FCBARCELONA.CAT

31.08.2009 10:25

Spanish League Round Up – Round 1

Nick Bedson

Two of the sides hoping to break the big two teams’ monopoly on the Spanish League suffered sobering defeat s in their first games, whilst Real Madrid, Getafe, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Mallorca all began with wins.

Bad starts for Seville and Atletico Madrid

Goals from Mata and Pablo Hernandez gave Valencia a 2-0 win over Seville, who had Kanoute sent off just before half time. Seviille boss Manolo Jimenez reckoned the sending off was key to his team’s defeat and also bemoaned the injury to Romaric which he put down to the poor state of the pitch “it was in a terrible state and shouldn’t be allowed at this level”.

Atletico Madrid also crashed to defeat going down 3-0 at Malaga where their manager Abel was himself shown the red card. Real Madrid’s star studded collection nearly came unstuck themselves, needing a great strike from Lass to give them the three points at the Bernabeu against a Deportivo team who were unlucky to go down 3-2 Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo were on target for the hosts, whilst Riki and Valeron scored or the visitors.
First hat trick for Soldado

Getafe got the biggest win of the weekend with a 1-4 win over Racing at Santander with Soldado notching up the first hat trick of the season. Bilbao also began with a win, inching past Espanyol in a dour game at San Mames thanks to a goal from Torquero.

Tough welcome to top flight

It was an unhappy start to life in the top flight for Jerez, who were well beaten by Mallorca- Leandro Giona was sent off in the first half for the newcomers and second half strikes from Aduriz and Tuni gave the islanders the points. Fellow new boys Tenerife also went down away from home, beaten 1-0 by Zaragoza who marked their return to La Lliga with an Arzimendi goal to take their first three points.

Points shared in Almeria and Pamplona

There were two draws in the first weekend: Almeria and Valladolid both failing to score – Nivaldo was sent off for the visitors after just 10 minutes – while Osasuna were held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal in Pamplona with Cazorla on target for the visitors on the half hour before Pandiani struck for Camacho’s team five minutes later.