BARCELONA: Real Madrid were left to rue a series of near misses Sunday as they stumbled to a 0-0 home draw with Athletic Bilbao, dropping two points adrift of Barcelona in a tight La Liga title race.

Real also drew 0-0 in midweek at Barcelona but Sunday’s result leaves them on 37 points at the half-way stage of the season.

Toni Kroos hit the bar, Karim Benzema saw an effort cleared off the line with a back-heel and both Rodrygo and Vincius Junior forced snap saves on a frustrating night for Madrid.

Real defender Eder Militao was forced off after being poked in the eye and his replacement Nacho Fernandez also hit the woodwork.

Coach Zinedine Zidane brought on Gareth Bale and Luka Jovic, but Madrid failed to find a winner.

“It was neither bad luck nor complacency,” Zidane said after the game. “There’s no reason to get depressed about this, we need to keep calm and keep our heads up.

“We created lots of chances and if we keep going then they’ll start going in. I feel sorry for the players. It would have been nice for them to get more; three points from three games isn’t great.”

For Bilbao, Kenan Kodro’s thunderbolt shot was ruled out for off-side in the first half while the Santiago Bernabeu lived on its nerves when Athletic flooded forward deep into added time with Asier Villalibre almost clinching a winner at the death.

Earlier on Sunday, Angel Correa came off the bench to score one and make another as Atletico Madrid climbed back into the top four and seven points behind Barca with a 2-1 win at Real Betis.

Correa’s first touch of the ball intercepted a pass from Alex Moreno and left him alone to round Betis goalkeeper Joel Robles and net the 58th-minute opener.

The Argentina forward then passed for Alvaro Morata who used the inside of his right boot to redirect Correa’s low cross past Robles with six minutes to play. Marc Bartra scored for Betis in injury time.

Real Sociedad withstood an attempted comeback by 10-man Osasuna to earn a 4-3 away victory that kept them one point behind Atletico in fifth.

Sociedad led by three goals after Mikel Oyarzabal, Cristian Portu Portugus, and Martin Odegaard all scored in the opening half hour.

But Osasuna rallied to 3-2 before defender Facundo Roncaglia was sent off with a direct red card for elbowing an opponent in the face with 20 minutes left. Substitute Alexander Isak made it 4-2.

Chimy Avila scored his second goal for Osasuna with an excellent solo effort, lifting the ball over a defender and heading it into the corner of the net in the 84th.

Celta Vigo stayed in the relegation zone after Levante got two goals from Roger Marti to erase Iago Aspas opener and rally for a 3-1 win at home.

Espanyol lost 2-0 at Leganes in a clash between the bottom two teams in the league.

Last-placed Espanyol are three points behind Leganes and five points from safety.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2019