Deportivo La Coruna beat Real Madrid 3-1

La Coruna:

Real Madrid slipped to fifth place in the Spanish Primera Liga standings, following a 3-1 defeat away to Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday evening. Right from the start, though, the home side were on top. Just 16 seconds into the game, Juan Carlos Valeron should have opened the scoring, but his header went just wide, after an inch-perfect cross from Pedro Munitis. Deportivo continued to dominate possession and eventually went ahead on 35 minutes. Canadian Julian De Guzman received the ball just outside of the Real Madrid penalty area and swept a low shot past goalkeeper Iker Casillas for his first goal since joining the club from Hannover in the summer. Short corner routine Deportivo went two goals up on the stroke of halftime. A short corner routine saw Valeron and Munitis combine again, before the latter delivered another telling ball into the Real penalty area. Defender Juanma Delgado was on hand at the far post to head home, taking advantage of some sloppy Real defending to put the home side two ahead. Real showed more intent in the second half, but the best they had to show for their efforts was a long-range shot from Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos, which Jose Molina did well to turn round the post. Poor defending Deportivo made sure of the points in the 84th minute. Poor defending from a corner allowed Juanma to head home for the second time in the match and Real were staring defeat in the face at 3-0 down. Real captain Raul made sure that his side would take something from the game, when he fired a spectacular effort from outside of the Depor penalty area, to reduce the deficit to two goals. But that didn't prevent Deportivo from clinching a famous victory and lifting themselves to eighth place in the Spanish Primera Liga standings, just five points off the pace. (AP)