| MADRID,
February 5 (Primera Liga) - Rampant Real Madrid destroyed
fourth placed Espanyol on Saturday night to serve up a fresh
reminder to leaders Barcelona that any slip-ups will be punished
severely as the two giants of Spanish football fight for the
championship.
French midfielder Zinedine Zidane showed he is still a
great master with a magnificent left-footed strike into
the roof of the net in the 13th minute, a score which came
after he jinked his way past a helpless Espanyol defender.
And goals either side of half-time from Raul made sure
there would be only one winner.
Raul's first came after great work from Figo in the 30th
minute.
The Portuguese winger went on one of his dazzling forays
into an opponents' box and struck the ball hard with his
right foot. Carlos Kameni dived and made contact, but only
managed to push the ball off the post and Raul pounced to
double the advantage.
Raul's second came 15 minutes from the end, after an excellent
cross from substitute and crowd favourite Santiago Solari.
The Spanish international reached out to tap the ball in,
although it was unclear if the Espanyol defender was guilty
of an own goal.
The icing on the cake for the Meringues was the late goal
scored from winter signing Thomas Gravesen, the great Dane
from Everton who came on 12 minutes after the restart for
Zidane.
Guti battled for possession in the area six minutes from
the end, the ball landed in front of Gravesen, and he struck
it from the D with his right foot to the left of Espanyol
keeper Kameni.
Gravesen celebrated as if he had just won the lottery,
and Madrid's players joined in.
Ronaldo nearly made the margin of victory even greater
when he raced into the area three minutes from time and
tried to beat Kameni again but the keeper reacted well to
save his club from additional embarrassment.
Madrid may not have enough time to win the title, as Barcelona
are still four points clear with a game in hand - they play
at the Nou Camp against Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
But the manner of their latest triumph will have left fans
of the Bernabeu club believing that something good is going
to happen this season because Madrid played like a war machine.
They have now romped to six consecutive Primera Liga victories
under their new field marshall, Brazilian coach Wanderley
Luxemburgo.
Maybe president Florentino Perez's expensively assembled
squad is going to pay dividends this season.
As for the less fashionable side in Barcelona, this was
not an Espanyol team that is going to be able to hold on
to fourth place to qualify for the Champions League.
Iker Casillas did make a great save in the 10th minute
after Ivan De la Pena passed to Maxi who struck a powerful
shot.
And Casillas was brilliant again in the 22nd minute to
twice deny Maxi.
A group that looked so strong defensively in the early
part of the season has now allowed 18 goals in its last
six games.
After Sunday's action, in fact, they may not even be in
the top six depending on other results.
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