1/27/2008
By Mike Perez, PA Sport, Madrid

Real Madrid stretched their lead at the top of the Primera Liga on Sunday after edging past battling Villarreal at the Bernabeu.

With second-placed Barca drawing with Athletic Bilbao earlier in the evening, Real's victory over Villarreal means the reigning champions are now nine points clear at the summit.

Third-placed Villarreal are now 15 points behind the leaders, who have won eight league games on the trot and are looking simply unstoppable.

Villarreal had the sixth-worst defensive record in La Liga this season coming into the match, but they had kept clean sheets in their previous three outings.

However, they managed to keep Real out for just eight minutes before Robinho latched on to a superb Guti pass and curled a first-time shot into the far corner of the net from 18 yards out.

That was just the start Villarreal would have been hoping to avoid, but the Yellow Submarine quickly regrouped and Marcos Senna bravely put his head to a loose ball in the Real box, only to see his effort clear the bar.

Villarreal were more successful with their next opportunity though, as Giuseppe Rossi drew them level in the 15th minute. Nihat Kahveci played a pass into his strike partner on the edge of the Real box and then raced through looking for the return ball.

However, Rossi decided to cut inside and, after evading the challenge of fellow Italian Fabio Cannavaro, curled a pinpoint shot past Iker Casillas and into the top corner.

That was the first goal Casillas had conceded in 574 minutes of league action, and it was no more than a sprightly Villarreal deserved.

Rossi's effort proved to be the last goal of an engaging first half, but Real will feel they had done enough to re-take the lead.

Robinho, Michel Salgado and Guti all had shots well saved by Diego Lopez, while Ruud van Nistelrooy – plus almost everyone else in the stadium except, crucially, referee Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo – felt he should have had a penalty after appearing to be pushed from behind.

The half ended with Villarreal threatening to take a shock lead, only for Santi Cazorla's shot to curl into the side-netting.

Former Real goalkeeper Lopez was back in action at the start of the second half to save from Van Nistelrooy, but he was beaten seven minutes in despite producing two remarkable saves.

Sergio Ramos raced half the length of the pitch before laying the ball off to Raul, whose first-time shot was superbly stopped one-handed by Lopez.

From the same attack Guti saw his close-range effort also blocked by Lopez, but just as Real looked to have been lost the chance, Robinho picked up possession before coolly slotting home his eighth league goal of the season.

Soon after that Lopez needed to produce another fine stop to keep out Julio Baptista's 25-yard thunderbolt as Real threatened to take the game away from their visitors.

However, Villarreal were next to get on the scoresheet with Joan Capdevila stunning the home crowd by ramming home the equaliser with 15 minutes remaining.

A Senna corner was deflected towards the Real goal by Josico and Spain left-back Capdevila was unmarked in the middle to power home from six yards out.

However, Villarreal's joy was short-lived, as Real restored their advantage just two minutes later.

A quick throw-in saw Fernando Gago pick up possession and his lofted through-ball was latched onto by substitute Wesley Sneijder, who thumped a left-footed shot past Lopez to seal the points for Real.