Celta Vigo 1 - Alavés 1

Celta: Pinto; Velasco, Cáceres, Djorovic, Manolo (Juanfran 46'); Giovanella, Doriva; Karpin, Mostovoi (Jesuli 67'), Gustavo López (Pablo Couñago 61'); McCarthy. 4-2-3-1.
Alavés: Herrera; Contra, Karmona, Téllez, Geli; Desio, Pablo (Ibon Begoña 78'); Azkoitia (Eggen 46'), Jordi Cruyff (Magno 73'), Tomic; Javi Moreno. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Celta: Manolo, Doriva, McCarthy for Juanfran, Vagner, Catanha / Alavés: Geli, Azkoitia, Tomic for Eggen, Ibon Begoña, Astudillo.

Goals:
0-1. 02. Javi Moreno (penalty). After Manolo pulled on Azkoitia's shirt.
1-1. 04. Karpin. Shot through crowd after Herrera dropped Gustavo's cross.

Playing the last match of the weekend, Celta lost the opportunity to move back to the top of the table when they dropped two points to Alavés in this 1-1 draw. All the action of this game was packed into the first five minutes, with referee Undiano Mallenco disallowing a goal from McCarthy in the first minute for offside, then awarding a penalty to the visitors a minute later after Manolo pulled Azkoitia down. Moreno scored his sixth of the season from the spot, then two minutes later Karpin equalised for Celta after the normally reliable Herrera dropped a cross from Gustavo López at the feet of the forwards. That was the only mistake that the Alavés defence made though, and with captain Karmona once again superb in the back four they gave little away.

Alavés manager Mané had made changes to his line up, giving Iván Tomic his first league start after the Serbian scored twice in his European debut. Delfi Geli switched to left back to make room for him. Three of the Alavés players, Jordi Cruyff, Dan Eggen and Desio had all played for Celta before, and all were given a warm welcome by the home fans who applauded them on to the pitch (Barcelona and Figo take note). Celta's manager Víctor Fernández was missing the suspended Catanha, and brought in Benni McCarthy for his first full game since returning from the Olympic games. As well as McCarthy, Víctor Fernández surprisingly brought in Manolo at left back, leaving the controversial Juanfran on the bench. The player's disgust at being left out was apparent, moaning to all the newspapers that it was unfair, and that Víctor had a grudge against him. Víctor just replied that nobody is assured a place in the starting line up, and that he picked the most on form side at any moment.

Juanfran shouldn't have jumped the gun though, as he came on to replace Manolo at half time after his naive mistake giving away the penalty. Up to that point Celta had done most of the attacking, with McCarthy trying hard but not finding goal, and fans were looking forward to Catanha's return next week. Gustavo López missed the easiest chance of the match early in the second half, putting a header wide from only two yards out with an open goal in front of him. With half an hour to go Víctor brought on an extra striker, Olympic silver medallist Pablo Couñago making his league debut at last after playing in Europe this season. But Alavés had decided that they wanted a point, and they closed ranks, with Eggen coming on as an additional defender as they gave up all notion of attack.

The draw means that Celta hold on to their 15 game unbeaten home record, little comfort as they drop to fourth, behind Valencia and Deportivo on goal average. Alavés for their part keep up their unbeaten record against Celta in the first division, the two sides having met five times since the Vitoria side were promoted in 1998, with two wins and three draws to their name. They are now in seventh spot, and are demonstrating to one and all that their sixth place in the league last season was not just a flash in the pan. Both teams are still in the UEFA cup, and either of them could go far this season.