Deportivo and Real Madrid crash away from home

Spanish league leaders Deportivo La Coruna and defending champions Real Madrid must have been licking their lips at the prospect of easy away victories at Tenerife and Real Zaragoza respectively, but both giants crashed spectacularly on Sunday.

Real Madrid went down 2-1 at Zaragoza thanks to an injury time winner from the host's Paraguayan midfielder Toro Acuna, while Deportivo threw their game away in the second half and lost 3-1 at the Canary island club.

However, Deportivo stay top of the Spanish first division with 23 points from 12 games, due to the inability of Valencia to do better than draw 0-0 at Osasuna.

The Champions League finalists for the last two seasons managed to preserve their unbeaten record, but they drop to third on goal difference after Barcelona thrashed Valladolid 4-0.

Real Zaragoza started Sunday with the worst home record in the Spanish first division but it had improved considerably by the end of the day after Acuna produced a brilliant piece of individual play down the right wing in the dying second of the game.

He then blasted the ball past the Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, bringing to an end the visitors' five game first division unbeaten streak.

Zaragoza had earlier gone into the lead after 22 minutes through Yordi Gonzalez but 11 minutes after the break Spanish international striker Raul Gonzalez got Real Madrid's equaliser from close range.

The goal was Raul's 11th in 15 league games against Zaragoza, against whom he made his first division debut in 1994.

Real Madrid coach Vicente Del Bosque did not look for excuses after the loss, which pushed his team back into the lower half of the table.

"We gave away control and possession too often and if you do that you can't expect your goalkeeper to save you every time," said Del Bosque.

The victory will give Real Zaragoza coach Txetxu Rojo a little breathing space after recent weeks when the fans' discontent has extended to calling for his head not only before, during and after games but also at the training ground.

"I think we demononstrated to everybody that we can win against anybody," said a smug Rojo.

Tenerife belied their poor scoring record to beat Deportivo 3-1 and the victory helped the newly-promoted side climb one place, although they still remain rooted in the relegation zone in 18th place.

Bruno Marioni showed that he has not been distracted by his recent passport problems, which saw him detained in his native Argentina for several weeks, by getting the first two goals for Tenerife.

If Real Madrid and Deportivo's losses were painful, Celta Vigo's 3-2 home defeat by Athletic Bilbao probably hurt even more.

The Galician club were 2-0 ahead before David Karanka, Joseba Etxeberria and Pablo Orbaiz all found the net in the final six minutes.

After going ten games unbeaten, Celta have now lost their last two games.

Barcelona may have beaten Valladolid 4-0 but the scoreline does a disservice to the visitors' fighting spirit.

Two goals from the Argentine teenager Javier Saviola - to bring his tally to six for the season - along with a first half strike from Carles Puyol and a Patrick Kluivert penalty helped give the Catalan club the victory.

However, Barcelona goalkeeper Roberto Bonano was required to pull off a string of outstanding saves to ensure maximum points and Tote Lopez missed a penalty a minute from time.

At the other end of the table, Real Mallorca got a crucial 2-1 away win at fellow strugglers Real Sociedad.

Mallorca's Alejandro Campano opened the scoring after 55 minutes with a free kick from just outside the area. Oscar De Paula equalised after 77 minutes but five minutes from time Albert Riera, starting his first ever game in the top flight of Spanish soccer, latched onto Samuel Eto'o cross for the decisive goal which lifted Mallorca out of the relegation zone.

Rayo Vallecano started the day three points adrift at the bottom of the Spanish first division, and still prop up the table, but reduced the gap on the rest of the relegation candidates with an emphatic 3-0 win over Malaga.