June 12, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1428

MADRID, June 11: Recreativo Huelva turned on the style to crush Deportivo Coruna 5-2 at the Riazor in the Primera Liga on Sunday.

The Andalucians, who were promoted to the top flight at the start of the season, produced some entertaining, one-touch football as they tore Deportivo apart in front of their own fans.

Santi Cazorla was the star of the show, setting up the opener for fellow midfielder Cheli with a sharp through-ball and scoring two classy efforts of his own. Strikers Javi Guerrero and Florent Sinama-Pongolle weighed in with the other goals.

The win lifted Recreativo into eighth place in the table, one ahead of King's Cup finalists Getafe who suffered a rare home defeat when they went down 1-0 at home to already relegated Gimnastic Tarragona.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid were left on the verge of winning the title on Saturday after staging yet another dramatic comeback to grab a 2-2 draw at Real Zaragoza while Barcelona surrendered a lead to draw 2-2 with Espanyol.

Real's title hopes looked to have gone up in smoke as they trailed Zaragoza 2-1 with just over a minute to go, while Barca led 2-1 at home against city rivals Espanyol.

But a late scrambled goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy earned Real their 2-2 draw and at almost exactly the same moment, Raul Tamudo scored his second to equalise against Barcelona.

The results mean that Real will win their first league title in four years if they beat mid-table Real Mallorca at home in the final game of the season next weekend.

With one game left to play Real and Barcelona are both on 73 points, but the nine-time European champions lead because of their better head-to-head record. Sevilla are two points behind on 71.

Juande Ramos's side were held 0-0 at Real Mallorca, but still have an outside chance of taking the title if they win their final match at home to Villarreal and both Barca and Real slip up.

If all three sides finish level on points Real will take the title, if Real and Sevilla have the same total then the Andalucians will be champions and if Barca and Sevilla are tied at the top then the Catalans will win through.

Results:

Played on Sunday:

Deportivo Coruna 2 Recreativo Huelva 5

Getafe 0 Gimnastic 1

Played on Saturday:

Atletico Madrid 2 Celta Vigo 3

Barcelona 2 Espanyol 2

Levante 4 Valencia 2

Real Mallorca 0 Sevilla 0

Real Betis 0 Osasuna 5

Real Sociedad 0 Racing Santander 0

Real Zaragoza 2 Real Madrid 2

Villarreal 3 Athletic Bilbao 1.—Reuters

Standings

(Tabulated under played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against):

Real Madrid 37 22 7 8 63 39 73

Barcelona 37 21 10 6 73 32 73

Sevilla 37 21 8 8 64 34 71

Valencia 37 20 5 12 54 39 65

Real Zaragoza 37 16 11 10 54 42 59

Villarreal 37 17 8 12 47 44 59

Atletico Madrid 37 16 9 12 44 38 57

Recreativo Huelva 37 15 8 14 53 51 53

Getafe 37 14 10 13 38 31 52

Racing Santander 37 12 14 11 42 46 50

Espanyol 37 12 13 12 45 50 49

Real Mallorca 37 14 7 16 40 44 49

Osasuna 37 13 7 17 50 47 46

Deportivo Coruna 37 11 11 15 29 44 44

Levante 37 10 12 15 37 51 42

Real Betis 37 7 16 14 34 49 37

Athletic Bilbao 37 9 10 18 42 62 37

Celta Vigo 37 9 9 19 38 58 36

Real Sociedad 37 8 10 19 29 44 34

Gimnastic 37 7 7 23 33 64 28