Not a great week for Spanish clubs in Europe. Although Henry, Maxi, Forlán and Rossi all scored for their respective sides in the Champions League, none of the four could win. Everything will boil down to the second legs in a fortnight's time, although only Barcelona have home advantage then. Worse was to come though in the UEFA Cup, with La Liga's two remaining teams Valencia and Deportivo both crashing out.

Excitement in the league at the weekend, where Raúl got his seventh in six games to help Real Madrid to a 0-2 win at Espanyol. The following day Barcelona crashed to a 4-3 defeat at Atlético (Forlán 2, Agüero 2 / Henry 2, Messi 1) to reduce the gap between the top two to four points.

Elsewhere Kanouté kept Sevilla on track for third spot with two at Athletic Bilbao, and Negredo sent out another advert to potential buyers with two more for Almería against Getafe, making it seven in five games. (02.03.09)