Cristiano Ronaldo is back!
The Real Madrid super-star followed up his weekend performance with two goals
in the Champions League against Olympique Marseille, the first a cracking free
kick, to ensure his side a place in the last 16. The new "Balón d'Or"
Leo Messi was not to be outgunned though, and he too fired a free kick in off
the crossbar at Dynamo Kiev to take Barcelona top of their group as well. In
the absence of the injured Luis Fabiano, Kanouté stepped in to give the
already qualified Sevilla a 1-0 win over Rangers, and only Atlético
Madrid failed, a 0-3 defeat at the hands of Porto in the end not relevant as
they scraped in to the Europa League through the back door.
Messi's goal took him
temporarily to the top of our Pichichi chart, although David Villa displaced
him again after he and Joaquín both cancelled out strikes from
Higuaín in Saturday's big match between Valencia and Real Madrid. The
visitors won it in the end though with a late goal from Garay. Earlier in the
evening Ibrahimovic made sure of staying one behind the Valencia striker in the
race for the league "Pichichi", the Swedish forward converting a controversial
penalty to help his team beat city neighbours Espanyol. The following day
Kanouté was on target again to give Sevilla victory against Sporting, a
result which kept the Andalusians in third spot. (14.12.09) |