Real Madrid's flawless start to the season came to an end with a 1-1 draw away to mid-table Valladoid on Sunday.
Pedro Lopez put Valladoid ahead in the 69th minute with a stunning 30-yard drive which had Iker Casillas clutching at thin air.
However late substitute Javier Saviola equalized for the visitors just four minutes from the end of the match following an assist from Ruud van Nistelrooy, amid Valladolid claims that the goal was offside.
PHOTO: AFP
Real, who defeated Werder Bremen 2-1 in the Champions League last Tuesday, now have 10 points under new German coach Bernd Schuster, one point ahead of both Valencia and arch rivals Barcelona, who defeated Sevilla 2-1 on Saturday.
"I am not surprised. I knew we were going to suffer and in the end we have to content ourselves with one point," Schuster told reporters after the match when asked if he was caught off-guard by Valladoid's strong performance.
UEFA Cup contenders Atletico Madrid, who outspent all their league neighbors bar Real when buying new talent in the pre-season, claimed their first win of the season defeating 10-man Racing Santander 4-0.
PHOTO: AFP
Midfielder Raul Garcia opened the scoring against Racing, who had yet to lose a match this season, from the edge of the area in the 12th minute.
Argentina's Sergio Aguero, Uruguay's Diego Forlan and Portugal's Simao Sabrosa, who came on as a substitute, added three more goals for Atletico after Racing lost midfielder Jordi Lopez to a red card in the 65th minute.
"If we continue along these lines we will be a fighting force. The team was very well positioned," Atletico's Mexican coach Javier Aguirre said.
Champions League hopefuls Valencia extended their winning streak in La Liga with a 2-1 away win over Real Betis, their third consecutive league victory.
Valencia's Portuguese international Miguel, who earlier this week extended his contract with the club until 2012, opened the scoring in the 69th minute with a powerful low drive.
Former Betis star Joaquin Sanchez made it 2-0 for Valencia seven minutes from time but did not celebrate even as he got a standing ovation from the stands.
The 26-year-old, who spent seven years at the club, had said before the match that scoring against Betis would "be the saddest goal."
Four minutes later Rafael Sobis scored for Betis with a long ball over the top that ended up being nothing more than a consolation goal.
Villarreal, who have had one of their strongest-ever starts to a season, beat Murcia 2-0 at home with two goals in the dying moments of the match from Giuseppe Rossi.
Rossi teamed up with Guille Franco to open the scoring in the 85th minute and netted a second goal four minutes later with an assist from Matias Fernandez.
UEFA Cup contenders Zaragoza claimed their first win of the season with a 2-1 defeat of Osasuna with goals from Matuzalem and Diego Milito.
Athletic Bilbao defeated minnows Levante 2-1 with two goals from Aritz Aduriz.
Getafe and Deportivo Coruna were held to a goalless draw while Almeria and Mallorca drew 1-1.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS