Sociedad reclaim top spot
Second half goals from Gabilondo (78) and Kovacevic (87) sealed the win for Sociedad.
Two goals from Ronaldo had helped Real Madrid to regain the leadership of the league for just 24 hours, after they won 2-1 at reigning Spanish champions Valencia on Saturday.
The Brazilian’s double means that Real Madrid now have 71 points from 35 games, with three games still to play. But the Sociedad victory at Malaga gave them back the lead on 72 points.
Deportivo La Coruna lie third with 66 points but the 2000 champions hopes have almost evaporated after a 3-0 defeat away to derby rivals Celta Vigo.
Madrid took the initiative in an exciting match when Ronaldo headed home a Luis Figo cross after 25 minutes. Valencia wasted little time in levelling the score and Fabio Aurelio sent a long-distance effort past Real goalie Iker Casillas.
However, Ronaldo showed his appetite for the big occasion and got the winner from another Figo cross, dribbling around a prone Valencia goalkeeper Santiago Canizares before tapping the ball into the net.
Deportivo’s defeat, their second loss in successive weeks, was the heaviest suffered in first division encounters at their Galician rivals for 47 years, with all of Celta’s goals coming in the second half.
“We now have to rely on Real Madrid and Real Sociedad slipping up,” said Deportivo coach Javier Irureta, all but admitting that his team’s title hopes had been lost along with the match.
Celta’s Jesuli Mora opened the scoring with a header just before the hour and three minutes later set up Edu to nod Celta further in front.
Edu then pounced again after Deportivo goalkeeper Juan Francosco Molina had badly fumbled a cross from Alexandr Mostovoi, the Brazilian scoring his 11th goal of the season 11 minutes from time.
The win means that Celta Vigo move up to fourth place with 57 points, one point ahead of Valencia, in the contest for the remaining place in next season’s Champions League.
The pair are well clear of Athletic Bilbao in sixth, whose last minute penalty from Ismael Urzaiz gave them a 2-1 win over Racing Santander and kept them ahead of the pack in the race for the last UEFA Cup place.
Atletico Madrid are right behind Athletic, at least overnight, after Fernando Torres showed just how much the team had missed him during his six-week absence through injury.
Torres scored twice in Atletico’s 3-2 win over Villarreal. Bottom-club Rayo Vallecano staved off relegation for another week by grinding out a dour 0-0 draw with fellow strugglers Osasuna.
In France, reigning champions Lyon became the first French side since Marseille in 1992 to retain their league title despite going down to their worst home defeat of the season on Saturday.
Guingamp, looking ambitiously towards qualifying for the UEFA Cup, took only 18 minutes to prove their determination and went on to hand Lyon coach Paul Le Guen a 4-1 end-of-season defeat.
As Lyon and Marseille slipped up, Monaco, sitting third before kick-off, jumped up a place thanks to a classy 6-0 win over Troyes which came only a week after they won the French League Cup.
Lyon finished top on 68 points, with Monaco second on 67 and Marseille third on 65.
The relegated teams were Le Havre, Sedan and Troyes.
Auxerre will have a chance to join the UEFA Cup fold next season if they manage to overcome Paris St Germain in the French Cup final on May 31.
In Germany, Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday secured the final promotion slot for the Bundesliga next season joining already qualified Freiburg and FC Cologne.
A 6-3 win over SSV Reutlingen on Sunday ensured that Eintracht would be plying their trade in the top flight next season.
Freiburg finished top of Division Two ahead of Cologne and Eintracht, and move up.
Arminia Bielefeld, FC Nuremberg and Energie Cottbus were relegated from the Bundesliga.
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