21.09.2009 10:50
Spanish League Round Up Week 3
Nick Bedson
Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid are the only two teams who've managed to keep up with the pace set by Barca in La Liga with both teams recording their third win of the campaign at the weekend.
Goals flatter Madrid
For more than an hour there were some nervous catcalls and booing at the Bernabeu as despite
a very early Cristiano Ronaldo goal, Madrid were outplayed for long periods by La Liga minnows
Jerez. It needed a flurry of three goals in seven minutes from Ronaldo, Guti and Benzama to see off
Ziganda's brave team and a further late goal from Van Nistelroy, who limped off soon after with a
thigh strain on his return to the team after a 9 month lay off, made it five at the end. That goal
meant that Madrid move above Barca at the top, having scored 11 goals to Barca's 10 in the first
three league games. Bilbao were much more convincing in their 3-2 win over Villareal with Llorente
grabbing two goals and Javi Martinez the third. Despite a goal from Cani and a late strike from
Cazorla, “The Lions” held on to the points in front of an ecstatic San Mames crowd.
Villa brace not enough for Valencia
With Messi and Ibra both on three goals, David Villa joined Cristiano Ronaldo as
the league's leading scorer on 4, but his two for Valencia against Sporting were not enough to take
the points as Gregory stunned the home crowd with a late strike to add to Barral's seventh minute
opener and take a valuable point from the Mestalla. It was an especially deserved draw for Sporting
considering they played more than an hour with 10 men after Michel was sent off on 26 minutes.
Valencia drop to fifth, level on seven points with Mallorca, who beat Tenerife 4-0 on Saturday.
Newly promoted Tenerife ended the game with just 9 men following the sendings off of Luna and Marc
Beltran.
Seville back on form
After their opening day defeat to Valencia, Seville look to have got back in the groove and
their 0-2 win over Osasuna on Saturday saw them move up to sixth. Negredo and Kanoute were on
target for Seville, whilst Osasuna picked up their third red card of the season when Sergio was
sent off late on. With just one point so far, Osasuna find themselves in the drop zone alongside
Atletico Madrid and the pointless Jerez. After their defeat at Bilbao, Villareal are also at the
wrong end of the table, just a point ahead of Osasuna in 17th spot.
First points for Espanyol
Goals from Callejon, Forlin and Verdu gave Espanyol their first points of the campaign with a
2-3 win at Deportivo. The win was particularly sweet for Pochettino who had travelled to Galicia
without a host of his regular players and was forced to bring in a number of youngsters. Two of the
early pacesetters, Getafe and Malaga suffered sobering defeats: Malaga losing 1-2 at home to Racing
and Getafe going down 1-0 in Almeria. In the weekend's other game, Zaragoza were beaten 1-2 by
Valladolid.