La Liga: Real Madrid drop points, Barca and Atletico win
Real Madrid dropped two points in the race for the La Liga title, being held to a 1-1 draw away to Rayo Vallecano.
Real Sociedad held FC Barcelona to a 2-2 away draw in a nail-biting La Liga match on Saturday as Blaugrana’s poor run at the Anoeta stadium continues. The draw gives Real Madrid a chance to take over the first place ahead of next week’s Clasico.
The home team went all guns blazing and their aggressive play paid off in the 11th minute, when the referee awarded a penalty for a Sergio Busquet foul on Diego Llorente in the area.
Mikel Oyarzabal netted from the penalty spot by sending Barca goalie Ter Stegen to the wrong side.
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The visitors only needed a slight opening though to open the scoring and that came in the 37th minute when Suarez took possession of a ball at midfield and set up Antoine Griezmann for a score on the counter-attack.
The Frenchman received the ball in stride and then chipped it over the head of Remiro while Real Sociedad’s players were scrambling back into position.
The first half ended with both the sides having a goal each. However, in the following half, Ernesto Valverde’s men appeared to seize full control of the contest when Lionel Messi avoided an offside trap and received a pass from Busquets before setting up Suarez for a close-range goal that made the score 2-1 in the 49th minute.
Real Sociedad kept threatening Barca’s defence and won the equaliser in the 61st minute when Swedish forward Alexander Isak scored from close range after Ter Stegen had batted away a shot by Monreal.
Barcelona, who have played 16 matches so far, remain at the top of the table with 35 points. In case, Real Madrid, who have 34 points from 15 games, win their next game against Valencia on Sunday night, they will replace Barca at the top.
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