Barcelona threw away two vital points in a 1-1 home draw with Racing Santander on Saturday as the Spanish giants slumped to their worst league start in 35 years.
Argentine winger Lionel Messi converted a 70th-minute penalty, but Barca failed to take advantage and Jonathan Pereira equalized six minutes later to deny the hosts victory.
One point from six is a woeful start for coach Pep Guardiola who will expect better when Barcelona start their Champions League campaign tomorrow with a home match against Sporting Lisbon.
PHOTO: AP
“I can’t criticize the players as I am very happy with their attitude,” Guardiola said. “Football is the only sport where you can win without having any real shots on goal. Our opponents [Numancia in the first game and Racing] have hardly threatened our goal, but have still taken five points from us.”
Guardiola was clearly unhappy with the opening 1-0 defeat by Numancia and showed he is not afraid to make big decisions by dropping Thierry Henry.
Bojan Krkic, Andres Iniesta and Messi all started on the substitutes bench — probably because of their international exertions — making way for the lesser known Sergi Busquets, 20, and 21-year-old striker Pedro “Pedrito” Rodriguez.
Gerard Pique, recruited from Manchester United in the summer, also made his debut in defense.
Substitute Messi — recently criticized by his hero Diego Maradona for being too greedy — broke the deadlock with a spot-kick.
However, Pereira restored parity, deflecting in a drilled free-kick to prompt jeers at the Camp Nou.
Atletico Madrid are also in Champions League action tomorrow at PSV Eindhoven — their first game in the competition since the 1996-1997 season — but their preparations were spoiled by a 2-1 defeat at 10-man Valladolid.
“We committed two errors that were avoidable and they led to two goals,” Atletico coach Javier Aguirre said. “It is a step backward, but we have to forget it and start from scratch again to focus on Tuesday’s match.”
Atletico Madrid paid the price for the international break with Uruguayan Diego Forlan unavailable after arriving back late from the World Cup qualifiers.
Defender Jonny Heitinga was also injured on international duty with the Netherlands, forcing Aguirre to ring the changes.
Valladolid took full advantage of Atletico’s makeshift side scoring after just three minutes through Vivar Dorado.
On 21 minutes Valladolid had Pedro Lopez sent off for two cautionable offenses, but the hosts still went two goals up seven minutes later through a penalty.
Substitute Kun Aguero pulled one back, but Valladolid bravely held on.
Sevilla nudged Atletico from top spot after a superb 4-3 victory over Sporting Gijon in Saturday’s late game.
Sporting went 2-0 up inside the first 20 minutes, but Sevilla stormed back with quick-fire goals from Ernesto Chevanton after 21 minutes, Freddy Kanoute in the 36th minute and Enzo Maresca a minute later, to put the hosts in front.
The scoring did not end there though, with Mate Bilic converting a penalty close to halftime for his second goal as a thrilling goal-packed half ended 3-3. Kanoute scored the only goal of the second half to push Sevilla to the league summit.
“It was a crazy game, but it is an important three points for us and that is what matters,” Kanoute said.
Spanish La Liga
TEAM P GD PTS
1 Sevilla 2 1 4
2 Atletico Madrid 2 3 3
3 Valencia 1 3 3
4 Almeria 1 2 3
5 Deportivo La Coruna 1 1 3
6 Getafe 1 1 3
7 Espanyol 1 1 3
8 Numancia 1 1 3
9 Recreativo Huelva 1 1 3
10 Valladolid 2 0 3
11 Racing Santander 2 0 2
12 Osasuna 1 0 1
13 Villareal 1 0 1
14 Barcelona 2 -1 1
15 Real Madrid 1 -1 0
16 Real Betis 1 -1 0
17 Sporting Gijon 2 -2 0
18 Athletic Bilbao 1 -2 0
19 Mallorca 1 -3 0
20 Malaga 1 -4 0
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB