With European competitions taking a two month break, the Spanish cup takes over the midweek spots. This is not a competition which is taken very seriously by the clubs, and many of the top players were rested (Real Madrid for example put out Casillas and ten reserves). Some teams do see the competition as their only gateway to Europe though and therefore pick strong line-ups, as was the case of Sevilla. They beat Villarreal 1-3 in their third round, first leg match, with two goals from the man they call the beast, but who is proving to be a beauty when it comes to scoring goals. He got two in that match and scored another at the weekend to come in to our chart for the first time. Otherwise though, only Baraja got his name on the scoresheet, and that was from the penalty spot.

Fernando Torres was the man of the weekend though (with apologies to Alfonso and his fantastic come-back goal), and the youngster seems to be making a habit of featuring in our results pages as (2, 1 Pen). This he did for the fifth time this season in the league, taking him third in our table. Ronaldinho stayed one behind him after he got another from the penalty spot, and there were goals too for Milosevic, Luque, Makukula and Jesuli in their respective games. (12.01.04)