La Liga Results 2015 Week 24: Tracking Final Scores, Top Scorers for Matchday 24

Barcelona failed to take the La Liga summit on Saturday after they were unable to overcome the challenge of Malaga, dropping to a 1-0 defeat at home against Javi Gracia's side.

Atletico Madrid pounced on that opportunity to climb within reach of their rivals too, beating Almeria later in the day, while Real Madrid wait to face Elche on Sunday.

Friday saw Espanyol fall at Getafe as Quique Flores' side claimed a crucial three points in its bid to fight relegation, triumphing 2-1 to maintain its inspiring recent home record.

With Cristiano Ronaldo having rediscovered his scoring touch against Schalke in midweek, the Real superstar is under pressure to add to his tally as leading La Liga scorer, with scores and standings included ahead.

Date	Time	Home	Score	Away
Friday, Feb. 20	7:45 p.m. GMT/2:45 p.m. ET	Getafe	2-1	Espanyol
Saturday, Feb. 21	3 p.m. GMT/10 a.m. ET	Barcelona	0-1	Malaga
Saturday, Feb. 21	5 p.m. GMT/12 p.m. ET	Cordoba	1-2	Valencia
Saturday, Feb. 21	7 p.m. GMT/2 p.m. ET	Atletico Madrid	3-0	Almeria
Saturday, Feb. 21	9 p.m. GMT/4 p.m. ET	Deportivo La Coruna	0-2	Celta Vigo
Sunday, Feb. 22	11 a.m. GMT/6 a.m. ET	Real Sociedad	4-3	Sevilla
Sunday, Feb. 22	4 p.m. GMT/11 a.m. ET	Athletic Bilbao	1-0	Rayo Vallecano
Sunday, Feb. 22	6 p.m. GMT/1 p.m. ET	Villarreal	1-0	Eibar
Sunday, Feb. 22	8 p.m. GMT/3 p.m. ET	Elche	0-2	Real Madrid
Monday, Feb. 23	7:45 p.m. GMT/2:45 p.m. ET	Levante	2-1	Granada

Position	Player	Team	Player Goals/Team Goals
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	29
2	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	26
3	Neymar	Barcelona	17
4	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico	14
5	Carlos Bacca	Sevilla	13
6	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	13
7	Mario Mandzukic	Atletico	12
8	Luciano Vietto	Villarreal	11
9	Gareth Bale	Real Madrid	10
10	Sergio Garcia	Espanyol	9

Position	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Real Madrid	24	20	0	4	74	22	+52	60
2	Barcelona	24	18	2	4	67	14	+53	56
3	Atletico Madrid	24	17	2	5	50	22	+28	53
4	Valencia	24	15	5	4	43	21	+22	50
5	Sevilla	24	14	3	7	42	30	+12	45
6	Villarreal	24	13	5	6	38	22	+16	44
7	Malaga	24	11	5	8	26	27	-1	38
8	Celta Vigo	24	8	7	9	25	24	+1	31
9	Espanyol	24	8	5	11	31	36	-5	29
10	Real Sociedad	24	6	9	9	28	34	-6	27
11	Eibar	24	7	6	11	25	33	-8	27
12	Athletic Club	24	7	6	11	21	31	-10	27
13	Rayo Vallecano	24	8	2	14	24	41	-17	26
14	Getafe	24	7	5	12	20	32	-12	26
15	Deportivo La Coruna	24	6	6	12	20	38	-18	24
16	Elche	24	6	5	13	21	44	-23	23
17	Almeria	24	6	5	13	22	39	-17	23
18	Levante	24	5	7	12	19	44	-25	22
19	Granada	24	3	10	11	15	37	-22	19
20	Cordoba	24	3	9	12	18	38	-20	18

Monday Recap

There were three red cards in the space of seven minutes at the Ciutat de Valencia on Monday, where the nine men of Granada succumbed to hosts Levante despite leading in the 88th minute.

Youssef El-Arabi converted a 12th-minute penalty to give the traveling outfit a 1-0 lead in its relegation six-pointer, with Levante and Granada coming into this match level on points, sitting in 18th and 19th, respectively.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

However, momentum started to shift in the Frogs' favour when Adrian Colunga was sent off in the 72nd minute for a challenge some may have only deemed worthy of a yellow.

Heading into the final 10 minutes, El-Arrabi's goal remained the decider, but Ivan Ramis and scorer El-Arrabi found themselves on the referee's bad side following their coming together, per Spanish newspaper AS:

Granada were actually down to nine men at this point, with goals from Victor Camarasa and David Barral making the advantage count and showing how quickly a result can turn:

Even with this three-point haul, Levante aren't able to escape the relegation zone, but they now sit just a point off Elche in 17th and are three points away from Granada, who remain in 19th.

Come the end of the campaign, this heated fixture could come to have a grave impact on the final standings, and Granada's players will be left to rue not being able to keep their cool under pressure.

Sunday Recap

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

Real Madrid battled to a 2-0 win over Elche to put some distance between themselves and Barcelona, enlarging the gap at the top of the standings to four points.

Elche didn't make life easy on the league leaders but should have cracked when Karim Benzema scored a wonderful overhead goal in the first half. The strike was a thing of beauty, but controversially, it was ruled out for offside. Replays confirmed the Frenchman was onside when the ball was played.

Soccer Gods was particularly disappointed:

Those soccer gods intervened in the second half, however, as the ball took a fortunate bounce to land at the striker's feet, giving Benzema his well-deserved goal. Football journalist Ben Hayward thought justice had been served:

According to Infostrada Sports, the France international joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the only active players to have scored against every single team currently in La Liga—barring their own teams, of course:

Ronaldo himself made it 2-0 midway through the second half, at which point the win seemed inevitable for Los Blancos.

Real Sociedad and Sevilla played a fantastic showpiece at the Anoeta, the hosts eventually emerging as winners from the 4-3 spectacle. The result sees David Moyes' men put more distance between themselves and the relegation zone, while Sevilla's Champions League hopes are quickly evaporating.

Imanol Agirretxe gave the hosts an early lead, but Sevilla hit back just before half-time through Timothee Kolodziejczak.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

At the time, it looked as if we were headed for a routine second half, but fans expecting more of the same were sorely mistaken. Xabier Prieto scored a—soft—penalty to reclaim the lead, before Sevilla hit back twice in quick succession.

The visitors seemed to be on their way to three points, but another massive momentum shift followed when Alejandro Arribas scored an own goal to bring the teams level again. Prieto completed the wacky match with a late winner, per ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan:

Real Madrid TV's Phil Kitromilides didn't mince his words, either:

As you might expect, Moyes was very proud of his players and the adversity they showed, via Inside Spanish Football's Heath Chesters:

"

I thought the team played great, not just in the last ten minutes. I thought the team played very well all game today. We were up against a very strong team in Sevilla, but I thought the team played very well today and did a lot of good things in the game: Scored four goals, showed great courage and spirit to come back when we were losing, when I didn’t think we deserved to be losing, so I think the team deserve a lot of credit for how well they played today.

"

The Basques now sit eight points above the relegation zone and should no longer have to worry about playing in La Liga next season. Sevilla lose more ground on Valencia in the race for the Champions League, trailing by five points ahead of next week's big match against Atletico Madrid.

Aritz Aduriz left it late to win the match for Athletic Bilbao against Rayo Vallecano, scoring the only goal in the 86th minute. As shared by OptaJose, the forward is in incredible form this season:

Villarreal beat Eibar by the same score, and they too were dependent on the services of their top striker, as youngster Luciano Dario Vietto came off the bench to bag the winner. BeIN SPORTS' David Cartlidge thinks the Argentinian will be a very popular name during the summer transfer window:

Levante and Granada will conclude Week 24 when they meet on Monday.

Saturday Recap

The 10 men of Atletico Madrid stole a march on Barcelona in Week 24 after claiming a 3-0 victory over Almeria just hours after the Blaugrana suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Malaga.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Antoine Griezmann netted a first-half brace and was the star of the show as Los Rojiblancos defended a 3-0 half-time lead to move within three points of second-place Barca.

Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring with a 13th-minute penalty at the Vicente Calderon and Griezmann spoke of his evolution in Madrid since arriving from Real Sociedad last summer, per Spanish newspaper AS:

"

We’re happy to get the three points and to continue showing that we’re strong at home. We wanted to get back to winning ways after the defeat in Vigo. We scored a goal very early on and then we went on to show that we have the ambition to go for more goals and not just hold on to the result.

The truth is that it’s easy to get along with him [Mandzukic] because he’s a great striker, along with Fernando Torres and Raúl García. I’m growing and I want to offer more to the team. I’m enjoying playing with this team.

"

Guillherme Siqueira saw red late on for a second bookable offence, but even that setback couldn't dampen Atleti's spirit after such a morale-boosting victory.

The result was of course made all the sweet by Barcelona's stumble against Malaga, which puts Enrique's side in a tough position ahead of Tuesday's Champions League round-of-16 clash against Manchester City.

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

Dani Alves was at least partly to blame for gifting Malaga's Juanmi his opportunity to fire the Andalusians in front after just seven minutes in what will go down as a terrible day for the Catalan giants.

Malaga are now the only team in La Liga against whom Barca have failed to beat either home or away this season which, as Barcastuff illustrates, is a rare occasion for the Anchovies:

"

Previous season since in which Barcelona failed to win against Malaga home and away was in 1972-1973 #fcblive [via @barca19stats]

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) February 21, 2015"

Pablo Piatti ensured Valencia's top-four hopes remained on track at Cordoba, bagging an 81st-minute winner to clinch a 2-1 victory for Los Che and keep the side within three points of Atletico.

Following the 2-1 win at Espanyol a fortnight ago, this was a second consecutive away win for Nuno Espirito Santo's men, something OptaJose pointed out as a momentous feat:

Nabil Ghilas had cancelled out Andre Gomes' opener to give Cordoba some hope of an upset, but Piatti played an instrumental role in leading Valencia to maximum points, not for the first time this term.

In the late kickoff, Celta Vigo topped Deportivo La Coruna in the Galician derby, netting twice in the second half to earn some deserved bragging rights in the local fray.

The two teams went in scoreless at the break, but the action picked up swiftly in the second period as Brazilian Charles gave the visitors their lead at the Riazor, per AS:

Depor's hopes quickly went from bad to worse when Alberto Lopo was sent off for a second yellow, Joaquin Larrivey capitalising just 10 minutes later to seal a 2-0 win.

With Espanyol losing at Getafe on Friday, the victory means Celta climb to eighth while Depor stay in 13th, only a single point separating them from 17th spot. 

Friday Recap

Michael Steele/Getty Images

Flores will have been left content with his Getafe side following their 2-1 win over Espanyol on Friday, the club's third successive victory at home and almost their first clean sheet of 2015.

Anaitz Arbilla struck just a minute before full-time to deny Getafe of that spotless win, where Sammir and Pablo Sarabia pulled the strings for Getafe in what was a potentially season-changing win.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

For now, the Madrid outfit moves up to 12th from their previous standing in 16th, seven points off the bottom three and to within just a point of 10th-place Eibar.

Sarabia volleyed in the game's first on the 33-minute mark before setting up Alvaro Vazquez for the second, but the striker refused to celebrate against his former team, per Spanish newspaper Sport:

Through no lack of effort, stringing results together has been Espanyol's main concern this season. As AS points out, this was another disappointing defeat for Los Periquitos:

A European finish is assuredly now beyond Sergio Gonzalez's men, who are 12 points off Villarreal in sixth after playing a game more.

Getafe will be pleased with their work at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez of late, but sealing results away from home will be the next target if they hope to continue making moves toward the top half.