Van der Vaart crowns Madrid recovery

Real Madrid CF recovered from two down to beat Sevilla FC 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabéu and replace title rivals FC Barcelona at the Liga summit on goal difference after the Blaugrana drew 2-2 at UD Almería.

Having fallen behind to a Xabi Alonso own goal (10) and a free-kick from Ivica Dragutinović (52), Madrid gained a foothold in the match when Cristiano Ronaldo struck his 14th league goal of the season on the hour mark. Sergio Ramos then headed Los Merengues level against his former club four minutes later from Rafael van der Vaart's corner.

Madrid applied incessant pressure to the visitors' goal thereafter but seemed set to end the evening frustrated until Van der Vaart pounced on a loose ball after Seville had been unable to clear Ramos' delivery into the penalty area. Raúl González came on for his 543rd Liga match with 15 minutes left, drawing level with Eusebio Sacristán in second on the list of all-time appearance-makers, behind Andoni Zubizarreta (622).

Ten-man Barcelona, meanwhile, twice came from a goal down at Almería. Lionel Messi's 42nd-minute curling free-kick cancelled out Domingo Cisma's early opener, only for Carles Puyol (57) to turn Guilherme's centre into his own net. Things looked bleak for Josep Guardiola's charges soon after when Zlatan Ibrahimović was dismissed for an off-the-ball incident but Messi (66) spared his team from defeat with a close-range finish.

Defeat for fourth-placed Sevilla means the Andalusian club lead RC Deportivo La Coruña, who beat second-bottom CD Tenerife 3-1, by two points. Juan Rodríguez, Andrés Guardado and Diego Colotto were on target for the hosts after Juanlu (17) put Tenerife ahead.