Madrid stare title in the face

REAL MADRID need just one point from their remaining two matches to clinch their 27th Spanish title after beating Extremadura 5-0 and seeing second placed Barcelona crash 2-1 at Hercules yesterday.

Barcelona are five points adrift after seeing an early lead slip away against a side who began the game already condemned to the second division.

For Bobby Robson's side, the game was a nightmarish re-run of the 3-2 home defeat suffered in the Camp Nou earlier in the season.

Robson's men went ahead through Luis Enrique Martinez but were always short of fire power upfront in the absence of Ronaldo and his injured deputy, Juan Pizzi.

Hercules struck back through Paquito Escudero, Dubravko Pavlicic hitting the winner midway through the second half.

In the closing minutes, Hercules were forced to weather heavy pressure from Barcelona, who brought on reserve striker Angel Cuellar for defender Albert Ferrer in the closing minutes.

Cuellar, who has seen little first team action this season, showed his lack of match practice when he missed a virtually open goal in injury time after rounding the Hercules goalkeeper.

Real Madrid also struck early, with Extremadura goalkeeper Navarro Montoya helping home a shot from Raul Gonzalez. But unlike Barcelona, Real went from strength to strength, and cruised to victory with two goals each from Davor Suker and Clarence Seedorf.

In other games yesterday, Oviedo scored a late goal to beat Sevilla who will join Logrones and Hercules in the second division next season. Extremadura are four points away from safety and are hot favourites to join them.

Athletic Bilbao and Valladolid won 2-0 away over Celta Vigo and Deportivo Coruna respectively and look most likely to take the last UEFA Cup places in doubt.

Their only rivals for the remaining tickets to Europe saw their game postponed. Real Sociedad's clash with Tenerife was called off because of heavy rain in San Sebastian and will be played today.