Almeria hold Madrid to draw; Barcelona thrash Malaga

Esteban Granero secure Real Madrid’s blushes with a late equalizer on Sunday night as they clash back to a 1-1 draw with bottom-placed Almeria at the Estadio del Mediterraneo.
Jose Mourinho the newly-crowned FIFA world coach of the year saw his side labor without recompense for most of the match in opposition to a side, which has only won twice in the league all season.
A definite performance from the home side was rewarded in the 60th minute when an attempt from Jose Ulloa saw them take a surprise 1-0 lead. Prompt into action, Real fought back with Cristiano Ronaldo practically finding the net after a mazy run, but was shorn of by the feet of Diego Alves. But Almeria’s goalkeeper couldn’t do anything about Granero goal who fired a rocket into the roof of the net after receiving a lay-off from substitute Karim Benzema who came on for Kaka.
Meanwhile, Barcelona breezed past 16th place Malaga 4-1 at the Nou Camp to open up a four point space over rivals Madrid.
Iniesta unwrapped the scoring after eight minutes firing home off the post with a shot from the edge of the penalty area. David Villa doubled the lead 10 minutes later as Barcelona teased and swindled their way throughout Malaga’s defenses. Rodriguez made it three nine minutes before the break after Messi had carved open the defense with a completely weighted pass. Duda did pull one back for the visitors in the 68th minute, but David Silva netted his second of the night and Barcelona’s fourth seven minutes afterward.