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On Sunday, the 12th round of matches of "La Liga" took place in Spain. The victories were achieved by Vitoria's "Alaves", "Valencia", "Malaga", Vigo's "Celta", La Coruna's "Deportivo", and Barcelona's "Espanyol" clubs.
The 2004 champion "Valencia" struggled hard for victory, with Vicente's goal in the 81st minute being the only goal to defeat "Cadiz" away. At the end of the first half, the match referee did not count a goal scored by Jonathan with his hand. In the 65th minute, Spain's national team and "Valencia" defender Carlos Marchena was sent off the field for a second yellow card, but soon after, "Cadiz" forward Oli received a red card for a violent foul against Rufete. With the strength equalized, the winning goal was scored in the 81st minute by Vicente, with a precise penalty kick.
Meanwhile, crisis continues for Bilbao's "Athletic". The Basque team, who recently changed coach, this time lost 2-0 at home in front of 36,000 spectators to Vitoria's "Alaves" players. Brazil's Nene took advantage of a defensive mistake to lead the visitors in the 7th minute. Although soon after, a shot by Ismael Urzaizo's head bounced off the post, and in the 83rd minute the Basques could have equalized after the referee awarded a penalty kick for handball against Jandro, but goalkeeper Francisco Yeste missed the shot above the goal. For this, they were punished, and in the 90th minute, Rodolfo Bodipo secured the victory by scoring a goal after Nene's cross.
Unexpectedly, "Malaga" defeated the higher-ranked "Real Sociedad" team with a significant result. Three unanswered goals in 15 minutes of the second half were scored by C.Navas, A.Hidalgo, and Edgar, with the visitors' forward Oscar de Paula softening the result in the 80th minute.
On the other hand, the Barcelona "Espanyol", which was in the second-to-last place in the standings before this round, convincingly defeated the "Mallorca" team, which played unimpressively this year, with a score of 2-0. Goals in the first half were scored by Raul Tamudo, converting a penalty he earned, and Luis Garcia, redirecting a pass from Ivano de la Peno into the goal. "Mallorca's" hopes to secure at least one point collapsed in the 86th minute when the Italian Cristiano Doni was shown a red card off the field.
In an intriguing duel, after a year's break, Vigo "Celta" returned to "La Liga" and defeated Madrid's "Atletico" team 2-1 at home. The hosts took the lead in the middle of the first half when goalkeeper Leo Franco failed to take the ball from the most effective "Celta" player Fernando Baiano, who sent the ball into the net on the second attempt. In the second half, in the 53rd minute, Uruguayan Nestoras Fabian Canobbio scored a goal with a penalty kick from 25 meters. Although shortly after, Spain's national team defender Antonio Lopez reduced the deficit and brought back the intrigue into the match, the visitors did not have enough time in regular time and additional five minutes added by the referee to secure at least a point. After this victory, "Celta" rose to third place in the standings, which provides a ticket to the UEFA Champions League, where "Celta" played two years ago.
In the last match of the twelfth round, which took place late in the evening, La Coruna's "Deportivo" easily dealt with Santander's "Racing" team away with a score of 0-3. The visitors took the lead in the 16th minute when Diego Tristan redirected a pass from defender Joano Capdevila into the goal. At the start of the second half, Pedro Munitis doubled the score with a precise penalty kick, and in the 73rd minute, Uruguayan Sebastian Taborda put the final point in the match by heading the ball from Juano Carlos Valeron into the goal.
This defeat extended "Racing Santander's" winless streak to 8 matches. However, "Deportivo" became the first team this season to score three goals against "Racing Santander". Prior to this, in eleven rounds, the Santander players had only conceded 8 goals - only the "Sevilla" players have conceded fewer, pulling the ball out of their net only 6 times.
