Barcelona failed to close the gap on LaLiga leaders Real Madrid as they were beaten 2-0 at Malaga, where Brazil forward Neymar was sent off.
A late equaliser from Antoine Griezmann had earlier secured Atletico Madrid a 1-1 draw at their city rivals, which opened the door for Barcelona to move above Real Madrid at the top of the table on goal difference.
However, Malaga produced a battling display as Jose Miguel Gonzalez's men secured a second successive victory to move them further away from the relegation scrap.
Sandro netted on the break against his former club, with substitute Rodriguez Jony adding a late second after Neymar had seen red after picking up a needless second caution.
As a result, it was Real who edged three points clear with a match still in hand ahead of El Clasico on April 23.
In Saturday's afternoon kick-off, Real had looked to have taken another significant step towards their first LaLiga title in five years when Pepe headed them in front in the 52nd minute with only his second goal of the season.
But Atletico, who had won the corresponding fixture at the Bernabeu for the last three seasons, refused to roll over and star striker Griezmann salvaged a point five minutes from time.
Zinedine Zidane, who was taking charge of his 50th match as Real head coach, said: "We put in a great performance and deserved more, but we lacked a bit of concentration in the last five minutes.
"A second goal would have put us at ease. We had the chances to have got it. In the final minutes, we lacked that little bit extra in all areas.
"We drew the game, but this changes nothing. The fight for the LaLiga title will go right to the wire".
In the day's early kick-off Espanyol got their push for a European place back on track following their midweek defeat to Athletic Bilbao with a 1-0 home win over Copa del Rey finalists Alaves.
Pablo Piatti scored the only goal of the game in the 56th minute, the winger slotting home from close range after David Lopez had done well to get on the end of Victor Sanchez's free-kick.
Sevilla were celebrating victory for the first time in over a month after beating Deportivo La Coruna 4-2 - although the hosts had it far from easy at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Jorge Sampaoli's men were without a win in six matches, during which time they had slumped down to fourth in LaLiga and knocked out of the Champions League, but they were given a flying start as Stevan Jovetic put them ahead inside the opening minute.
Gael Kakuta levelled moments later but Sevilla were back in front by the ninth minute thanks to Pablo Sarabia.
The frenetic opening continued with both teams scoring again before the 32nd minute, with Kakuta equalising for a second time only for Joaquin Correa to put Sevilla 3-2 up.
That is the way the score remained until two minutes from time, when Sevilla finally finished off Depor with top scorer Wissam Ben Yedder netting his 10th league goal of the season.
