Barcelona failed in their
bid to win the Club World Cup, losing the final to Internacional Porto Alegre
0-1. They did however put on a display for the fans in their semi-final against
América, Gudjohnsen, Márquez, Ronaldinho and Deco on target in a
4-1 win. Meanwhile all four La Liga sides (Celta, Espanyol, Osasuna and
Sevilla) were making it through to the knock-out stage of the UEFA cup,
Pandiani and Baiano amongst the scorers in a successful couple of days for
Spanish football.
Barça's league match
against Betis was postponed to next month as a result of their trip to Japan,
but all the other clubs were in action. Sevilla took advantage to open up a gap
on the defending champions, Luis Fabiano and Kanouté on the scoresheet
in a 1-3 win at Recre, and a Van Nistelrooy goal at Espanyol kept Real Madrid
in the hunt for the title. Angulo gave Valencia a valuable win at Zaragoza, and
Baiano scored for the fourth week in a row to save Celta a point. Jankovic's
early strike against Racing was not enough though to save Mallorca from defeat.
(18.12.06) |