If you read between the lines.

Indeed.
We may laugh, but he's scored a blinder and had two other really good efforts already

Well that was, err...different:

Barcelona 1-2 Espanyol
Real Madrid 6-1 Real Betis
Villarreal 2-1 Sporting Gijon
Sevilla 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Valladolid 1-3 Malaga
Recreativo 1-1 Almeria
Mallorca 1-0 Racing
Osasuna 2-0 Numancia
Getafe 1-1 Athletic
Deportivo 1-1 Valencia

Well. Any pretense I had about my predictive abilities has been well and truly blown away after this weekend’s results. On Saturday, two Ivan De La Pena goals led Espanyol to their first league win at the Camp Nou in 27 years – this, against supposedly the best Barcelona ever. After putting them in the lead with a 50th minute header, the former Camp Nou and Lazio star then pounced five minutes later on a dreadful Victor Valdes clearance to brilliantly chip in the far corner for two nil. This, incidentally, after the referee sent Seydou Keita off for an innocuous-looking tackle on Moises. Yaya Toure’s fine volley gave the home side hope but in the end they could not break down a stubborn Pericos defence for an equaliser. That is Guardiola’s side’s first league defeat since Matchday 1, and it could not come at a more crucial time for Espanyol as they have moved off the bottom yet remain three points from safety.

Real Madrid closed the gap on the leaders with an extraordinary first-half display at home to Real Betis. All of the match’s 7 goals were scored, incredibly, in the first 45 minutes as Juande Ramos’s side ran riot. Betis were, quite simply, catastrophically bad, as centre halves allowed easy goals. Huntelaar (2), Raul (2), Higuain, and Sergio Ramos all reached the scoresheet, giving Los Merengues perfect confidence-boosting preparation for what is sure to be a much tougher game midweek against Liverpool. Certainly, with 9 straight victories under their belts, it is the Bernabau side who go in with the better form. For Betis, it is the end of a little good patch where they took points off Sevilla and Barcelona and they are now just two points above the relegation places.

Sevilla remain in third after a narrow 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. It was an even contest throughout, a midfield battle with few chances although Abel Resino will be ruing Diego Forlan’s incredible miss from 2-yards out. The Uruguyan had the goal at his mercy from Maxi Rodriguez’s cross and somehow managed to strike the crossbar. Jesus Navas, by some margin Sevilla’s best player this season, made him pay for his profligacy by finishing well from close range with four minutes to go, and cue pandemonium in the arena. It’s a result that leaves them 3rd, on 44 points, three clear of Villarreal who came from a goal behind to beat Sporting 2-1. The visitors went ahead after just one minute courtesy of Sporting Gijon’s striker Mate Bilic (his 8th of the season, some time after his 7th). However, Manuel Preciado will be furious with the way his side lost their concentration as the Yellow Submarine went straight up the other end to equalize courtesy of Giuseppe Rossi’s 12th of the campaign. Joan Capdevilla headed his side ahead from Marcos Senna’s cross and Bilic was guilty of missing chances to level things up. It is Sporting’s 5th defeat in 6 and leaves them 3 points above the drop zone.

On Sunday Valencia missed out on the chance to jump into the top four after being held by Deportivo. David Villa had put Los Che ahead, capitalizing on a bizarre Julian De Guzman backpass to curl home in the first half only to get himself sent off later on, first feigning an injury for his first yellow card and then impeding goalkeeper Aranzubia. Lotina’s men took advantage of their numerical superiority as Piscu headed home Verdu’s free-kick. The Galicians remain in 8th, 3 points behind Malaga who coasted to victory away at Valladolid. Albert Luque gave Tapia’s men the lead, Apono doubling the advantage with a penalty just short of the half-hour mark. Pedro Oldoni gave Valladolid a lifeline with six minutes left, but Nacho sealed a fine win for Malaga when he lobbed home a third in the closing stages. Malaga are now 6th, level on points with Valencia, a brilliant run this from the newly promoted side.

Numancia are the new bottom team in La liga after Osasuna scored two first half goals, through Jaroslav Plasil and Masoud Shojaei, to inflict a sixth straight defeat on the struggling Sorians, who are now 4 points from safety – the managerial change not having an immediate effect. Real Mallorca did their survival prospects a good turn with a 1-0 home win over Racing. Ezequiel Garay was sent off for the visitors and Pedro Munitis struck the woodwork before Jose Manuel Jurado slotted home the rebound after his original effort was saved by Tono from the penalty spot. Getafe and Athletic drew 1-1, Roberto Soldado put the hosts ahead, Iraola had a penalty saved for the visitors before Fernando Llorente, returning to the Athletic ranks after injury, scored from Velez’s knock-down to notch up his 10th of the season. Recreativo and Almeria drew, leaving Huelva just two points above the bottom three.

Seen Raul's two goals, both were class.

Valencia's plight reaches the pages of [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/23/metrovacesa-canary-wharf-hsbc-towerThe Guardian[/url



hard to see how they can get out of this to be honest - looking very bleak for Los Che

as i said on the 17th of february...

his goal was a cracker wasn't it?

He obviously did it just to make me look bad, the f---er

so inconsiderate

A pretty rubbish week for Spanish sides in Europe was completed by Deportivo's 6-1 aggregate thrashing by Aalborg and Valencia going out to Dynamo Kyiv on away goals after a 2-2 draw at the Mestalla.

to be fair valencia weren't that bad. they had chances to finish the game off but didnt and kiev kept plugging away.
as for depor...

If Atlético's new "high-line" defensive set-up performs like it did on Tuesday against Barcelona this Sunday the 6-1 from earlier this season will look like a good result.

However the actual result was even better, so I'll take that.

What a game.

Athletico 4 Barca 3.

So another crazy weekend in La Liga leaves the table looking like this, it's all on for the 4th CL spot and the UEFA places and that last relegation spot looks wide open too, it looks like there may also be a title race too, Real have wiped 8 points out of Barcelona's lead in the last three weeks.

¿cóme se dice "bottling it" en Catalan?

Barcelona 60
Real Madrid 56
Sevilla 47
Villarreal 42
Atlético 39
Valencia 39
Málaga 39
Deportivo 39
Valladolid 33
Almería 31
Athletic 31
Racing 30
Recreativo 29
Getafe 28
Betis 27
Mallorca 27
Sporting 27
Osasuna 25
Espanyol 21
Numancia 20

Have Barca been thinking that they had the league won already and gone about the CL abit more? Certainly not the same the past 4 weeks.

Amazing result
Shame it did the other half a favour eh?

Nope, and hopefully we'll take one for the city and country next week in the derby.*

[size=34
*It's not like there's any chance of Atléti actually beating Real so might as well put a positive spin on it![/size

A minor miracle might have to occur at the moment fro Atleti to beat El Real.
But its not beyond belief, is it?

Results in full:

Almeria 2 Getafe 1 (Negredo carries Almeria AGAIN)
Atletico Madrid 4 Barcelona 3
Malaga 0 Recreativo Huelva 2
Numancia 0 Deportivo La Coruna 1
Racing Santander 1 Osasuna 1
Real Betis 2 Villarreal 2
Sporting Gijon 0 Mallorca 1
Valencia 1 Valladolid 2
Athletic Bilbao 1 Sevilla 2
Espanyol 0 Real Madrid 2

Joyous scenes in Bilbao the other night after they stuffed Sevilla to reach the Copa del Rey final, you'd think they were a little success starved or something the way they carried on



They'll play Barcelona in the final after they hit back to draw against Mallorca and go through on aggregate, for a while it looked like they might be bottling that too.

so the treble is still on then

Still never been relegated. That's all there's been to cling to lately

[url=http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/article.html?Former_Arsenal_star_Hleb_on_his_way_out_of_Barcelona&in_article_id=569490&in_page_id=43Aliaksandr Hleb On His Way Out Of Barça...[/url

Apropos of conversations earlier in the week, just how funny would it be if Ramos was to win a title in Spain, Jol one in Germany and Spurs to go down?

Very, I think.