Barça struggles, Real strolls, but gap remains

The eight-point gap between Liga leader Barcelona and second-place Real Madrid remained intact ahead of next weekend's clásico, after wins for both teams on Saturday. But it was Real, facing the seemingly sterner test away at Athletic Bilbao, that looked the more comfortable in victory, as the Catalans made heavy work of seeing off bottom-of-the-table Almería.

Leaving big names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Ricardo Carvalho, Mesut Özil and Emmanuel Adebayor resting on the bench, José Mourinho's men beat the Basque side 3-0 at the San Mamés thanks to two penalties won by wily Argentinean winger Ángel Di María and converted by Kaká, whose return to the score sheet will no doubt do wonders for his confidence as he continues his comeback. Ronaldo, who had come on for Gonzalo Higuaín, added a third on 69 minutes.

"You saw that all the players are capable and all are important," said Real assistant coach Aitor Karanka, who took the post-match press conference. He highlighted the "great game" had by Kaká and Pepe, who played just in front of the defense, in an encounter "that was more important than it might seem" after the team's 0-1 loss to Sporting the previous week.

Meanwhile, Barcelona had to come from behind to eventually see off Almería 3-1 at Camp Nou on Saturday night. The Andalusians went ahead on 49 minutes following a counterattack that was crowned by Corona, but Lionel Messi equalized from the penalty spot three minutes later. Thiago Alcántara headed the home team in front on 64 minutes before Messi bagged his second of the evening in the dying moments to seal the win and equal Ronaldo's total of 29 league goals so far this season.

In Saturday's other game Sevilla coach Gregorio Manzano returned to the Iberostar stadium to face old club Mallorca, coming away with a 2-2 tie. The Balearic team went ahead twice thanks to goals from Aki and Jonathan de Guzmán, only for Sevilla to pull back both times with an Álvaro Negredo penalty and an Ivan Rakitic strike.