Barcelona: Spanish league leaders Real Madrid extended their winning streak to 14 games in all competitions by beating Sporting Gijon 3-0 on Saturday. The victory kept Madrid three points ahead of Barcelona, with the defending champions thrashing Levante 5-0 later on Saturday.
Angel Di Maria's goal in the 34th minute stood out in an otherwise dull first half that saw more bookings than scoring chances. Di Maria then produced the through ball for Cristiano Ronaldo to put the game at El Molinon beyond doubt in the 64th with his league-leading 17th goal, before Marcelo capped the win in stoppage time.
"It was a tough game and the important thing is that we won," Di Maria said. "We scored early and then knew how to manage the rest of the game."
Madrid host Barcelona next Saturday in the first highly anticipated clasico of the season.
Elsewhere, Christian Stuani's first-half goal gave Racing Santander a 1-0 win over Villarreal in their first game under interim coach Juanjo Gonzalez since Hector Cuper parted ways with the northern Spanish club. Racing's second win of the season provisionally lifted them out of last place.
With Xabi Alonso suspended, Lassana Diarra started in Madrid's midfield alongside the equally defensive-minded Sami Khedira. The visitors missed Alonso's incisive passes early as they dominated possession but failed to seriously threaten Sporting's area until Di Maria drew a save from Juan Colinas with a long blast in the 19th.
The game quickly became bogged down by a series of hasty bookings by referee Eduardo Iturralde as tempers began to fray. Iturralde sent off Madrid assistant Rui Faria for complaining on the bench and went on to show six yellow cards - five for Sporting - before half-time.
With their attack stalled outside the area, Madrid went ahead through a great individual effort by Di Maria when he recovered the ball, danced down the left flank and caught Colinas anticipating the cross with a deft stab to send the ball into the right side of the net.
"We scored when we had done very little to deserve it," Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said. "We hadn't done much before the 1-0, but during half-time we talked about it and in the second half we saw the difference."
Gonzalo Higuain came close to doubling Madrid's lead in the 53rd when Colinas blocked his low strike off a free kick, while Sporting defender Alberto Botia should have done better in the 57th when he sent his header well wide after Madrid was caught trying to pull an offside trap.
Di Maria cued the decider when he played Ronaldo through the defence to round Colinas with an extra touch and slot home from the right side.
Sporting played with 10 men from the 80th after Sebastian Eguren received his second booking, and Marcelo ran through the hosts' thin defence to score from close range in the dying moments.
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