13 November 2006, by Sean Gillen

Goalscorer Ze Castro stakes claim for Atletico Madrid starting place

Portuguese Abroad weekend round-up

Atletico Madrid defender Ze Castro marked his first league start with a goal, netting the opener in his team’s 3-1 win over Villarreal in Spain’s La Liga. Maniche started and Costinha came on as a late sub for Los Rojiblancos at the Vicente Calderon.

Deco played the full 90 minutes for Barcelona, as the champions had Ronaldinho to thank for inspiring them to a 3-1 win over Zaragoza. A last-minute equaliser denied Miguel’s Valencia, who were held 1-1 at home against Bilbao, and they slip down to sixth.

Duda missed Sevilla’s 0-0 draw at Racing Santander, while Jorge Andrade was not selected for Deportivo’s stalemate at Gimnastic. Beto’s Recreativo won 2-1 at Celta Vigo, but Mallorca’s recent good form came to a halt as Jose Nunes’ men lost 1-0 at Getafe.

In the Premiership, Manchester United maintained their lead at the top of the Premiership, beating Blackburn 1-0 with Cristiano Ronaldo on form. Chelsea kept up with the leaders, Jose Mourinho selecting Ricardo Carvalho for the Blues’ 4-0 victory over Watford.

Luis Boa Morte captained Fulham as the Cottagers earned a valuable 1-1 draw at Portsmouth, for whom Pedro Mendes played the full 90 minutes. Ricardo Vaz Te watched Bolton’s 2-2 draw with Sheffield United from the bench.

Inter Milan stay joint-top of Serie A after a 2-1 win at Parma. Luis Figo played 76 minutes for the Nerazurri, who snatched all three points with an injury time goal from in-form Argentine striker Julio Cruz. Jose Vidigal remained on the bench as Livorno were beaten 3-2 at Catania, as did Jose Semedo for Cagliari’s 2-2 draw at Messina.

Pedro Pauleta served the last game of his ban as Paris Saint-Germain were beaten 3-1 at home by Lens. Lyon came from behind to beat Valenciennes, with Tiago starting as two goals in the last seven minutes gave the champions a 2-1 home win. Marco Ramos played the full 90 minutes of Lens’ 0-0 draw with Rennes.

Stuttgart are the new leaders in the German Bundesliga, after winning 2-1 at Hannover without captain Fernando Meira. Werder Bremen slip down to second after a shock 3-1 home defeat to Dortmund, with Hugo Almeida playing the final 20 minutes. Ze Antonio’s Gladbach drew 1-1 at Hamburg and Alex was on the bench for his Wolfsburg side’s goalless draw with Energie Cottbus.

Manuel Da Costa played in central defence as PSV beat leaders Ajax 1-0 in the Dutch Eredivisie. Scottish side Hearts appear to have surrendered their title challenge, with Jose Goncalves and Bruno Aguiar starting in a 1-0 loss at Hibernian, which now sees the Jambos slip 16 points off leaders Celtic with one game in hand.

In Belgium, Nuno Coelho, Miguel Areias, Sergio Conceicao and Sa Pinto all started as Standard Liege moved up to fourth place with a 3-2 win at Mons. Daniel Fernandes kept another clean sheet for PAOK Salonika in Greece as his side won 2-0 away against Aigaleo.

Carlitos and Joao Pinto were in the FC Sion side hammered 3-0 by Young Boys, who were without Jose Delfim, in the Swiss Schweizer Pokal Cup. Nelson Ferreira came on for FC Thun as they went out 1-0 at Grasshoppers, for whom Roberto Pinto was unavailable.

Star Performer

Ze Castro

With his side on a terrible run of three games without a win or goal, the former Academica defender could not have picked a better time to score his first goal for Atletico. Ze Castro scored the opener on 37 minutes to mark his first league start, and stake a claim for a regular place in the Atletico backline.

Earlier round-ups:
09/11/06 Star Performer - Hugo Viana
06/11/06 Star Performer - Carlitos
30/10/06 Star Performer - Hilario
26/10/06 Star Performer - Hilario
23/10/06 Star Performer - Manuel da Costa
16/10/06 Star Performer - Tiago
02/10/06 Star Performer - Cristiano Ronaldo
25/09/06 Star Performer - Cristiano Ronaldo
18/09/06 Star Performer - Sergio Conceicao
11/09/06 Star Performer - Ricardo Carvalho
28/08/06 Star Performer - Figo
21/08/06 Star Performer - Deco