Atletico hold Barca to leave six-way tie at top
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-20 09:37

Atletico Madrid held Barcelona to a 1-1 draw on Sunday as the last two remaining 100 percent records fell in Spain.

 Giovanni van Bronckhorst put Barcelona ahead in the 23rd minute but Fernando Torres grabbed the equaliser early in the second half and Atletico held on to claim a valiant draw.

 The result left Atletico and Barca among six sides level at the top on seven points from three games.

 Espanyol, 1-0 winners over Real Madrid on Saturday, emerged as leaders on goals scored, followed by Atletico and Barcelona.

 Osasuna, who beat Real Betis 3-2, Real Zaragoza, 4-3 winners against Albacete on Sunday, and Valencia, who beat Real Sociedad 3-1, are the others in the leading group.

 Deportivo Coruna claimed their first victory of the season on Sunday when Albert Luque stabbed in at the near post in the second minute of injury time to clinch a 2-1 win at Athletic Bilbao.

 FAST START

 Barcelona started at breakneck speed against Atletico and should have had the game wrapped up in the first half.

 "We controlled the game but Atletico made things difficult for us," said Barca coach Frank Rijkaard. "The result's fine, though. This is a difficult place to come and it's OK to draw here."

 Van Bronckhorst lashed the ball into the net early on only for the referee to harshly blow for handball.

 However, the Dutch defender soon put the Catalans ahead after Ronaldinho's run along the byeline was stopped by a desperate challenge. The ball ran free and Van Bronckhorst reacted first to beat Leo Franco with a sweet shot.

 Atletico abandoned their cautious approach and began to trouble the Barca defence with the strong running of Torres and the vision of Ariel Ibagaza.

 The equaliser arrived five minutes after the break when Torres raced on to a long ball forward, wrong-footed Carles Puyol with a neat header and beat Victor Valdes with a shot that went in off the bar.

 Barcelona almost got an immediate equaliser, Ronaldinho heading over from a couple of metres after Henrik Larsson had teed him up with a header and the Brazilian went close again 10 minutes later following a one-two with the Swede.

 Sergi cleared off the line after a brilliant run from Xavi as Barcelona poured forward and a minute later Franco did well to save another shot from the busy Barca midfielder.  

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