Talking of bets...



I made one with myself that you'd respond to my post and mention Madrid, thanks for not letting me down

don't you follow atleti? not often you find a rojiblanco with a soft spot for los merengues

No soft spot, I just find it amusing the way Barcelona sympathisers can't help but bang on about them, however well their own side are doing.

my own side (wigan) aren't doing very well at all. if we lose against cas then we need to have a good long look at ourselves.
i wouldn't say i'm a barcelona sympathiser, i just like watching good football.
and anyway, as most folk in spain have either madrid or barça as their second team, if i had to choose one it would be barça every time. always go for the underdog

congratulations to raul. outstanding achievement

The week in full:

Atletico Madrid 1 - 1 Getafe C.F
Deportivo La Coruna 0 - 0 Osasuna
Espanyol 0 - 2 Sevilla
Sporting de Gijón 0 - 4 Real Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 1 - 1 Recreativo Huelva
Almeria 3 - 2 Valladolid
C.D Numancia 0 - 1 Mallorca
Racing Santander 1 - 1 Villarreal
Real Betis Balompié 2 - 2 Barcelona
Valencia 1 - 1 Málaga

Real Madrid breezed past Sporting Gijon to close the gap at the top to a mere 10 points (s) and Raul also scored twice to break Di Stefano's league record for Real Madrid, a great achievement for the number seven. Sporting were outclassed, offering little resistance as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar also recorded his first Merengues goal.

The gap is closed because on Saturday Barcelona recorded something of a surprise draw at Betis. Paco Chaparro's men, buoyed by their derby victory last week, raced into a two goal lead through Melli and ex-Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez. Samuel Eto'o scored twice, including from the spot, two level things up but it showed that Barcelona are not infallible, especially when Messi and Henry don't start. Both sides had chances to win but Ricardo was in excellent form between the sticks for Betis and a draw was the least they deserved.

Sevilla left it late to record an important win at Espanyol which alleviates some of the pressure on Manolo Jiminez. Two goals in the last ten minutes from Kanoute sealed it but Espanyol had hatfuls of chances with luis Garcia the main offender. He's not scored since October and Los Pericos are winless in 14 and rock bottom, 3 points adrift. Valencia and Malaga played out a draw, David Villa gave the home side the lead before Raul Albiol put through his own net to equalise. Villarreal and Racing also drew, Zigic gave the verdiblancos the lead only for Santi Cazorla to equalise just before half time.

Atletico Madrid were foiled at home to Getafe, Diego Forlan had given Atletico the lead (his third in two) only for Albin to level with two minutes to go. Its a result that means Valencia and Villarreal are level on points in 4th and 5th, Atletico and Malaga two points behind and Sevilla on 41 points in 3rd.

I did say Hugo Sanchez can't keep relying on Uche and Negredo to bail his side out but it seems he can after all. Valladolid raced into a two goal lead in Andalucia only for Crusat, Uche and, yes, Negredo to capture three points that means Almeria jump to 13th. Mallorca's win in Numancia takes them to third bottom level with Osasuna with Recreativo on 25.

do you watch every game? how do you get all your info? im impressed!



did you see cazorla's goal? what a comeback by almeria with only half a team

pretty sure uche was one of those sent off.
have to say espanyol were hard done by. one of sevilla's goals should have been disallowed and luis garcia needs to spend the week at shooting practice.
zigic scored again, 5 in 6 for 'el techo' now.
in the battle of the bottom mallorca won at numancia, who look in desperate trouble now.
the catalan derby next week... but i'll miss it as i'm going away with the girlfriend for carnaval.

Negredo's going to be a hot transfer property this summer and Almeria will do extremely well to hold on to him. If he's anything like other ex-Real Madrid stars he's got a buyback clause and the Real hierachy should definitely take a look at signing him.

if they do they'll probably leave him to fade in the reserves as they've done with quite a few in the past. hope he either stays with almeria or moves to a bigger club where he'll play every week.

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Well, not technically, but I really hope we can get him back on a permanent deal

unfortunately for racing and your good self

valencia are up to their necks in the brown stuff.
it was all over the papers here last year but everything seemed to go quiet and so i, like many others thought everything had been sorted (a cracking turn of form in the league helped too).
but a couple of weeks ago there was a double page spread in one of the papers claiming that €15m was still owed to players currently at the club and that the football club's debt was something in the region of...wait for this... €600million


could be a case of whoever offers the most will get 'el techo'. racing need to act quick! one positive is that zigic seems to love it in santander (not the worst place ive ever visited) and so that might swing it in your favour.

600m was the figure that had been bandied about. How on earth do you run up that much debt as a football club. Who have they been taking finance lessons from, Sir Fred Goodwin?




He clearly prefers being the big fish in smaller pond, plus he gets to be the main striker here. I liked it when I visited as well, the main reason why i began supporting them, although as a 'destination' it can't hold a candle to Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia.

If Blackburn were to sign him they'd need a striker who can give him plenty of support and doesn't mind playing second fiddle. Give him the ball and he'll score, either with his 'ead or his feet.

Sounds like The Peter Ridsdale School of Economics theories put into practice there.

see john d's post




must say bilbao and donostia/san sebastian are another couple of my favourites


would be interesting to see who they'd pair up with him, mccarthy, santa cruz?

Funny you should mention my Alma Mater. Their new headquarters are looking spiffy:

[url=http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/17022009/1/kresic-sacked-numancia-coach.htmlNumancia[/url sack Kresic

Strange decision given they've been there or thereabouts all season and couldn't expect much better given their meagre resources.

Early candidates ex-Recre coach Manolo Zambrano and ex-Almeria coach Gonzalo Arconada.

Won't be Santa Cruz,he's gone at the end of the season.We were linked with Zigic a couple of years ago and I think he's the kind of player that would do well in the premiership.

scratch that. Sporting director Jose Rojo Martin is coach until the end of the season.

I predicted Numancia and Sporting to go down alongside Recreativo and the way its going I think I've a good chance of getting 2/3 right (if not my prediction of Espanyol making top 8, but you know, don't dwell on that)

Two spanish teams in action in the last 32 of the UEFA cup tonight - Deportivo are away at Aalborg and Valencia are also away for their first leg, at Dynamo Kiev. Two sides that dropped out of the Champions League so lets see how they fare.

depor live on telly tonight so might give it a chance.
as for numancia, what is the chairman thinking?? am i right in thinking they've managed 20 points so far? numancia are always going to struggle in the top division and i think the coach had done dreally well to get so many points with the team he's got. remember they beat barça!!
ideas above his station for me.

Did seem bonkers to me.

Transfer rumours today: Real Madrid, along with a host of others, are interested in Malaga right-back Jesus Gamez; Atletico Madrid boss Abel Resino is not a Jonny Heitinga fan and is looking to get rid of him - Betis are interested and are willing to let skipper Juanito go in the opposite direction