Espanyol pile on misery for Sporting Gijon

Espanyol kept up their push for a European place with a 2-1 victory over Sporting Gijon on Saturday which kept their opponents in the relegation zone of La Liga. Sergio Garcia finished well for a deserved winner with seven minutes remaining after a searching pass from full back Didac Vil. Thievy Bifouma had opened the scoring for Espanyol on two minutes with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area. Captain David Barral scored his seventh goal of the season to equalise for Sporting Gijon with a clever near post flick from a corner in the 60th minute. Abdel Barrada was the star for Getafe with both goals in a 2-1 win over Mallorca. Both times it was Pedro Rios who supplied the pass for the young Frenchman Barrada to finish for only his second and third goals of the season and his career. Centre half Ivan Ramis had opened the scoring for Mallorca on 10 minutes when an error by Getafe goalkeeper Miguel Angel Moya allowed him to head into an empty net from a corner. For Getafe it was their first away win of the season and brought to an end Mallorca's unbeaten run of five matches.