RESULTS Sat Mar 13 Getafe 3-0 Mallorca, Sevilla 1-1 Deportivo, Sporting Gijon 0-0 Athletic Bilbao Sun Mar 14 Almeria 1-0 Malaga, Barcelona 3-0 Valencia, Racing Santander 0-0 Real Zaragoza, Real Valladolid 1-4 Real Madrid, Tenerife 4-1 Espanyol, Villarreal 2-0 Xerez
Spanish fixtures, results & table here
Good Day
Leo Messi
Now one of the things in this sporting life that gets La Liga Loca very, very, very angry indeed is people ringing into radio phones or hammering away on message boards that Manchester United / Chelsea / Real Madrid / Barcelona would not be as good without Wayne Rooney / Didier Drogba / Cristiano Ronaldo / Leo Messi.
No s**t Sherlock!
ThatâÂÂs what normally happens when a side has the worldâÂÂs best players in their line-up. Of course, a team is not as strong without them - hence, the âÂÂworldâÂÂs bestâ definition - but that still doesnâÂÂt make them bad.
So shame on the normally quite good Roberto Palomar in MondayâÂÂs Marca for praising the âÂÂMessi Law: when somethingâÂÂs not working, Barcelona implement it.âÂÂ
Quite. How stupid of Barcelona to depend (partly) on the worldâÂÂs best player and his 22 league goals, this season - a player who scored a simply outstanding hat-trick against Valencia.
(LLL takes deep breath)
Messi - unsurprisingly important
VÃÂctor Valdés
Barring an unfortunate beach volleyball mishap or some inter-WAG wandering, a third-choice goalkeeper is never going to be used in a World Cup campaign.
However, through the basic principle of all that is right and just in the world, SpainâÂÂs spare leg should be Valdés, this summer.
The Barcelona goalie made another vital intervention for his side, this time from Nikola Zigic, with the score at 1-0 against Valencia and it was just as important as MessiâÂÂs marvels at the other end of the pitch.
âÂÂValdés saved our lives,â admitted little Leo.
Gonzalo HiguaÃÂn
The Real Madrid forward may be selfish, a scoundrel, a flat-track bully, a fluffy-bunny torturer and responsible for the disappointing Star Wars prequels - all accusations levelled against Pipita over the week by Marca - but the Argentinean is now MadridâÂÂs top league scorer with 19 goals after his hat-trick against Valladolid.
âÂÂHiguaÃÂn is the present and the future of Madrid,â writes Tomás Roncero in AS in a rare moment of sense.
Jorge Valdano
Real MadridâÂÂs sporting director has shot straight to the top of La Liga LocaâÂÂs famous ladder of respect with his behaviour, this week.
Valdano was very quick to dispel any notions that Manuel Pellegrini would be fired after WednesdayâÂÂs Champions League flop and has also attacked the terrible treatment of HiguaÃÂn in the Madridista press in the wake of the exit.
âÂÂHe has suffered a lot and we have done him an injustice,â said Valdano after the 4-1 win over Valladolid.
The blog has the sensation that the level-headed former player and manager is the only barrier in the way of a mass managerial cull by a frustrated Florentino Pérez.
Real Madrid
Not only did the 4-1 win over Valladolid keep the Bernabeu club at the top of the proper league table, but it also saw them maintain their five point lead over Barcelona in MarcaâÂÂs alternative league. So itâÂÂs hats in the air, all round, in the Spanish capital.
Despite a game that should have seen two penalties awarded to Valladolid for a foul and handball by Sergio Ramos, Marca could see nothing wrong with the performance of Mejut
González, aside for being too lenient on the home side.
âÂÂIt was a round of matches without any serious mistakes,â claimed a very happy Marca on Monday.
âÂÂIt was bad refereeing from Mejuto who missed three penalties...two in favour of Valladolid,â claimed AS in contrast.
A good day for Real and Higuain
Juanma Lillo
Hugo Sánchez canâÂÂt be a happy man. Since being sacked over the winter break, the Mexican manager has been forced to watch his replacement work wonders at AlmerÃÂa with the same players, by stiffening the defence considerably and harnessing the extraordinary pace of Albert Crusat and Pablo Piatti.
AlmerÃÂa have lost just one of the 11 games Juanma Lillo has been in charge, with their most recent triumph being SundayâÂÂs 1-0 victoy over Málaga.
Getafe
For the opening stodgy 30 minutes of GetafeâÂÂs 3-0 win against Mallorca in the Coliseum the only fun to be had was a discussion of why it was still frackinâ freezing in Spain in the middle of March and whether Roberto Soldado was rubbish or not.
The always-right-even-when-itâÂÂs-wrong La Liga Loca said yes (most of the time), whilst another colleague insisted insanely that the Getafe striker should be going to the World Cup ahead of Alvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente.
Fortunately, one of the many Real Madrid rejects on the pitch, Dani Parejo, popped up with a goal just after the half hour mark to end the discussion and put some zing into what had been a mediocre match between two teams who were technically going for European places but had a very mid-table, comfy cushion mentality to their play.
Tenerife
It probably wonâÂÂt be enough to keep them up, but SundayâÂÂs 4-1 for Tenerife over the truly hopeless Espanyol was just the Canary Islandersâ second win in 13.
Bad Day
Sevilla
The normally cold-hearted La Liga Loca felt more than a little sorry for Sevilla, a side that ended up weeping uncontrollably and smashing its bloodied fists against DeportivoâÂÂs footballing door, like Maniche missing closing time of his local Häagen Dazs.
At one point in the second half, the statistics were 26 crosses to DeportivoâÂÂs 6 - but like Van Helsing fighting a Catholic vampire, their crosses were of no use.
By the end of the game Sevilla dominated Deportivo by 12 corners to 1, 9 shots on target to 4 and had 65% of the possession.
But the visitor's instant reply from Adrián to FazioâÂÂs rather nifty back flick header was enough to see Sevilla dropping yet more points at the Sánchez Pizjuán, a ground where they have only won half of their matches.
Sevilla's players look miffed as Depor level
Valladolid
Whilst they may not have âÂÂremoved headsâ as their captain, Marcos, was calling for during the week, Valladolid were certainly forceful in their approach to SundayâÂÂs clash with Real Madrid.
The most wince-inducing tackle of all was Nivaldo standing on RonaldoâÂÂs ankle with the Portuguese having good reason to squat on the floor and whine at the referee for once.
Still, Rafael Van der Vaart didnâÂÂt seem to mind with the Dutchman pointing out after the game that âÂÂitâÂÂs football and itâÂÂs a game for men.âÂÂ
Espanyol
If the bottom three werenâÂÂt such dead-on certainties for the drop, then Espanyol would be in a spot of hot water, this season.
âÂÂWe were inferior,â admitted Pochettino after the 4-1 tonking by Tenerife. âÂÂWe deserved this defeat.âÂÂ
Valencia
The Mestalla men may be a little closer than a truly embarrassing 18 points off second place, if they were able to complete their matches with 11 men on the pitch.
ValenciaâÂÂs squad has seen red in their past four league encounters against Getafe, Atlético Madrid, Racing and Barcelona. It isnâÂÂt even a phenomenon that âÂÂs just an issue in la Liga, either.
Two of ValenciaâÂÂs last three Europa League encounters have seen players getting their marching orders, too.
Racing
Currently riding the greasy pole of doom with Sunday's goalless draw against Zaragoza as the club's fifth league game without a goal.
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