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On Saturday, the leaders of the Spanish championship had completely different outcomes in the 27th round: the first-placed "Barcelona" crushed the local "Recreativo" 4-0 in Huelva, while the third-placed "Valencia" shamefully lost 2-0 at home to Santander's "Racing" players.
The Cameroonian national team forward Samuel Eto'o, who had recovered from injury, played excellently in the match in Huelva, scoring two goals in the first half - one before and one after Italian Gianluca Zambrotta's goal.
Young Argentine Lionel Messi scored the fourth goal as the match drew to a close, helping "Barcelona" secure their first away win in the last eight attempts.
"Valencia" suffered a painful blow at home, losing to "Racing" players. In the middle of the first half, after a pass from Serbian Nikola Zigic, Pedro Munitis scored with an impressive strike, while in the middle of the second half, defender Oriol secured the victory with a header against the visibly inferior home team.
In other Saturday matches, "Mallorca" scored two, later revealed to be the only goals, in the first three minutes against Seville's "Betis" and celebrated a crucial victory in the fight for survival in the league.
In the last Saturday matches, "Osasuna" crushed Bilbao's "Athletic" 3-0 away, despite the latter showing better gameplay.
Statistics
"Mallorca" 2 - 0 Seville's "Betis" 1` [1 - 0] Guillermo Pereyra 3` [2 - 0] Juan Arango
Huelva's "Recreativo" 0 - 4 "Barcelona" 3` [0 - 1] Samuel Eto'o 40` [0 - 2] Gianluca Zambrotta 42` [0 - 3] Samuel Eto'o 86` [0 - 4] Lionel Messi
"Valencia" 0 - 2 "Racing Santander" 20` [0 - 1] Pedro Munitis 63` [0 - 2] Oriol
Bilbao "Athletic" 0 - 3 Pamplona's "Osasuna" 30` [0 - 1] Inaki Munoz (penalty) 47` [0 - 2] David Lopez 72` [0 - 3] Jose Izquierdo
90` Aritz Aduriz ("Athletic") sent off the field.
Tournament table
