Real Madrid had to withstand a spirited late fightback from city rivals Atletico to win a dramatic derby at the Vicente Calderon. Kaka fired a superb opener in his first derby since moving from AC Milan in the summer, and fellow Brazilian Marcelo struck from a narrow angle to give Real a 2-0 half-time lead.

The game appeared safe when the in-form Gonzalo Higuain turned Luis Perea and finished coolly to make it 3-0, but there was almost a sting in the tail. Diego Forlan rounded off a superb passing move to score and, two minutes later, Sergio Aguero brilliantly cut Real's lead to a single goal.

Simao then volleyed wide from a good position before an offside flag against the overlapping Tomas Ujfalusi ruled out an Aguero goal. Iker Casillas made a superb stoppage-time save from the Argentinian to keep Real within a point of league leaders Barcelona, and Atletico in the bottom three.

Easy for Barça
Pedro bagged a brace and Thierry Henry scored his first goal of the season as Barça cruised to a routine 4-2 win at home to Mallorca. They were ahead within 12 minutes as Pedro latched onto Zlatan Ibrahimovic's sublime back-heeled pass and slotted the ball underneath Dudu Aouate.

Mallorca levelled when Gerard Pique could only flick Marti's corner into the path of the unmarked Nunes, who headed home from close range, but Barça struck a double blow before half-time.

Aouate saved three times in quick succession from Pedro, Henry and Sergi Busquets, but could do nothing to prevent the former from crashing home at the fourth time of asking, and Henry's opportunist header then diverted Busquets' effort past Aouate following Pedro's free-kick. Lionel Messi made it 4-1 from the penalty spot before Alhassane Keita's late goal.

Getafe hit
Nine-man Deportivo La Coruna got their European challenge back on track with a surprisingly comfortable 2-0 win over Getafe. Miguel Mista gave the visitors an early lead, but they found themselves a man down with only 27 minutes gone when Ivan Riki picked up two yellow cards in seven minutes.

Getafe failed to muster anything in response, though, and Depor doubled their lead on the hour through Filipe. Sergio became the second visiting player to see red with 17 minutes remaining, but still the hosts struggled to create anything approaching a decent chance, and Depor easily held on.

Point for Malaga
Malaga fought back from two goals down to earn a vital point away to Tenerife and ease the pressure on under-fire coach Juan Ramon Lopez Muniz. Ramon Martinez put the Canary Islanders ahead after 18 minutes and Alejandro Alfaro doubled their lead shortly before the half-hour mark.

But Malaga responded almost straight away when Edinho netted after 29 minutes, and the visitors snatched a vital point to move off the bottom of the table - for 24 hours at least - thanks to a Javi Lopez strike with 13 minutes remaining.