Goals from Ronaldo and Raul Gonzalez ensured that Real Madrid stayed on course to retain their Spanish league title with a 2-1 win over Deportivo la Coruna on Sunday.
Raul maintained Real’s perfect home record in the league this season with the winner five minutes from time.
”The work of Raul was very important for us. Today we saw a fantastic Raul, and when he’s on form he’s almost certain to score,” said Real coach Carlos Queiroz.
”In the first half, we played some of the best football of the season and we could have scored more goals. In the second half, we had the ball less and suffered unnecessarily.
”With the game at 1-0, I think we might have felt that we had got to grips with Deportivo, but that wasn’t the case,” reflected Queiroz.
In a thrilling game Raul and Deportivo’s Alberto Luque had goals disallowed for dubious reasons before Ronaldo opened the scoring seconds before half-time.
Zinedine Zidane sent in a long cross from out on the left wing and the Frenchman’s inch-perfect cross found the Brazilian World Cup winner in front of goal.
Deportivo equalised just after the hour mark when Sergio Gonzalez provided a long-range defence-splitting pass for Walter Pandiani to latch on to and the Uruguayan striker found the net with a perfect finish.
The Galican visitors then looked set for a share of the points until Raul’s late strike.
Apart from Raul, Deportivo goalkeeper Francisco Molina had good claims to be the unofficial man of the match.
The former Spanish international was not to blame for Real’s two goals and produced an outstanding display, including a point-blank save from Oscar Minambres in injury time, to press his claims for a recall ahead of the Euro 2004 finals.
However, the game ended on a sour note when Real’s David Beckham and Deportivo’s Lionel Scaloni started a pushing match after the whistle had blown.
The pair hand tangled minutes earlier, earning each a yellow card, with the Deportivo winger lucky not to get sent off for attempting to stamp on the England captain.
Real now have 36 points from 16 games, two ahead of Valencia who won 1-0 at Real Betis on Sunday thanks to an own goal from Betis
defender Juanito Gutierrez.
The 17th-minute blunder will be of little consolation to Juanito, but Valencia still deserved the three points.
”I have got to give my players 10 out of 10 for for the their effort and work rate. This has been a week when we have hardly had time to catch our breath,” said Valencia coach Rafa Benitez.
Osasuna continued their impressive start to the season with a 0-0 away draw at Racing Santander to consolidate fourth place.
Pierre Webo looked to have got the late winner for Osasuna with a spectacular overhead shot just before the whistle but it was disallowed for apparent dangerous play.
However, the Pamplona-based side may yet be awarded the win as Racing had four non-European Union players on the pitch for two minutes.
The Spanish football federation has historically taken a tough stance on such infractions and on two similar occasions in the last decade the offending side has forfeited the game.
At the other end of the table, Albacete eased their relegation fears with their first away win of the season, winning 1-0 at fellow strugglers Real Zaragoza.
Mikel Aguirre got the only goal of the game after Zaragoza ‘keeper Raul Valbeuna had fumbled an attempt to gather in a Libero Parri free kick.
Real Mallorca’s five-game winning streak came to an end at Malaga as the Costa del Sol side ran out 3-1 winners over their visitors from the Balearics. Murcia got a useful away point with a 0-0 away draw at Valladolid but remain second from bottom. — Sapa-AFP