La Liga Round-up

La Liga's last round of matches before the christmas break saw Real Madrid turn in a stunning performance against Real Zaragoza.
Real Madrid needed to beat Zaragoza to keep pace with Barcelona at the top of the table. They did that in some style by knocking six past them on a freezing night in Madrid. Gonzalo Higuaín opened the scoring after barley three minutes before a quick fire double from Rafael Van Der Vaart on 26 minutes and 28 minutes made it 3-0. Higuaín showed his class for the 4th goal before Cristiano Ronaldo made it 5-0 on 50 minutes. Frenchman Karim Benzema completed the scoring on 71 minutes with a cool finish.

Sevilla slumped to a 2-1 home defeat against Getafe. It was the Madrid based club who took an early lead thanks to Roberto Soldado on 12 minutes before making it 2-0 21 minutes later. Sevilla pulled a goal back through Alvaro Negredo on 51 minutes.

Valencia were held by an organised Deportivo side. Valencia, chasing that champions league spot will be disappointed not to put Deportivo to bed with their chances. Deportivo's good season continues.

Elsewhere Athletic Bilbao recorded a 2-0 win over Basque rivals Osasuna while Málaga overcame Real Mallorca in a surprise result. Espanyol were 2-0 victors over Almería and Real Valladolid recorded a 2-1 win over Sporting Gijón. Villarreal's good form continued as they rolled to a 2-0 win over Racing Santander while Tenerife held Atlético Madrid to a 1-1 draw in the Canary Islands.