Football
Reuters 15y

Soccer-Huntelaar keeps Real Madrid hot on Barca's heels

MADRID, March 22 - Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored
twice for Real Madrid in a 3-0 home win over Almeria on Sunday
that kept the champions hot on the heels of Barcelona in the
Primera Liga title race.

Marcelo had opened the scoring for Real with a thunderous
strike after 24 minutes, and Dutchman Huntelaar made sure of the
points with two more after the break.

Real's 12th league victory in 13 moved them to 63 points,
three short of leaders Barcelona who were playing Malaga at the
Nou Camp later on Sunday.

Sevilla are third with 54 points and Villarreal fourth with
48 after both won their home matches on Saturday.

Ten-man Valencia won their first game since the beginning of
February when Juan Mata netted late on for a 1-0 victory at
Racing Santander.

Unai Emery's side had had defender Alexis sent off at the
start of the second half and survived a last-minute penalty from
Racing which Oscar Serrano blasted against the crossbar.

Valencia are sixth with 43 points behind Atletico Madrid on
goal difference, with Atletico visiting Real Mallorca in
Sunday's late game.

At the foot of the table, Javad Nekounam's last-minute
header gave Osasuna a 1-0 home win over Espanyol that moved them
up to 17th on 29 points, pushing Mallorca into the bottom three
on goal difference.

Numancia, who beat Sporting Gijon 2-1 at home are 19th with
26 points, three ahead of Espanyol.

(Writing by Mark Elkington: Editing by John Mehaffey)

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