Barcelona stumbles again, held 0-0 at home by Getafe

Barcelona has hit a slump, and Atletico Madrid is back in the Spanish league title race.

Barcelona stumbled for the second consecutive weekend in the league on Sunday, being held 00 by Getafe and seeing Atletico move within seven points of the lead.

Atletico cut into Barcelona's lead by defeating bottom side Malaga 1-0 on Saturday, extending its winning streak to three matches.

Diego Simeone's team hasn't been this close to the lead since last year, when the gap was at six points in the 16th round. Barcelona had an 11-point lead two rounds ago.

After needing a late equalizer to avoid defeat against crosstown rival Espanyol in the previous round, Barcelona couldn't find the net against midtable Getafe at Camp Nou Stadium.

Yesterday Sevilla-Girona .................................. 1-0 Barcelona-Getafe ............................ 0-0 Celta Vigo-Espanyol ......................... 2-2 Valencia-Levante ............................. 3-1

Standings

P W D L F A Pts Barcelona 23 18 5 0 60 11 59 Atl. Madrid 23 15 7 1 34 9 52 Valencia 23 13 4 6 45 27 43 Real Madrid 22 12 6 4 50 23 42 Villarreal 23 11 4 8 34 28 37 Sevilla 23 11 3 9 29 34 36 Eibar 23 10 5 8 32 34 35 Celta Vigo 23 9 5 9 41 34 32 Girona 23 8 7 8 31 30 31 Getafe 23 7 9 7 26 21 30 Betis 22 9 3 10 37 45 30 Leganes 22 8 5 9 20 22 29 Ath Bilbao 23 6 10 7 24 25 28 Real Sociedad 23 7 5 11 43 45 26 Espanyol 23 6 8 9 21 31 26 Alaves 23 8 1 14 21 33 25 Levante 23 3 11 9 21 35 20 Las Palmas 23 5 3 15 17 50 18 Dep. La Coruna22 4 5 13 24 51 17 Malaga 23 3 4 16 14 36 13

Barcelona dominated but wasn't able to create many significant scoring chances, and when it got close it was stopped by Getafe goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.