[SPAIN] Talk of a Barcelona collapse might have been premature as its defense, which had allowed eight goals in its previous three games, contained Athletic
Bilbao, and the Catalan club cruised to a 2-0 win that lifted its lead over Real Madrid to six points. Real Madrid's string of 10 wins ended on Saturday when it was held to a 1-1 draw at home
by Atletico.
Uruguayan striker
Diego Forlan scored his 18th goal of the season for Atletico late in the first half, but Dutchman
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar equalized early after the break.
Barcelona, which had lost its previous games, won on goals by
Sergi Busquets and
Lionel Messi.
The only bad news for Barcelona was that defender
Carles
Puyol could miss the next three weeks out because of twisted ankle ligaments suffered in the 90th minute.
One of the reasons given for Barca's defensive problems has been
the absence of French left back
Eric Abidal, which forced Puyol to move from the middle of the backline to the left side.
With Abidal still
out, Brazilian
Sylvinho should line up on the left against Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Struggling Valencia's problems
continued as it blew an early lead and fell to lowly Numancia, 2-1.
Beset with financial problems, Valencia got more bad news when its star, Spain striker
David Villa, hurt his knee in training.