La Liga round-up: Ramos secure first win; Atlético overtake Valencia

Updated: 09 May, 2009 • 0 • min read

Table of Contents

Real Madrid

1 - 0

Valencia

Gonzalo Higuaín 4

Juande Ramos secured his first La Liga victory as Real Madrid boss in his second league game in charge thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over 10-man Valencia.

The home side were handed a perfect start as they were ahead after just four minutes. Gonzalo Higuaín scored his 11th league goal of the season from Arjen Robben's pass after the winger taken the ball past Carlos Marchena and Asier del Horno.

The visitors almost fell two goals behind in the 16th minute when Rafael van der Vaart struck the inside of the post with a curling effort following good work by Higuaín.

Van der Vaart then brought another save out of Renan from a free-kick, before Robben squandered a clear chance on 31 minutes.

David Villa then wasted an opportunity in the 36th minute and saw his effort denied by a fine stop from Iker Casillas two minutes later.

Casillas then produced what could be one of the saves of the season to somehow tip Rubén Baraja's close range header onto the post when a goal looked a certainty.

Higuaín rattled the crossbar from close range on the hour, shortly before Marchena was shown a second yellow card for bringing down Robben on the edge of the area.

Guti also blazed a late chance over as Real dominated the remainder of the match aside from several nervous moments in the closing stages.

The win ended Real's run of three straight defeats and moved it up to fifth place while Valencia dropped to third place.

Espanyol

2 - 3

Atlético Madrid

Sergio Sánchez 58

Maxi 7

Valdo 90

Sergio Agüero 81

Maxi 90

In Saturday's late game, Atlético Madrid capitalised on Valencia's defeat by running out 3-2 winners at Espanyol to leapfrog El Che into second place in the table.

And they got off to an ideal start as former Espanyol man Maxi Rodríguez fired the opener after just seven minutes.

Espanyol almost hit back after 14 minutes when Pablo's error let in Jose Callejón, but the forward saw his effort well saved by Atlético keeper Leo Franco.

Sergio Agüero should have doubled the visitors' lead after 33 minutes, but after creditably staying on his feet under pressure from Daniel Jarque he angled his shot just wide of the far post.

Espanyol leveled in the 58th minute when right back Sergio Sánchez latched on to Nicolás Pareja's pass and lashed home past Franco.

However, the visitors regained their advantage nine minutes from time as Agüero bundled the ball home from a difficult angle after Espanyol defenders had blocked his initial two attempts.

Maxi added the crucial third goal with a solo effort in injury time before Espanyol substitute Valdo reduced the deficit with almost the last kick of the match.

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