Barcelona demolished Real Madrid 5-0 in the Gran Clasico on Monday night, firmly re-establishing themselves as favourites to win the league title. Jose Mourinho cut a forlorn figure at the Camp Nou but had no complaints after the game as Barca put in a spell-binding performance to humiliate their bitter rivals. Xavi, Pedro, Villa (2) and Jeffren scored the goals that settled the tie on this historic night for the Catalan club.
Rewind two days and Villarreal’s quality shone through at the Romareda on Saturday evening as they sentenced Real Zaragoza to a 0-3 defeat thanks to goals from Marcos Senna, Santiago Cazorla and Nilmar. It was Javier Aguirre’s first home game in charge at Zaragoza and his first defeat; dragging the Aragonese club off the bottom of the table is going to take all the Mexican’s managerial guile.
Gregorio Manzano’s midweek motivational speech had little effect on his Sevilla team, who suffered a second consecutive home defeat against Getafe at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan this weekend. To confound matters, the Andalusians threw away a half time lead they had earned thanks to a Fredi Kanoute goal as Manu del Moral, Miku and Pedro Rios all struck in the second half. This 1-3 win ended a miserable run for Getafe and eased the pressure on under-fire coach Michel.
Espanyol have enjoyed a sensational start to the 2010-11 season but none of their results hitherto have been as spectacular or impressive as the 2-3 reverse they meted out to Atletico Madrid on Saturday. Mauricio Pochettino’s team went ahead not once, not twice, but three times as Tiago and Sergio Aguero cancelled out goals from Luis Garcia and Joan Verdu during the game but a stunning winner from Pablo Osvaldo eventually won it for Los Pericos to keep them among the top four.
Markus Rosenberg finally found the back of the net to help Racing Santander to a 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna at the Sardinero on Sunday, but Miguel Angel Portugal still has the worrying conversion rate to fret over. Racing missed a string of chances against a bland Deportivo side, including their third penalty blunder of 2010-11.
Esteban Vigo’s big guns fired Hercules to glory in the east coast derby against Levante on matchday thirteen. Two goals from Nelson Valdez and one from David Trezeguet helped the Alicante-based club to a 3-1 victory over Luis Garcia Plaza’s injury-hit side, who were able to respond just once with a goal from Ruben Suarez.
Sporting de Gijon suffered another crisis of confidence at the Molinon this weekend as they fell 1-3 to Real Sociedad. Despite taking an early lead through centre back Gregory Arnolin Manuel Preciado’s men showed a worrying lack of composure. Real took control of the game and went on to enjoy themselves as goals from Xabi Prieto, David Zurutuza and Mikel Aranburu turned the tie on its head. In 9th position, Martin Lasarte’s team continue to distinguish themselves as the most impressive promoted club.
Two goals in the space of four minutes from Pierre Webo and Chori Castro handed Real Mallorca a comfortable sounding 2-0 victory over Malaga at the Iberostar stadium on Sunday evening. Michael Laudrup will be satisfied with the points but, truth be told, neither team really deserved a win after a dour ninety minutes of football.
A second half stoppage-time winner from Carlos Gurpegui gave Athletic Bilbao a 1-0 win over Osasuna at San Mames. Gorka Iraizoz and Ricardo Lopez both made telling contributions in goal for their respective teams but aerial bombardment was the strategy of choice for both clubs and Joaquin Caparros’ men are the league’s supreme side in that regard.
Jose Luis Oltra was subjected to defeat in his first game in charge or Almeria as Roberto Soldado struck twice to lead Valencia to a 2-1 win at Mestalla. Unai Emery’s team survived a late scare as Leandro Ulloa hit an 89th minute consolation goal; this win keeps them within spitting distance of the top four.
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