Barcelona stretched their lead at the top of the Primera Liga to eight points on Saturday after they scored a 1-0 win at struggling Osasuna while second-placed Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw away to Valencia.
African Player of the Year Samuel Eto'o took his goal tally for the season to 18 with the winner against Osasuna when he smashed home a fierce first-time shot five minutes before the break.
Brazilian striker Ronaldo ended his recent drought with his first goal in eight games to cancel out Pablo Aimar's early strike and earn Real Madrid a point in a pulsating encounter at the Mestalla.
The results mean Barca lead the table with 62 points from 27 games, Real follow on 54 while Villarreal, Valencia and Sevilla all have 43.
Sevilla missed the chance to pull ahead of their immediate rivals when they slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid in Saturday's late match.
Barcelona, wearing black armbands in memory of former coach Dutchman Rinus Michels who died on Thursday, took control from the first whistle at a rainswept El Sadar but were slow to take advantage of their domination.
The Catalans eventually broke the deadlock just before halftime when Portugal's Deco won the ball in midfield and slipped a neat through ball into Eto'o's path with the outside of his foot.
The Cameroon international cracked a stinging shot towards the far post and although Osasuna keeper Juantxo Elia got a hand to the ball he was unable to stop it spinning into his net.
Eto'o should have grabbed another goal early in the second half when he was put clear by Ronaldinho but he ran too wide and saw his angled shot turned past the post by Elia.
Osasuna, who were on a nine-match winless streak, battled hard in the second half and laid siege to the Barca area in the closing minutes but keeper Victor Valdes produced a string of top class saves to deny the home side an equaliser.
MINI-REVIVAL
Valencia, who have experienced a mini-revival since Antonio Lopez replaced Claudio Ranieri as coach, were the first to show at the Mestalla with Ruben Baraja and David Albelda bossing the midfield and Pablo Aimar probing for gaps in the Real defence.
The home side were rewarded for their early domination when Aimar gave them the lead with a slickly worked goal in the 14th minute.
Baraja charged through a gaping hole in Real's midfield and slipped the ball to Aimar who played a neat one-two with Mista on the edge of the area before sending a precisely struck shot flying past the outstretched Iker Casillas into the net.
Real, who were missing Zinedine Zidane, Raul and Michael Owen, struggled to find their rhythm but still managed to draw level just before the half-hour thanks to some great skill from the makeshift forward combination of Guti and Ronaldo.
Guti threaded a disguised pass through the defence and into the path of the Brazilian who jinked his way round goalkeeper Santiago Canizares, left defender Carlos Marchena sprawling on the grass with a shimmy and guided the ball into an empty net.
Valencia held the upper hand for the remainder of the game but Real, and Ronaldo in particular, still posed a serious threat on the break.
Real keeper Casillas pulled off a fine save low to his right to stop a sharp shot from Mista on the hour but Canizares produced an even better stop to deny Ronaldo at the death.
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