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Second-half saviors Kovacevic, Kahveci rescue Real Sociedad in 2-2 drawPosted: Saturday January 11, 2003 7:36 PMUpdated: Saturday January 11, 2003 7:40 PM
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- Real Sociedad rallied from two goals down to claim a 2-2 draw at Valencia thanks to late strikes from Darko Kovacevic and Nihat Kahveci as they clung onto the leadership of the Spanish first division on Saturday. With an early opportunist strike from Ronaldo giving an in-form Real Madrid a 1-0 win at Celta Vigo the Basque side's lead at the top is now down to just a point. Sociedad, fifth in the CNN/World Soccer Top 10, lead the table with 37 points. Real, the top-ranked team in the poll, has 36, while Valencia are seven points adrift in third. Raynald Denoueix's side looked beaten at the Mestalla after an early header from Fabio Aurelio and an almost comical own goal from Agustin Aranzabal saw Valencia take a 2-0 lead after an hour. But Sociedad refused to surrender and threw everything at Valencia in the 15 minutes, getting the reward for hard work when Kovacevic rifled home on the turn and Kahveci fired in the equalizer in the 79th. World and European Player of the Year Ronaldo grabbed his seventh goal this season and helped Real to its sixth straight win as he cashed in on an error by Celta goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero. The Argentine international failed to gather the ball after Raul took a snap shot from the edge of the area. Ronaldo was on hand to poke home from close range to put Real ahead in the seventh minute. Celta began to settle down as the game wore on, but missed the creative influence of injured Russian midfielder Alexander Mostovoi and failed to finish a series of promising attacks. Real sat back in the second half, and it took a fine reflex save from Iker Casillas to prevent midfielder Edu from claiming an equalizer 20 minutes from time. Defending champions Valencia, which had lost on its past two outings, took the early initiative against leaders Sociedad and deserved the lead when Brazilian defender Fabio Aurelio headed in at 18 minutes. Spain defender Curro Torres sent a fine first-time cross from the right wing towards the advancing Aurelio. His bullet of a header went into the far corner past the diving Sander Westerveld. Valencia appeared content to settle with their narrow lead, but were gifted a second goal early in the second half when defender Aranzabal failed to look and slotted a seemingly harmless back pass towards Dutch keeper Westerveld. The former Liverpool player was completely out of position and left stranded as the ball trickled into the net to the joy of the 49,000 fans. But the new setback sparked the Basque side into life, and Yugoslav striker Kovacevic grabbed his 10th goal of the season when he controlled a Kahveci through ball with his chest and cracked home past keeper Andres Palop on 69 minutes. Kahveci claimed the crucial equalizer, and his 10th goal of the season, 10 minutes later when he latched onto a Gabriel Schurrer pass and fired a shot under the sprawling Palop. Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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