BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Sergio Canales scored a superb goal and assisted for Real Betis’ winner to lead a 3-2 victory at Almeria on Saturday, keeping his team in the chase for a European berth in the Spanish league.
The midfielder used his chest to cushion a floated pass by Rodri Sánchez and, while not letting the ball touch the turf, used his left boot to chip the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper. That made it 2-1 for Betis in the 42nd minute.
Almeria rallied to level before Canales put in a cross that Andrés Guardado headed home for the 70th-minute winner.
Rodri opened the scoring in the sixth minute. Luis Suárez and Samu Costa scored for Almeria in the loss.
Fifth-placed Betis, which had been struggling in previous games during an otherwise strong season, moved to within one point of fourth-placed Atletico Madrid.
“These are three very important points to recover those we dropped last week and stay in the Europa League fight,” coach Manuel Pellegrini said.
VALENCIA IN DROP
Valencia was unable to escape the relegation zone after Athletic Bilbao won 2-1 at Mestalla Stadium amid a protest by the home fans against the club owners.
Several hundred Valencia fans rallied outside the stadium against Singaporean businessman Peter Lim, who they blame for selling off Valencia's best players year after year. Several held up fans saying “Lim Go Home.”
Samu Castillejos put Valencia in front, only for Nico Williams and Oihan Sancet to score for sixth-placed Bilbao.
Valencia, which is under a caretaker coach since the firing of Gennaro Gattuso last month, was pushed into the bottom three after Cadiz escaped the drop zone on Friday with a win.
“We know that we have a good squad but things are not going our way,” Valencia forward Hugo Duro said. “It is a bad run and we have to turn this around by ourselves."
SEVILLA WINS
Sevilla got first-half goals from Youssef En-Nesyri and Bryan Gil to beat Mallorca 2-0 at home.
A fourth consecutive league win at home for Sevilla lifted Jorge Sampaoli’s side into 12th place.
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