Alavés 0 - Barcelona 0

Alavés: Juan Pablo; Geli, Karmona, Téllez, Llorens; Astudillo (Rubén Navarro 75'), Desio; Tomic (Turiel 53'), Jordi Cruyff, Ibon Begoña; Iván Alonso. 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Bonano; Gabri (Christanval 35'), Reiziger, Frank De Boer, Sorín (Mendieta 46'); Overmars, Xavi, Motta, Riquelme; Saviola (Iniesta 63'), Kluivert. 4-4-2.

Team changes: Alavés: Astudillo, Desio, Jordi Cruyff for Ochoa, Turiel, Magno / Barcelona: Motta for Mendieta.

Goals: None.

Alavés and Barcelona drew 0-0 in a match which both needed to win, the home side to stay away from the drop zone and the visitors to keep in touch with the European spots. The Basque side filled their ground for the first time in three years after giving away a lot of tickets, and Mané ordered the pitch to be narrowed by a metre on each side to give Overmars and Riquelme less space to work in. Overmars still found room to test young keeper Juan Pablo in the tenth minute and Riquelme set up Kluivert for him to lob over the keeper on to the crossbar, but they were isolated incidents in a first half which the locals dominated.

Jordi Cruyff caused havoc down the left flank for an out of position Gabri, playing at right back in the absence of the injured Puyol, and referee Esquinas Torres let the Barcelona player off a second booking and a possible penalty midway through the half. Soon after Cruyff sent a dangerous header over the bar, Antic hauled Gabri off and brought on Christanval, with Reiziger taking over full back duties to keep tabs on his fellow countryman. At the start of the second half he had to switch sides though when Sorín left the game with an injury, and Mendieta came on to take over the right back position.

Neither side made too many inroads in the first quarter of an hour after the break, but then the visitors were left with ten men after Motta was shown a red card for pushing Ibon Begoña in the face as he came in to tackle. Alavés took advantage of the extra man to push forward, and Mané brought on Rubén Navarro who brought out a good save from Bonano. A few minutes later another shot from the young striker was deflected by Frank De Boer on to the post, and Bonano made another important save from Turiel's follow up.

The locals were left with ten men themselves though in the dying moments when Téllez was sent off for stopping Riquelme's dangerous through ball to Overmars with his hand, but Riquelme sent the resulting free kick way over the bar and the game came to an end. Barcelona's third league draw in a row leaves them still down in ninth place, and dumps Mané's side down into the relegation spots, albeit level on points with three other teams, Osasuna, Espanyol and Racing.