Barcelona move top as Real Madrid struggle
A sparkling 3-0 win at home to Real Mallorca took Barcelona top of the Spanish first division on Wednesday as Real Madrid's poor domestic form continued with a 4-2 defeat at Las Palmas.
A sparkling 3-0 win at home to Real Mallorca took Barcelona top of the Spanish first division on Wednesday as Real Madrid's poor domestic form continued with a 4-2 defeat at Las Palmas.
While Barca maintained their unbeaten start to the season in some style, Real slumped to their third defeat with a dreadful second-half display.
Vicente del Bosque's side have just one win from their first six games and trail likely title rivals Barcelona by nine points.
Luis Enrique struck twice for Barca at the Nou Camp and Javier Saviola added a third, with all the goals coming in the first half, to give the Catalans 14 points from six games.
Real Betis dropped to second as they were held to a goalless draw at Athletic Bilbao.
Villarreal, who had also had a chance to go top, led 1-0 at home to Deportivo Coruna but the 2000 champions equalised through Donato to take a point.
Betis and Villarreal both have 13 points. Celta Vigo, in fourth with 11, will take over the leadership if they win at home to Valencia on Thursday.
Real Madrid, missing Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Steve McManaman because of this week's World Cup qualifiers, twice came from behind with goals from Pedro Munitis and Zinedine Zidane to go in at half-time at 2-2 against the Canary Islanders.
Matters went from bad to worse in the second half, though, as Munitis got himself sent off for a wild challenge after losing the ball in attack.
Las Palmas took advantage with two goals from Ruben -- the second a brilliant long-range chip over Iker Casillas -- to complete a deserved win.
Barcelona's 3-0 victory over Mallorca was arguably their best performance of the season, as they wrapped up victory in a little over half an hour.
Luis Enrique opened the scoring on nine minutes, heading in at the near post from a corner.
The Spanish international midfielder added the second on 27 minutes as he ran on to a through ball from fullback Carles Puyol and tucked in.
Saviola, the 19-year-old Argentine forward, made it 3-0 soon after with a neat finish after Geovanni had taken a superb crossfield pass from Xavi and supplied the perfect cross.
Barcelona, who were without their Brazilian forward Rivaldo, were looking dangerous every time they went forward but they failed to add to the scoreline, despite the sending-off of Mallorca's Fernando Nino on 64 minutes.