Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Real Madrid pulled to within three points of the top spot in La Liga on Sunday after coming away with a nervy 1-0 result over Espanyol at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat.
Los Blancos dominated play for most of the match, keeping nearly 70 percent of possession and firing eight shots on target over the duration of the 90 minutes, but they were wasteful in the first half as the sides went into the locker room scoreless.
But the visitors seized control in the second period and collected the goal they desperately needed with some set-piece magic in the 55th minute.
Former Tottenham man Luka Modric set the scoring play in motion as he lofted a corner kick into the box where Pepe got a clean header on target that beat Espanyol goalkeeper Francisco Casilla to the bottom-right corner of the net.
Espanyol pressed numbers forward after falling behind and created a handful of decent chances, but never found an equalizer as Real Madrid came away with all three points.
Real moves to within three points of co-leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid with 47 points, while Espanyol remains in 11th place with 22 points.
Also in La Liga on Sunday, Osasuna earned a 2-1 victory over bottom-of-the- table Real Betis at the Benito Villamarin. The visitors got off to a flying start when Roberto Torres scored two minutes into proceedings.
Six minutes prior to the break, Betis' task became even more difficult when Nono was shown a straight red card, reducing the home side to 10 men. Osasuna was then able to make it 2-0 in the 57th minute when Real Betis' Jordi Montel directed the ball into his own net.
Despite playing down a man, Real Betis showed some resilience to pull one back through a Jorge Molina goal 10 minutes from time, but they were unable to find an equalizer as Osasuna came away with the points.
Alberto Bueno's 29th minute goal held up as the winner to lift Rayo Vallecano to a 1-0 result over Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez.
In Sunday's final La Liga fixture, David Barral scored the only goal of the match on 19 minutes as Levante earned a 1-0 win over Malaga at the Ciutat de Valencia.
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