French Football League 1 Match round-up

French Football League 1 Match round-up: Barcelona hold on to top spot for another week at least after an easy 3-0 victory on Saturday evening over a Racing Santander side who have not won in the Nou camp for 28 years. Guardiola's team had it wrapped up early on, Messi collecting Iniesta's pass before carving through the visiting defence to open the scoring in the eleventh minute, and Xavi heading a second midway through the first half from Pedro's cross. Racing's only reply was a speculative shot from youngster Koné, and Puyol, Villa and Messi all shot wide before Messi scored the third after Iniesta's shot came back off the post twenty minutes after the interval. Messi and Villa could have added to the lead after that, but with a Champions League game coming up midweek they called it a day. Barça are once more on song, and with an aggregate goal difference of 21-0 in their first four home games it seems that only Real Madrid can stand in the way of a fourth consecutive league title.Football News

Real Madrid themselves stay a point behind Barcelona after they too clocked up a comfortable 4-1 win over Betis. The Andalusians held their own up to half time, with 17 year old Vadillo bringing a good save out of Casillas before being stretchered off with a serious knee injury, and Beñat and Rubén Castro going close. Özil, Ronaldo, Higuaín and Kaká all failed to beat Casto at the other end, but just a minute after the restart Higuaín picked up a pass from Ronaldo to put José Mourinho's side ahead. Kaká made it two soon afterwards from another Ronaldo assist, and although Jorge Molina got one back, Di María set up Higuaín to score two more to complete his second hat-trick in a row in the league, and his third in the last fortnight, including the one he scored for Argentina last week. Good news for Mourinho, who is now spoilt for choice for his attacking line up to play Lyon next Tuesday.

The other three games on Saturday evening ended all square, Valencia losing ground on the top two after a 1-1 draw at Mallorca. Piatti shot just wide early on and Chori Castro had a shot deflected just wide in reply, and with seven minutes to go to the break Rami turned the ball over the line from a yard out after Zuiverloon blocked a shot from Víctor Ruíz following a corner. Hemed headed over a couple of times after the restart, but the game appeared to be lost for Joaquín Caparrós's new side until the second minute of injury time, when a shot from Pau Cendrós hit Topal on the arm at point blank range. Referee Paradas Romero pointed to the spot, and Hemed stepped up to convert his third penalty in two games.

Getafe and Villarreal shared the points in a 0-0 draw, a result which leaves them both in the lower half of the table. It was a game of two halves, with the locals on top at first and the visitors coming back later on. Güiza failed to covert three good chances early on, and before half time Codina had to push wide a long effort from Marcos Senna. Diego Castro just failed to get on the end of Sarabia's free kick after the interval, but Rossi wasted two or three opportunities to win it for the visitors after that. He will have to do better next Tuesday against Manchester City if his team is to stay in the Champions League.

Later in the evening Granada and Atlético Madrid also drew 0-0, the fifth time this season that Gregorio Manzano's team have failed to score in a league match. The locals had the better of the early play though, Uche heading against the post and Mainz and Dani Benítez both missing the target. Gabi and Reyes came up against Roberto before the break as Atleti fought back, but soon after the restart Geijo had a strike ruled out for a close offside, and Uche selfishly tried to beat Courtois from a tight angle when he had a colleague better placed in front of goal. In the last few minutes substitute Adrián tested Roberto again a couple of times, but once more the goal machine had dried up. (16.10.11) source http://www.soccer-spain.com/ssdocs/roundups/roundupd1.php