Morato leaves it late to send Real Madrid top
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E-mail Xinhua, October 24, 2016
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Birthday boy Alvaro Morata scored the late winner as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao to go top of La Liga in the rain at the Santiago Bernabeu. |
Real Madrid ended matchday 9 as leaders of the Spanish Primera Liga with a slightly fortunate 2-1 win at home over injury hit Athletic Club Bilbao on Sunday.
Madrid took the lead in the 7th minute against the Basque side, who were without 5 first team regulars, after Karim Benzema stroked home a pass from the right.
Sabin Merino equalized for Athletic in the 27th minute after good work from Inigo Lekue and the game could have gone either way in the second half.
Alvaro Morata won the game for Madrid with a dose of fortune in the 84th minute, before Inaki Williams missed a great chance to equalize two minutes later when he failed to get enough weight behind a chip with Keylor Navas out of his ground.
Atletico Madrid's reign at the top of the table came to an end after just 2 weeks in Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
A Steven N'Zonzi goal just over 15 minutes from time decided a hard-fought and tactical game in which Sevilla were the better side in the second half and moved up to second.
Atletico ended with 10 men after Koke was sent off for a slightly rigorous second yellow card and slipped to fifth in the table after Villarreal's 2-1 win at home to Las Palmas.
It was a late show for Villarreal, who fell behind to Kevin Boateng's fine goal on the half hour. It was not until the 61st minute that Sansone's penalty drew them level and Cedric Bakambu won the game against Las Palmas for the home side in the 92nd minute.
Local boy Iago Ases scored twice as Celta Vigo won the Galician derby 4-1 at home to Deportivo la Coruna.
Hugo Mallo opened the scoring from a narrow angle to put Celta ahead only for Raul Albentosa to head the equalizer from a set piece.
A controversial penalty on the hour allowed Iago Aspes to put Celta back in front and with Deportivo committing men forward, Fabian Orellana and Aspes scoring further goals on the break to seal the win.
Malaga produced their best performance of the season to defeat Leganes 4-0 with goals from Jonathan Rodriguez, Chori Castro, Sandro and Ignacio Camacho.
Leo Messi scored an injury time penalty to give Barcelona a dramatic 3-2 win in a tense match in Valencia's Mestalla Stadium on Saturday.
Barca had taken a first half lead through the Argentinean, but Valencia turned the game around with goals from former Barca striker, Munir and Rodrigo in 6 second half minutes.
Luis Suarez leveled just after the hour and despite a frantic last half hour a draw looked on the cards as Abdennour's rash challenge on Suarez set up Messi for the dramatic finish.
The day kicked off with Espanyol and Eibar sharing six goals in a game Eibar led 3-0 at halftime thanks to goals from Sergi Enrich, a Diego Reyes own goal and a 44th minute strike from Kike Gonzalez.
Espanyol recovered after the break and assured a share of the points with goals from Hernan Perez, Pablo Piatti and a last minute goal from Leo Baptistao.
Real Sociedad enjoyed an easy win in a Basque derby 3-0 at home to Alaves thanks to a first half header from Xabi Prieto and second half strikes from Willian Jose and Carlos Vela.
Finally, Granada and Sporting produced a dreadful 0-0 draw which leaves Granada bottom without a win and Sporting in the relegation zone.
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