MADRID: Leganes routed Real Betis 4-0 on Monday to move a step closer to avoiding relegation in the Spanish football league.

Argentine midfielder Alexander Szymanowski scored twice to lead the hosts to the comfortable victory.

Leganes, playing in the first division for the first time, needs a point from its last two matches to mathematically avoid demotion.

It moved to 16th place with 33 points, one more than Deportivo La Coruna and six more than Sporting Gijon, the first team in the relegation zone.

Sporting has the tiebreaker advantage over Leganes on head-to-head.

Granada and Osasuna have already been relegated.