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MADRID.— Barcelona and Real Madrid remain locked together on 81 points at the top of the Spanish La Liga soccer table after seeing off Espanyol and Valencia respectively on Saturday.

Madrid maintain the edge as they have a game in hand but needed a winner four minutes from time from Marcelo to see off Valencia 2-1.

Luis Suarez scored twice as Barcelona gratefully pounced on a series of Espanyol errors to win the Catalan derby 3-0 and move top of the table thanks to their better head-to-head record over Real.

Jose Manuel Jurado was the Espanyol villain as he dragged well wide with easily the clearest chance of the first half.

The former Watford midfielder’s misplaced pass then teed up Suarez to end a five-game goal drought with a neat finish five minutes into the second period.

Lionel Messi didn’t add to his 49 goals this season but still played a vital role as he teed up Ivan Rakitic for Barca’s second 14 minutes from time.

And Suarez benefited from another defensive howler, this time from Aaron Martin, to slot home his second three minutes from the end.

At the Bernabeu, Marcelo’s late intervention saved Cristiano Ronaldo’s blushes despite the Portuguese setting another goalscoring record as he failed to beat Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves from the penalty spot for the third time in four attempts.

Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane recalled eight of the side that started last weekend’s 3-2 Clasico defeat to Barcelona and had been rested for a 6-2 thrashing of Deportivo la Coruna in midweek.

However, the habitual first team nearly got off to the worst possible start when Santi Mina hit the post inside the first minute. — AFP.