuries, including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and protectors David Alaba and Éder Militão.
Celta Vigo defeated Real Betis 2- 1 at home with a winner by Swedish teenager Williot Swedberg six twinkles into cessation time.
The result took Celta out of the deportation zone. The Vigo platoon has won two of its last three league matches after enduring a 12- game winless run in the competition.
Real Betis, winless in five successive matches in all competitions, stayed in seventh place.
In a match between two brigades in the deportation zone, 19th- place Granada defeated 18th- place Cadiz 2- 0 at home. Know More Latest Football News…
