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Atletico hold Barca to leave six-way tie at top
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-20 09:37
Atletico Madrid held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw on Sunday as the last two
remaining 100 percent records fell in Spain.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst put Barcelona ahead in the 23rd minute but
Fernando Torres grabbed the equaliser early in the second half and Atletico held
on to claim a valiant draw.
The result left Atletico and Barca among six sides level at the top on
seven points from three games.
Espanyol, 1-0 winners over Real Madrid on Saturday, emerged as leaders
on goals scored, followed by Atletico and Barcelona.
Osasuna, who beat Real Betis 3-2, Real Zaragoza, 4-3 winners against
Albacete on Sunday, and Valencia, who beat Real Sociedad 3-1, are the others in
the leading group.
Deportivo Coruna claimed their first victory of the season on Sunday
when Albert Luque stabbed in at the near post in the second minute of injury
time to clinch a 2-1 win at Athletic Bilbao.
FAST START
Barcelona started at breakneck speed against Atletico and should have
had the game wrapped up in the first half.
"We controlled the game but Atletico made things difficult for us,"
said Barca coach Frank Rijkaard. "The result's fine, though. This is a difficult
place to come and it's OK to draw here."
Van Bronckhorst lashed the ball into the net early on only for the
referee to harshly blow for handball.
However, the Dutch defender soon put the Catalans ahead after
Ronaldinho's run along the byeline was stopped by a desperate challenge. The
ball ran free and Van Bronckhorst reacted first to beat Leo Franco with a sweet
shot.
Atletico abandoned their cautious approach and began to trouble the
Barca defence with the strong running of Torres and the vision of Ariel Ibagaza.
The equaliser arrived five minutes after the break when Torres raced on
to a long ball forward, wrong-footed Carles Puyol with a neat header and beat
Victor Valdes with a shot that went in off the bar.
Barcelona almost got an immediate equaliser, Ronaldinho heading over
from a couple of metres after Henrik Larsson had teed him up with a header and
the Brazilian went close again 10 minutes later following a one-two with the
Swede.
Sergi cleared off the line after a brilliant run from Xavi as Barcelona
poured forward and a minute later Franco did well to save another shot from the
busy Barca midfielder.
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