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| November 11, 2003 | Tuesday | Ramazan 15, 1424 |
Humiliating defeat for Real Madrid
LONDON, Nov 10: Real Madrid’s expensive superstars crumbled to a humiliating 4-1 Primera Liga defeat against Sevilla on Sunday as they blew the chance to go top.
Europe’s other leading clubs suffered no such domestic strife, however, with league leaders Arsenal, Juventus and VfB Stuttgart registering wins in England, Italy and Germany respectively.
The Spanish champions were stunned in rainy Seville where they found themselves 4-0 down inside 40 minutes after goals by Dario Silva, Daniel Alves and Javi Casquero added to a fifth-minute own goal by Ivan Helguera.
Ronaldo’s second-half goal salvaged some pride for Real, whose misery was complete when Guti was sent off late on.
Valencia also suffered a shock defeat on Sunday as Rodolfo Bodipo scored twice for Racing Santander in their 2-1 win.
Deportivo Coruna recovered from their record-breaking 8-3 defeat by Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 on Saturday, Igor Jauregi scoring twice.
Deportivo are now top with 25 points, followed by Valencia and Real Madrid who both have 23. Barcelona’s 2-1 home victory against Real Betis lifted them one place to fourth with 19 points.
In England Arsenal were relieved to survive a stern test from north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, eventually grinding out a 2-1 victory after trailing for more than an hour.
Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg scored the goals to temporarily open up a four-point lead at the top.
However, the gap was slashed to one point on Sunday as second-placed Chelsea thrashed 10-man Newcastle 5-0 and Manchester United beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield with two goals from Ryan Giggs.
Substitute Marco Di Vaio scored two late goals for Juventus as the Italian champions came from behind to win 4-1 at Udinese and take sole control of top spot.
AC Milan, who began the day level on 20 points with Juve, were held to a goalless draw at fourth-placed Parma.
Late goals for Brazilians Emerson and Mancini gave AS Roma a 2-0 win against Rome rivals Lazio and moved them into second place above Milan on goal difference.
The VfB Stuttgart steamroller showed no sign of slowing down in the Bundesliga as they extended their unbeaten run to 12 with a 2-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bayer Leverkusen stayed hot on their heels, just one point behind, after a 3-1 home defeat of Schalke 04.
There was a welcome victory for Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld following Wednesday’s 2-1 home defeat by Olympique Lyon in the Champions League and a league defeat by Schalke 04 the previous week had provoked talk of a crisis.
Hitzfeld ordered extra training for his players on Friday and it paid off as they crushed Borussia Dortmund 4-1.
There was no repeat of their midweek goalscoring heroics for Monaco, although Croatian Dado Prso, who bagged four against Deportivo, was on target again in the 1-0 defeat of AC Ajaccio.
Champions Olympique Lyon trail Monaco by three points following an impressive 4-1 victory at Olympique Marseille for whom Peguy Luyindula scored twice.—Reuters
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