First Division - Day 6

Real Madrid 0 - Deportivo La Coruña 1

Madrid: Casillas; Salgado, Iván Helguera, Samuel, Roberto Carlos; Beckham, Celades (Raúl Bravo 82'); Figo, Raúl, Zidane; Owen (Morientes 52'). 4-2-3-1.
Deportivo: Molina; Manuel Pablo, César, Andrade, Capdevila; Duscher, Sergio; Víctor (Scaloni 62'), Valerón (Fran 89'), Luque (Munitis 75'); Pandiani. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Madrid: Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Owen for Raúl Bravo, Guti, Ronaldo / Deportivo: César, Capdevila, Duscher, Luque for Pablo Amo, Romero, Scaloni, Fran.

Goals:
0-1. 45. Luque. Ran on to long Pandiani pass to outrun Salgado and chip keeper.

Deportivo La Coruña got their season back on track with a 0-1 victory against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu stadium, the first time they have won there in the league since 1955. The Galicians had struggled in the run up to the match, their defeat at Monaco in the Champions League midweek a further sign of their poor start to the season, whereas Madrid's come back against Roma suggested that they had left their problems behind them. But the defeat leaves the Galacticos back where they started this season, and once again questions are being asked about their form having only scored four goals in their first six league games, the lowest ever in their history.

An injury to Ronaldo opened up the gate for Michael Owen, but the England striker was no better than his colleagues, pulling a difficult chance wide and failing to connect with a long Figo cross when in space in front of goal. Raúl too missed a couple of chances, but he felt himself unlucky not to be awarded a penalty in the opening minutes when tripped by Andrade in the area.

Madrid's hard work came to nothing though, and they found themselves behind on the stroke of half time when Luque ran on to Pandiani's long ball to outstrip Salgado and chip a shot over the lunging body of Casillas. García Remón replaced Owen with Morientes a few minutes after the restart (it later transpired that he was carrying a knock), but things didn't improve. Molina kept out efforts from Beckham and Figo, and Depor could even have increased their lead when Víctor shot wide, and Sergio rounded Casillas on a rapid breakaway in injury time, only to hit the side netting.

But the visitors had managed to repeat their famous cup final win from a couple of seasons back, and having kicked off in the relegation zone after the rest of the day's games had finished, they ended the weekend in mid-table, only a point now behind their opponents.