Top three unaltered in Spain as Villarreal assure 4th Champions League spot

The race for the BBVA Primera Liga title remained unaltered as the top three all won their respective matches in the 36th round of games in Spain this weekend.

FC Barcelona were again below their best, but second half goals from Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic keep Barca ahead of Atletico Madrid on goal difference and a point up on Real Madrid after their two title rivals also won their respective matches earlier in the day.

Barca's cause was helped after 36 minutes when Betis defender Heiko Westerman was sent off for two clear yellow cards.

Rakitic opened the scoring in the 49th minute after a mix up involving Betis keeper Antonio Adan and Messi set up Suarez for the second goal nine minutes from time.

Antoine Griezmann netted his side's goal a minute after coming into the game as a 54th minute substitute as Atletico Madrid ground out a 1-0 win at home to relegation threatened Rayo Vallecano.

Atletico, with coach Diego Simeone sanctioned in the stand, rested seven players ahead of next Tuesday's Champions League tie away to Bayern Munich and struggled as a result against a rival battling to avoid the drop.

Real Madrid kicked off on Saturday with a hard-fought win away to Real Sociedad. Gareth Bale wasted several first half chances but scored the decisive goal with a powerful header 12 minutes from time.

Villarreal won 2-0 away to Valencia to assure their place in next season's Champions League in a derby they controlled for the 90 minutes.

Coach Marcelino Garcia made changes from the side which won 1-0 at home to Liverpool in the Europa League, but saw how first half goals from Samu Castellejo and Adrian Lopez gave them a comfortable win in the Mestalla Stadium.

Athletic Club Bilbao moved into fifth place after coming back from a goal down to defeat Celta Vigo 2-1 thanks to goals from Aritz Aduriz and Raul Garcia.

Fabian Orellana opened the scoring for an impressive Celta in the 13th minute, but the game changed in the last seven minutes of the first half as Aduriz equalized after being brought down by Gustavo Cabral.

Cabral was then sent off for flicking his boot at Aduriz's head when he was on the ground and Celta had to play all of the second half with a man less and Garcia exploited that with a close range finish 18 minutes from time.

Felipe Caicedo's second half goal gave Espanyol a 1-0 win at home to Sevilla, who have their sights firmly focused on the Europa League and have failed to win away all season.

Getafe also won 2-0 away to Deportivo la Coruna with goals from Pedro Leon and Vigaray to keep their hopes of survival alive and keep their rivals in the battle to avoid the drop.

Elsewhere Granada came back from 2-0 down to claim a vital 3-2 win at home to Las Palmas thanks to goals from Ruben Rochina, El Arabi and Ricardo Costa.

The round of matches ends on Monday and anything but a win in Malaga will mean Levante play next season in the second division. Enditem