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Serie A and La Liga Sunday roundup: Atletico falls to Villarreal, Juventus draws Sampdoria

FBL-ITA-SERIE A-AS ROMA-AC MILAN

AC Milan’s French defender Adil Rami (L) fights for the ball with AS Roma’s Brazilian defender Leandro Castan during the Italian Serie A football match between AS Roma and AC Milan on April 25, 2014 at the Olympic stadium in Rome. AFP PHOTO / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/Getty Images

While only two Premier League fixtures transpired this weekend, plenty of notable play happened in Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga.

Atletico Madrid lost their very first home match of the year to Villarreal, 1-0, and a negative result, like this, last occurred when Barcelona downed Diego Simeone’s crew in May 2013.

In the 85th minute, 21-year-old Luciano Vietto gathered the ball from Moi Gomez and managed to dance past star center back Diego Godin near the edge of the penalty area; the youngster then utilized open space to expedite a nice finish into the back of the net.

Atletico’s best chance of the match arose on Mario Mandzukic’s header, which was controversially called a foul in the 58th minute. Even though some may call this outcome surprising, Villarreal stood in great form (four straight league wins) preceding this contest.

To Serie A: First-place Juventus’s point advantage over second-place Roma narrowed when the Wolves blanked Genoa, 1-0, while Juve only mustered a 1-1 draw vs. Sampdoria.

Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin was shown an exit in the 29th minute, and with just 10 men, freshly-subbed net minder Eugenio Lamanna didn’t disappoint, stuffing a penalty from Adem Ljajic.

In the 40th minute, Maicon delivered a cross that facilitated Radja Nainggolan’s wonderful volley for the competition’s single goal, and in the remaining 50 minutes, Roma didn’t run into many difficulties, sans a fortunate offside call on Tomas Rincon’s score.

Over to Turin, Patrice Evra buried a well-executed header off Claudio Marchisio’s corner kick to snatch a brisk lead for the Zebras in the 12th minute.

Unable to convert offensive chances for the better result, Manolo Gabbiadini came off the bench and whipped a deep curling attempt to equalize in the 51st minute.

Other Serie A results

Udinese 1-2 Verona

Parma 0-0 Cagliari

Cesena 1-4 Fiorentina

Milan 2-0 Napoli

La Liga Results

Espanyol 2-1 Granada

Sevilla 0-0 Eibar

Real Sociedad 1-1 Atheltic