Espanyol inflict more woe on Madrid

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Espanyol inflict more woe on Madrid
Saturday, 18 September 2004
Real Madrid CF's week went from bad to worse as they lost 1-0 at RCD Espanyol and finished the match with nine men after both Walter Samuel and Michel Salgado were sent off.

RodrÃ*guez winner
Beaten 3-0 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League in midweek and without the injured LuÃ*s Figo and Zinedine Zidane, Madrid coach José Antonio Camacho fielded Michael Owen in place of Raúl González in attack but it was Espanyol's Maxi RodrÃ*guez who got the only goal after 42 minutes. RodrÃ*guez stabbed the ball in from close range after César Sánchez had parried a Raúl Tamudo header.

Penalties saved
Tamudo could have scored before then but missed with a twice-taken penalty - César stopped both his efforts. Ronaldo also had a penalty saved early in the second half by Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni and Madrid were reduced to ten men on 75 minutes when Samuel was dismissed for a second bookable offence. Salgado followed on the final whistle after being shown a straight red card.

Espanyol go top
The result puts Espanyol top of the table, level on seven points with Valencia CF and CA Osasuna. Marco Di Vaio scored with two headers as Valencia beat Real Sociedad de Fútbol 3-1 at the Mestalla. Mista was also on target before Mikel Arteta converted a late penalty for the visitors.

[Nikodemus]

Terrible match but it was not Real's foult. Just bad luck and bad refereeing.
If César was that good how good Casillas would have been.