Real stutter again

Real Madrid’s indifferent home form continued today as they were held to a 1-1 draw by local rivals Getafe at the Bernabeu.

Madrid had picked up just one point from their previous two homes games against struggling Real Betis and Levante, and it was to be another frustrating night for the home faithful.

Getafe stunned their hosts by taking a 38th-minute lead through Daniel Guiza, but Madrid, who lost David Beckham to a knee injury, drew level just before half-time through a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty.

Fabio Capello’s men are still fourth, six points off the leaders Sevilla, who beat Barcelona 2-1 yesterday.

Madrid are only two points ahead of Real Zaragoza, who maintained their push for a Champions League berth with a pulsating 3-2 win over rock-bottom Real Sociedad at La Romareda.

One place behind Zaragoza are Atletico Madrid, but they fell to a 1-0 loss at Recreativo Huelva where Florent Sinama Pongolle, on a year-long loan from Liverpool, scored and missed a penalty in the space of five first-half minutes.

With Sociedad losing, fellow strugglers Athletic Bilbao and Gimnastic Tarragona had the chance to put some distance between themselves and the rock-bottom side when they met.

And it was Nastic who boosted their slim survival hopes with a crucial 2-0 victory despite having defender Carles Mingo dismissed for two bookable offences.

Mallorca leapfrogged Levante with a basement-battle victory that was even more convincing than the 3-1 scoreline suggests.

Real Betis put some daylight between themselves and the drop zone with a priceless away win at Deportivo La Coruna.

Espanyol saw their five-match winning streak ended by an impressive Villarreal performance at Montjuic as the teams drew 1-1.

Exposito Juanjo’s late strike gave Racing Santander their fifth consecutive home win, but they were far from convincing in an often dour affair of desperately few chances with Osasuna.

Saturday’s other game saw Fernando Morientes score the only goal as Valencia edged past Celta Vigo in a gripping encounter at the Estadio Mestalla.