Leaders Barcelona, who lost their year-long unbeaten home record last weekend, bounced back in devastating style on Saturday with a 4-1 thrashing of Real Zaragoza.
Barca found Zaragoza much easier to overcome than last week’s opponents Atletico Madrid and built on a lead provided after just 64 seconds when Zaragoza defender Delio Toledo put the ball in his own net.
Ludovic Guily, Samuel Eto’o and Rafa Marquez added further goals with Zaragoza getting a consolation from Luciano Galletti.
“We know we are not going to win every game but this was a triumph for concentration after last week’s defeat. We worked hard, and showed our mental toughness,” said Barca coach Frank Rijkaard.
“But this game will not win the league, there is still a long way to go.” Two questionable first-half goals — strikes by Guily and Eto’o had a hint of offside about them — meant that referee Fernando Carmona Mendez was the butt of the Zaragoza fans’ bad humour for the entire match.
Carmona Mendez started the encounter with the 11,000 home side waving giant red cards to protest at recent decisions by the men in the middle that they felt had unjustly gone against Zaragoza.
The protest turned from a general protest against referees to a very specific one against Carmona Mendez after he disallowed a penalty appeal after 11 minutes.
{{/usCountry}}The protest turned from a general protest against referees to a very specific one against Carmona Mendez after he disallowed a penalty appeal after 11 minutes.
{{/usCountry}}Valdes clearly dragged down Galletti in the box but Carmona Mendez ruled that Zaragoza’s Argentine striker had been offside when he got the ball.
Meanwhile, third-placed Valencia have now gone five games without a win after they went down 2-1 at home to Deportivo La Coruna.