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Rival watch: FC Barcelona remain one point off the top

None of the top six sides in La Liga record wins at the weekend, meaning that despite defeat in Seville, Barça have not lost any ground on leaders Villarreal

[[DES_1]]Barça may have lost 2-1 to Sevilla on Saturday, but the damage was not as bad as it could have been after none of the leading clubs managed to collect three points this weekend.

It all means that Villarreal stay top despite suffering their first defeat of the season, and at the ground of a club that was winless until now, Levante. Playing with ten men after Jokic was sent off, the ‘Yellow Submarine’ was finally sunk by a Deyverson goal eight minutes from the end.

The Madrid derby at the Calderón finished all square. Real Madrid led at half time thanks to Benzema’s goal, and Atlético looked to have squandered their chance to get back into the game when Griezmann’s penalty was saved. But Vietto finally found the net after 83 minutes and it all ended 1-1.

Celta also missed out on a chance to go top when despite throwing everything they had at Getafe, the game finished as it had begun, 0-0. The outcome is that Celta, Real Madrid and  Barça all go into the international break neck-and-neck with 15 points, one less than leaders Villarreal, and two more than Atlético Madrid, who are fifth.

The main beneficiaries of all that were Eibar, who won 2-0 in Las Palmas, and now join Deportivo on 12 points, just four off the top. Depor also failed to get three points this weekend, drawing 1-1 at Granada.

Barça’s next opponents in La Liga are Rayo Vallecano, who were defeated 2-0 at home by Betis and stay on seven points after losing four of their first seven games.

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Roma only UCL Group E winners

On Sunday in the Bundesliga, Barça’s Champions League rival Bayer Leverkusen got their game against struggling Aufsburg got off to the worst possible start. After 12 minutes, goalkeeper Bernd Leno totally miscontrolled the ball and ended up putting it in his own net. Karim Bellarabi managed to make amends, but the 1-1 draw leaves Bayer 11 points behind league leaders Bayern Munich.

There was better news for AS Roma, who move four places up the Serie A table to third after powering to a 4-2 win at Palermo. Pjanic, Alessandro Florenzi and Gervinho (2) got the goals. The latter’s brace included one of the highlights of the week  - a dazzling run down the right and a classy finish to boot.

In Belarus, BATE Borisov were on the point of losing just their second game of the season when they were 1-0 down at home to sixth placed Granit with just nine minutes to go. That was when Milunović finally got Barça’s next Champions League rivals back level, and the 1-1 draw means BATE are still a healthy 13 points clear at the top of the table. Second placed Dinamo Minsk play on Monday.

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