First Division - Day 30

Real Madrid 2 - Valladolid 0

Madrid: Casillas; Miguel Torres, Pepe, Cannavaro (Gago 61'), Heinze; Higuaín, Lass, Sneijder (Van der Vaart 72'), Robben; Huntelaar (Guti 61'), Raúl. 4-4-2.
Valladolid: Sergio Asenjo; Pedro López, Luis Prieto, Iñaki Bea, Marcos; Alvaro Rubio, Borja (Aguirre 82'); Pedro León (Víctor 74'), Canobbio (Ogbeche 86'), Escudero; Goitom. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Madrid: Cannavaro, Heinze, Lass, Robben for Sergio Ramos, Metzelder, Gago, Van der Vaart / Valladolid: Pedro León, Escudero for Aguirre, Jonathan Sesma.

Goals:
1-0. 44. Raúl. Got on end of Higuaín's cross to turn ball wide of Asenjo.
2-0. 84. Robben. Picked up Guti's long pass and ran on to beat keeper.

Yellow cards: Luis Prieto 16', Cannavaro 58', Guti 86'.

Real Madrid kept pace with Barcelona once again, a 2-0 victory over Valladolid on Sunday evening maintaining the six point gap with their arch-rivals. Higuaín and Raúl went close early on, but Canobbio and Pedro León replied at the other end, and Pepe and Casillas had to save the day between them from a dangerous corner on the half hour mark.

A few minutes before half time though Higuaín tested Asenjo for the first time, and with two minutes to go to the break the Argentinian forward produced a good run which ended with Raúl turning in his cross.

Sneijder and León traded shots after the restart, but six minutes from the end Goitom fell under a challenge from Pepe inside the area. Referee Ramírez Domíngez waved play on though, and substitute Guti played the ball through for Robben to gallop ahead and make it two.

Not the prettiest of sights, but with fourteen wins and a draw from their last fifteen games Madrid are still serious title contenders.