Barca cruise to win, Real Madrid drop more points in Spain's matchday 18

MADRID, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona maintained their lead at the top of the Liga Santander with the restart of league action this weekend.

Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Paulinho (the club's top scorers) all found the net in Barca's comfortable 3-0 win at home to Levante on Sunday afternoon.

Levante had lost all 11 previous visits to Barcelona and never looked like they would improve on that dismal record after Messi opened the scoring in the 12 minute.

Luis Suarez doubled Barca's lead in the 38th minute, and following a dull second half in which Ter Stegen made two good saves to maintain a clean sheet, Paulinho added Barca's third in injury time.

Gareth Bale scored twice but Real Madrid said an almost-definitive goodbye to their title ambitions as they were held 2-2 away to Celta Vigo.

Daniel Wass opened the scoring for Celta, and although Bale's brace turned things around before halftime and Kaylor Navas saved a penalty from Iago Aspas, Celta got the point they deserved when Maxi Gomez nodded in the equalizer with eight minutes remaining.

Although they have a game in hand, Real Madrid now trail Barca by 15 points and have work to do to keep in touch with second and third placed Atletico Madrid and Valencia, who won their respective home games on Saturday.

Diego Costa made his long-awaited league return for Atletico and scored his side's second goal in a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Getafe. He also got sent off for two yellow cards: the first of which was for using his elbow and the second for running over to celebrate with fans behind the goal.

Angel Correa had put Atletico ahead with the first league goal of 2018 in the 19th minute.

Valencia came back from a goal down to beat Girona 2-1 thanks to an own goal from Jonas Ramalho, who deflected a Goncalo Guedes cross into his own net and a penalty from Dani Parejo after the visitors had opened the scoring through a header from former Valencia youngster Portu.

Elsewhere, Betis won a thrilling Seville derby 5-3 to ruin Vincenzo Montella's league debut for Sevilla, although the game was in the balance until the last kick.

Fabian put Betis ahead in the first minute. Wissam Ben Yedder equalized 10 minutes later, only for Zou Feddal to again put Betis in front.

Simon Kjaer equalized again before the break, but two second half goals from Risa Durmisi and Sergio Leon put Betis 4-2 ahead, before Clement Lenglet gave Sevilla hope with 23 minutes remaining only for them to be caught on the break by Cristian Tello with the last kick of the game.

Athletic Club Bilbao enjoyed an easy 2-0 win over Alaves thanks to a first half goal from Xabi Etxeita and a 67th minute penalty from Aritz Aduriz.

Alaves didn't have a noteworthy shot all game and had it not been for goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco the home side, who are unbeaten in seven, would have won by more goals.

Alaves's defeat drops them back into the bottom three after a Florin Andone strike gave Deportivo la Coruna a point away to Villarreal who had taken the lead through Turkish striker Enes Unal

Leganes kicked off 2018 with a 1-0 win at home to Real Sociedad thanks to a 75th minute goal from Gabriel Pires against a rival who controlled much of the ball but failed to create clear chances.

Finally, goals in the 73rd and 77th minute from Fabian Orellana and Sergi Enrich saw Eibar ruin Paco Jemez's debut at bottom of the table Las Palmas, who had opened the scoring with a Jonathan Viera penalty. Enditem