Associated Press

Madrid, March 3:

Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos scored in his 300th Spanish league appearance to help second-place Real Madrid beat Real Betis 3-1 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday.

Striker Michael Owen and defender Ivan Helguera also netted for Madrid, whose win lifted it to six points behind leader FC Barcelona, and ended a run of two successive league defeats.

In another 26th-round game, Julio Baptista converted a penalty to earn Sevilla a 2-2 draw with defending champion Valencia, although the Brazilian forward then missed another spot kick in the closing stages.

Elsewhere, it was: Villarreal 2, Mallorca 1; Getafe 1, Deportivo La Coruna 1; Malaga 1, Athletic Bilbao 0; Racing Santander 2, Atletico Madrid 1; Levante 1, Numancia 1; Real Sociedad 2, Zaragoza 1; and Albacete 1, Osasuna 1. Barcelona, which drew 0-0 with Espanyol on Tuesday, leads with 59 points, followed by Madrid with 53. Sevilla and Villarreal have 43, one more than Valencia and Espanyol. Betis stays with 41. Owen set Madrid on its way to victory in the 10th minute with his ninth goal of the season, when he controlled and turned home a low cross from the left by Argentine midfielder Santiago Solari. Solari was replacing the injured Zinedine Zidane, while Madrid lacked another injured player, right back Michel Salgado. Striker Raul Gonzalez was also out with the flu.

Roberto Carlos marked his landmark appearance with a 42nd-minute goal, when he blasted home after David Beckham tapped the ball to him from a free kick inside the area. In the 54th, Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas was forced off through injury and replaced by Cesar Sanchez. Cesar was forced to pick the ball out of his net only five minutes later when Betis forward Edu Schmidt swiveled and shot home. Madrid took only two minutes to restore its lead when Helguera headed past Doblas from close range after Madrid defender Walter Samuel had nodded the ball into the penalty area.

Valencia coach Antonio Lopez, who replaced the fired Claudio Ranieri last Friday, continued his unbeaten start in an eventful draw at Sevilla. Lopez began his tenure with a victory over Betis on Sunday. Sevilla forward Jesuli Mora opened the scoring with a 41st-minute volley, only for Valencia defender David Navarro to equalise with a header from Pablo Aimar’s floated free kick on the stroke of the interval. Aimar then gave Valencia a 61st-minute lead with a precise shot after a pass by Brazilian midfielder Fabio Aurelio. Baptista scored from a spot kick six minutes later.

FA Cup

NOTTINGHAM: Tottenham rea-ched the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 3-0 replay win over lower-league Nottingham Forest. Reto Ziegler set up Spurs’ first two goals with corners from the right, the first nodded in by Noe Pamarot and the second tapped in on the line by Robbie Keane. Substitute striker Mido headed in the third in the final seconds after a Michael Brown shot came out off the underside of the crossbar. Forest, second-to-last in the Football League Championship, held Tottenham to 1-1 at White Hart Lane two weeks ago. Tottenham will travel to Newcastle in the quarter-finals, scheduled for March 12-13. The other quarter-finals are Bolton vs Arsenal, Leicester vs Blackburn, and Southampton vs Manchester United.