Real crushes Valladolid 7-0 to extend lead
Monday, February 11, 2008

Raul Gonzalez and Jose Maria (Guti) Gutierrez each scored two goals on Sunday to help Real Madrid trounce Valladolid 7-0 and extend its lead atop the Spanish league standings.

Julio Baptista, Arjen Robben and substitute Royston Drenthe also scored for coach Bernd Schuster's side, which led by five goals before halftime.

Madrid's win, the league's biggest of the season, stretched its advantage to eight points over second-place FC Barcelona with 15 games remaining. It also extended the defending champion's perfect league home record this season to 11 wins.

Valladolid, whose defeat equalled the biggest in the club's 79-year history, had played into Madrid's hands, Schuster said.

"We saw from videos that they play far up the field in order to pressure opponents. It's surprising for a team to play like that at the Bernabeu. It helped us," Schuster said.

Also, Florent Sinama-Pongolle scored twice to give struggling Recreativo Huelva a 2-1 win at Espanyol.

Other results were: Racing Santander 0, Atletico Madrid 2; Valencia 3, Real Betis 1; Osasuna 1, Zaragoza 0; Athletic Bilbao 1, Levante 0; and Mallorca 0, Almeria 0.

Later Sunday, Valencia hosted Real Betis.

Madrid leads with 56 points, while Barcelona has 48. Villarreal follows with 42. Atletico rose to fourth with 41, two more than Espanyol.

On Saturday, Barcelona drew 1-1 at Sevilla, Villarreal downed Murcia 1-0 and Deportivo La Coruna drew 1-1 with Getafe.

Madrid's overwhelming win, which came on the back of last weekend's surprise defeat at Almeria, was achieved without injured leading scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy. Defenders Pepe, Christoph Metzelder and Gabriel Heinze were also out with injuries.

Robben, who has been plagued by injury since his off-season move from Chelsea, made a rare start and set up Baptista with a pass in the ninth minute.

Madrid forward Robinho then fell unchallenged to the ground four minutes later and was substituted with what reports said were stomach problems. Soon afterward, Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas required a bandage for an injured hand.

Valladolid caved in during a 13-minute spell before the interval.

Raul doubled his team's lead in the 31st by rounding Valladolid goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo and angling his shot into the empty net.

Robben then scored his first league goal for Madrid two minutes later, steering the ball past Asenjo after being set free on the left by Guti's long ball.

Asenjo's bad night continued when he fouled Baptista and Raul converted the resulting penalty in the 39th for his 11th goal and Madrid's 50th of the league season.

With Valladolid in disarray, Guti broke free in the 44th to receive Drenthe's pass before sweeping the ball home for the fifth.

Guti's second goal came in the 62nd when his curling shot from the edge of the area crossed the line after rebounding off Asenjo's right post.

Drenthe closed the scoring when he burst past two Valladolid defenders to control Guti's cross and fire the seventh goal in the 80th.

Recreativo is fighting to avoid relegation and the win marked a great start for new coach Manolo Zambrano, who guided his team to its first victory in eight games after replacing the fired Victor Munoz on Monday.

Sinama-Pongolle, who hit the post earlier in the game, swivelled to fire his first goal in the 18th minute.

The Frenchman doubled his tally eight minutes later when he turned home a bouncing cross from left back Poli Fernandez, who was ejected in the closing stages.

Espanyol reduced the deficit in the 40th through Ewerthon, who was making his debut. The Brazilian striker recently arrived on loan from Stuttgart to replace Espanyol's captain Raul Tamudo, who will be sidelined until April with a broken arm.

Atletico striker Diego Forlan scored twice as his team won at Santander for its first victory in four league games.

The Uruguayan fired home in the 56th minute and added a second with a spectacular long-distance shot 16 minutes later, taking his season's tally to nine goals.

Valencia, which ended a nine-game winless streak by beating Valladolid last weekend, continued its revival with another victory against strugglers Betis.

Striker David Villa opened the scoring in the 16th minute when he seized on a pass from left back Emiliano Moretti and fired home. The goal was Valencia's first at home in the league since Nov. 10.

David Silva slid in the second goal eight minutes later although Villa appeared to handle before passing to his teammate.

Betis forward Edu Schmidt headed home to halve Valencia's lead in the 47th, only for Villa to seal the victory with a free kick on the edge of the penalty area in the 89th.

Osasuna eased its relegation worries with a victory over Zaragoza thanks to Jaroslav Plasil's goal on the stroke of halftime.

The game was the 609th of Zaragoza coach Javier Irureta's career, making him the Spanish league's second most experienced coach ever - behind Spain's national coach Luis Aragones.

Bilbao also boosted its survival hopes by edging last-placed Levante behind striker Fernando Llorente's 55th-minute header.

Levante, whose players complained this week about being owed a major part of their salaries over the past two seasons, is 12 points from safety and looks virtually certain to be relegated.

Almeria played out a dull draw at Mallorca.