Real Madrid played for 89 minutes with 10 men but still defeated Espanyol 1-0 away from home on Sunday night.
Madrid coach Jose Mourinho left Sergio Ramos and Kaka out of his starting lineup and will have been pleased at the way his players dug deep to end the night just five points behind league leaders FC Barcelona.
The game got off to a dramatic start in the first minute when Iker Casillas was sent off for bringing down Espanyol striker Jose Callejon.
Callejon found space behind the Real Madrid defense and Casillas rushed out of his penalty area to catch the striker with his right foot. Callejon went to ground and referee Mateu Lahoz sent off the Madrid keeper after adjudging he had stopped a goal scoring opportunity.
It was the fastest ever red card shown to a Real Madrid player in a Spanish league game.
Antonio Adan came on to make his Real Madrid debut in goal, with Angel di Maria having to leave the pitch, but being reduced to 10 men didn't seem to affect Madrid.
The visitors took a deserved lead after 23 minutes when Marcelo found space on the left and his angled drive beat Carlos Kameni, who probably dived too soon.
With the game wide open, Adebayor should have doubled the lead after 40 minutes, but his attempted chip hit the bar as he was clean through with just Kameni to beat.
The second half began with Callejon being pulled back for offside when he was clean through on goal, although TV replays showed the Espanyol player was onside when the pass was made to him.
Espanyol began to get more into the game as the second half progressed and the home side began at last to make use of the extra man to open out the width of the pitch, but despite a Callejon volley from the edge of the area, they struggled to create clear chances against a defense in which Pepe was producing an excellent display.
With nine minutes remaining Kameni produced two excellent stops to deny Adebayor, who was on his own 10 meters from goal.
It could have been 2-0 to Madrid, but at the end of the day Mourinho's men celebrated three vital points in a game that will only serve to raise their morale in the title race.