Deportivo la Coruña 2 - Valladolid 0

Deportivo: Juanmi; Scaloni, Donato, Naybet, Romero; Sergio, Mauro Silva; Víctor, Valerón (Duscher 52'), Fran (Héctor 69'); Makaay (Diego Tristán 83'). 4-2-3-1.
Valladolid: Bizzarri; Ricchetti, Gaspar, Mario, Jonathan (Peña 46'), Marcos; Fernando Sales, Sousa (Pachón 76'), Colsa, Oscar González (Ciric 70'); Aganzo. 5-4-1.

Team changes: Deportivo: Donato, Sergio for César, Duscher / Valladolid: Marcos for Torres Gómez.

Goals:
1-0. 13. Makaay. Took Valerón pass and rounded defender to score.
2-0. 28. Makaay. Following up after Valerón chip struck foot of post.

Roy Makaay is a man on form, and he rounded off an amazing week scoring two more goals as Deportivo beat one of the early leaders Valladolid by a 2-0 scoreline. The Dutch striker followed up his two at Osasuna and his midweek hat-trick at Bayern Munich by opening the scoring with a quarter of an hour gone, taking Valerón's squared cross and avoiding the lunging Gaspar before slotting the ball past the hitherto unbeaten Bizzarri. Fifteen minutes later he was there again to finish off when Valerón was put through by Scaloni and produced a glorious chip which hit the base of the post.

Valladolid had been rightly concerned right from the start about the Valerón / Makaay combination, and Moré had picked a defensive side, charging his promising youngster Jonathan with the task of shadowing the Canary Island born midfielder. At half time he decided he needed the more experienced Peña to do the job, and the Bolivian was lucky to be let off with a yellow card within minutes for a vicious tackle from behind which left Valerón limping badly.

Without their midfield general though, Depor had more trouble finding space in front of goal, although Makaay should probably have completed his hat-trick when Sergio set him up with a low cross. Eventually Irureta decided to reserve his top scorer for Tuesday night's Champions League clash with AC Milan, and gave Diego Tristán a run out. The Spanish international is still having trouble with his ankle injury from the World Cup, but he was fit enough to play and should have scored himself near the end. He will have to work hard though if he wants his place back in this team.