The La Liga title race was blown wide-open this weekend as league leader Barcelona fell 1-0 to Real Zaragoza at La Romareda, failing to overcome a Diego Milito goal early in the second half. It was a relatively staid display from the defending champ, which only had a couple of clear-cut opportunities to equalize. The best of these came shortly after Milito’s goal: Deco’s blocked shot fell to Leo Messi, who lingered a split second too long in dispatching a shot at a wall of Zaragoza defenders. Eidur Gudjohnsen’s follow-up was then deflected wide by another fantastic lunging block; indeed, the sequence was one of the finest pieces of team defending in La Liga this season. After that spectacular chance, Barca’s pressed forward, but its attack seemed to lose its speed and purpose, with Zaragoza looking ever dangerous on the counterattack.
“(Zaragoza) have played in a more aggressive manner and have shown that they were very focused on winning this game,” an unconcerned-sounding Franck Rijkaard said after the match. “We were just not able to do it. La Romareda is a very difficult ground for us,” said the Barca coach.
The win leapfrogged Zaragoza into fourth-place ahead of Valencia, which fell 1-0 to relegation-threatened Athletic Bilbao. Diego Milito’s goal, a clever touch from a Andres D’Alessandro’s low near-post cross, was his 19th of the season, leaving him tied atop the scoring charts with Freddy Kanoute of Sevilla, which was held scoreless at home to 10-man Racing Santander. The draw narrowed Barcelona’s lead over the Andalucians to one-point. Third-place Real Madrid Real Madrid moved to within two points of Barcelona thanks to goals by Raul and Robinho in a 2-0 win over Osasuna.