Barcelona, Girona fail to capitalise in Spanish league

Defending champions Barcelona were held 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, while Girona lost 1-0 at Mallorca.

The Catalan clubs missed their chance to make up ground on league leaders Real Madrid, who drew 2-2 at Valencia on Saturday.

The weekend's results meant that Madrid increased their lead over second-place Girona to seven points and stayed eight points ahead of third-place Barcelona.

Fourth-place Atletico Madrid did cut into Madrid's lead with a 2-1 win over Real Betis, though Diego Simeone's team remained in fourth place and 11 points behind their city rivals after 27 matches.

Barcelona lost two of their top players because of injuries, with Pedri and Frenkie De Jong having to be replaced before halftime in Bilbao.

Athletic remained in fifth place, five points behind the last Champions League place.

It was an even match at San Mames Stadium, with each team having only two attempts on target. Joao Cancelo and Robert Lewandowski had some of the most significant chances for Barcelona.

"We didn't play a good match," Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said. "It's a missed opportunity. We could have done better."

The coach said the early injuries affected his team. De Jong left the match in the 26th minute after twisting his ankle, while Pedri appeared to hurt a leg muscle in the 45th.

"These are injuries to two very important players, it's unfortunate," Xavi said. "We are sad because it seems that they will be out for several matches."

Atletico rebounded from being eliminated by Athletic in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.

The victory at the Metropolitano Stadium was only the second win in eight matches for Atletico and left them three points behind Barcelona and four points behind Girona.

"We are on the right track," Simeone said. "We've been doing things well and hopefully this win will give us a boost."

Sixth-place Betis have only one win in their last five matches in all competitions - against Athletic in the previous league round.

Atletico opened the scoring with an own-goal by Betis goalkeeper Rui Silva in the eighth minute after the defence failed to clear and striker Alvaro Morata added to the lead with a close-range header in the 44th.

Betis got on the board with a long-range strike by midfielder William Carvalho in the 62nd.

Girona lost for the third time in four matches. They had beaten Rayo Vallecano last week to end a three-match winless streak, but couldn't get past Mallorca.

Jose Copete scored the winner in the 33rd minute as Mallorca moved to 15th place, eight points clear of the relegation zone.

Alexander Sorloth scored a hat trick as Villarreal routed second-to-last Granada 5-1 to move to 12th place.

Theodor Corbeanu scored in stoppage time for Granada, who haven't won in seven consecutive matches.

Australian Associated Press