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On Sunday in the 23rd round of the Spanish championship, the leader "Barcelona" suffered a loss - in a tough match away, they lost 2-1 to the "Valencia" team. Both teams ended the match with ten players after a fight broke out in the middle of the second half. Although the home team started the match more actively at the "Mestalla" stadium, "Barcelona", as usual, quickly took control of the ball and kept it until the end of the match, but this did not help the European champions celebrate a victory. At the start of the match, Spain's national team striker David Villa missed two chances, and "Barcelona" responded with a very dangerous attack in the middle of the first half when Eidur Gudjohnsen in the heat of the attack missed the goal. "Valencia" almost broke ahead before the break, but a few minutes after David Albelda's pass, Miguel Angel Angulo missed the goal. However, a great start to the second half allowed "Valencia" to celebrate victory: David Villa, who outsmarted the "Barca" defense, made a pass to Miguel Angel Angulo, who, after bypassing Rafael Marquez, defeated Victor Valdes. A few minutes later, luck saved the home team's goal from a goal when Ronaldinho missed the ball. But the unwritten football rule "if you don't score, they will" came true, and during another attack, M. Angulo broke through on the right flank, crossed the ball into the penalty area, where Valdes deflected it, but the ball bounced back to M. Angulo, who made a pass to the young Spanish national team defender David Silva, who scored into the empty goal. A few minutes later, "Valencia" almost made the result crushing, but Fernando Morientes embarrassingly missed the goal, not showing his usual game in recent times. During the middle of the second half, a fight broke out in the middle of the field, after which the referee showed a red card to both teams' players: D. Albelda and Deco. After this episode, the game on the field was in a deadlock, and "Barcelona" practically did not create any dangerous attacks until the end of the match when in added time the Brazilian Ronaldinho softened the result with a great penalty kick. The victory was quickly taken advantage of by "Sevilla", who beat Madrid's "Atletico" 3-1 in the last round, leveling points with "Barcelona". Sevilla's players played with ten men from the 36th minute when the score was already 2-0, but this did not prevent them from increasing the lead, and "Atletico" reduced the lead when after Fernando Torres's missed penalty kick, defender Pablo Ibanez rushed first to the ball.
Statistics
Sevilla 3 - 1 Madrid "Atletico" 15` [1 - 0] Frederic Kanoute 22` [2 - 0] Daniel Alves 73` [3 - 0] Frederic Kanoute 82` [3 - 1] Pablo Ibanez 36` Marti ("Sevilla") sent off
Valencia 2 - 1 "Barcelona" 52` [1 - 0] Miguel Angel Angulo 55` [2 - 0] David Silva 90` [2 - 1] Ronaldinho 62` Deco ("Barcelona") sent off 62` David Albelda ("Valencia") sent off
Bilbao "Athletic" 2 - 0 Madrid "Getafe" 30` [1 - 0] Aritz Aduriz 50` [2 - 0] Aritz Aduriz
La Coruna "Deportivo" 0 - 0 Valencia "Levante"
Pamplona "Osasuna" 0 - 1 Vigo "Celta" 2` [0 - 1] Fernando Baiano 41` Fabian Canobbio ("Celta") sent off
Santander "Racing" 4 - 1 Tarragona "Gimnastic" 59` [0 - 1] Tobias Grahn 60` [1 - 1] Lionel Scaloni 67` [2 - 1] Anibal Matellan (own goal) 75` [3 - 1] Gonzalo Colsa 83` [4 - 1] Nikola Zigic
Barcelona "Espanyol" 3 - 1 "Mallorca" 29` [1 - 0] Luis Garcia 44` [1 - 1] Bosko Jankovic 79` [2 - 1] Luis Garcia 90` [3 - 1] Eduardo Costa
Huelva "Recreativo" 1 - 0 San Sebastian "Real Sociedad" 49` [1 - 0] Beto
Top Scorers
1. Frederic Kanoute ("Sevilla") - 18 goals; 2. Ronaldinho ("Barcelona") - 16; 3. Diego Milito ("Zaragoza") - 15; 4. Ruud van Nistelrooy ("Real") - 11; 5. David Villa ("Valencia") - 10; 6-7. Fernando Morientes ("Valencia") - 9; 6-7. Fernando Baiano ("Celta") - 9.
League Table
