Soccer: Barcelona continue to slide
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.
Real showed obvious of rustiness on their return from the festive break and were never completely comfortable, despite taking the lead in the ninth minute with a tap-in from Raul.
Third-placed Deportivo Coruna stayed within striking distance of the leaders following a 5-0 victory away to their hapless Galician rivals Celta Vigo later on Saturday.
Albert Luque and Victor scored on the counter-attack to make it 2-0 at half-time and Victor completed his hat-trick after the break.
Diego Tristan bagged the fifth late on.
Victory for Depor gave them 36 points from 18 games and took them eight points ahead of fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, who had to settle for a goalless draw away to Real Zaragoza.
Real took up in the new year where they had left off in a run of victories over Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Deportivo Coruna and Real Mallorca at the end of 2003, with Raul scoring before Murcia had settled.
Murcia, in 19th place in the table and with just one league win all season, were seemingly headed for a heavy defeat but managed to limit the damage to a single goal at halftime after David Beckham and Ivan Helguera missed good chances.
Against all odds, the visitors took control of the game at the start of the second half and might easily have moved ahead.
The referee turned down three plausible penalty claims for Murcia, who went desperately close with a shot from Richi that brushed past a post after 55 minutes.
They continued to create opportunities, helped in part by dismal defending from the home side, and would have deserved the point had Garcia's late free kick crept under the bar.
"We started well and controlled the game in the second half but we were tired after the break," said Real coach Queiroz.
"Murcia made it hard for us. They may be low down the table but they haven't given up."
Real Sociedad ended a dramatic slump in form by coming from behind to earn a 2-1 win away to Malaga yesterday for their first victory in 10 Primera Liga outings.
Last season's runners-up fell behind midway through the first half when defender Litos put Malaga ahead with a well-taken glancing header following a corner.
However Russian midfielder Valery Karpin put Sociedad back on level terms 13 minutes later when he dinked in with a neat chip.
Live-wire Turkish forward Nihat Kahveci, who had supplied the pass for Karpin's goal, grabbed the winner just before the break when he sent a superb dipping free kick over a wall of Malaga players and past despairing keeper Juan Calatayud.
France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez celebrated his Olympique Marseille return by saving twice and scoring once as his team beat RC 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," the 32-year-old told French television.
"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."
Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has admitted the club would consider floating on the stock market if they failed to compete with other European big-guns such as Manchester United or Real Madrid.
The German champions are in the process of building a lucrative new stadium with neighbours 1860 Munich and hope that will help the club to catch up financially with Madrid and United.
"If we failed to compete with Manchester United or Real Madrid despite having a new stadium, sponsoring, merchandising and TV money, we would consider floating on the stock market," explained Hoeness to German daily Bild.
Despite that admission Hoeness was adamant that Bayern would not sell up to a billionaire investor a la Chelsea who have spent stg£111 million since the arrival of Russian oil magnate Roman Abramovich.
"If someone approached me offering €300 or €400 million, I would just have one thing to say to him: Stay where you are," added Hoeness.
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