Deportivo de La Coruña kept up their good home form with a 2-0 victory over Valladolid, and they move up to third on seven points. Irureta decided to play Turu Flores up front with Holland's Roy Makkay and the combination took just 18 seconds to pay off, with Makkay picking up Turu's cross to shoot past César. Djalminha added the second goal from the penalty spot halfway through the first half when Marcos brought down Victor. Fernando played his first game for Deportivo since his signing from Betis, and unsettled defender Naybet was left on the bench. Peternac reappeared as a second half substitute for Valladolid after making his peace with manager Gregorio Manzano (for the time being at least). The match was brought forward to Saturday as UEFA ruled that Deportivo's UEFA cup match with Stabaek should be played on Tuesday rather than Thursday next week. This in turn means that next weekend's match between Real Madrid and Deportivo will be played on Saturday to give time to Madrid to prepare their champions league game.

Real Madrid kept up their unbeaten record with a hard fought 2-2 draw against Athletic de Bilbao. Julen Guerrero followed up his midweek hat-trick for Spain with a goal in the fifteenth minute, his direct free kick beating young keeper Iker Casillas, substituting for the injured Illgner. Steve McManaman equalised for Madrid with a solo goal, dribbling from the halfway line and working a 1-2 with Savio before beating Etxeberria. Madrid came forward strongly but the game swung in favour of Bilbao on the half hour when Michel Salgado was sent off for a second yellow card. Toshack took off Savio and put on Iván Helguera in an attempt to resettle the defence, but Bilbao took the lead again before half time with a freak own goal, Larrazábal's cross ballooning up off Geremi's head and over a despairing Casillas. In the second half Toshack threw on Guti and Anelka, and the two substitutes combined to produce the equalising goal with a quarter of an hour to go, Guti running on to Anelka's cross after the Bilbao defence had failed to close him down.