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Real Madrid crowned Spanish champions in a dramatic finale (PSV.nl)

19 Jun 2007 - Source: PSV.nl

This newsitem has been supplied by PSV.nl

The Spanish title race reached a nerve-racking finale on Sunday night. Real Madrid were crowned champions after pulling off a late 3-1 victory over Real Mallorca on an exciting final-day in the Primera División. There also was a PSV link: former top striker Ruud van Nistelrooy became top scorer.
Hamstring
Sunday night’s title race in Spain was just as thrilling and full of astonishing drama as the one in Holland on a memorable April 29, when PSV clinched the Dutch title after all. As leaders Real Madrid were trailing 1-0 at home against Real Mallorca for a long time, Barcelona looked set to claim the title, but the team from Madrid staged a spectacular comeback and wrapped up the game in the closing stages. Ruud van Nistelrooy had by then been grinding his teeth for over nearly one hour after he had to be taken off with a hamstring injury on thirty minutes. Spain’s leading scorer sat by and watched how his team desperately attempted to come back from one goal behind. Mallorca took the lead in the 17th minutes through Fernando Varela and after <i>Van Gol</i>, who has now won Europe’s Silver Boot as top scorer with a season’s tally of 25 goals, had been taken off, Real Madrid lacked cutting edge up front. After Mallorca had omitted to make it 2-0 in the 55th minute, with Varela missing a sitter, the hosts suddenly scored three goals in front of 80, 000 delirious fans. Beckham was taken off by Reyes in the 66th minute and the substitution immediately paid dividends, as Reyes scored the equalizer two minutes after he had been brought on. A header by former Vitesse player Mahamadou Diarra took a deflection off the unfortunate Basinas and Bernabeu erupted once again when Reyes netted his second goal of the night. Real were crowned champions in Spain for the thirtieth time and the first time since 2003.
FC Barcelona
Rivals Barcelona outclassed bottom-of-the-table Gimástic, who have already been relegated, and took a 3-0 lead within fifteen minutes, thanks to goals from Puyol, Messi and Ronaldinho. So the defending champions were virtual champions for one hour, with Messi and Zambrotta scoring two more goals in Barça’s 5-1 win, but their season lasted ten agonizing minutes too long. While Barcelona were easing to victory, Real Madrid finally succeeded in securing all three points.