impatient juggler: Real Madrid stumbles again, in 2-2 tie vs Espanol

Associated Press Sports

updated 4:13 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2012

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Defending champion Real Madrid stumbled again in the Spanish league, allowing substitute Juan Albin to score off of a poorly defended corner kick in the 88th minute, giving relegation-threatened threatened Espanyol a 2-2 tie Sunday.

Sergio Garcia put the visitors ahead in the 31st minute, but Cristiano Ronaldo tied the score in first-half injury time with his 14th league goal of the season and 23rd overall.

Ronaldo set up Fabio Coentrao's goal that gave Madrid a 2-1 lead three minutes into the second half.

League-leading Barcelona (14-0-1) hosted second-place Atletico Madrid (12-2-1) in the late game. Real Madrid (10-3-3), which lost 2-1 at Celta Vigo on Tuesday in the first leg of their Spanish Cup fifth-round matchup, is 10 points out of first.

Elsewhere, U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra returned from a torn muscle in his left leg, playing the entire match in Racing Santander's 1-0 home loss to Sabadell in Spain's second division.

The defender was injured in the Americans' 2-2 exhibition draw at Russia on Nov. 14, and Santander said a week later that it expected him to miss another six weeks.

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MILAN (AP) - AC Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino dedicated his goal in Sunday's 4-1 Italian league win over Pescara to the victims of the school shooting in Connecticut.

After the game, an emotional Nocerino said he wanted to "take the chance to dedicate my goal to the American families of the children killed in the school, my thoughts are only with them."

The Italian scored 35 seconds in. Nocerino, who has two young children, says he doesn't "know how much the dedication will help the dead American children, but everything I did today was only for them."

On the 113th anniversary of AC Milan's founding, the hosts (8-6-3) got own goals by Pescara in the 51st and 79th minutes and Stephan El Shaarawy scored the final goal in the 81st.

Defending champion Juventus defeated visiting Atalanta 3-0, with Mirko Vucinic scoring 80 seconds in and Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio adding goals. After Juventus built a three-goal lead, Thomas Manfredini was ejected in the 31st minute for his second yellow card.

Juventus (13-2-2) has a seven-point lead over second-place Inter Milan (11-5-1).

Sergio Pellissier scored in the 87th minute to give Chievo Verona a 1-0 win over visiting Roma and American midfielder Michael Bradley, who transferred from Chievo to Roma last summer.

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LONDON (AP)- Tottenham climbed back into top four of the Premier League, breaking Swansea's resistance when Jan Vertonghen scored in the 75th minute for a 1-0 win.

Vertonghen met Kyle Walker's free kick from the right wing with a low half-volley from just inside the area.

Tottenham (9-6-2), which took off American midfielder Clint Dempsey in the 70th minute, is even on points with third-place Chelsea (8-3-5), which has a game in hand.

West Bromwich Albion (8-6-3) missed a chance to move into the Champions League positions by tying 0-0 at home Against West Ham, extending the team's winless run to four games after its surprisingly strong start.

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BERLIN (AP) - Borussia Dortmund won 3-1 at relegation-threatened Hoffenheim on goals by Mario Goetze, Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski to end a three-game league winless streak.

Dortmund (8-3-6) entered the winter break in third place, 12 points behind Bayern Munich (13-1-3) and three back of Bayer Leverkusen (10-4-3).

More newsGiuseppe Cacace / AFP - Getty Images