Real Sociedad respond to pressure to stay on top

Real Sociedad responded to the pressure exerted by championship rivals Real Madrid and beat Osasuna 2-0 to return to the top of the Spanish first division on Sunday.

The Basques put behind them their recent spell of poor form - they had only taken one point from their previous three outings - to regain the league leadership after a 24 hour hiatus following Madrid's 3-1 victory over Valladolid on Saturday.

Sociedad have 47 points from 23 games with Real Madrid two points in arrears.

Darko Kovacevic dealt a body blow to Osasuna's ambitions of causing another upset, just a week after they had defeated Real Madrid, by finding the net three minutes before the break for his 12th goal of the season.

Mikel Alonso added Sociedad's second shortly after the hour, firing home after a dreadful defensive error by Osasuna's Christian Manfredini.

Racing Santander notched up their third successive victory with a 3-0 win at Villarreal to edge further away from trouble after starting the day just one place above the releagtion zone.

Jose 'Mora' Motaton headed home a Pedro Munitis free kick after 72 minutes to kick-start Racing's late surge. Rodolfo Bodipo and Mario Regueiro then added two more goals in injury time.

Bottom club Recreativo Huelva improved their chances of survival with a convincing 3-0 win a over Atletico Madrid.

Kike Romero put the struggling Andalusian side ahead after 66 minutes with a thunderous strike from the edge of the area.

Recreativo appeared to have damaged their own chances of getting a rare win when Raul Molina saw red after clattering into Atletico's Cosmin Contra but Recreativo hung on and even went on to score two late goals in the space of three minutes.

Xisco Munoz put Recreativo two ahead with a long-range blast after 81 minutes and Ignacio Benitez ended the match as a contest shortly afterwards with a spectacular half volley past Atletico's stand-in goalie Esteban Andres, after the Madrid side's regular first choice Mono Burgos had fallen ill on Saturday.

Espanyol's Toni Soldevilla got the unwanted honour of being the first man in the top flight of Spanish football to put the ball in his own net twice this season when he turned a centre from Sevilla's Francisco Gallardo past his own team mates after 12 minutes.

The error proved to be decisive as Sevilla ran out 1-0 winners and left their Barcelona-based visitors mired in relegation trouble.