Real Madrid beaten again as Atletico, Barca win

Madrid: Real Madrid suffered a huge blow to their La Liga title hopes as a 2-1 win for Sevilla sent them crashing to a second defeat in four days.

Colombian striker Carlos Bacca struck twice to give the hosts a sixth consecutive league win after Cristiano Ronaldo had opened the scoring yesterday. League leaders Atletico Madrid now lead Real by three points and have a better head-to-head record against Los Blancos as they beat Granada 1-0. Barcelona moved into second place, a point behind Atletico, with a 3-0 win over Celta Vigo at the Camp Nou thanks to a double from Neymar. But it was a bittersweet night for the Catalans as goalkeeper Victor Valdes may have played his last game for the club after suffering cruciate ligament damage that will rule him out of the World Cup. Real were looking to react from a first defeat in 32 games on Sunday as they lost a thrilling El Clasico 4-3 to Barcelona and they started brightly with Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema going close inside the first 10 minutes. Ronaldo did open the scoring 14 minutes in as his free-kick cannoned off Ivan Rakitic to leave Sevilla goalkeeper Beto helpless . The lead lasted only four minutes as Bacca finished off a fine move by converting Jose Antonio Reyes` pass from close range. Reyes could then have put his side in front as Bacca returned the favour, but the former Arsenal man dragged his shot just wide. However, Sevilla were grateful to Beto six minutes before the break as he brilliantly turned Ronaldo`s piledriver over the bar. Ronaldo was somehow denied his second of the night moments later as this time he lifted the ball over Beto, but the ball struck the inside of the post and rolled across the line before being cleared by a Sevilla defender. Madrid continued to press after the break, but were struck on the counter-attack 18 minutes from time when wonderful play by Rakitic took him past Pepe and the Croatian played in Bacca to fire home his second of the night. Beto was called into action once more to deny Ronaldo moments later, but for all their possession Madrid failed to carve out another clear opening and their hopes of salvaging anything from the game disappeared when Bale`s free-kick flew over in the final minute. And Real boss Carlo Ancelotti lamented his side`s inability to deal with Sevilla on the counter-attack. "In one sense the defeat could be deserved because we didn`t prepare well for the counter-attack which Sevilla had and they scored two goals," he said. "We conceded two goals in the same way on the counter-attack when we needed more balance." However, the Italian still believes his side have a chance to redeem themsevles in the final eight games of the season. "We need to concentrate on our own games, it is true we have lost two games in a row and that is not good at this point in the season. "We need to believe that we can win it still. We are three points behind Atletico and two behind Barcelona, everything is still possible."