Soccer: Match finishes 24 days after kick-off

MADRID - A Spanish league match between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad was completed on Wednesday, 24 days after it began.

Zinedine Zidane scored the winner to give his side an incredible 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad in a frantic seven-minute mini-match at the Bernabeu.

The match that had to be completed more than three weeks after the original fixture was abandoned because of a bomb scare.

The result means that Real move up into third place in the table, level on points with second-placed Valencia and 10 adrift of league leaders Barcelona.

The French midfielder scored the crucial goal after team mate Ronaldo had been brought down in the area four minutes into the mini-match.

The game marked a wonderful debut for Real coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who was appointed after the club unexpectedly sacked his predecessor Mariano Garcia Remon last week.

The Brazilian will go down as one of the few coaches in footballing history to take charge of a team midway through a match and celebrate by guiding his team to a morale-boosting victory.

In the first game Ronaldo put Real ahead against the run of play with an acrobatic strike on the turn just three minutes before halftime.

But Sociedad got a deserved equaliser in the second half when live-wire Turkish forward Nihat Kahveci scored with a carbon copy strike and were on top when the game was halted.

The second round of the game was a different matter altogether and Real showed a new desire and verve.

The match restarted with a goal kick for Sociedad, but the visitors quickly lost control of the ball and it was Real, roared on by 15,000 fans who had been given free access to the stadium, who piled on the pressure.

Striker Fernando Morientes, who was given a rare start ahead of Michael Owen, had a couple of half chances in the first two minutes, but it was a hopeful kick forward from midfielder Guti that helped decide the game.

Ronaldo managed to control the ball, raced into the area, unleashed a couple of trademark step-overs and was brought down by a desperate challenge from Sociedad fullback Mikel Labaka.

Referee Vicente Lizondo Cortes had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Zidane fired his spot kick inside the right-hand post to score the winner.

- REUTERS