FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.10.2009 10:45

Spanish League Round Up Week 7

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There were contrasting fortunes for the two big Madrid teams at the weekend, with Real moving to within a point of Barca after their 4-2 win over Valladolid and Atletico crashing to a 3-0 humiliation in Pamplona.

Worse still were Villarreal who handed Jerez their first win of the season and now lie rooted to the bottom of the table.

Deportivo success built on hard work

At the Bernabeu on Saturday, Raul(2) and Marcelino scored for the hosts in the first half, whilst Nauzel and Marquitos, early in the second, gave the home fans the jitters before Higuain came off the bench to round off the win with a well taken fourth goal. Deportivo continued their fine recent form – unbeaten in their last four games – by seeing off the challenge of Seville with a first half strike from Juan Rodriguez to draw level on 15 points with Manolo Jimenez's team.

Deportivo boss Miguel Angel Lotina has built a solid, if somewhat unspectacular team and summed them up after the game by declaring:”defensively we are very strong, because everybody works hard.. We have to keep our feet on the ground now, we are up at the top not because we are a delicatessen, but because we work hard, we train hard during the week and work like animals for 90 minutes in every game”.

Aduriz on target again for Mallorca

Two points behind Deportivo, Mallorca cruised to a 3-1 win over Getafe thanks to goals by Julio Alvarez and a brace from Aduriz, who's now scored 5 goals, just one behind the league's leading scorer David Villa. Behind Valencia, who are sixth a point adrift of Mallorca, are Sporting Gijon who beat Bilbao 1-2 at San Mames and Espanyol who came from a goal down to defeat Tenerife 2-1 with two goals from Ivan Alonso to stretch their unbeaten run to five games.

Atletico lose again

Osasuna find themselves in the top half of the league after demolishing Atletico Madrid in Pamplona. The visitors, who have taken just 6 points this season and are just a point above the drop zone, were three down after just half an hour thanks to two goals from Walter Pandiani and a third from Aranda and there was no way back after that for a sorry looking Atletico, who rested Forlan ahead of the midweek Champions League game against Chelsea.

Jerez got their first ever win in the top flight by coming back from an early Pires goal to beat Villareal 2-1. Valverde's team are now bottom of the league with just three points, whilst Jerez leapfrog Malaga, who lost 1-2 to Almeria, into 18th spot.

In Saturday's other game, Zaragoza and Racing shared the points at La Romereda where the home team were cruising 2-0 up on 80 minutes, before conceding two late goals to Tchite and Oscar Serrano, hitting the bar themselves and having Ponzio sent off, which means he'll miss next week's trip to the Nou Camp.