First things first, itâÂÂs time to get the grown-up football talk out of the way, so bear with us for a moment. In the home leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-final against Valencia, Real Madrid's entertaining 2-0 win made them strong favourites to go through to a semi-final meeting against either Málaga or (heaven forbid) Barcelona. Karim Benzema and an own goal from Andrés Guardado did the job for Madrid, although Jonas was a bit of a dozy doozy throughout the game and should have notched an away goal for his side.
Boom! Benzema bags at the Bernabeu
This being Spain though, the real chat after the match was whether the anti-anti-anti-Villarato [CIA-backed pro-Barça refereeing conspiracy] was in effect, and the moaning from Angel di MarÃÂa the previous day and the Madrid papers about offside decisions not going MadridâÂÂs way had had an impact in the match.
Valencia certainly seem to think so, with a few close calls going against the visitors. Roberto Soldado was on the wrong end of a chunk of those and was not best pleased after the match.
âÂÂMadrid have been putting a lot of pressure on the referee all week,â moaned the striker, who is still smarting over having a goal ruled out at the Bernabeu in the league clash earlier this season. âÂÂThere are games when referees work in your favour and others when everything is against you, but in this case it was incredible,â said Soldado, probably earning himself a hefty fine.
Barcelona would never be a bunch of moaning Minnies â aside from bleating endlessly about not getting enough penalties last season â so it was with a straight face that Tito Vilanova spoke about Angel di MarÃÂaâÂÂs claims of refereeing bias ahead of BarçaâÂÂs cup clash with Málaga on Wednesday.
âÂÂI saw the images of what di MarÃÂa said; I donâÂÂt think he was being serious. He was almost smiling,â chuckled the Barça boss, who appeared to be in mischievous mood, especially with the zinger over what the Catalan coach felt about the 18-point lead over Real Madrid: âÂÂIf the question was about the reverse situation then I wouldnâÂÂt be here now answering it.âÂÂ
Titter ye lot: Tito brings the LOLs
There's so little to say about the cup double-header against Málaga, whom Barça beat 3-1 at la Rosaleda on Saturday, that WednesdayâÂÂs Mundo Deportivo front cover has Leo Messi posing with his awards while a story concerning VÃÂctor Valdés dominates Sport.
ThereâÂÂs more fun to be had though with the quarter-final kicking off before the Camp Nou clash: Unai EmeryâÂÂs first match in charge of Sevilla, at Zaragoza. The arm-flapping blog favourite promises that his Sevilla are going to be âÂÂan aggressive team with and without the ball.â ThatâÂÂs pretty much what his counterpart on the Zaragoza bench, Manolo Jiménez, is all about too so there should be fisticuffs aplenty.
Jiménez â who was himself Sevilla boss, five managers ago â isn't that happy over the Andalusians' firing of MÃÂchel NoLongerTheManager, complaining that âÂÂIâÂÂve had to ditch all my plans. I know Sevilla and their players very well, but IâÂÂve no idea what Unai is going to do.âÂÂ
Although the tie is the least glamorous of the four matches taking place this week, with Atlético Madrid hosting Betis on Thursday at the ludicrous time of 10pm, Unai EmeryâÂÂs return to la Liga could be the most intriguing.
COPA DEL REY Tue 15 Jan Real Madrid 2-0 Valencia Wed 16 Jan Real Zaragoza v Sevilla, Barcelona v Málaga Thu 17 Jan Atlético Madrid v Real Betis
