© EuroFootball.com
On Saturday, at home, the Madrid "Real" footballers crushed their opponents 3-0 and secured their sixth consecutive victory in the Spanish championship. However, the championship leaders "Barcelona" did not lag behind, demolishing Seville's "Betis" footballers 5-1 at home and maintaining a seven-point lead over the Royal club.
In the match at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium, the hosts took the lead as early as the sixth minute, when the Spaniard Guti, returning from injury, scored a goal from outside the penalty area after a pass from Robinho. Five minutes later, Robinho himself doubled the score - after an impressive shot by Julio Baptista, the ball rebounded from the crossbar straight to Robinho's feet and he sent the ball into the far corner of the goal without error. As the match neared the end, Brazilian Cicinho, who came on as a substitute, scored the third goal by outsmarting a defender and beating the goalkeeper after a pass from newcomer Antonio Cassano.
In this match, captain Raul returned to the field in the 66th minute after a three-month break due to injury, replacing Julio Baptista.
The return of the world's best player, Ronaldinho, inspired "Barcelona", who did not hesitate against the "Betis" footballers at the bottom of the tournament table. Completely dominating the match, the hosts took the lead in the 17th minute, as a great pass from Ronaldinho found Samuel Eto'o free on the right side of the penalty area, who easily passed the ball to Henrik Larsson, who only had to send the ball into the goal from a few meters away.
The second goal against "Betis" came after more than ten minutes, and Ronaldinho was the "culprit" as he passed the ball to Samuel Eto'o from the left, but Seville's defender Juan Alberto Melli, in an attempt to clear the ball out of bounds, deflected the ball into his own goal. Just five minutes later, a bizarre goal was scored against "Betis": after Ronaldinho's penalty kick hit the goalpost, the ball bounced off J.A. Melli's back and rolled into the far corner of the goal. The goal was credited to Ronaldinho, who took the penalty kick.
Ronaldinho managed to score a second goal - in the beginning of the second half, he disarmed the "Betis" goalkeeper with a great penalty kick. Although a fantastic penalty kick from more than twenty meters softened the score a few minutes later by Joaquin, young prodigy Lionel Messi restored the four-goal lead for "Barcelona" at the end of the match. Seizing the ball after a defensive error, S. Eto'o entered the penalty area and passed the ball to the Argentine, who defeated the "Betis" goalkeeper on his second attempt.
In other Saturday matches, "Villarreal" crushed Barcelona's "Espanyol" footballers 4-0. Even without their team leader Juan Romano Riquelme, "The Yellow Submarine" left no hope for the "Espanyol" footballers in this match and eagerly await the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal match against Glasgow "Rangers" next week.
Only Javier Saviola's goal at the beginning of the match allowed "Sevilla" to secure a victory against Vigo "Celta" and rise to fifth place in the tournament table.
Saturday's statistics: Madrid 3 - 0 Vitoria 6' [1 - 0] Guti 11' [2 - 0] Robinho 77' [3 - 0] Cicinho 4 - 0 Barcelona 24' [1 - 0] Alessio Tacchinardi 36' [2 - 0] Marcos Senna 38' [3 - 0] Diego Forlan 82' [4 - 0] Hector Font 5 - 1 Seville 17' [1 - 0] Henrik Larsson 29' [2 - 0] Melli (own goal) 34' [3 - 0] Ronaldinho 59' [4 - 0] Ronaldinho 62' [4 - 1] Joaquin 85' [5 - 1] Lionel Messi 1 - 0 Vigo 11' [1 - 0] Javier Saviola Tournament table
