La Liga title race wide open as Atletico lose steam

La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid drew 0-0 away to struggling Getafe on Saturday, despite playing the latter stages of the game with an extra man, offering renewed hope to title rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema rescued Real Madrid again by scoring two late goals to snatch a 2-1 win at home to Elche in La Liga on Saturday and revive his side's hopes of catching leaders Atletico Madrid.

The victory lifted Real into second in the standings on 57 points, reducing the gap behind Atletico from eight points to six and are one point ahead of third-placed Barcelona, who host Huesca tonight.

The last-gasp victory also gave Real an emotional boost ahead of Tuesday's Champions League last-16 second leg with Atalanta, which they go into holding a 1-0 advantage. "This win is very positive for us, it was vital we kept up picking points for our league campaign and also to prepare for Tuesday's game," he said. "We're a team with character, we're alive in two competitions and we're going to keep fighting hard and keep believing in ourselves."

"We have two monsters behind us who want to be where we are and it's normal that they're putting the pressure on us, we have been leaders for a long time," said Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone.

"Madrid are winning games, Barcelona are full of hope and enthusiasm but we'll continue to take each game as it comes."

Atletico had been denied all three points in last week's derby at home to Real by an 88th minute equaliser from Karim Benzema but earned a significant 2-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao in Wednesday's game in hand to cement their advantage at the top.

This felt like a step back and Simeone conceded his side had not played well in the first half.  "We were excited about the prospect of winning and maintaining our advantage but our first half was not good, we couldn't get the ball moving well, we couldn't counterattack and we were not direct enough," he added.

"We improved in the second half and had many chances to score and overall I feel we are playing well."