Barca crush Mallorca, 10-man Real win derby

Sun Nov 8, 2009 9:02am GMT
 

By Iain Rogers

MADRID (Reuters) - Pedro netted twice and Thierry Henry scored his first of the season to set leaders Barcelona on their way to a 4-2 win over Real Mallorca in La Liga on Saturday that kept the champions a point clear of Real Madrid.

Second-placed Real, missing the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, held on for a 3-2 win at city rivals Atletico in the late match despite going down to 10 men in the 66th minute.

Real were cruising after Brazilians Kaka and Marcelo scored first-half goals and Gonzalo Higuain added a third on 64 minutes before Sergio Ramos was shown a straight red for a foul on Sergio Aguero.

Roared on by the home crowd, Diego Forlan pulled a goal back with 11 minutes of regular time left, Aguero added another three minutes later and Iker Casillas produced a superb save to deny the Argentina striker at the death as Real held firm.

Barca have 26 points from 10 matches, Real have 25 and Sevilla, who host Villarreal on Sunday, have 19 in third. Atletico remain in the relegation zone on seven points with just one win.

Pellegrini appeared to be struck by an object thrown from the crowd midway through the second half but played down the incident at the post-match news conference and said he had not suffered any serious injury.

"We had a very good first half and controlled the second until Ramos was sent off," the Chilean said.

"The final minutes were dangerous but did not reflect the superiority we enjoyed throughout the match as a whole."  Continued...

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