La Liga wrap: Good day for Madrid sides

Atletico Madrid remain level on points with La Liga leaders Barcelona after a 3-1 win over Osasuna, while Real Madrid smashed Mallorca.

Radamel Falcao scored for his 10th-straight match, grabbing Atletico Madrid’s third goal in their victory on Sunday as they resisted a brief comeback from Osasuna to win their eighth game of the season.

Atletico central defender Miranda gave his side the lead in front of their home fans when he got to Gabi’s in-swinging free-kick first and angled the ball past Osasuna goalkeeper Andres Fernandez and inside the far post in the 31st minute.

Just four minutes later and Fernandez was picking the ball out of his own net again after Osasuna defender Alejandro Arribas failed to clear the penalty area with his header and Raul Garcia collected the loose ball, before firing it into the bottom corner.

Osasuna dragged a goal back before half-time, however, when Sola did well to hold the ball up in the 43rd minute and then laid it off to Roland Lamah as the Belgian winger curled a fine effort into the net from outside the penalty area.

Any chance of an Osasuna comeback was ended in the 73rd minute when Falcao backed away from his defender before bursting onto Juanfran’s chipped pass and volleying the ball home to clinch three points for the home team.

Atletico Madrid moved to 25 points, equal with Barcelona but behind the league-leaders on goal difference, while Osasuna remain bottom of the table.

In Mallorca, Real Madrid clobbered the home side 5-0 that saw Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain both scoring two goals.

Real moved back up to fourth with the victory but remain eight points behind their local rivals and Barcelona.

Higuain and Ronaldo were almost unstoppable in Mallorca as they linked up for three of the five goals.

Real took the lead in the eighth minute through Higuain before the Argentine striker teed up Ronaldo for the visitors’ second goal before half-time.

Ronaldo then returned the favour in the 70th minute before Higuain again turned provider three minutes later for the Portuguese star’s second goal, while substitute Jose Callejon wrapped up the win when he scored in the 91st minute.

Getafe continued Athletic Bilbao’s poor campaign with a 2-1 win away at the Basque club.

Juan Rodriguez and Alvaro put Getafe two goals up and while Athletic Bilbao had 11 shots on target to six, the home team first scored in second-half injury time through Mikel San Jose when it was too late.

Meanwhile, Levante defeated Granada 3-1 with Obafemi Martins scoring twice for the winners.