Benzema helps Real keep pressure on Atletico, Barca

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Madrid, March 21 (IANS) Real Madrid kept the pressure on Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona -- who both play on Sunday -- with a 3-1 win away to Celta Vigo. Striker Karim Benzema continued his rich vein of form with two first-half goals, before Santi Mina got Celta back into things five minutes before half-time.

Iago Aspas hit the post for Celta with seven minutes left to play before Marco Asensio scored Real Madrid's third goal on the break in the fourth minute of injury time on Saturday, Xinhua news reports.

Sevilla keeper Bono scored a dramatic goal with the last action of the game to give his side a 1-1 draw away to Real Valladolid, when it looked as if they were going to go down to Fabio Orellana's 44th minute penalty for the home side.

Bono's magic moment came following a 93rd minute corner taken by Suso, which was kept alive by Luuk de Jong and Youssef En-Nesyri before the ball fell for the keeper to drill home from around 10 yards out.

Athletic Bilbao and Eibar drew 1-1 in a result which does little to help Athletic's European ambitions, while keeping Eibar in the bottom three.

Yuri Berchiche's spectacular volley put Athletic ahead in the ninth minute, but a dreadful mistake from Unai Lopez allowed Kike Garcia to level the scores eight minutes later.

Huesca managed 15 shots in their home game against Osasuna, but the bottom side failed to make any of them count in a tense 0-0 draw.

On Friday night Real Betis moved level on points with fifth-placed Real Sociedad after a 2-0 win at home to Levante, with goals from the impressive Nabil Fekir and Juanmi.

League leaders Atletico Madrid entertain Alaves on Sunday, while FC Barcelona face a difficult trip to play Real Sociedad.

--IANS

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