I thought the penalty award to Athletic at the Riazor last night was one of the more baffling ones I've seen in recent times.

Fingers crossed Betis are set for a good campaign. The quality of football on show in that difficult run of fixtures against Barca, Real, Villareal and Sevilla putas suggested that we'd improved and now we are in great form.

isnt it 5 on the trot now for los beticos?
barça were amazing again last night. especially heartening after madrid scraped a win against BATE (who?)
already looking forward to el classic
interesting to see that with one round of games still to go all 4 spanish teams have qualified for the next stage of the champions' league

The weekend's fixtures:

Saturday 29 November
Getafe v Real Madrid 19.00
Sevilla v Barcelona 21.00

Sunday 30 November
Almeria v Deportivo La Coruna 16.00
Athletic Bilbao v Numancia 16.00
Espanyol v Sporting Gijon 16.00
Malaga v Osasuna 16.00
Recreativo Huelva v Villarreal 16.00
Valladolid v Mallorca 16.00
Valencia v Real Betis 18.00
Atletico Madrid v Racing Santander 20.00

An intriguing weekend. After playing out a rather dour draw with Valencia last week, it is now Sevilla's turn to stop the Barcelona juggernaut. Getafe, who did such a good job of shutting them out in the previous round, have the opportunity to compound Bernd Schuster's woes on Saturday. Madrid are far from their free-scoring selves so Getafe, confident, might just fancy their chances.

On Sunday, red hot Real Betis (not a phrase you hear often) visit the Mestalla where Los Che have lost their last two home games. Racing Santander, who came away from the Parc Des Princes on Thursday with a creditable point against PSG in the UEFA Cup, visit the Vicente Calderon and an Atletico Madrid side who have gone very nicely in Europe but are stuttering in their challenge to break the top four. Villarreal will look to bounce back from last week's loss of their unbeaten record with three points from a trip to Huelva - but will have to do so without Nihat and Josepa Llorente. Valladolid, arguably the team of the moment thanks to their back-to-back wins, host Mallorca.

i fancy madrid to get something from the game, they often scab games like this
sevilla-barça should be a cracker if they both go for it as they can do.
a point for barça would be great for them and the win would push them on to clear favourites for the league, even at this eartly stage of the season

It said on sky sports news that Real Madrid were closing in on two young signings. Zarate and Huntelaar were two names being thrown around.

the word 'desparation' springs to mind!
cracking game tonight... well done getafe, 3-1

3-0 to barcelona! well i certainly didn't see that one coming.
sevilla started off well but they just seemed to get more and more defensive!
you can't sit back against barça this year and why would you want to at home?

I think Barca will run away with it this year just look at them in the champions league scoring 5 every game

but to be fair they wont come up against to many basles or shaktar donetsks

What a game between Valencia and Real Betis, it had just about everything.

what was miguel playing at though?

The weekend:

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

As usual La Liga throws up its fair share of surprises. Even with their dodgy form I did not have Getafe down as capable of putting three on Real Madrid. Schuster gone this week IMO, Mijatovic is just waiting for the approval from Calderon. A Mo Tchite penalty proves a false dawn as Atletico put four past Racing and stake their claim for a top six spot; Barcelona brush past Sevilla thanks to inspired displays from Messi and Eto'o; Valladolid's great form continues as they easily beat Mallorca while two Josepa Llorente goals give Athletic a priceless home win against Numancia. Recreativo and Osasuna remain the teams propping up the league but Espanyol and Almeria's slides continue.