A solitary goal from Koke sent Atletico Madrid to the top of the Spanish La Liga table, for at least 24 hours, as they beat Malaga 1-0 at the Estadio La Rosaleda on Saturday.
In the first La Liga game of 2014 Atletico Madrid registered their 16th league win of the season thanks to a 70th minute goal from Koke that sees them top the table with 49 points form 18 games, three points above Barcelona who play on Sunday.
The second game of the day was a dreary goalless draw between Real Valladolid and Real Betis at the Estadio Municipal José Zorrilla.
The result sees Valladolid in 16th place with 18 points from their 18 league games while Real Betis still prop up the bottom of the table with 11 points.
Goals from Pablo Piatti and Sofiane Feghouli saw Valencia to a 2-0 win over Levante and up to eighth place on the league table with 23 points.
The result for Levante saw them remain in 13th place with 20 points.
In the last game on Saturday, goals from Sebastian Dubarbier, Verza and Aleix Vidal saw Almeria climb four places on the La Liga table into 14th place with 19 points after beating Granada 2-0 at the Estadio Juegos del Mediterráneo.
For Granada, they remain in 12th place.
