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One of the most promising European coaches, German Bernhard Schuster, leads the modest Madrid team "Getafe" and continues to be a real nightmare for the leaders of the Spanish championship. On Sunday, in the 24th round of matches, the team from the Spanish capital suburbs played a goalless draw at home against "Sevilla," who are in second place. This was quickly taken advantage of by "Barcelona," who crushed Athletic Bilbao 3-0 at home and became the sole leader of the championship.
Schuster's players confirmed that the "Coliseum" stadium is their fortress: "Getafe" has only conceded three goals at home this year and lost only once, this time stopping even the league's top scorer, Frederic Kanoute.
Successfully taking advantage of Sevilla's stumble, the Barcelona players, who had been sharing first place until then, propelled themselves to the top, defeating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 at home. After a long break, the starting lineup of the Catalan superclub included controversial Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o, who scored a goal.
Barcelona surged ahead in the middle of the first half when Athletic defender Fernando Amorebieta scored an own goal, and seven minutes later, Xavi doubled the lead. S. Eto'o scored the third goal four minutes before the end of the first half.
This victory should ease the tense situation in the Catalan club, which recently lost to Valencia in the Spanish championship and to Liverpool in the Champions League.
Sevilla's failure to capitalize on third place was taken advantage of by Valencia, who returned to third place due to a better goal difference but failed to beat the league's bottom team, Gimnastic Tortosa. The hosts led after a goal by Joaquin in the middle of the second half, but Gimnastic equalized in the second minute of added time with a goal from Ruben Castro.
Barcelona's Espanyol players secured their third consecutive victory, defeating Osasuna 2-0 away this time.
Villarreal ended their three-game losing streak by scoring a goal in injury time to snatch a home victory against Mallorca, moving up to 12th place. Meanwhile, Mallorca dangerously teeters on the brink of relegation.
"Zaragoza" missed the opportunity to overtake Madrid's "Atletico," playing to a draw against "Levante" in Valencia without any goals being scored.
Statistics:
Celta Vigo 2 - 2 Racing Santander
25` [1 - 0] Fernando Baiano (penalty)
33` [2 - 0] Habib Bamogo
55` [2 - 1] Pedro Munitis
79` [2 - 2] Christian Alvarez (penalty)
Getafe 0 - 0 Sevilla
Levante 0 - 0 Zaragoza
90` Inaki Descarga sent off from the field (Levante)
Osasuna 0 - 2 Espanyol
13` [0 - 1] Corominas
65` [0 - 2] Raul Tamudo
76` Corominas sent off from the field
Real Betis 0 - 0 Recreativo Huelva
Villarreal 2 - 1 Mallorca
26` [0 - 1] Guillermo Pereyra
38` [1 - 1] Jon Dahl Tomasson
90` [2 - 1] Fabricio Fuentes
Gimnastic 1 - 1 Valencia
62` [0 - 1] Joaquin
90` [1 - 1] Ruben Castro
Barcelona 3 - 0 Athletic Bilbao
23` [1 - 0] Fernando Amorebieta (own goal)
30` [2 - 0] Xavi
41` [3 - 0] Samuel Eto'o
