A high scoring week to kick off the second half of the league programme, with a season high 36 goals at the weekend. First division sides scored 17 in the cup midweek as well, including a strike by Michael Owen which kept up his record of a goal every 100 or so minutes overall, but wasn't enough to stop his side from being dumped out of the competition on the away goals rule by Valladolid.

The sensation of the third round though must be Athletic Bilbao's youth international Llorente, who scored a hat-trick in only his second game for the first team against 2B side Lanzarote. Athletic won the tie 6-0, with Ezquerro getting his name on the scorecard as well, and he got another in his side's amazing comeback on Saturday against Osasuna to make it fourteen in all competitions. Yeste scored twice in the same match, and he must be in line for a recall to the Spanish squad for the upcoming international with San Merino.

Eto'o still tops our chart though, and he was on target again at the weekend as Barcelona got back to something like their old form against Racing. Oliveira got two more for Betis to take him up into the upper reaches of our table, and Nihat scored again for Real Sociedad, even though it didn't help much as his side lost to Levante. The star performance of the weekend though came from Riquelme, who notched up a hat-trick (including two penalties) against the usually reliable Valencia defence. (24.01.05)