Pedro wonder strike sends Barca top

A terrific strike from Pedro Rodriguez helped Barcelona equal their best ever start to a league season with a nervy 1-0 home victory over Almeria on Saturday.

Barca’s sixth successive win, matching a club record set in 1991 and 1998, also sees the defending champions replace Real Madrid at the summit of La Liga.

Pedro, the latest Barca youth player to make the breakthrough, turned on a sixpence before rifling home an unstoppable 31st minute shot to follow up his goal against Dinamo Kiev in midweek.

It was a special day for Barca captain Carles Puyol, 31, who celebrated a decade at the club having made his league debut against Valladolid back on October 2, 1999.

Coach Pepe Guardiola handed Andres Iniesta his first league start this season and the Spanish international found Lionel Messi with a fine pass after 10 minutes but the Argentine’s shot did not have enough curl to creep into the net.

Almeria were breaking the game up with a string of fouls and referee Velasco Carballo was jeered by the home fans for failing to dish out yellow cards to the perpetrators.

With 31 minutes gone Pedro scored a goal from nowhere receiving a pass with his left foot before turning swiftly and unleashing a fierce curling shot into the corner with his right foot.

It was a superb strike from the 22-year-old and the home fans sung his name to show their appreciation.

Almeria coach Hugo Sanchez was an exciting striker for Real Madrid but his side packed men behind the ball in the second half as if they were the ones defending a 1-0 lead.

The dominating Barca side were wary of conceding a soft equaliser and could not relax until the final whistle.

Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic, celebrating his 28th birthday, almost continued his record of scoring in every league game but his 80th minute drive was saved by Diego Alves to deny him a sixth goal of the season.

Real Madrid are not in action until Sunday when they have a top-of-the-table clash at third-placed Sevilla.

Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, Real’s top-scorer in the league with five goals, has been ruled out after failing to shrug off an ankle injury picked up against Marseille on Wednesday.

“We aren’t denying the importance of Cristiano to our team with his goal threat well known but there are alternatives in this squad such as Raul or (Gonzalo) Higuain,” insisted Real coach Manuel Pellegrini.

Sevilla have won their last four league matches while Real have won all seven of their matches so far this season – five in the league and two in Europe.

In contrast, city neighbours Atletico Madrid have yet to win a single league game and there are suggestions that coach Abel Resino could become the first managerial casualty of the new season if Atletico, third from bottom, fail to beat Real Zaragoza at home on Saturday.

“Results are not going well but I am convinced that we will begin our fight-back against Zaragoza,” said Resino.

Deportivo La Coruna continued their impressive start to the new campaign by climbing up to fourth in the Spanish first division with a 1-0 win at Tenerife earlier on Saturday.

Tenerife had a 100 percent home record following wins over Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna but Deportivo ended that run thanks to a goal from defender Diego Colotto on the hour mark.

Deportivo finished seventh last season and hope to be surprise challengers for a Champions League slot with Atletico Madrid and Villarreal both struggling.