Story highlights
Real Madrid and Barcelona warm up for next weekend's El Clasico with comfortable wins
Real seal 3-1 victory at Sporting Gijon; Barca thrash Levante 5-0 at the Nou Camp
Udinese defeat Inter 1-0 in the San Siro; Napoli beat Lecce 4-2
Goals from Angel di Maria, Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo ensured Real Madrid maintain their lead at the top of La Liga on Saturday as they coasted to a 3-0 win at Sporting Gijon.
Argentinian international Di Maria opened the scoring after 35 minutes with Ronaldo doubling the lead midway through the second half.
Jose Mourniho’s team wrapped up the win when Benzema played Marcelo through to score in injury time.
Real’s 10th successive league win ensures they maintain their three-point lead over rivals Barcelona who kept up the pressure with a thumping 5-0 win over Levante at the Nou Camp.
Two first-half goals from Cesc Fabregas and one from Issac Cuenca saw Barca go in 3-0 up at the break.
Lionel Messi added a fourth ten minutes into the second half before Alexis Sanchez netted Barca’s fifth in the 61st minute to seal an important win ahead of next weekend’s El Clasico.
Racing Santander lifted themselves off the bottom of the table with just their second win of the season as they beat Villarreal 1-0 courtesy of Christian Stuani’s 27th minute header.
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Meanwhile in Italy, Udinese are level on points at the top of Serie A with AC Milan after beating Inter Milan 1-0 at the San Siro.
Mauricio Isla 73rd minute strike proved enough for the away side despite an extraordinary end to the match which saw both side miss penalties and finish the match with 10 men.
Di Natale could have wrapped up the points four minutes from time after Inter captain Javier Zanetti conceded a penalty for a foul on Kwadwo Asamoah.
Zanetti’s second booking saw him sent off but Julio Cesar’s save from the spot-kick earned Inter a reprieve.
Inter were then awarded a penalty of their own in the 89th minute when Damiano Ferronetti was adjudged to have brought down Milito.
Ferronetti’s repeated protestations of innocence to the referee also saw him sent off but Inter couldn’t capitalise as Giampaolo Pazzini’s spot kick went flying over the bar.
Inter remain locked in the bottom half of the table in 15th place with 14 points.
Napoli’s 4-2 win over bottom-of-the-table Lecce saw them end a sequence of five league games without a win, and lifts them to fifth in the table although Palermo can overtake them again if they win at Parma on Sunday evening.
Juventus will also regain top spot in the league if they beat Cesena in Turin.
