Madrid wins at Alaves, Atletico beats Sevilla in Spain
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Real Madrid turned to new midfielder Dani Ceballos to help it get back on the winning path in the Spanish league on Saturday.
The midfielder made the most of his first start for Zinedine Zidane's team by scoring twice to lead a 2-1 victory at winless Alaves.
The win came three days after Madrid lost 1-0 at home to Ceballo's former team, Real Betis. That slip combined with a pair of home draws left the defending champions trailing leader Barcelona.
Madrid cut the difference with Barcelona to four points before the pacesetter visited Girona later.
DREAM DEBUT
Ceballos struck in the 10th minute and restored the defending champions' advantage two minutes before halftime.
Ceballos received a pass from Marco Asensio, fought through a tackle, and shot just inside the post for the opener.
Manu Garcia responded by ending Alaves' long scoring drought. His powerful header from a cross by Munir El Haddadi was the Basque Country club's first goal of the season.
But Ceballos put Madrid back in charge when he fired in a ball that goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco spilled when he collided with a teammate while defending a cross.
Alaves almost leveled late when substitute Alfonso Pedraza twice hit the woodwork.
Cristiano Ronaldo also hit the goal-frame twice in the second half as the Madrid forward seeks his first goal in the league after he was suspended for the first four rounds for pushing a referee.
COSTA SPECTATES
Diego Costa watched as his soon-to-be teammates on Atletico Madrid dealt Sevilla a 2-0 defeat and leapfrogged the Andalucian side into second place.
Antoine Griezmann and Yannick Carrasco scored in the second half while Costa watched from the stands of the club's new Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
Carrasco raced around Steven N'Zoni to reach a through pass from Luciano Vietto. Carrasco avoided sliding goalkeeper Sergio Rico and pushed the ball into the empty net.
The Belgium winger also started the attack that led to the second goal. Carrasco made a run into the area before crossing for Griezmann, who fought to keep control of the ball before he exchanged it with Filipe Luis and fired under Rico.
Sevilla fell to third, one point behind Atletico.
Atletico reached a deal with Chelsea this week for Costa to return to his former club.
Atletico will host Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday.
MALAGA RALLIES
Diego Rolan scored a double to help Malaga rally from a two-goal deficit in the final minutes and earn a 3-3 draw with visitors Athletic Bilbao.
Bilbao went ahead thanks to an early penalty converted by Aritz Aduriz before Rolan made it 1-1 for Malaga.
Inaki Williams then netted twice for Bilbao, but Malaga scored twice in the final 10 minutes to secure its first point of the season after it lost its first five matches.