Barca stunned by Atletico

Fernando Torres scored twice to fire Atletico Madrid to a 3-1 victory at the Nou Camp and deny Barcelona the chance to equal one of Spanish football’s longest-standing records.

The Catalan giants needed to beat Atletico to match the achievement of the 1960-61 Real Madrid side which won 15 consecutive Primera Liga matches.

But they had to do so against a team which has constantly proved troublesome to Frank Rijkaard’s all-conquering outfit.

Torres grabbed a brace while Maxi Rodriguez also netted against a Barca side without the suspended Ronaldinho and top scorer Samuel Eto’o, who is still unavailable after representing Cameroon at the African Nations Cup.

Henrik Larsson grabbed the hosts’ sole reply.

Elsewhere, Mark Gonzalez came off the bench to score the winner in a 2-1 victory over Real Mallorca on his league debut as new coach Gonzalo Arconada was handed the perfect start to life in charge of Real Sociedad.

Morten Skoubo had put Sociedad in front in the 17th minute but the visitors hit back and equalised in the 34th minute through Leandro Pisculichi.

Real Zaragoza survived a determined second-half comeback from Real Betis to win 4-3 in an entertaining encounter that also saw two players sent off.

The home side had romped into a 4-0 lead after just 22 minutes thanks to a brace of goals from Diego Milito and one apiece for Sergio Garcia and Oscar Gonzalez.

But the visitors refused to give up, and produced a magnificent fightback which saw Dani score a hat-trick that was nearly enough to secure an unlikely point.

Celta Vigo made light of their dismal record at El Sardinero to record a dramatic late 1-0 victory against Racing Santander.

Substitute Jesus Perera Lopez struck in the 89th minute after he was picked out inside the box by Fabian Canobbio and he coolly slotted the ball past home keeper Dudu Aouate.

Daniel Guiza scored a last-gasp equaliser as Getafe denied in-form Alaves their third Primera Liga win in four matches.

Getafe had opened the scoring through Mariano Pernia after just four minutes but relegation-haunted Alaves fought back with goals from John Aloisi and Rodolfo Bodipo to take the lead before Guiza struck in injury time.

Osasuna recorded their first league win of 2006 to reignite their hopes of playing in next season’s Champions League.

Savo Milosevic grabbed the only goal of the game on the hour and Sevilla’s miserable night was complete in the closing seconds when David Castedo was dismissed for verbally abusing an assistant referee.

Meanwhile, Villarreal were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw at home to Cadiz.

Javier Calleja’s second-half strike secured a point for the home side after Alexander Medina had put Cadiz into a surprise lead after just two minutes.