Article
Barca leave it late but stay on top
MADRID (AFP) - League leaders Barcelona left it late but ensured they stayed on top of La Liga thanks to a Fernando Navarro own goal which gave them a 1-0 win over Real Mallorca on Sunday.
"We have got three very, very important points. We had a lot of luck with the goal," conceded a relieved Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard, whose team were without an ill Ronaldinho.
The luckless Navarro, who was on Barcelona's books himself until two seasons ago, saw the ball rebound off his legs barely a minute before the final whistle after Barca's Argentine striker Javier Saviola had hit the post.
Barcelona had the best of a disappointing game although Mallorca had a chance to open the scoring after 30 minutes.
Victor Valdes brought down Mallorca midfielder Jonas Gutierrez but the Barca goalkeeper, who was lucky to not get sent off, then saved the resulting penalty from Jonas.
In the second half, Saviola, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi all fluffed opportunities to break the deadlock.
Barcelona have 59 points from 30 games and hold a four-point advantage over second-placed Sevilla who went down 2-0 at fourth-placed Valencia later on Sunday, with David Villa getting both goals .
Villa danced around the Sevilla defenders to put Valencia ahead after 27 minutes.
Sevilla's Enzo Maresca had a penalty saved shortly afterwards by Valencia goalkeeper Santiago Canizares but Villa himself made no mistake from the spot five minutes after the break, after being tripped by Andreas Hinkel, who was sent off.
Former Barcelona player Hristo Stoichkov ensured that he will go down in history at struggling Celta Vigo after guiding them to a 1-0 victory over bitter local rivals Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday.
Stoichkov, who won four league titles at Barcelona as well as the 1992 European Cup, was making his debut as the Celta coach after resigning as the Bulgarian national coach on Tuesday.
Brazilian striker Fernando Baiano got Stoichkov off to a winning start by scoring from the edge of the six yard box, deflecting home a shot by his Uruguayan team mate Nestor Canobbio.
"The victory doesn't guarantee anything but I couldn't have asked anything more. They got stuck in, fought and showed a winner's mentality," said a happy Stoichkov.
It was only Celta's second home win this season but helped them to edge out of the relegation zone.
Athletic Bilbao's chances of avoiding relegation improved with a 2-1 win over Espanyol.
The visitors took the lead with an amazing goal after five minutes when Jonatas found the net from just a few yards inside the Athletic half.
Noticing that Athletic goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia was standing close to the edge of his area and unable to adequately cover his goal, the Brazilian midfielder cleverly found the net from nearly half the length of the field.
"Our goalkeeper felt a bit of a fool after that goal but he recovered his poise quickly and made several good saves," said Athletic coach Jose Manuel Esnal.
However, Athletic got three points thanks to former Spanish international striker Ismael Urzaiz, both of whose second half goals were headed home from free kicks.
Athletic, along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, have been ever-present in the Spanish first division since its formation in 1928.
Levante slipped into the bottom three after going down 1-0 at Atletico Madrid with Fernando Torres getting the only goal of the game on the hour from just outside the area.
Fifth-placed Real Zaragoza crashed 1-0 at bottom club Gimnastic Tarragona with Javier Portillo heading Gimnastic in front nine minutes before the end, connecting with a Gil corner.
Two penalties in the last 18 minutes by Racing Santander's Ezequiel Garay, the winner coming just seconds before the end of regulation time, handed nine-man Real Madrid a 2-1 defeat on Saturday.
Real, who opened the scoring through club captain Raul Gonzalez after 33 minutes, had defenders Ivan Helguera and Alvaro Mejia sent off in the final minutes of the game.
Info
Goals
|
F. Navarro (OG) 89'
|
1 - 0 |
Comments (0)