Madrid: Barcelona and Real Madrid remain locked together on 81 points at the top of La Liga 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.
“The only thing we can do is win our games and keep putting a little pressure on,” Suarez told Spanish TV station Movistar.
“They have a difficult and tiring schedule and we’ll see what happens come the end of the season.”
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.
Next up for Real is a Champions League semi-final first leg on Tuesday at home to a Atletico Madrid side full of confidence after they thumped Las Palmas 5-0 to move three points clear of Sevilla in third.
Atletico struck three times in the first 18 minutes in the Canary Islands as Kevin Gameiro netted a double either side of Saul Niguez’s header.
Kevin-Prince Boateng was then sent off for Las Palmas and Atletico made their man advantage count with further goals from Thomas Partey and Fernando Torres.
Tony Adams’s Granada were relegated after they lost for the fourth straight game since the Englishman took charge, going down 2-1 at Real Sociedad.
Meanwhile, Levante sealed promotion back to La Liga with a 1-0 win over Real Oviedo.
