Real Madrid, Barca set up final day title showdown

MADRID: The fight for the La Liga title will go down to the last day of the season after convincing wins for Real Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday left them locked together on 87 points at the top of the table.

Madrid remain in the driving seat after the European champions saw off Sevilla 4-1 as they have two games remaining to Barca’s one.

However, Barca remain on top thanks to their better head-to-head record with Neymar scoring a hat-trick as they also won 4-1 at Las Palmas.

Nacho gave the hosts the lead in controversial fashion as he curled home a quick free-kick with the Sevilla defence caught unawares and their protests towards referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco falling on deaf ears.

Moments later, it was 2-0 as Sergio Rico could only palm James Rodriguez’s effort into the path of Cristiano Ronaldo to score his 400th Madrid goal.

Jovetic then saw a fine chipped effort come back off the bar and was denied by Keylor Navas when played through by Joaquin Correa as Sevilla continued to threaten.

And they finally got back in the game through Jovetic’s neat finish from outside the box three minutes into the second-half.

Yet, just as the hosts’ nerves were becoming frayed, Ronaldo appeared once more by crashing home Toni Kroos’s cut-back to restore Real’s two-goal lead.

And Kroos rounded off the scoring himself by prodding into the far corner six minutes from time.

Barcelona kept the pressure on despite a series of defensive absences that meant Brazilian 21-year-old Marlon Santos was handed a full debut in the Canary Islands.

The visitors still hand all of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar to call on up front and the latter two combined to give Barca a 2-0 half-time lead.

After wonderful passes from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta, Suarez squared for Neymar to open the scoring.

The roles were reversed two minutes later as Neymar’s chip freed Suarez to dink home his 36th goal of the season.

Pedro Bigas momentarily gave Las Palmas hope just after the hour mark.

But Neymar headed home Ivan Rakitic’s cross and then sealed his first hat-trick of the season 19 minutes from time when he slotted in Jordi Alba’s through ball.