The second legs of the cup quarter finals took place midweek, with Kanouté one of the scorers as defending champions Sevilla beat Villarreal 3-0 on Tuesday to make it through to the semis yet again. Surprises the following day though as Almería won 2-3 at Deportivo to reach the last four for the first time in their history, Adrián's goal not enough to prevent the Galicians from being knocked out. And later in the evening second division Betis ended Barcelona's 28 game unbeaten run with a 3-1 victory, albeit that Messi's away goal (plus the five they scored in the first leg) taking the Blaugrana through. A possible Barça-Real Madrid final could be on the cards though as Madrid beat their city rivals Atlético 0-1 on Thursday, Ronaldo getting the only goal to tie up a 4-1 aggregate scoreline.

The weekend got off to a lively start, with 15 goals in the three games on Saturday evening. Strikes from Pedro and Iniesta and a Messi penalty gave Barcelona a 3-0 win over Racing, and Luis Fabiano scored a hat-trick as Sevilla beat Levante 4-1. No less than seven goals though in an incident packed match between Valencia and Málaga, the locals running out 4-3 winners with a last minute strike from Aduríz. Rondón twice put the Andalusians ahead in the first half, but Soldado was amongst the scorers as the Ches turned the game around against nine men. On Sunday a single goal from Benzema was enough to give Real Madrid a victory over Mallorca, keeping them in touch with leaders Barcelona, and Rossi got two as third placed Villarreal beat Real Sociedad 2-1. Super-sub Ulloa (this time starting the match) scored two more as Almería clocked up their first home win in the league this season against Osasuna, and on Monday Llorente added another million or two to his price with one of Athletic's three goals against Hércules. (25.01.11)