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On Sunday, 12th round matches were played in Spain. Four matches stood out for the abundance of goals: in Tarragona, "Gimnastic" lost 2-3 to "Mallorca", in Pamplona, "Osasuna" defeated La Coruna's "Deportivo" 4-3, in Santander, local "Racing" also won 4-3 against Huelva's "Recreativo", and the last round of matches in Bilbao ended with a 3-1 victory for "Sevilla".
The central match took place in Valencia, where the local "Valencia" had to admit the minimal advantage of Madrid's "Real" due to an injury crisis. The only goal of the match was scored in the beginning of the second half through a beautiful attack by the captain of the Royal club, Raul.
In the intense matches, the home teams often dominated, but lacked accuracy in front of goal. The guests took advantage of this, finishing one of the rare attacks with precision, as it later turned out, a winning strike: after a perfect pass from the defender Roberto Carlos from the back line, Raul sent the ball to the net from about 8 meters.
On Sunday, "Zaragoza", holding the fourth position, lost points with a 1-1 draw against Vigo's "Celta". The match in Seville also ended in a similar result, where the crisis-ridden local "Betis" failed to beat Barcelona's "Espanyol". The Sevilla club, which played in the UEFA Champions League a few years ago, took the lead after the first half thanks to Roberto's converted penalty, but "Espanyol" forward Walter Pandiani equalized during the final attack in the fourth minute of added time.
One of the matches on Sunday ended goalless - in the meeting between teams of similar strength, Madrid's "Getafe" and Valencia's "Levante" failed to score.
In the latest match between "Athletic Bilbao" and "Sevilla", the result became more or less clear by the 10th minute, when the guests took a 2-0 lead with a goal by Luis Fabiano and an own goal by Jose Luis Marti.
Although forward Aritz Aduriz softened the result with a goal around 20 minutes until the end of the match, the victory was firmly secured in added time by L.Fabiano, who scored a second goal.
After the 12th round, the top five positions in the table remained unchanged, but the first three teams that won with a two-point difference distanced themselves from the fourth and fifth place teams - "Zaragoza" and "Atletico" who lost points.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, there was a small shuffle - San Sebastian's "Real Sociedad" players moved up from 20th place based on their goal difference, pushing down Tarragona's "Gimnastic" eleven which had already tasted victory.
Statistics:
"Valencia" 0 - 1 Madrid "Real"
52' [0 - 1] Raul
