Eurosport - Sun, 13 Sep 05:14:00 2009
Barcelona and Real Madrid both came through tough tests to keep up their perfect starts to the Liga season.
Getafe 0-2 Barcelona
Goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 2-0 away win against Getafe.
The European champions began the match in decidedly lacklustre fashion and Getafe were extremely unlucky not to earn a lead after just 12 minutes as Roberto Soldado - scorer of a hat-trick last week - clattered a stunning drive against the post.
Inspired by the near miss, the home side began to dominate, with Daniel Parejo and Soldado both going close to bagging an opener.
Barcelona were kicking themselves at not going in to half-time with the lead, however, as Ibrahimovic spurned a simple chance with a minute to go before the break as he shot weakly while through on Oscar Utari.
When Getafe started the second half in the same boisterous fashion, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola decided to call on the big names that he had left on the bench, with Messi and Andres Iniesta being introduced just before the hour mark.
And the substitutes had an almost instant impact, finding the space that Barca needed to start cutting open a solid Getafe defence.
Messi was the catalyst for the opening goal, his perfectly-timed pass releasing Eric Abidal on the left to put the ball across the six-yard box, where Ibrahimovic was waiting to glance the ball past the keeper on 66 minutes.
Getafe came close to an equaliser seven minutes later as Soldado drew a good save from Valdes with a long-range effort, but when Messi headed home from Ibrahimovic's cross with 10 minutes left the match was over as a contest.
Espanyol 0-3 Real Madrid
Real Madrid eased to a straightforward 3-0 win over Espanyol at Estadio Cornella-El Prat with goals from Esteban Granero, Guti and Cristiano Ronaldo,
Espanyol dominated early on but Granero's strike before half-time gave the visitors the lead before Guti latched on to a Kaka pass to put the result beyond doubt.
Ronaldo produced a memorable piece of individual brilliance in the final minute to make it two goals in two La Liga games.
Despite their poor start, Real should have gone ahead just five minutes in as a corner came straight to Christoph Metzelder two yards out but incredibly, the defender skied it off his shin and over the bar.
Espanyol began to dominate play after that early chance, however, with Shunsuke Nakamura and Fernandez Luis Garcia going close.
But Granero and Kaka combined with a lovely one-two on 39 minutes and Real were in front.
Espanyol coach Mauricio Pochettino made two changes at half-time to try to get his team back into things, and Ivan de la Pena's inventiveness and work-rate gave the home side a real extra edge.
But De la Pena's long-range efforts were continually hampered by a terrible pitch as were many of Ronaldo's, who entered the fray with 25 minutes left.
On 77 minutes Real increased their lead, Kaka making a brilliant run down the left and cutting the ball back to Guti, who buried his drive in the middle of the net.
There was still time for Ronaldo to cut in towards goal and nutmeg goalkeeper Carlos Kameni from an acute angle to silence the crowd that had jeered him at every chance.
Sevilla 4-1 Zaragoza
Sevilla came out on top in a lively encounter at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan to beat newly-promoted Zaragoza 4-1 and earn their first points of the season.
Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano scored twice for the hosts with Abdoulay Konko and Diego Perotti adding further goals.
Right-back Konko beat the offside trap to open the scoring after just eight minutes, burying a well-timed shot past Zaragoza keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo.
The visitors levelled on 33 minutes as Javier Arizmendi finished off a stunning counter-attack move that saw a brilliant long ball played up by Montana Jorge Lopez and a lovely one-touch header back across to the striker from Ikechukwu Uche.
But Fabiano - who scored twice for his country against Argentina last week - ran on to a flick-on from new Sevilla signing Alvaro Negredo to flip the ball past Carrizo to regain the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Arizmendi appeared to have equalised 11 minutes into the second half after latching on to a through ball and slotting past Andres Palop, but he was harshly adjudged to have been offside.
And just two minutes later there was heartbreak for Zaragoza's travelling fans as Federico Fazio's cross from the right was met on the far side of the box by his Argentine team-mate Perotti, who crashed a perfect half-volley home from an acute angle to put the game beyond the visitors.
All that was left was for Fabiano to add further emphasis to the scoreline as he latched on to the rebound from a Lolo header that had crashed against the bar.
Atletico Madrid 1-1 Santander
Ten-man Santander held on for a draw against Atletico Madrid to give each side their first point of the season.
Jurado had opened the scoring for the hosts on 43 minutes, with Oscar Serrano adding an equaliser in injury time at the end of the first half.
Jose Angel Crespo was sent off just after half-time but the visitors hung on to the draw.
Comment 1 - 18 of 18
You madrid fans are loosers because you don't really see that madrid is a Barca want to be. Just look at the fact how perez wasts madrid to be like Barca. He buys ronaldo to rival Messi. He buys kaka to rival Iniesta. He buys benzema to rival Ibra. He buys alonso to rival Xavi. He buys abiol to rival Pique. He wants madrid to be like Barca. Just look at the way they play, almost similar to Barca, pass, hold possesion and attack, but nowhere near as good as Barca. "madrid is a Barca want to Be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
see my pic.. i'll spell it big in case u guys had a hard time on it..
PUT S H I T IN THE BIN
Awesome goals and passing, only two games in the league, and with Messi and Ibrahimovic still not 100% fit. We will definitely see some spectacular football this season!
@ #10 dixk head Ramo K, first of all there is no more racist club than the facist club of real madrid. Just look at how all the dutch players were. Huntelar came to madrid, and after 6 months he got the boot. Drenthe is being booed by his own madrd racist fans. Snidar when he left, he said he was treaded like shi.....t. Robinho was treated like @#$% too, trying to trade a black player for a white player, ronaldo. Same with Robben, he was treated like shi....t. Last season he was the best player in madrid and now he got the boot because ronaldo came. And for Barca, they trade eto'o because he had attitude problems, remember he was the same eto'o that went publicly and talked bad about Ronaldinho and Rijkard, plus he was demanding more money than Messi. So eto'o had to go, in order to keep the team together. Guardiola wanted Mascherano or Cesc to strength the midfield, because Toure and Keita will go to African Cup for over a month, and also because they loaned out Helb, and gave Gudjohnsen for free because they were not performing good. Mascherano or Cesc was not going to come to replace Toure. If Guardiola wanted to get rid of Toure, he would not have offered Toure a new longer contract. And for Maxwell, he came to replace Sylvinho, because Sylvinho left the club for free, because he was old, and Barca needed another left back because there was only Abidal, and Maxwell did not come to replace Abidal. So for you madrid fans, don't call Barca racist, because you only speaking of madrid, because madrid is the biggest facist/racist team in the world. Madrid are a team runned by royalty, Franco, a facist that was almost as worse as Hitler. And for you Ibra haters that call Ibra a big nose, you only jelous of him. At least Ibra is not like ramos who gets a nose job because he wants to look good for ronaldo if you know what I mean. I can't wait until Barca meets madrid, because we will destroy you once again.
Last time I checked Barca are the Tri-Campeon. So until the madrid wins the la liga, all I have to say is Madrid, Cabron, Saluda el Tri-Campeon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no. 6, Barca had a hard time against Shakhtar Donetsk and your midget Argentinian should've been sent off, what's your point? With that thug Ibrahimovic and that diver Henry (WC2006 against Spain), your front three is full of cheats.
Visca el Barca!!!
Visca el Barca!!!
tell you what, guardila really seems like a racist to me. he got rid of eto`o who is three times better than BIG Nose. and he tried to sign mascherano in place of toure. and he also signed maxwell in place of abidal.
barcelona realmadrid 2009-2010 november game will be 2-1 barcelona will WIN!!!
HALA BARCA!!!!!!!!!!!!
VIVA BARCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FORCA BARCA!!!!!!!!
;-)
Hala Madrid! barca is S***
go espanyol you boo ronaldo.go espanyol
haha...is it??u have hard time against depor in the 1st week...haha...what a joke yaser...
hahahaha thats an impossible idea to barca beat real you can compare it with last night game that how real play how it deffinder how its striker played
please think about another team for barca
Barca the best of the world
I would like to see Barca beat Real everytime they meet!
I think Samuel Eto'o is a better striker than Pinocchio..
doiya
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