Regional matches

Andalucia 3 - Tunisia 3

Andalucia and World Cup qualifiers Tunisia played out an exciting 3-3 draw at the Olympic stadium in Sevilla. Celta's Jesuli scored the opening goal on the half hour mark, with Boukadida levelling the scores for the visitors at the beginning of the second half. Two goals in five minutes from Diego Tristán, the first from the penalty spot after Sevilla's young striker Reyes was brought down, appeared to have given the home side the victory. However a Badra penalty and another late goal from Gabsi saved the honour of the North Africans. Real Madrid's Hierro was given an award before the match as the best Andalucian player of all time. (27.12.01)

Cataluña 1 - Chile 0

Pep Guardiola returned to Camp Nou to captain Cataluña to a narrow victory over a young South American side missing several of their big names. Guardiola was given permission by the Italian authorities to play in this friendly match despite his one year ban, and the record 56,000 crowd gave him a rousing reception, especially when he was replaced by Xavi early in the second half. The only goal of the game came a few minutes later when Xavi found Valladolid's Luis García with a long pass for him to run on and score. Guardiola insisted on taking a dope test at the end of the game as part of his appeal against the sentence. (28.12.01)

Valencia 4 - Lithuania 1

Inter Milan midfielder Farinós came back to his old hunting ground at Valencia's Mestalla stadium to delight the crowd with a hat-trick. This was the first game that the Comunidad Valencia had arranged in many years, and Farinós lined up alongside such well known names as Juanfran, Albelda and Rufete. Lithuania took the lead through Lukosevicius in the tenth minute, but the Spanish international scored three times in a fifteen minute period around half time to turn the game around. Sevilla's Luis Gil added a fourth a few minutes later to send the 15,000 crowd home happy. (28.12.01)

Euskadi 3 - Ghana 2

Two goals from Real Sociedad's De Paula were enough to give the Basque country side victory over the African team at Athletic Bilbao's San Mames stadium. De Paula was one of seven substitutions at half time with the home side behind to an early Derrick goal. Rayo Vallecano's Bolo also came on at the break and levelled the scores within a minute of the restart, and Mensah pulled one back for the visitors later on. Ghana's Princeton was sent off in the last minute for a second bookable offence. The Basque captain Gaizka Mendieta was not allowed to play in the match by his club Lazio. (29.12.01)

Asturias 6 - Lithuania 1

The Asturian selection beat a poor Lithuanian side in a festival of goals at Sporting Gijon's Molinón stadium. Oviedo's Oli opened the scoring in the third minute. Pablo Lago and and Juanele added two more before half time, and Juanele got his second goal of the night shortly after the interval. The blue shirts continued to attack and José Manuel got another before Dancenko pulled one back from the penalty spot. Ten minutes from the end César got the final goal for the home side. (29.12.01)

Other friendly games

Real Madrid will play Atlético Madrid in a friendly match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on 2nd January in honour of Madrid's bid for the 2012 Olympic games. The game also opens Real Madrid's centenary year, and they will be wearing their new centenary shirts for the first time.

Johan Cruyff's Barcelona's 'dream team' which won the European cup in the nineties will reunite to play a testimonial match for ex-Blaugrana Goikoetxea at Osasuna's El Sadar stadium, also on 2nd January. With the exception of Michael Laudrup all their star players are expected to turn up, including Stoitxkov, Koeman, Zubizarreta, Bakero, Eusebio, Julio Sallinas, Txiki Beguiristain etc. (30.12.01)