Madrid, October 29:

Ronaldinho scored twice to help FC Barcelona beat Recreativo Huelva 3-0 and stretch its lead in the Spanish league on Saturday.

Midfielder Xavi Hernandez tallied the other goal at Camp Nou stadium as the defending champion took advantage of Valencia’s 1-0 defeat at Racing Santander.

Pedro Munitis’ 56th-minute header proved enough to inflict Valencia’s second loss of the season. Real Madrid moved past Valencia into second place thanks to a 3-1 win at struggling Gimnastic Tarragona.

Roberto Carlos, Ivan Helguera and Robinho scored after Abel Buades had converted a 29th-minute penalty for Gimnastic. Barcelona improved to 19 points, two more than Madrid. Valencia has 16 points and Sevilla 15.

Italian Serie A

MILAN: Ten-man Inter Milan took a three-goal lead and only barely held on to beat rival AC Milan 4-3 in Italy’s biggest derby on Saturday, extending its lead atop Serie A.

Hernan Crespo and Dejan Stankovic scored during a five-minute span in the first half and Zlatan Ibrahimovic found the net one minute into the second half for Inter to lead 3-0 at San Siro.

Clarence Seedorf scored Milan’s first goal in the 50th minute and Marco Materazzi restored Inter’s three-goal lead in the 68th. Materazzi picked up his second yellow card for pulling his jersey over his head to celebrate and was expelled.

Losing 4-1, Milan almost pulled back for a draw with goals from Alberto Gilardino in the 76th and another by Kaka in the 90th. Inter improved to 21 points, three ahead of Palermo.

Milan remained mid-table with seven points, having started the season with an eight-point penalty for its role in the Italian match-fixing scandal.

Also, Alessandro Del Piero scored his 200th goal for Juventus in a 1-0 win over Frosinone in Serie B. In the day’s only other Serie A game, AS Roma won 1-0 at Udinese on a goal from Matteo Ferrari. Roma remained in third place but improved to 17 points, three behind Inter.