John_D wrote:Oh and regarding Benzema, today's L'Indep reports him saying "I'll make a decision after Barcelona" when Lyon play the Catalans in the Champions League. "Ideally, I want to win the Champions League with Lyon". Didn't he say not long ago that if Lyon don't beat Barca, he wants to leave?

John_D wrote:Oh and regarding Benzema, today's L'Indep reports him saying "I'll make a decision after Barcelona" when Lyon play the Catalans in the Champions League. "Ideally, I want to win the Champions League with Lyon". Didn't he say not long ago that if Lyon don't beat Barca, he wants to leave?

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 The Guardian Quote:The former Valencia chairman and real estate entrepreneur Juan Soler raised the club's debt to more than €400m and started building a new stadium before it had sold the land occupied by its current Mestalla stadium, which it has still not managed to do because of plunging property prices and the credit crunch. Work on the new stadium has stalled while the club rushes to get a new financing deal with new lenders. A local savings bank, Bancaja, has already cut off credit. hard to see how they can get out of this to be honest - looking very bleak for Los Che

Valencia's plight reaches the pages of The Guardian Quote:The former Valencia chairman and real estate entrepreneur Juan Soler raised the club's debt to more than €400m and started building a new stadium before it had sold the land occupied by its current Mestalla stadium, which it has still not managed to do because of plunging property prices and the credit crunch. Work on the new stadium has stalled while the club rushes to get a new financing deal with new lenders. A local savings bank, Bancaja, has already cut off credit. hard to see how they can get out of this to be honest - looking very bleak for Los Che

The Penguin wrote:Valencia's plight reaches the pages of The Guardian 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... Catalancs wrote:unfortunately for racing and your good self valencia are up to their necks in the brown stuff. it was all over the papers here last year but everything seemed to go quiet and so i, like many others thought everything had been sorted (a cracking turn of form in the league helped too). but a couple of weeks ago there was a double page spread in one of the papers claiming that €15m was still owed to players currently at the club and that the football club's debt was something in the region of...wait for this... €600million

The Penguin wrote:Valencia's plight reaches the pages of The Guardian 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... Catalancs wrote:unfortunately for racing and your good self valencia are up to their necks in the brown stuff. it was all over the papers here last year but everything seemed to go quiet and so i, like many others thought everything had been sorted (a cracking turn of form in the league helped too). but a couple of weeks ago there was a double page spread in one of the papers claiming that €15m was still owed to players currently at the club and that the football club's debt was something in the region of...wait for this... €600million

his goal was a cracker wasn't it?

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

so inconsiderate