Football Club Barcelona and Real Madrid were the big winners in match day 20 in Spain’s Primera Liga as the majority of the challengers at the top of the table dropped points.

Real Madrid’s Arjen Robben (R) fights for the ball with Deportivo Coruna’s Antonio Tomas during their Spanish First Division soccer match at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid January 25, 2009.

It was a weekend of surprises in Spain with only two of the teams that kicked off the weekend in the top nine places winning.

FC Barcelona kept up their astonishing form this season, although they had to wait until the second half for the goals to arrive in their 4-1 over Numancia.

When the goals did come in the Camp Nou, they kept on flowing as Leo Messi, scored twice along with Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry after Barcelona had struggled to break down a tough Numancia defense.

Real Madrid remains in second place in the Primera Liga, 12 points behind Barcelona thanks to a solitary goal from Raul Gonzalez which gave them a 1-0 win at home to Deportivo la Coruna.

Sevilla saw the big surprise of the weekend, with a 2-0 home defeat against Racing Santander. Despite playing most of the game against just 10 men after Racing had Oscar Serrano harshly sent off, Sevilla never found its form and lost to goals from Cesar Navas and Nicola Zigic.

Valencia also suffered a shock defeat losing 3-1 away to a Mallorca team that had kicked off the game bottom of the table.

Mallorca midfielder Jose Jurado was the hero of the day with two of his side’s three goals, all of which came before half time.

Villarreal also failed to win, drawing 1-1 against struggling Osasuna. Giuseppe Rossi had put Villarreal ahead in the first half, but Dady levelled for the visitors after the break.

The game between Malaga and Atletico Madrid promised to be a tight affair between two outfits battling for a place in Europe and that is how it turned out to be.

Malaga scored thanks to Apono after 20 minutes, but John Heitinga made it 1-1 a minute before halftime.

Athletic Club Bilbao saw a nine-game unbeaten run come to an end in Almeria. Coach Joaquin Caparros rested key players with an eye on Wednesday’s Kings Cup quarter final against Sporting Gijon and saw first half goals from Almeria pair Juanma Ortiz and Kala Uche give the points to the home side. Joseba Del Olmo scored for Athletic.

Sporting meanwhile had a disastrous afternoon, losing 5-1 away to Getafe. Roberto Soldado scored an impressive hat-trick for the home team after entering the game as a substitute for the injured Manu del Moral.

Mauricio Pochettino saw his first league game as Espanyol coach end in a 1-1 draw away to Valladolid, while Recreativo Hue citylva tooka vital 1-0 against Betis thanks to a solitary goal from Javier Camunas.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet