Real Madrid's advantage atop La Liga cut to one point after draw at Las Palmas

24 September 2016 09:17

Real Madrid dropped points for the second game in a row as a 2-2 draw away to Las Palmas allowed Barcelona to cut their lead at the top of LaLiga to a single point.

Zinedine Zidane's men suffered the disappointment of missing out on a top-flight record 17 consecutive wins when they were held level by Villarreal at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night and they twice let leads slip in Gran Canaria on Saturday.

Marco Asensio headed them in front but Tana equalised to leave the scores level at the break. Substitute Karim Benzema restored Real's lead when he followed up to score after a Cristiano Ronaldo shot was blocked.

The Portuguese looked deeply unimpressed to be substituted with 18 minutes to go, and his mood would not have been improved when Las Palmas equalised with five minutes left through Sergio Araujo.

Barca overcame Sporting Gijon 5-0 at El Molinon in their first match minus the injured Lionel Messi as Neymar struck twice late on.

Luis Suarez raced clear and took the ball past Sporting goalkeeper Pichu Cuellar to put Luis Enrique's men in front in the 29th minute and the lead was doubled three minutes later when Rafinha headed in Sergi Roberto's cross from the right.

The floodgates opened after Alberto Lora's dismissal in the 74th minute as Neymar poked home his first when Paco Alcacer's shot was helped against the crossbar by Cuellar. Arda Turan headed in Barca's fourth from a Roberto cross and Neymar added his second with two minutes to go with a convincing finish after Denis Suarez's through-ball had played him in.

Athletic Bilbao leapfrogged Sevilla into third place with a 3-1 win at San Mames.

Mikel San Jose bundled in Athletic's first in the 27th minute and after Sevilla survived a strong penalty claim for handball just before the break, Samir Nasri levelled with his first goal for the club since joining on loan from Manchester City nine minutes into the second period.

Athletic's second was a cracker from an unlikely source as left-back Mikel Balenziaga burst forward and drilled home his first league goal in 161 appearances and Aritz Aduriz added a third in the final seconds of normal time from the penalty spot after Sevilla goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu elbowed him in the back. The win was Athletic's fourth successive league victory.

Eibar bounced back from a midweek defeat at Malaga by beating fellow Basque side Real Sociedad 2-0 in Saturday's early kick-off.

La Real were reduced to 10 men in the 24th minute when Aritz Elustondo was sent off for blocking Bebe's goalbound header with his hand.

An own goal by Asier Illarramendi after 56 minutes gave Eibar the advantage and Bebe added a spectacular second to take the hosts up to sixth in the top-flight.

Source: PA-WIRE