Real Sociedad hit back from two
goals down to beat 10-man
Barcelona 3-2 and end their
unbeaten La Liga record in
stunning fashion at the Anoeta. - Blog: Sociedad stun 10-man
Barca All looked to be going to plan for
Tito Vilanova's visitors when Lionel
Messi and Pedro Rodriguez put
them two goals up within 25
minutes. But Gonzalo Castro's brilliant
strike gave Sociedad hope before
half-time and then, after Barca
had lost centre-back Gerard
Pique to a red card, Castro's
curling effort was deflected into his own net by Barca substitute
Javier Mascherano. That sent the home fans wild, but
it got even better in stoppage
time when Imanol Agirretxe poked
Carlos Martinez's cross from the
right past Victor Valdes. "We congratulate them,'' said
Barca boss Tito Vilanova. "It is
more credit to them than due to
a fault of ours. I have no
reproaches for my players In the first half we had control of
the game and hit the post twice.
(Sociedad goalkeeper Claudio)
Bravo has been playing very well
- the team had conceded only six
goals at home (before kick-off). (Even) at 0-2 I never thought it
would be an easy match. I know
Real Sociedad are a much more
intense team than a year ago.'' Sevilla failed to get Unai Emery's
league reign off to the perfect
start as an error from
goalkeeper Andres Palop gifted
Getafe a 1-1 draw at the Alfonso
Perez Coliseum. Jose Antonio Reyes put Sevilla in
front with a neat finish shortly
before half-time, but the lead
lasted only three minutes as
Palop got caught under Adrian
Colunga's inswinging cross and allowed the ball to float over his
head and into the net. Sevilla continued to have the
better of the play after the
break but Alvaro Negredo blasted
over with their best chance. Malaga missed the chance to climb
to fourth place as lowly Celta
Vigo battled hard for a deserved
1-1 draw at La Rosaleda. Martin Demichelis bundled the ball
over the line after a goalmouth
scramble to give the hosts the
lead seven minutes before the
interval, but Celta grew as the
match wore on and levelled 14 minutes from time as Augusto
Fernandez side-footed home. The point moves Celta two points
clear of the relegation zone in
17th place, while Malaga stay
fifth. Granada secured only their
second home win of the season
as a Jordi Amat own goal and a
late strike on his full debut from
Recio handed them a much-
needed 2-0 victory over an under-strength Rayo Vallecano. The visitors came into the game
on the back of four consecutive
wins that had propelled them into
the European places, but without
the injured Leo Baptistao and
suspended Alejandro Dominguez they lacked the same cutting
edge and were made to pay for
some defensive errors. Amat unintentionally gave the
hosts the lead on 24 minutes
when he turned Allan Nyom's
cross into his own goal and, after
Lass Bangoura had passed up a
great chance to bring Rayo level after the break, Recio sealed the
win for the home side with a low
drive from the edge of the area. Victory moved Granada out of
the bottom three as Rayo
remained in sixth. Information from the Press
Association was used in this
report