Becks red-carded as nine-man Real Madrid crash to defeat

England skipper David Beckham was sent-off and Zinedine Zidane misfired a penalty as Real Madrid crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Valencia on Sund...

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England skipper David Beckham was sent-off and Zinedine Zidane misfired a penalty as Real Madrid crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Valencia on Sunday leaving city neighbours Getafe to take top spot in the Spanish league.

Getafe, in only their second season of top flight football, beat Real Zaragoza 5-2 while Real’s four-game winning streak came to an end with their home defeat.

To compound their misery, Real ended the game with nine men as Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen was also sent-off. Real threw away a chance to take the lead after 10 minutes when Zinedine Zidane put his penalty against the post and they were punished 12 minutes later when Ruben Baraja fired home a curling free-kick from more than 20 metres.

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Raul Gonzalez equalised for Real after 35 minutes but Valencia again got their noses in front three minutes later, from a David Villa penalty after a Pablo Aimar shot had hit real defender Sergio Ramos on the elbow. Real, who slipped to third in the table, had Gravesen dismissed for a wild tackle on Vicente Rodriguez eight minutes from time and, shortly afterwards, Beckham got two quick-fire yellow cards for dissent. Both men will miss Wednesday’s match at Deportivo Lacoruna.

The scoring started early at Getafe with Velj Kopaunovic finding the net from 10 yards after nine minutes, guiding the ball unchallenged into the visitors’ area.

Daniel Guiza got Getafe’s second from the penalty spot after 21 minutes after Gabi Milito had brought him down, and Guiza exploited Zaragoza’s shocking defending to put the hosts further ahead three minutes later.

Ruben Pulido added to Zaragoza’s half time humiliation by heading home Getafe’s fourth goal after 36 minutes. Jose Maria Movilla and Delio Toledo got two back for Zaragoza early in the second half before Pablo Redondo added a fifth goal five minutes from time. Celta Vigo move up to second after David Silva stabbed the ball home with his left foot eight minutes from time to get the only goal in their 1-0 win over Espanyol.