Real Madrid 4 - Espanyol 3

Madrid: Casillas; Cicinho (Iván Helguera 46'), Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro, Roberto Carlos; Diarra, Emerson; Higuaín, Guti (Reyes 46'), Raúl (Miguel Torres 90'); Van Nistelrooy. 4-2-3-1.
Espanyol: Kameni; Velasco (Jarque 75'), Lacruz, Torrejón, Chica; Edu Costa, Angel Martínez; Rufete (Corominas 68'), Jonatas, Moha; Pandiani (Luis García 60'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Madrid: Roberto Carlos, Higuaín, Guti for Miguel Torres, Beckham, Robinho / Espanyol: Velasco, Torrejón, Edu Costa, Jonatas for Zabaleta, Jarque, Moisés Hurtado, Luis García.

Goals:
0-1. 15. Pandiani. Ran on to Rufete's cross to drive shot wide of Casillas.
0-2. 26. Pandiani. First time volley on far post past keeper from Rufete cross.
1-2. 29. Van Nistelrooy. Beat Kameni after Roberto Carlos headed on Raul's cross.
1-3. 34. Pandiani. Picked up Moha's square pass and curled shot past Casillas.
2-3. 48. Raúl. Controlled Van Nistelrooy flicked pass and shot past Kameni
3-3. 57. Reyes. Poked ball in from edge of area after Kameni and Chica clashed.
4-3. 89. Higuaín. Collected return pass from Reyes and shot under Kameni.

An amazing game at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, where Real Madrid recovered from two goals down to beat a depleted Espanyol 4-3 in the last minute. Roberto Carlos was back in the Madrid side after injury, but he was caught out twice in the first half hour as Rufete outstripped him to set up Pandiani to put the visitors two up. The full back made up for it in part with a header on from Raúl's cross to enable Van Nistelrooy to pull one back, but Pandiani completed his hat-trick shortly before half time after Moha set him up, referee Undiano Mallenco ignoring appeals that Moha at least was in an offside position.

Capello made two changes at the break, replacing Cicinho and Guti with Helguera and Reyes. And within three minutes Raúl had reduced the gap to one goal again, charging on to score after Van Nistelrooy flicked on a Roberto Carlos cross. Ten minutes later Reyes levelled the scores after Higuaín, Kameni and Chica ran in to each other, this time the Espanyol players having their appeals for a possible foul by the local forward. And with a minute to go Higuaín picked up a return pass from Reyes to score the winner and take his side top of the table pending Barcelona's game on Sunday. The visitors must consider themselves unlucky not to take something away, but their minds are more on next Wednesday's UEFA cup final than on this match.