Neighbours Valencia and Villarreal were in action midweek in the UEFA cup, and both won through their respective matches to set up an all Spanish semi-final. Villarreal's Sonny Anderson got his seventh goal in the competition in their victory over Celtic, making him joint top scorer together with Newcastle's Alan Shearer.

No doubt about who was the man of the week though, Julio César "The Beast" Baptista becoming the first player this season to score four in a match. The Brazilian midfielder headed two early goals and added two more in the first quarter of an hour of the second half, the last from the penalty spot, as Sevilla beat Racing 5-2 on Sunday.

In the absence of the injured Ronaldo, Mista closed the gap to "only" nine goals after his last minute strike saved a point against Real Sociedad. Vicente had scored early in the game for the Chés. Meanwhile Saviola's goal for Barcelona put them on the way to a fifteenth game without defeat, setting up an interesting "derby" with Real Madrid next weekend, The Argentine striker also scored in their midweek 1-1 draw at Betis, a game postponed from day 30. Barça's win against Málaga takes them above Deportivo, who rested key players for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final and were held to a 1-1 draw by Valladolid, for whom Oscar González scored again.

Elsewhere Tamudo gave Espanyol renewed hope with a goal in their 1-3 win at Osasuna. The Catalans are now only two points behind Mallorca, who lost 1-2 to Villarreal. Eto'o scored from the penalty spot for the Islanders, but had a second penalty stopped by Reina in the last minute which would have saved them a point. (19.04.04)