Oviedo 0 - Valencia 0

Oviedo: Esteban; Keita, Onopko, Boris; Amieva, Iván Iglesias, Paulo Bento, Rabarivony; Dubovsky, Losada; Dely Valdés. 3-4-2-1.
Valencia: Palop; Angloma, Djukic, Pellegrino, Carboni; Farinós, Mendieta, Gerard, Kily González; Claudio López, Juan Sánchez. 4-4-2.

Another goal-less draw was played out at Oviedo, with both teams near the bottom of the table looking for points. Valencia do however have the Champions League to keep their fans warmed up, and their success in that competition may be costing them a better position in the league. Cúper made only one change from the side that defeated Bordeaux midweek, bringing in Juan Sánchez up front for Adrian Ilie, keeping Carboni at left back with Fagiani suspended. Luis Aragonés left out five players, Bango, Danjou, Eskurza, Fabio Pinto and Pompei, but had Onopko back in defence. Oviedo's keeper Esteban has been phenomenal at home, only being beaten by four penalties in their six games, and he kept another clean sheet against Piojo and gang, who are having problems scoring away. Both sides had scoring chances but in the end the inevitable happened, and with draws all round near the bottom of the table, the status quo was maintained. Kily González was sent in the 65th minute when he picked up his second yellow card for a foul on Boris.

Real Sociedad 2 - Numancia 1

Real Sociedad: Alberto; Kühbauer, Loren, Antía, Aranzábal; Mutiu, Gómez, Barkero, De Paula; Sa Pinto. 4-2-3-1.
Numancia: Nuñez; Belsué, Jaume, Muñiz, Iván Rocha, Octavio; Pacheta, Nagore, Castaño; Rubén Navarro, Ojeda. 5-3-2.

Two players were also sent off in San Sebastian, where the home side came back from behind to pick up a valuable three points. The match was billed as one of an old rivalry between the two Basque managers, Clemente and Goikoetxea who worked together for four years for the Spanish national side before splitting up, but it was more a way to fill space in the press rather than any animosity between the two men. Clemente brought in under 20 international Barkero in place of the injured De Pedro, and included three other youngsters, Llorente, Gurrutxaga and Alonso, on the bench in view of the number of injuries and suspensions in his team. Gabi Popescu returned to the Numancia squad after his suspension. Real made life difficult for themselves in the 19th minute when goalkeeper Alberto was sent off for bringing down a Numancia forward in the penalty area. Castaño converted the spot kick, and Clemente was forced to take off Kühbauer to bring on reserve keeper Iker Alvarez. However referee Daudén Ibáñez made up for it two minutes from half time when he sent off Jaume for a second bookable offence on Barkero. By coincidence, the last time these two sides met in 1995, Numancia knocked Real Sociedad out of the cup on penalties with Daudén officiating. With both teams down to 10 men Real Sociedad came back, and De Paula equalised fourteen minutes into the second half after a pass from Sa Pinto. Clemente brought on Bonilla and Llorente, making his home debut, and the youngster scored the winner a quarter of an hour before the end with a shot across keeper Nuñez. Both teams are level with a group including Real Madrid and Málaga on 16 points in the lower-middle half of the table. Real go to the derby match with Athletic next week in San Mames without their first team goalkeeper, hoping to at least recover some of their injured players by then. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Bilbao fans to Clemente, who is a fully paid up member of their club.