Sevilla holds Barcelona

MADRID: Barcelona dropped two vital points in the La Liga title race as it could only draw 1-1 with Sevilla in Sunday's late match.

Second-placed Real Madrid, which beat Hercules 2-0 on Saturday, is now just five points behind with the two sides going head-to-head next month at the Bernabeu.

Barcelona completely dominated the first half and took the lead on the half hour mark through Bojan Krkic who came on for the injured Pedro Rodriguez. Andres Iniesta floated a pass to Diego Alves who found Bojan and he was able to walk the ball into the net.

After the break, Sevilla pressed forward and got its reward when Jesus Navas headed in an Alvaro Negredo cross.

Barcelona was on the backfoot as Navas and Frederic Kanoute had chances to score but late on the Catalan side rallied and could have won it when Iniesta hit the post.

“Generally I am happy with the performance, we always looked to control the match but you have to realise that there are other teams playing as well,” said Barca coach Pep Guardiola after the game.

“We played against a good side but we deserved more from the first half. In the second half they improved and were strong on the counter-attack.”

Sevilla coach Gregorio Manzano was happy with a point against the champion.

AC Milan held

In the Italian League, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off as Serie ‘A' leader AC Milan was held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bari on Sunday.

Antonio Cassano scored a late equaliser for the host when it was already down to 10 men to cancel out Gergely Rudolf's first-half opener.

It meant Milan failed to capitalise on second-placed Inter Milan's 1-1 draw at Brescia on Friday night, meaning it stays five points clear at the top.

The results: Spanish League: Levante 1 (Juanlu G. 37) drew with Real Mallorca 1 (Ramis 60); Espanyol 2 (Ivan Alonso 61, Verdu 81) bt Deportivo La Coruna 0; Osasuna 3 (Echaide 19, Nekounam 24-pen, Soriano 49) bt Racing Santander 1 (Rosenberg 55); Real Sociedad 0 lost to Malaga 2 (Duda 25, Rondon 57); Villarreal 1 (Rossi 29) drew with Sporting Gijon 1 (Castro 90+2-pen); Sevilla 1 (Navas 49) drew with Barcelona 1 (Bojan 30).

Italian League: AC Milan 1 (Cassano 82) drew with Bari 1 (Rudolf 39); Cagliari 0 lost to Udinese 4 (Benatia 43, Sanchez 44, Di Natale 48, 54); Catania 1 (Llama 75) bt Sampdoria 0; Chievo 0 lost to Fiorentina 1 (Vargas 48); Genoa 1 (Floro Flores 77) bt Palermo 0; Lecce 0 lost to Bologna 1 (Ramirez 33); Roma 2 (Totti 70, 90-pen) bt Lazio 0; Parma 1 (Palladino 29) lost to Napoli 3 (Hamsik 52, Lavezzi 57, Maggio 87) .