{"id":2559,"date":"2014-03-10T06:27:23","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T06:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2014-03-10T07:06:27","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T07:06:27","slug":"madrid-beat-levante-to-go-reclaim-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/madrid-beat-levante-to-go-reclaim-top-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid Beat Levante To Go Reclaim Top Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid are again three points clear at the top of the Primera Division after a 3-0 win over Levante on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carlo Ancelotti’s men watched on Saturday as Atletico won at Celta Vigo to return to level points with them, before responding with a three-goal win.<\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo got them going before the break, with Marcelo and an own goal from Nikos rounding things off after the break.<\/p>\n

The win also means they are four points clear of defending champions Barcelona and surely have to be considered the favourite of the three sides chasing the title.<\/p>\n

Sevilla ensured their preparation for next week’s Europa League derby clash with Real Betis was almost perfect with a 3-1 away win over Almeria.<\/p>\n

Carlos Bacca, Daniel Carrico and Kevin Gameiro all scored for Sevilla with Aleix Vidal claiming a late consolation for the home side as the result kept the pressure on sixth-placed Real Sociedad, who are two points clear of Sevilla in the overall standings.<\/p>\n

The scoreline also left struggling Almeria in the bottom three but only one point from safety in a congested bottom half of the table.<\/p>\n

Espanyol gave their European hopes a further boost with a dominant 3-1 home win over Elche.<\/p>\n

The hosts needed just two minutes to open the scoring, David Lopez heading them in front from a corner. Diego Colotto got the second goal midway through the first half and Pizzi added a third in the second period, although Juan Rafael Fuentes scored an own goal to give the visitors a late consolation.<\/p>\n

The victory means Espanyol can harbour serious ambitions about qualifying for Europe, now that they are just seven points behind sixth-placed Real Sociedad, while Elche are just three points above the bottom three.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Valencia and Athletic Bilbao shared the points in a 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

Valencia went in front through Paco Alcacer’s 23rd-minute goal, but Aritz Aduriz’s penalty half-an-hour later ensured both sides got something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid are again three points clear at the top of the Primera Division after a 3-0 win over Levante on Sunday. Carlo Ancelotti’s men watched on Saturday as Atletico won at Celta Vigo to return to level points with them, before responding with a three-goal win. Cristiano Ronaldo got them going before the break, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2563,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}