Cup semi-finals midweek, with both first leg ties played on Wednesday evening. Right now the two Catalan teams are favourites to go through, Messi on target again as Barcelona beat Villarreal 3-1, and Espanyol cancelling out an early Aduríz strike to draw 1-1 at Athletic Bilbao. Messi is rapidly catching the out-of-form Ronaldo in the race for the league Pichichi, a hat-trick including a penalty against Levante at the weekend taking him two behind his rival, and he in fact has now surpassed him in all club competitions this season. It was his 23 rd hat-trick in his 300 th La Liga appearance as well, which takes him level with Ronaldo’s current record, and he also set up Neymar to score the opener in a 5-0 victory on Sunday in which Luis Suárez rounded things off. Real Madrid stay a point ahead of Barça however after they beat Deportivo 2-0, Isco and Benzema getting the goals, but Atlético are further adrift of the top two after they lost 2-0 at Celta, Nolito converting a penalty to start things off. Meanwhile Negredo’s penalty against Getafe kept Valencia in fourth place, although Sevilla are still two points behind them after a 3-0 win against Córdoba, Bacca one of the scorers there. Elsewhere Sergio García wrapped up a 0-2 victory at Málaga with an injury time strike (and proceeded to injure himself in the play!), Alberto Bueno was on target in a 2-0 win over Villarreal, and Jonathas got a vital goal for Elche as they beat Eibar 0-1 on Monday night. (17.02.15)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Messi (Barcelona) 26 3 8 37 (3)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 28 1 7 36 (10)
Neymar (Barcelona) 17 4 3 24 (0)
Mandzukic (Atlético) 11 3 5 19 (2)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 12 0 6 18 (0)
Bacca (Sevilla) 13 1 1 15 (4)
Griezmann (Atlético) 12 1 2 15 (0)
Vietto (Villarreal) 10 0 5 15 (0)
Aduríz (Athletic Bilbao) 8 4 3 15 (2)
Bale (Real Madrid) 10 0 4 14 (1)
Stuani (Espanyol) 9 3 0 12 (2)
James (Real Madrid) 8 3 1 12 (0)
Gerard Moreno (Villarreal) 3 5 4 12 (0)
Sergio García (Espanyol) 9 1 0 10 (2)
Pedro (Barcelona) 5 5 0 10 (1)
Aspas (Sevilla) 2 7 1 10 (1)
Jonathas (Elche) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Caicedo (Espanyol) 6 3 0 9 (0)
Raúl García (Atlético) 4 3 2 9 (4)
Nolito (Celta) 8 0 0 8 (2)
Bueno (Rayo Vallecano) 8 0 0 8 (1)
Dani Parejo (Valencia) 8 0 0 8 (1)
Larrivey (Celta) 7 1 0 8 (0)
Vela (Real Sociedad) 7 1 0 8 (1)
Alcácer (Valencia) 5 3 0 8 (0)
Gameiro (Sevilla) 2 5 1 8 (1)