FCBARCELONA.CAT

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.