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.
Luis Suarez headed in the only goal as defending champions Barcelona edged Valencia 1-0 in their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg at a half-full Camp Nou.
Barcelona, the record 29-time winners of the tournament, are attempting to become the first team to lift the cup four years in a row since Athletic Bilbao in the 1930s.
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But on Thursday they were forced to labour against a Valencia team missing a trio of key players — Goncalo Guedes, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Ezequiel Garay — through injury.
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Barcelona dominated possession but had to wait until the 67th minute for the breakthrough.
Not surprisingly, Lionel Messi was the man who unlocked the Valencia defence before setting up Suarez.
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The Argentine danced his way into the penalty area before a deft left-footed chip left three defenders out of position and allowed Suarez to score from the edge of six-yard box with a diving header.
Wednesday’s tight affair was dramatically different to the last time these two teams met at the same stage two years ago — Barcelona won 8-1 on aggregate following a 7-0 win in the first leg.
“We have a small advantage but there’s still 90 minutes to play and it’ll be a long 90 minutes as Valencia are a very strong when they play at home,” said Suarez who has now scored 13 times in the last 11 games.
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In Wednesday’s first semi-final, little Leganes, who stunned mighty Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, battled back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Sevilla in the opening leg.
Colombian international Luis Muriel gave Sevilla the lead after 21 minutes, scoring with the aid of a deflection off the post.
But Leganes levelled on the night when Sevilla goalkeeper Sergio Rico blundered trying to keep out a header from Greek defender Dimitrios Siovas.
Leganes, who were playing in the third division five years ago and are in the Copa del Rey semi-finals for the first time in their 90-year history, remain the outsiders against Sevilla, at least on financial terms.
Their annual budget of €45 million is four times less than that of Sevilla.
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