Oviedo 1 - Real Madrid 1

Oviedo: Esteban; Boris, Onopko, Danjou; Losada, Iván Iglesias, Paulo Bento, Rabarivony; Pompei; Rubén, Dely Valdés. 3-4-1-2.
Real Madrid: Casillas; Michel Salgado, Iván Campo, Hierro, Roberto Carlos; Geremi, Redondo, Iván Helguera; Raúl; Morientes, Anelka. 4-3-1-2.

Team changes: Oviedo: Boris, Iván Iglesias, Paulo Bento for Bango, Keita, Juanchi González / Madrid: Iván Campo, Iván Helguera for Karanka, Guti.

Goals:
0-1. 75. Raúl. With left foot after McManaman pulled back ball from right.
1-1. 84. Juanchi González. From close range after Danjou headed on corner.

In front of a capacity crowd, Oviedo held on against Real Madrid to pick up a valuable point in their fight for survival and temporarily thwart Madrid's push for the league championship. On recent form Madrid should have won this one, although Oviedo's home form is much better than their dismal away record, and they have let in less goals than anyone (seven before this game) at home this season. Manager Luis Aragonés brought back Boris, recovered from flu, with Paulo Bento and Iván Iglesias returning in midfield and Pompei returning to the slot behind the twin strikers. As psychologists will know, two people can look at an ink blot and see different things: to one man it's a butterfly and to another it's a baggy pair of under shorts. Madrid's four-man midfield has been described as a diamond shape, although their manager prefers to call it a trident. Although pre-match training sessions suggested that Del Bosque would decided on a more defensive midfield formation for this match, with Iván Helguera joining Redondo in a 'double pivot' position,in the end he kept his trident, with Helguera playing out of position on the left and Raúl playing behind the two centre forwards. Karanka and Guti missed the match through suspension. Oviedo started strongly, with Casillas saving from Dely Valdés and Pompei shooting over the bar in the first half, although two minutes before the break a free kick from Hierro was pushed out by Esteban on the goal line, with Madrid players claiming that the ball had crossed the line. In the second half a shot from Anelka hit the corner flag, and Casillas saved from a Danjou header. Aragonés waited longer than usual to put on his substitutes, replacing Rabarivony and Rubén with Eskurza and Juan 'Juanchi' González around the hour mark. Del Bosque brought on McManaman for Geremi and Meca for Morientes, who was suffering from muscle fatigue. Raúl once again got the goal for the visitors after McManaman had crossed from the right, but Oviedo equalised near the end through González. In the last few minutes referee Turienzo Alvarez disallowed a goal from Raúl for offside, and the Madrid striker hit the post with a header a minute later. Zárate came on for Anelka near the end. Onopko and Raúl were lucky not to be both sent off in the second half as they fought for a ball rather too enthusiastically, and cynical fouls by Redondo and Onopko may well be studied on video by the disciplinary committee this week. In the end the draw did not do much good for either side, with Oviedo staying next to bottom despite having gone seven games in a row at home without defeat. Real Madrid rose to second place on Saturday night, level with third placed Barcelona. Their 3-0 win last week against the Catalans together with the draw in Barcelona gives Madrid goal advantage over their rivals, and that could be crucial at the end of the season.

Barcelona 4 - Numancia 0

Barcelona: Hesp; Frank De Boer, Reiziger, Puyol, Guardiola, Bogarde;Gabri, Cocu; Figo, Dani, Ronald De Boer. 2-3-2-3.
Numancia: Nuñez; Belsué, Soria, Octavio, Muñoz; Nagore, Pacheta, Castaño, Jaume; Ojeda, Rubén Navarro. 4-4-2.

Team changes: Barcelona: Hesp, Frank De Boer, Guardiola, Gabri, Cocu, Dani for Arnau, Abelardo, Zenden, Luis Enrique, Kluivert, Rivaldo / Numancia: Muñoz, Jaume, Rubén Navarro for Muñiz, Iñaki, Barbu.

Goals:
1-0. 27.Gabri. Sixteen pass move ended with Ronald De Boer laying ball back.
2-0. 61. Dani. From close range after Figo headed back Ronald's cross.
3-0. 75. Dani. Again close up after Cocu squared Guardiola's pass across goal.
4-0. 84. Figo. Cross from Ronald turned back by Dani to edge of area.

Barcelona finally laid the ghost of last Saturday's defeat at Real Madrid with a flattering victory against tiny Numancia, their second victory in a week after beating Oporto in the Champions League. Van Gaal was forced to make six changes to the side, with Abelardo and Kluivert both suspended, Luis Enrique and Zenden both out for a couple of weeks with injuries and Rivaldo rested with a slight leg muscle strain. Hesp, Frank De Boer and Guardiola all kept their places after good performances midweek, Cocu returned from injury and Gabri came in to the side for the first time in four months, with Dani returning up front and Ronald De Boer switching from midfield to the left wing. Numancia manager Goikoetxea had to watch the match from the stand, as did his defender Muñiz, both suspended from last week. Rubén Navarro returned to the starting line up after several weeks out through injury. Gabri opened the scoring with his first goal in the first division after a move involving 16 or 17 passes in the build up. It was not all Barcelona in the first half however, with Rubén Navarro shooting over the bar and Ojeda shooting at Hesp both with the goal at their mercy, after defensive errors by Frank De Boer and Reiziger respectively. Castaño then saw his shot hit the foot of the post and bounce back across the penalty area with Hesp beaten. The second half belonged to Barcelona however, with Ronald De Boer and Bogarde setting up chance after chance from the left wing. Ronald had a hand in three out of the four goals, and probably played his best game since joining the club. Guardiola also proved he was near to his best form, his pass to Cocu to set up the third goal was the best of the game, and the crowd applauded him as he was substituted by Xavi near the end. Numancia only had one real chance in the second half, with Barbu heading against the crossbar after a corner. Playing on Saturday, Barcelona moved up to third, behind Real Madrid on head-to-head goal average. Numancia drop a little further towards the drop zone, and need to get back on winning form at home to achieve their objective of staying in the top flight for another season.