Sevilla squander big chance but stay second

Zaragoza's Delio Toledo (R) vies with Sevilla's Pedro Ramos (L) during their Spanish League football match at La Romareda stadium in Zaragoza.

Sevilla blew their big chance of closing the gap on league leaders Barcelona when they crashed 3-0 at Real Zaragoza.

Barcelona have 23 points from nine games and remained undefeated after being held to a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. Sevilla's defeat means that the Catalans have a six point lead in the Spanish first division.

Sevilla, this year's surprise team who have not finished in the top three since 1970, remain in second place with 17 points.

Argentine midfielder Luciano Galletti opened the scoring for Zaragoza, who move up to third, after just 12 minutes when he headed home a move started by Bruno Toledo in the midfield.

Things went from bad to worse for Sevilla after 26 minutes when Sergio Ramos brought down former Real Madrid midfielder Savio and David Villa stepped up to convert the penalty.

Villa then made sure of the points just before the hour with his sixth goal of the season to preserve Zaragoza's perfect home record.

Barcelona's city neighbours Espanyol were another team to let an opportunity of keeping up the pressure on the top of the table slip when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Villarreal.

Deportivo La Coruna failed to get the morale boosting win they wanted ahead of Wednesday's Champions League encounter with Liverpool when they also had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Albacete.

At the other end of the table, the plight of Numancia and Real Mallorca worsened.

Bottom club Numancia went down 2-0 to visiting Real Sociedad, with the Basques taking control in the second half and getting the points thanks to goals from Mikel Labaka and Valery Karpin.

A change of coach didn't help Mallorca, who sacked Benito Floro earlier this week and replaced him with caretaker Tomas Llopart, ahead of the anticipated arrival of former Inter Milan boss Hector Cuper, who had a successful spell with them in the 90's.

The Balearic island side lost 2-1 to Racing Santander to remain without a home win to their name.

Mallorca were behind after just two minutes when Racing's Pedro Lopez connected with a long punt forward.

The hosts didn't help their own cause when they were reduced to 10 men on the hour after Fernando Nino got sent off but, against the run of play, Jorge Lopez equalised after 79 minutes.

Racing spoiled their night though when Israeli international Yossi Benayoun got the winner in injury time.

Real Madrid, who started the weekend in seventh place, face their newly-promoted local rivals Getafe later on Sunday.

The nine-times European champions will be without Luis Figo, who was a late withdrawal because of a sore throat, but England striker Michael Owen is looking to score in his fourth consecutive game in a Real jersey.