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On Saturday in Spain, three matches of the 13th round of "La Liga" were played. Surprising results were recorded in Valencia and Huelva: in the first city, "Levante" managed to draw 1-1 with "Barcelona", in Huelva "Recreativo" defeated "Valencia" 2-0, and "Atletico" took a victory from Seville.
Playing without their leader Ronaldinho, who was focused on the crucial UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday, "Barcelona" paid for their careless defense.
The Spanish and European champions, who started the match slowly, faced a stronger response from the hosts, among whom the most dangerous seemed to be Dutch forward Mustapha Riga. He had the most real opportunity to put "Levante" ahead when, in the middle of the first half during a counterattack, three Valencia players found themselves in front of two opponents, but the Dutchman failed to control the final pass and his shot was successfully blocked by Victor Valdes.
At the end of the first half, Portuguese Deco earned and successfully converted a penalty, which was awarded after a minor mistake.
The hosts started the second half more actively, forcing V. Valdes to work through M. Riga and Laurent Courtois. The most real chance in the second half for "Barcelona" came when veteran Santiago Ezquerro sent a shot from more than 30 meters towards "Levante"'s goalkeeper Jose Molina, but the ball somehow hit the crossbar.
The dull game of "Barcelona" allowed the hosts to secure a point in the match against the league leaders: the strong Frenchman Oliver Kapo's penalty kick was missed by V. Valdes, and Alvaro was the first to react to the rebound into the goal.
Meanwhile, in Huelva, another surprising result was recorded: although the injury-stricken and struggling "Valencia" cannot boast good results lately, few expected that "Recreativo", returning to "La Liga" after a long break, would confidently beat one of the favorites before the season.
"Recreativo" took the lead in the first minute when Aitor scored. Despite "Valencia" having territorial advantage, and in the middle of the second half deciding to take risks by replacing defenders with attacking players, "Recreativo" secured the victory with less than ten minutes left to play when the Frenchman Florent Sinama-Pongolle scored.
Late on Saturday evening, there was a match in Seville, where the underperforming "Betis" hosted the ambitious footballers of Atletico Madrid. In this match, there were no major surprises, and after the only goal scored by Luciano Galletti, the visitors from the capital celebrated a victory, allowing them to overtake "Zaragoza" and rise to fourth place in the standings. However, "Betis" can only blame themselves for the defeat: in the second half, two players - Edu and Fernando - failed to convert the penalties awarded by the referee - both times, "Atletico" goal was protected by the match's star goalkeeper Leo Franco.
Statistics:
Valencia "Levante" 1 - 1 "Barcelona"
41` [0 - 1] Deco
77` [1 - 1] Alvaro
Huelva "Recreativo" 2 - 0 "Valencia"
1` [1 - 0] Aitor
82` [2 - 0] Florent Sinama Pongolle
Seville "Betis" 0 - 1 Atletico "Madrid"
33' [0 - 1] Luciano Galletti
League Standings:
