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In the first "La Liga" matches of this year in Spain on Saturday, the players of Bilbao "Athletic", who are at the bottom of the tournament table, had to recognize the superiority of La Coruna's "Deportivo" at home, while in the later Barcelona derby, the league leaders "Barcelona" claimed their fifteenth consecutive victory. Recently replacing the coach, one of the most titled Spanish teams "San Mames" stadium lost 1-2 to the opponents. The hosts scored the first goal, but the referee disallowed it for offside. Soon the visitors took the lead - Juan Carlos Valeron struck brilliantly from afar and J. Lacruz, trying to clear the ball, sent it into his own goal. In the middle of the second half, the hosts managed to equalize - after a great pass from the right side by Joseba Etxeberria, Ismael Urzaiz headed the ball into the goal. However, soon a serious mistake by the "Athletic" goalkeeper cost the Basques a point in this match - during a scramble in the penalty area, Arizmendi weakly sent the ball towards the goal, which slipped past the legs of the "Athletic" goalkeeper. After this victory, "Deportivo" temporarily rose to third place in the tournament table. In the Barcelona derby, the league leaders had to work hard to beat the last-placed "Espanyol". Due to the rain on the very wet pitch, it was difficult for the technical players of "Barcelona" to play, so the first goal into the "Espanyol" goal fell only at the very end of the first half: Deco, deceiving the defenders, struck into Carlos Kameni's goal and the ball, bouncing off the wet grass, flew into the goal. Early in the second half, "Barcelona" doubled their lead thanks to the most productive player in the Spanish championship, Samuel Eto'o, who received a great pass from Ronaldinho and sent the ball past C. Kameni. Just five minutes later, in a similar situation, S. Eto'o could have scored a third goal, but then C. Kameni rushed to the ball first. Midway through the second half, the Portuguese Deco collided with his teammate Thiago Motta and received an elbow to the face, he was carried off the field and later spent the night in the hospital fearing a concussion. Soon Raul Tamudo gave hope to the "Espanyol" fans, when he received the ball from the right side and beat Juliano Belleti's defense and sent the ball into Victor Valdes' goal. However, until the end of the match, the hosts failed to create anything very dangerous, while S. Eto'o's long and accurate shot was well saved by C. Kameni. It is worth mentioning that in this match, the referee showed nine yellow cards: six to the "Espanyol" players and three to "Barcelona". This was already the fifteenth consecutive victory for "Barcelona" this season in all tournaments. Saturday results 1 - 2 La Coruna 26' [0 - 1] Jose Maria Lacruz (own goal) 57' [1 - 1] Ismael Urzaiz 63' [1 - 2] Arizmendi Barcelona 1 - 2 44' [0 - 1] Deco 47' [0 - 2] Samuel Eto'o 60' [1 - 2] Raul Tamudo Top scorers 1. Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona) - 18 goals; 2-3. David Villa (Valencia) - 10; 2-3. Ronaldinho (Barcelona) - 10; 4-5. Ronaldo (Real Madrid) - 9; 4-5. Diego Tristan (Deportivo) - 9; 6-7. Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal) - 7; 6-7. Fernando Baiano (Celta) - 7. Tournament table
