La Liga - Racing frustrate winless Barca

Eurosport - Sat, 13 Sep 23:12:00 2008

Substitute Jonathan Pereira's strike earned Racing Santader an unlikely 1-1 draw against Barcelona at Camp Nou after Lionel Messi had come off the bench to put the Catalan side ahead.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 La Liga Barcelona Barcelona-Racing Valdés - 0

The 21-year-old Periera, on loan from La Liga rivals Villarreal, stretched out to poke home Ezequiel Garay's free-kick on 75 minutes and leave Pep Guardiola's Barca with just a solitary point from their opening two matches.

The home side had taken the lead just minutes before, when Messi calmly converted from the penalty spot after Fernandez Christian was correctly adjudged to have handled Andres Iniesta's wicked right-wing cross.

The goal came as welcome relief to the notoriously hard-to-please Barca faithful, whose team were beaten 1-0 away to Numancia in their opening La Liga fixture.

With the equaliser came the white handerchiefs and after Barca had toiled in vain to grab a late winner boos rang out in the stadium and Guardiola was left in no doubt as to the demands of his new tenureship.

In truth the result was harsh on the home side, who dominated throughout and but for the brilliance of Racing 'keeper Antonio Tono would have won at a canter.

Just shy of the hour mark the impressive Pedro met Iniesta's cross with a fierce drive - only to be denied by Tono's instinctive dive.

Samuel Eto'o came closer still on 68 minutes, timing his run perfectly to send a shot on target from barely six yards out. Once again, Tono made the save and Barca were frustrated.

The introduction of Messi as a second-half substitute served to re-invigorate the home side, and after he had put them ahead it looked as though the floodgates would open and Barca fans would leave contented.

Periera took advantage of lax marking to score moments later, however, and leave Barca languising in the bottom half of the table.

One notable absentee from the match was Thierry Henry - for whom Guardiola could not even find a place on the substitutes' bench.

Meanwhile, Frederic Kanoute scored twice to lead Sevilla to a thrilling 4-3 win at home to Sporting Gijon.

The striker netted in the 36th and 60th minutes, adding to goals from Javier Chevanton (22) and Enzo Maresca (37).

A hat-trick from Mate Bilic was not enough for Sporting Gijon, despite them being two up within 20 minutes. Bilic notched in the 18th and 20th minutes and made it 3-3 from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time.

But after Kanoute's second, Sevilla hung on for all three points.

And Atletico Madrid's dream start to the season came to an abrupt end as they lost 2-1 to 10-man Real Valladolid.

Atletico came into the game on the back of consecutive 4-0 victories, but were two goals behind after 30 minutes thanks to Angel Vivar Dorado (four) and a Javier Baraja penalty.

The hosts were reduced to 10 men just minutes before winning the decisive spot-kick when Pedro Lopez received two yellow cards in 10 minutes.

But despite their numerical disadvantage Valladolid were able to hold on even after Argentinian star Sergio Aguero had come off the bench to claw a goal back for Atletico just after half-time.

Will Tidey / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 10 of 10

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  1. you prefered guardiola not mourinho so sufferd now­ :P!!!

    From vikipetrusevska, on Mon 15 Sep 11:51AM
  2. could someone please sack Pep together with his­ godfather laporta n save Barca?!! pep he's clearly­ dumb at Numancia n dumber at Camp Nou. what the hell is­ he doing? he thinks that football is something like­ science experiment by starting with 2 promoted­ youngster?!! leaving messi n iniesta on the bench and­ not even Henry on the subs! yet he said he's­ satisfied and claimed Barca had improved? stupid @#$%!!­ i rather enjoy Barca loosing 4-3 than watching dull 1-1­ draw at home...!

    From carlamms, on Mon 15 Sep 2:57AM
  3. The was no good passes up front, they dominated but­ were unlucky. Thier opponent had good defence. Barce­ need to play more collective football in the attack­ line, that was thier main problem, it does not matter­ who score the goal. They was no Ronnadino with­ excellent passes passes. We hope they will correct­ thier errors in the next game. I wish them the best.

    From agendia j, on Sun 14 Sep 5:19AM
  4. Barca tottaly idiot,REAL MADRID THE TRUE CHAMPION NOT­ THAT CATALAN TEAM!!!!

    From henriroes, on Sun 14 Sep 3:10AM
  5. Barca SUXXXXXXXXX!!!!

    From Shaun S, on Sun 14 Sep 2:27AM
  6. Just 2 games in. I shall keep the faith, but it seems a­ habit for all of the biggest teams across europe to get­ off to @#$% starts. Come on Pep you are beginning to­ make the pre season look like a fluke. Better than this­ ...

    From adrian m, on Sun 14 Sep 1:40AM
  7. not good ,not good

    From Nikola, on Sun 14 Sep 12:54AM
  8. Now whos the problem at Barca? Is it still Eto'o?

    From oviefowe, on Sun 14 Sep 12:44AM
  9. GARAY was incredible, what a great defender. He'll­ be great next session at Real Madrid.

    From Alexander, on Sat 13 Sep 10:53PM
  10. stupid idiots, REAL MADRID the champion, end of story

    From jebomkd, on Sat 13 Sep 9:45PM
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