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Leo Messi gave everyone a fright on Wednesday night when he was stretchered off in Barcelona's Champions League tie against Benfica clutching his knee and in obvious pain. However it turned out just to be bruise, and he bounced back to score both goals in his side's 1-2 win at Betis, taking his tally for the calendar year to a World best 86 goals. As we commented last week however, the Madrid based sports paper Marca, who give out the official "Pichichi" awards each year, went against the referee's report and marked down his first goal against Athletic as an own goal, which would still leave him one short of beating Gerd Müller's all time record of 85. Ingeniously though they have solved this by re-refereeing one of Müller's games from 40 years ago, counting one of his goals as an own goal as well, so they are now reporting that Messi has beaten the revised record of 84! Seems that everybody is out of sync but them!

As far as we know though Messi has never done what Falcao did on Sunday, which is to score five goals in one league match (although he did get five in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen last March!). The Colombian striker got his "manita" in a 6-0 win against Deportivo which keeps his side in second place, and takes him above Ronaldo in the league Pichichi table. The top three are well clear of the rest, although there is quite a bun-fight for the "Zarra" award for the highest-scoring Spanish player, with Rubén Castro and Aduríz now on nine after netting at the weekend, and Negredo and Soldado just one behind them as they did likewise. Elsewhere Manucho's two goals for Valladolid couldn't prevent a 2-3 defeat against Real Madrid, who came back from behind thanks to a strike from Benzema and a double from Özil, and Joaquín, Saviola and Martins were all on target as Málaga and Levante both clocked up 4-0 wins.

We shouldn't forget Ronaldo though, and he has finished as top scorer in the league stage of the Champions League after getting his sixth of the season in Tuesday's game against Ajax. Callejón got two more and Kaká another in a 4-1 victory, although Madrid couldn't prevent Borussia Dortmund from taking first place in their group. Valencia also had to settle for second despite a 0-1 win at Lille, Jonas getting the only goal from the penalty spot, but Barcelona and Málaga were already sure of top spot in their respective groups despite drawing their last games, the former 0-0 against Benfica, and the latter 2-2 against Anderlecht, with two from Duda. On Thursday Athletic Bilbao bowed out of the Eurpoa League after a 0-0 draw against Sparta Prague, and although already qualified, Levante and Atlético Madrid both failed to overtake their respective group leaders. Levante were held to a 2-2 draw by Hannover, Angel and Iborra the scorers for JIM's side, and Atlético lost 1-0 at Viktoria Plsen earlier in the evening. Both may now get difficult ties in the next round. (11.12.12)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Messi (Barcelona) 23 2 5 30 (2)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 13 2 6 21 (4)
Falcao (Atlético) 16 0 3 19 (5)
Aduríz (Athletic Bilbao) 9 0 3 12 (1)
Soldado (Valencia) 8 0 4 12 (4)
Rubén Castro (Betis) 9 1 0 10 (0)
Negredo (Sevilla) 8 1 0 9 (3)
Higuaín (Real Madrid) 7 1 0 8 (0)
David Villa (Barcelona) 5 3 0 8 (0)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 3 2 3 8 (0)
Hemed (Mallorca) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Oscar (Valladolid) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Postiga (Zaragoza) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Fàbregas (Barcelona) 5 1 1 7 (0)
Raúl García (Atlético Madrid) 3 2 2 7 (0)
Iago Aspas (Celta) 6 0 0 6 (1)
Riki (Deportivo) 6 0 0 6 (0)
Martins (Levante) 6 0 0 6 (0)
Leo Baptistao (Rayo) 6 0 0 6 (0)
Vela (Real Sociedad) 6 0 0 6 (3)
Manucho (Valladolid) 6 0 0 6 (0)
Saviola (Málaga) 5 0 1 6 (0)
Joaquín (Málaga) 4 0 2 6 (2)
Feghouli (Valencia) 3 0 3 6 (0)
Susaeta (Athletic Bilbao) 2 0 4 6 (0)
Jonas (Valencia) 1 1 4 6 (1)