La Liga: Real Madrid stunned by Real Betis at home, loses ground to Barcelona

The defeat leaves Real Madrid without a win in their three home La Liga games this season. (Source: Reuters)

Real Madrid’s faltering start to the Spanish league season continued on Wednesday with a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Real Betis. A day after league leader Barcelona routed Eibar 6-1 with four goals by Lionel Messi for its fifth win in a row, Madrid conceded an injury time goal to remain winless in its three league games so far at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Paraguayan striker Antoino Sanabria scored the winner with a header from close range to give Betis its first win against Madrid at the Bernabeu since 1998.

Madrid, which was coming off home draws against Valencia and Levante, is seven points behind Barcelona after five games. It trails Betis by one point.

Second-place Sevilla moved within two points of Barcelona by beating Las Palmas 1-0 for its fourth consecutive league victory.

Third-place Atletico won 2-1 at Athletic Bilbao.

KEY WIN

Atletico Madrid moved closer to the lead by earning a hard-fought 2-1 away victory against Athletic Bilbao.

Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak stopped Aritz Aduriz’s penalty kick before halftime and Angel Correa and Yannick Carrasco scored second-half goals to leave the Madrid side within four points of leader Barcelona.

It was the second consecutive win for Atletico, which remains unbeaten after five rounds.

“To win in this stadium you need to play a great match and I think we did that,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said. “We controlled the game and were very effective. It’s a very important triumph for us.”

Oblak used his left hand to stop a powerful shot by Aduriz after a mistake by Atletico left back Filipe Luis led to the penalty at Athletic’s San Mames Stadium.

Correa opened the scoring from inside the area after a cross by Jorge “Koke” Resurreccion in the 55th minute, and Carrasco added to the lead with a low shot into the far corner after a well-placed pass by Antoine Griezmann in the 73rd. Griezmann had also helped set up the first goal with a pass to Koke.

“It was Griezmann’s best match so far this season,” Simeone said.

Raul Garcia netted an injury time goal for Athletic, which has now lost two in a row after an unbeaten start.

ROUGH START

Deportivo La Coruna handed Alaves its fifth straight loss with a 1-0 victory at the Riazor Stadium.

Luisinho scored in first-half injury time to give the hosts their first win after three losses in the first four matches.

Malaga is the only other team to have lost all of its matches so far. It was routed 5-0 at Valencia on Tuesday.

NO GOALS

Leganes and Girona failed to take their chances in a goalless first meeting in the top flight.

Both teams created clear scoring opportunities but Leganes, playing in the Liga for the second season, had to settle for a point with promoted Girona.

Leganes stayed in the top half of the standings, in eighth place, while Girona was 14th.