Cristiano Ronaldo followed up his five at the weekend with another hat-trick (including two penalties) in Tuesday night’s Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk, and he is now only one or two goals away (depending on which paper you read!) from Raúl’s club record in all competitions, 323. The difference is that Ronaldo has achieved that in 304 matches, whereas Raúl took 741, more than double! Benzema also scored on Tuesday in a 4-0 victory, and Atlético’s Griezmann helped himself to an early brace at Galatasaray. Spain of course have five teams in the Champions League this season, and Europa League winners Sevilla got off to a good start with a 3-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, Gameiro and Banega converting penalties before Konoplyanka wrapped things up. On Wednesday Luis Suárez was on target as Barcelona drew 1-1 at Roma, but strikes by Cancelo and André Gomes were not enough to prevent Valencia from a 2-3 defeat against Zenit. Mixed results on Thursday for La Liga’s two Europa League contenders, Athletic winning 3-1 against Augsburg with two more from Aduríz and a late goal by Susaeta, but Villarreal lost 2-1 at Rapid Vienna, even though Baptistao gave them a first half lead.

Ronaldo didn’t score on Saturday, but Benzema did in a narrow 1-0 victory over Granada. Madrid have to settle for second spot however after leaders Barcelona beat Levante 4-1 on Sunday evening, Messi missing his sixth penalty in twelve, but scoring another as well as a last minute beauty. Bartra and Neymar were the other scorers, both dedicating their goals to the injured Rafinha. However Ronaldo and Messi are still trailing Aduríz, who confirmed his new burst of youth with a late goal at Villarreal. That didn’t help much though, Baptistao on target again as the Yellow Submarine won 3-1 to join Madrid and also Celta, who themselves beat Sevilla 1-2 with strikes by Nolito and Wass to leave the Andalusians at the foot of the table. Elsewhere Atlético are up to fifth after a 0-2 win at Eibar, Fernando Torres getting a carbon copy of the one he netted against Germany to win the 2008 European Championship, and Sporting beat Deportivo 2-3 in the Riazor stadium for their first victory since being promoted, Sanabria heading in twice in the opening minutes, and Juanfran and Luis Alberto momentarily levelling it for the Galicians before Menéndez got the winner. (21.09.15)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Aduríz (Athletic Bilbao) 3 4 2 9 (1)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 5 0 3 8 (3)
Messi (Barcelona) 3 1 2 6 (1)
Nolito (Celta) 4 0 0 4 (1)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 3 0 1 4 (0)
Bakambu (Villarreal) 3 0 0 3 (0)
Griezmann (Atlético) 1 0 2 3 (0)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 1 0 2 3 (0)
Fernando Torres (Atlético) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Neymar (Barcelona) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Rubén Castro (Betis) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Orellana (Celta) 2 0 0 2 (1)
Wass (Celta) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Lucas Pérez (Deportivo) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Luis Alberto (Deportivo) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Adrián González (Eibar) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Bale (Real Madrid) 2 0 0 2 (0)
James (Real Madrid) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Sanabria (Sporting) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Soldado (Villarreal) 2 0 0 2 (0)
Negredo (Valencia) 1 0 1 2 (0)
Baptistao (Villarreal) 1 0 1 2 (0)
Eraso (Athletic Bilbao) 0 0 2 2 (0)
Banega (Sevilla) 0 0 2 2 (1)
Gameiro (Sevilla) 0 0 2 2 (2)
Konoplyanka (Sevilla) 0 0 2 2 (0)