La Liga round-up: Barcelona crash to derby defeat; Real cut gap

Updated: 09 May, 2009 • 0 • min read

Table of Contents

Barcelona

1 - 2

Espanyol

Yaya Touré 62

Iván De la Peña 50

Iván De la Peña 55

Rock bottom Espanyol stunned Catalan derby rivals Barcelona 2-1 with their first victory at the Camp Nou in nearly 27 years.

Barça began brightly and Thierry Henry should have given his side the lead eight minutes later, but he inexplicably headed over the bar at the far post from Lionel Messi's pinpoint cross.

Barcelona, who last lost in the league against Numancia, 22 games ago, were reduced to 10 men on 38 minutes after Seydou Keita was sent off for a rash challenge on Moisés Hurtado.

Now a man down, Pep Guardiola sacrificed an attacker, Henry, for a midfielder, Sergio Busquets, at the break.

But they fell behind five minutes after the interval as Iván De la Peña took advantage of the extra space to sit unmarked at the far post and nodded home Nene's cross from close range.

The visitors doubled the lead on 55 minutes when Víctor Valdés sloppily passed directly to De la Peña and the former Barcelona player sent a long-range chip into the top corner.

Yaya Touré pulled a goal back for the home side seven minutes later, pouncing on a rebound and crashing a powerful left-foot shot past Carlos Kameni on the turn.

Barcelona began to take more risks late on but saw chances from Eiður Guðjohnsen and Daniel Alves cleared in the dying moments.

Real Madrid

6 - 1

Real Betis

Gonzalo Higuaín 7

Ricardo Oliveira 30

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 15

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 24

Raúl 36

Raúl 42

Sergio Ramos 45

Real Madrid reduced the gap with Barcelona to seven points after thumping Real Betis 6-1 with a stunning first-half display at the Bernabéu.

Gonzalo Higuaín opened the scoring in the seventh minute as the in-form Argentinian coolly rounded Ricardo before slotting home his 14th league goal of the season.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar made it 2-0 on 15 minutes when goalkeeper Ricardo made a mess of Marcelo's cross and the Dutchman pounced to ram in the loose ball.

The former Ajax hitman scored again in the 24th minute as he lashed the ball home at the second attempt after Ricardo had somehow managed to tip his initial header onto the crossbar.

Ricardo Oliveira pulled a goal back for Betis six minutes later when the Brazilian unleashed a 25-yard rocket into the bottom corner of the net.

But Real's all-time leading scorer Raúl responded with a brace, producing superb first-time shots to finish off passes from Marcelo and Fernando Gago.

Defender Sergio Ramos completed the rout on the stroke of half-time as he powered a header past the helpless Ricardo.

Elsewhere in La Liga on Sunday:

Sevilla