Real Madrid 1 - Numancia 0

Madrid: Casillas; Salgado, Pavón (Guti 55'), Raúl Bravo, Roberto Carlos; Beckham, Iván Helguera; Figo, Raúl (Owen 68'), Zidane; Ronaldo (Morientes 81'). 4-2-3-1.
Numancia: Alvaro Nuñez; Pignol, Jaime Molina, Otxoa, Graff; Velasco (Miguel Angel Nuñez 66'), Palacios (Merino 78'), Ros, Kiassos (Lee Chun Soo 57'); Tevenet, Pineda. 4-4-2.

Team changes: Madrid: No change / Numancia: Kiassos, Pineda for Juanlu, Toché.

Goals:
1-0. 17. Beckham. Bent free kick from outside of area into roof of net.

Real Madrid were expected to have an easy win against newly promoted Numancia, but they struggled to break down a resilient defence and ended up running down the clock in the final minutes. Camacho wasn't taking any chances and put out a first choice line up, and when Beckham put them in front with a well struck free kick with only a quarter of an hour gone they seemed to be well on the way. Zidane came close to adding a second when Nuñez turned his shot round the post, and the French midfielder headed against the crossbar from Beckham's subsequent corner.

But as time wore on the scoreline didn't change, and Camacho brought on Owen for a disappointing Raúl, we had missed a couple of chances early in the second half. Still Numancia held on, and they could have even saved a point as their confidence increased near the end. But Madrid made sure at least of their first home win in the league since the end of March, and they find themselves sharing the top of the table with Barcelona pending Sunday's games.