Barcelona, Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruna all came out victorious from the games on Saturday night in the La Liga.
Barcelona moved provisionally eight points clear at the Primera Division summit courtesy of a routine 3-0 win at struggling Real Valladolid.
The comfortable victory ensured Pep Guardiola's side became only the fifth team to accomplish the feat of going through the first half of the league season unbeaten, after Madrid, Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad.
And they did so in style against a poor Valladolid outfit.
Xavi and Dani Alves struck within the space of two minutes halfway through the first period to give Guardiola's men full control of proceedings, and Lionel Messi added a third shortly into the second period to wrap up a comfortable victory.
Manuel Pellegrini's Madrid can cut the deficit back to five points with a home win over Malaga tomorrow night.
In the late kick-off, Deportivo La Coruna climbed to fourth in the standings thanks to a 3-1 home win over Athletic Bilbao.
Kasmirski Filipe and Juliano Juca struck in the early stages of the second half to put Depor two up, with Pablo Alvarez sealing matters after Diego Colotto's own goal had halved the deficit.
Earlier on, former Almeria striker Alvaro Negredo took advantage of a huge stroke of luck to sink his old club and help Sevilla end a run of four successive Primera Division defeats.
Negredo, who enjoyed two successful seasons at Almeria prior to joining Sevilla from Real Madrid last summer, netted the only goal of this Andalusian derby in the 10th minute after visiting captain Santiago Acasiete's attempted back-pass got stuck in a puddle.
Acasiete picked up a pass from his goalkeeper Diego Alves on the edge of the box, but when he tried to play the ball back, it stopped dead in a pool of water midway between the two, and Sevilla midfielder Dirnei Renato nipped in to poke the ball inside where Negredo tapped into an empty net.
Match Reports
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