Barcelona's slide continues as Raul keeps Real rolling on

LA LIGA: Barcelona continued their slide into mid-table obscurity after slumping to a 3-0 defeat away to a lively Racing Santander in the Primera Liga yesterday. The Catalans paid a heavy price for failing to cash in on their early domination and Racing took full advantage of some nervous keeping by Turkish international Rustu Recber to score three times in the second half.

The defeat leaves Frank Rijkaard's side in 12th place in the table, 18 points down on leaders Real Madrid, who edged a 1-0 win at home to Murcia on Saturday, courtesy of a Raul goal.

Real lead by two points from Valencia, who beat Villareal 4-2 last night, courtesy of two goals from Ruben Baraja and one each for Pablo Aimar and Mista. Juan Roman Riquelme and Juliano Belletti scored for Villareal, who had Sergio Ballesteros redcarded after 67 minutes.

Deportivo Coruna, who handed Galician rivals Celta Vigo - Arsenal's next Champions League opponents - a humiliating 5-0 defeat on Saturday, are a point behind in third while Osasuna are a further eight points back in fourth after their 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao.

At the other end of the table last season's runners-up Real Sociedad ended a dramatic slump in form by coming from behind to earn a 2-1 win away to Malaga for their first victory in 10 Primera Liga outings.

FRENCH CUP: Fabien Barthez celebrated his Olympique Marseille return by saving twice and scoring once as his team beat Strasbourg 4-3 on penalties in their French Cup first round tie on Saturday.

The two Ligue 1 teams had been deadlocked at 1-1 after extra time before Barthez palmed away Strasbourg's third kick and then dived full length to block a powerful shot from Senegalese striker Mamadou Diang.

Barthez, whose loan transfer from Manchester United was approved only the day before, applied the finishing touch by taking his team's last penalty, blasting the ball past Richard Dutruel.

"I had been waiting to return to club football for so many weeks that I felt a lot of pressure," he said. "I had the feeling I was going back to the beginning of my career and I didn't want to disappoint the staff, the players and the fans."