Barca fight back to reach halfway point of the season unbeaten in Spain

MADRID, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona retained both their 9-point lead at the top of the Liga Santander and their unbeaten record in the first half of the season as they came back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 away to Real Sociedad on Sunday night.

Real Sociedad produced some of their best football of the campaign to go ahead through Willian Jose and Juanmi as Barca struggled to put anything together in midfield.

However, Paulinho's eighth goal of the campaign gave Barca a lifeline before the break and it was a totally changed Barca who went out for the second half.

Two more goals from Luis Suarez turned the game around and a late strike from Leo Messi put the icing on the cake for Ernesto Valverdes side.

Barca are 9 points ahead of Atletico Madrid, 11 ahead of Valencia and a staggering 19 up on Real Madrid as the season reaches its midway point.

A late goal from Villarreal midfielder, Pablo Fornals saw Real Madrid slip ever deeper into crisis as they were beaten 1-0 at home to Villarreal on Saturday.

Villarreal had never won in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium before Fornal' 87th minute chip over Keylor Navas gave them three points which put them just one point behind Zidane's men.

Real Madrid had 28 shots in the game, with Cristiano Ronaldo having 11, but they were unable to find a way past Sergio Asenjo in the Villarreal goal and with the side giving everything in the closing minutes in an attempt to find a winning goal, they were caught by a sucker punch on the break to leave Zidane's future very much in doubt.

Atletico Madrid rode their luck to win 1-0 away to Eibar thanks to a first half goal from Kevin Gameiro.

Atletico deserved their halftime lead, but had to produce another solid defensive display against a rival who caused them problems at the back and Eibar would have taken a point but for a fine save from Jan Oblak and referee Mateu Lahozs failure to see a handball from Atletico substitute Augusto Fernandez in the last attack of the game.

Valencia also won as they took advantage of a dreadful goalkeeping error as Deportivo la Coruna keeper Ruben allowed a Goncalo Guedes shot to sneak under his body.

Luck deserted Deportivo in the second half when Ruben was beaten again by a Rodrigo Moreno shot which took a wicked shot to leave him totally flat-footed and although Florin Andone scored in the 88th minute for Deportivo, it was too little too late, although Adrian Lopez fired over the Valencia bar when well-placed in injury time.

The weekend had a surprise hero in Girona striker Michael Olunga, who came on as a second half substitute and scored a 35 minute hat-trick as his side thrashed a hapless Las Palmas 6-0. Christian Stauni, Borja Gonzalez and Portu scored the other goals in Girona's best ever top-flight win.

Alaves climbed out of the bottom three thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win at home to a Sevilla side that has lost its two league games under new coach Vincenzo Montella.

A tight game of few chances was decided by Manu Garcia's 52nd minute volley, although Alaves did enough to deserve all three points.

Athletic Club Bilbao stretched their unbeaten run to 8 games with a 1-1 draw away to Espanyol, which also means they have not won in their rivals' ground for 20 years in the league.

Gerard Moreno opened the scoring for Espanyol while Inaki Williams equalized for the Basque side.

Meanwhile Levante's decline continued with a 1-0 home defeat to Celta Vigo who took the points with a first half goal from Pione Sisto and controversy was assured after the final whistle when Levante midfielder Jefferson Lerma accused Celta striker Iago Aspes of a racist insult. Enditem