| Without doubt the goalscoring feat of the week came in the
UEFA cup final midweek, with Alavés's valiant fight back against
Liverpool falling just short in the end. Javi Moreno scored two of their four
goals early in the second half, and he now has half of Europe chasing after
him, with Milan, Barcelona and Valencia favourites to sign him in that order.
Moreno closes to within one of Raúl and six of Rivaldo, both of whom had
an off weekend (Raúl was recovering from flu and Rivaldo, well, just had
an off weekend). The other striker who shone this week was Diego
Tristán, who got his third hat-trick of the season to move on to 23 in
all competitions. His manager had criticised him for not scoring away from home
before this match, but Irureta was the first to blame as he preferred to play
Makaay up front in games outside of the Riazor. Tristán's first goal
cost Deportivo 300 million Pesetas under the terms of the transfer agreement
with Mallorca which stipulated that the amount became due if he scored 15 or
more goals in the league from open play. Of the rest of the Pichichis, Guti got
Real Madrid's winner at Rayo which puts them in line for the league
championship, Iván Alonso came on as an early substitute in the epic
UEFA cup final and put his side back on track, and Iván Rosado scored in
an extraordinary 3-3 draw with Las Palmas. The match will go down in history as
two of the Las Palmas goals were scored by their goalkeeper Nacho
González from the penalty spot, the first time that a "portero" has got
more than one in a Spanish league match. Other famous goalscoring keepers in
the recent past were Chilavert, who took the odd penalty for Zaragoza, and
Prats, a free kick specialist at Betis. (21.05.01) |
