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Atletico Madrid were the big winners in matchday 14 in the Spanish Liga Santander as league leaders Barcelona dropped points at home to Celta Vigo, while Real Madrid again failed to hit the target away to Athletic Club Bilbao and Valencia suffered their first defeat of the season, 1-0 in Getafe.
Barcelona kicked off the weekend with a surprise as they were held 2-2 at home to Celta who are coached by former Barca assistant boss, Juan Carlos Unzue.
The visitors played an excellent tactical game and opened the scoring through Iago Aspas after 20 minutes, only for Leo Messi to equalize only two minutes later with his 13th goal of the campaign.
Things looked to be back on track when Luis Suarez, who earlier had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, finished off a trademark Barca passing move, but Maxi Gomez equalized with 20 minutes remaining after Aspas led another counter-attack.
To make matters worse for Barca, Samuel Umtiti suffered a muscle injury in the move and will be out for the next two months.
Barca's slip up gave Real Madrid the chance to close the gap at the top of the table, but once again despite creating chances Zinedine Zidane's side fired blanks as they were held 0-0 away to Athletic Club Bilbao.
Although Madrid dominated the second half, they failed to test Athletic keeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga (linked to Madrid himself) and ended up with 10 men after Sergio Ramos was shown his second yellow card.
Those results opened the door for Valencia, who visited Getafe on Sunday afternoon, but on a dry and bumpy pitch and in the face of some determined defending, the side second in the table were unable to break down a rival ttat played with 10 men after just 25 minutes after Mauroo Arambari was shown his second yellow card.
A mixture of brave defending and some gamesmanship saw Getafe hold on as Markel Bergara's 65th minute deflected shot gave the home side an unlikely win.
Atletico Madrid were the main winners at the weekend as they came back from a goal down at home to Real Sociedad with former Real Sociedad striker, Antoine Griezmann netting an 89th minute winner.
It was his fourth goal in three games and came after Willian Jose had put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot after half an hour and Atletico left back, Felipe Luis equalized with 25 minutes remaining.
Sevilla moved level with Real Madrid after a hard-fought win against Deportivo la Coruna, thanks to a goal from Wissam Ben Yedder on the stroke of halftime and a second half strike from Michael Krohn Dehli.
Meanwhile Villarreal lost ground as they were beaten 3-1 in Leganes, who ended a four-game losing streak after fighting back from a goal down thanks to second half strikes from Diego Rico, Nabil el Zhar and Gabriel.
Elsewhere Las Palmas earned three vital points at home to Betis thanks to Jonathan Calleri's 19th minute goal at home to Betis, while Eibar took advantage of Espanyol's weakness on the road with a 3-1 win thanks to goals from Kike Gonzalez, Ivan Alejo and a Joan Jordan own goal.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
