Raul helps Madrid to win

Renato's header from Diego Perotti's cross had given the hosts a 15th-minute lead but Raul got his first on the stroke of half-time after Christoph Metzelder got forward to cross from the right.

The erstwhile Spain striker then scored twice in four second-half minutes to put Juande Ramos's side 3-1 up.

The first was a high finish from close range just after the hour mark after Miguel Torres's left-wing cross took a wicked deflection off the thigh of Renato.

Raul completed his sixth career treble after Andres Palop spilled a routine shot.

With 10 minutes remaining winger Diego Capel pounced on a mistake by Sergio Ramos to pull one back for the hosts and set up a nervy finish for Madrid.

Brazil winger Marcelo eased Real's fears with a fourth in injury-time after he sprung the Sevilla offside trap and finished low past Palop.

Madrid host Barcelona in the next Liga clash and a win for Los Merengues would reduce Barca's lead to just one point with four matches remaining.

Sevilla stay third after the defeat, one point ahead of Valencia and two beyond fifth-placed Villarreal.

Diego Forlan bagged a goal and two assists as Atletico Madrid beat Sporting Gijon 3-1 at the Vicente Calderon to keep their hopes of a top-four finish alive.

Forlan opened the scoring and created goals for Sergio Aguero and Simao Sabrosa, who was sent off late on.

Atletico dominated the first half and went ahead on 27 minutes when an opportunistic shot from Forlan took a huge deflection off Nero and looped over the stranded Ivan Cuellar into the back of the net.

Striker Mate Bilic should have levelled for the visitors but could only head Diego Castro's centre over while Aguero went close with a low drive for the hosts.

Los Rojiblancos went two up four minutes before half-time when Forlan found Simao, who cut inside from the left, beat full-back Rafael Sastre and finished low through Cuellar.

They made it 3-0 seconds after the second-half restart when Aguero played a one-two with Forlan before rifling a low shot into the bottom-right corner of the goal.

Atletico needed a win after the humiliating 5-1 defeat to Racing Santander in midweek and they threatened to self-destruct by conceding immediately from the kick off.

A long ball was flicked on by Bilic, who was unchallenged by Tomas Ujfalusi, allowing Castro to cross past the poorly-positioned Luis Perea and back into Bilic who slid the ball into an empty net with Leo Franco wrong-footed.

The goal gave Sporting a huge confidence boost and they dominated the rest of the match.

First Lora headed wide after Heitinga let Castro in on the left and his cross was headed backwards by Bilic.

Then Castro got in behind the back four again but his low centre was hacked out of play by Ujfalusi with Bilic ready to pounce.

Atletico were almost caught out by a short corner routine that saw Carmelo Gonzalez shoot, Leo Franco spill and Luis Moran almost knock in the loose ball.

Simao was given his marching orders when he picked up a second yellow card with five minutes left on the clock but - despite Sporting throwing everything at them - Atleti held on to move sixth, four points behind fourth-placed Valencia with five games remaining.

Villarreal beat Getafe 2-1 away to keep alive their chances of returning to next season's Champions League.

First-half strikes from Joan Capdevila and Joseba Llorente put Villarreal in control and both sides had a player sent off midway through the second half.

Manu del Moral pulled one back from the penalty spot late on, as Getafe put in a spirited finish.

Copa del Rey finalists Athletic Bilbao won a stormy encounter against north-coast rivals Racing Santander 2-1.

Five players were given their marching orders during the second half of the match.

Athletic led 2-0 from the first half, and finished with nine men on the pitch. Racing had three sent off.

At the foot of the table, Espanyol pulled themselves clear of the relegation places with a 2-0 home win over Real Betis.

They climbed to 16th with 35 points, one ahead of Getafe and two clear of Sporting Gijon, who visit Atletico Madrid in Sunday's late game.

Recreativo are 19th with 30 points, after a 4-2 home defeat by Real Mallorca, two above Numancia.