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?

Not got a clue. It's been a day of dodgy decisions from players today.



How much power was there in the Villa freekick that smashed the bar?

espanyol and osasuna, possibly the 2 worst teams in spain at the moment.
will marquez still be in charge come the next round of games??

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.

Table:

Barcelona 32
Villarreal 28
Valencia 27
Real Madrid 26
Sevilla 24
Atletico Madrid 21
Deportivo La Coruna 21
Valladolid 19
Malaga 18
Sporting Gijon 18
Real Betis 17
Getafe 17
Racing Santander 15
Almeria 15
Mallorca 13
Athletic Bilbao 12
Espanyol 12
Numancia 11
Osasuna 8
Recreativo Huelva 7

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/spain/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/08/11/30/SOCCER_Spa-Espanyol_Marquez.htmlMarquez gone[/url, so I guess that answers your question Catalancs.

not really a surprise. wonder how long camacho will keep his job now

He's not done badly - they're absolutely awful, that much is true, but in spite of this they are only 4 points off safety. There's a whole clutch of teams in the relegation mire. The only one of the promoted sides I think's made of tough enough stuff is Malaga, I'm not totally convinced by Gijon. Plus there's Athletic and Recreativo's continued struggle. Mallorca are on a bad trot. Camacho deserves more time and a transfer window to see if anything can be accomplished there.

since camacho has taken over osasuna have played 7, won 1, drawn 1 and lost 5.
they've scored 6 and conceded 12.
they're probably just as well giving camacho more time as i dont think changing the manager now would make much of a difference as osasuna are hardly loaded and they arent going to attract to many quality players in january.
at least their still in the cup though

athletic in the last 16

Real are set to annouce the signing of Huntelaar in the next 48 hours with a transfer fee in the region £20 million.

[urlhttp://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11827_4577332,00.html[/url

poor lad!
and what about saviola and higuiain?