Story highlights
Real Madrid record worst start to La Liga season in over a decade
A 1-0 defeat at Sevilla leaves them with four points from as many matches
Jose Mourinho's team now eight points behind leaders Barcelona
Tito Vilanova's side maintain 100% start to season with 4-1 over Getafe
Real Madrid’s dismal start to the La Liga season continued on Saturday as the reigning champions slumped to a 1-0 against Sevilla at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
German international Piotr Trochowski scored the only goal of the game in the second minute to lift Sevilla to third in the table with eight points and leave Madrid languishing in 10th with four – their worst start to a season since 2001-02.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s attempts to get Madrid back in level terms were thwarted by Andres Palop in Sevilla’s goal before the break and Jose Mourinho’s double substitution at halftime – new signing Luka Modric and Karim Benzema replacing Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil – made little impact.
“Right now I have no team. We are a team without concentration. At halftime, I changed two players and wanted to change six,” Mourinho said.
To make matters worse, arch rivals Barcelona recorded their fourth straight win of the season on Saturday – running out 4-1 winners against Getafe – to open up a gap of eight points over Real.
Brazilian full-back Adriano opened the scoring for Barca in the 32nd minute before Messi, who came on as a substitute in the 59th minute, bagged two goals in the final quarter of the match.
The first came from the penalty spot in the 74th minute – after Pedro had been brought down by defender Juan Valera – before he side-footed a second goal four minutes later.
David Villa – who also came on as a substitute – rounded off a resounding win for Tito Vilanova’s men with a injury-time strike.
The only downside was the early departure of Carlos Puyol, who limped off in the 57th minute.
“The most important thing is we have 12 points from 12, we tried to control the game and we could have scored a few more. We’ll see tomorrow how long Puyol will be out, it’s a problem, he gives us a lot of organisation at the back and is very important for us,”Vilanova said.
In Saturday’s other fixtures, Malaga are up to second after beating Levante 3-1 while Valencia recorded their first win of the season with a 2-1 win against Celta Vigo.
