European matches again midweek, with Barcelona making it through to the quarter finals of the Champions League after a 3-1 vctory over Arsenal. Messi scored four against the Gunners in the equivalent fixture last year, and this time he scored two to take his tally to 45 in all club competitions this season. Xavi was the other goalscorer. Valencia were not so lucky though despite Ricardo Costa's early goal against Schalke '04, the Chés out of the competition after a 3-1 defeat in Gelsenkirchen. Villarreal are Spain's last representative in the Europa Leaguem, and on Thursday they took a big step towards a place in the quarter finals with a 2-3 win at Bayer Leverkusen. The usual suspects were on the scoresheet, Rossi starting things off and Nilmar coming on to score two more after the break.

So to the weekend, with Agüero's brace on Saturday only enough to give Atlético a 2-2 draw at Almería. Later in the evening Benzema also scored two as Real Madrid went on to beat Hércules 2-0, and with Barcelona only drawing 1-1 at Sevilla the following day the gap at the top has been closed to five points. Talking of Sevilla by the way, we can't go without saying our goodbye's to Luis Fabiano, who is leaving the club at the end of the month to return to Brazil. Is it goodbye though or "au-revoir"?. Elsewhere Rossi was on target again, although a late Diego Castro penalty deprived Villarreal of a victory against Sporting, and Rondón got an important goal in Málaga's 0-2 win at Real Sociedad, thereby keeping his side's hopes of survival alive. (16.03.11)