Second division day 32

Sevilla crashed to their first home defeat of the season against neighbours Jaén on Saturday night to throw the second division wide open again. Tito scored the only goal of the game for the visitors nine minutes from time, but Sevilla stay top thanks to the defeat of Tenerife. The Canary Island side lost 1-2 at home to Atlético Madrid to stay two points behind the leaders. Luque scored the first goal for Atleti from a free kick early in the game, and Pérez Izquierdo upset the local fans when he sent off Mexican midfielder Torrado for a hard tackle with less than a quarter of an hour gone. The referee did make up for it awarding a dubious penalty to the home side which Luis Garcia converted, but Hibic got the winner for Atleti a few minutes later taking them to within five points of their rivals in fifth place.

Betis are now just a couple of points behind Tenerife after they beat Murcia 1-3. Amato scored in the seventh minute and added another from the penalty spot in the second half, even though they were playing with a man less after Torres Mestre got himself sent off ten minutes before half time. Things evened up when Timpani got drummed off in the penalty incident, and although Iván López pulled one back three minutes from the end, Casas made sure of victory with a goal a minute later. The win keeps Betis three points ahead of a trio of rivals, Recreativo, Atlético and Albacete, all of whom are on 52 points. Recreativo picked up a point away at bottom club Lleida in a 0-0 draw which saw both sides hitting the woodwork. Albacete kept up their hopes of promotion after coming from behind to beat Getafe 2-1. Trigo headed the visitors into the lead in the first half, but goals from Jesús and Mikel after the break left Getafe struggling down in the relegation spots.

Sporting also have an outside chance after two opportunist goals from Manel gave them the three points against Elche. Aguirre got a late goal for the East coast side, but the 2-1 result puts them down in the fourth relegation spot after the teams around them picked up points. Compostela were one of those teams, recording their third win in a row to move out of the drop zone after several weeks down in the doldrums. Their players are currently staging a sit-in to protest about not having been paid for four months, but they came out temporarily to beat Salamanca 1-2 with two goals in the last five minutes from Rubén and Juanito. Toedtli had given the promotion hopefuls an early lead, but Munteanu got himself stupidly sent off allowing the Gallicians back in the game.

Another team who saw their promotion hopes go out of the window this week was Levante. They looked like getting a point until Leganés scored a late goal through Merino to snatch a much needed three points. Levante are now eleven points adrift of the top three and were caught by Córdoba, who move away from the lower positions with a 0-2 victory over next to bottom club Universidad Las Palmas, the goals coming from Manolo and Márquez. Extremadura also move to safety with a 1-0 victory in their local derby game with Badajoz, David Karanka getting their winner. They move a point above Eibar, who drew 1-1 against Racing Ferrol. The goals came early, with Aguirre opening the scoring and Pazolo replying with a free kick for the visitors with the game only six minutes old. Racing are now only a point above the drop zone. (08.04.01)