Raul and Ruud crown Real derby triumph

First half goals from Raul Gonzalez and Ruud van Nistelrooy gave Spanish league leaders Real Madrid a 2-0 derby victory at neighbours Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

The Spanish giants now have 50 points from 20 games and a 10-point lead over their nearest rivals Barcelona, although the Catalan club can close the gap when they play host to Racing Santander later on Sunday.

Raul got Real off the the best possible start by finding the net after just 32 seconds, with Atletico leaving him unmarked to side foot the ball into the net from two metres after Robinho had down the hard work down the left wing.

Atletico immediately went on the attack to try to get back on level terms and relentlessly kept the pressure on for the next 40 minutes.

Thiago Motta put a header against the bar, Raul Garcia forced an outstanding save from Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Kun Aguero saw a sizzling shot from the edge of the are also skim the bar.

However, against the run of play, Real added a second when van Nistelrooy got his 12th goal of the season four minutes before the break.

The Dutchman was on target after a corner from his compatriot Wesley Sneijder.

Atletico goalkeeper Christian Abbiati succeeded in getting a hand to the left foot effort but he could only push the ball onto the post and it rebounded into the net.

Sneijder nearly added a third just before the hour when his shot had Abbiati beaten but was just a little too high.

No less than six yellow cards were brandished in a 15-minute period in the second half, mainly for niggling fouls, before things settled down.

The Spanish headlines in the coming days are likely to be about Real's two goalscorers but huge credit should also go to their goalkeeper Casillas who kept a clean sheet for the sixth consecutive league game.

One negative note for Real coach Bernd Schuster was that he had to replace his Portuguese central defender Pepe, who suffered a calf strain after 15 minutes.

With Gabriel Heinze and Christophe Metzelder already injured, Schuster is starting to run short of first choice defenders.

Atletico now lie in fourth place, 13 points off the lead, and have not won a derby clash with Real in front of their own fans since October 1999.

Goals from Robert Pires, Joan Capdevila and Nihat Kahveci helped Villarreal to an emphatic 3-0 victory over local rivals Valencia on Saturday.

The win meant Villarreal move up to third while Valencia's winless streak, which began in November, has now gone to eight league games.

Espanyol's ambitions of moving up to third virtually vanished around seven seconds into their game at Valladolid on Sunday, when Joseba Llorente equalled the record for the fastest goal scored in the Spanish first division.

He got another after 33 minutes, to help Valladolid on their way to a 2-1 win over the Barcelona-based side.

Malaga's Dario Silva was generally accepted, at least until Sunday, to have scored the fastest goal in La Liga when he found the net after 7.2 seconds, ironically against Valladolid on December 10, 2000.

Some pundits believe Llorente's goal may have beaten that record by just a hundredth of a second.

Espanyol's Marc Torrejon got one back for the visitors after 58 minutes but they couldn't find an equaliser and remain fifth while Valladolid, after their fourth successive win, climb to seventh.