The cup semi-final second legs were a bit of a formality this week after Barcelona and Sevilla won by big margins the week before, although Sevilla did have a bit of a scare when Celta’s Iago Aspas scored two goals either side of half time. Strikes by Banega and Konoplyanka put paid to any doubt there however, and they go through to meet Barcelona, who drew 1-1 at Valencia in their return leg. None of the “MSN” trident were in Mestalla though, and their goal was scored late on by the B team’s Kaptoum after Negredo had given the Ches the lead.

So to the weekend, and Ronaldo and Luis Suárez are starting to pull away from the rest in the race for this season’s “Pichichi”. Ronaldo hit two in a 4-2 win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to leapfrog Suárez in the table, but the Uruguayan striker notched up a second half hat-trick in Sunday’s 6-1 victory over Celta, the third from that amazing Messi penalty-assist, to move two clear of his rival at the top. Messi and Neymar got one each in that match as well, with Guidetti momentarily equalizing from the penalty spot at the other end. Going back to that Messi penalty, what makes it more astonishing is that he forewent the possibility of reaching a mythical 300 in the league to gift the goal to his team-mate! For the record as well, Neymar was a bit miffed as he said the idea was for him to score the penalty, but that the “fat one” nicked it off him! Something though that only Cruyff was able to do in the past, and a nightmare for the Fantasy Football organizers. Does that go down as a penalty miss by Messi or not?

While Messi closes in on 300, Fernando Torres was more than happy to reach 100 in an Atlético shirt last week. But whereas it took him half a season to get that last goal, it only took another minute before he made it 101 against Getafe! That was enough for Simeone’s side to win 0-1, keeping them in second spot between their two big rivals. If Torres does leave in the summer (still a doubt), Atleti can do worse than bring back Borja Bastón, the on-loan striker netting his 17 th of the season to help Eibar move back up to sixth. Omitting last week’s fixture, when he was not allowed to play in the Calderón stadium for contractual reasons, he has now scored in seven games in a row. Elsewhere Sevilla kept up their winning home run, Banega and Konoplyanka getting the goals in the second half in a 2-0 victory against Las Palmas which consolidated their fifth spot. Meanwhile Negredo netted again against Espanyol to put Valencia en route to a first league win under Gary Neville (at last!), and Jozabed got his ninth of the season to save a valuable point for Rayo at Sporting in this week’s Friday night match. (15.02.16)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 23 5 11 39 (2)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 21 0 11 32 (7)
Aduríz (Athletic Bilbao) 13 6 6 25 (3)
Messi (Barcelona) 13 6 6 25 (2)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 19 0 4 23 (0)
Neymar (Barcelona) 17 3 2 22 (4)
Griezmann (Atlético) 12 3 4 19 (0)
Gameiro (Sevilla) 13 3 2 18 (5)
Borja Bastón (Eibar) 16 1 0 17 (2)
Lucas Pérez (Deportivo) 14 0 0 14 (1)
Bale (Real Madrid) 13 0 0 13 (0)
Iago Aspas (Celta) 9 4 0 13 (0)
Agirretxe (Real Sociedad) 12 0 0 12 (0)
Bakambu (Villarreal) 8 1 3 12 (0)
Williams (Athletic) 7 3 2 12 (0)
Alcácer (Valencia) 9 2 0 11 (2)
Rubén Castro (Betis) 10 0 0 10 (2)
Sanabria (Sporting) 10 0 0 10 (1)
Negredo (Valencia) 4 5 1 10 (2)
Charles (Málaga) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Javi Guerra (Rayo) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Jozabed (Rayo) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Guidetti (Celta) 4 5 0 9 (2)
Nolito (Celta) 8 0 0 8 (1)
Sergi Enrich (Eibar) 6 2 0 8 (0)
Caicedo (Espanyol) 6 2 0 8 (0)
Banega (Sevilla) 4 1 3 8 (3)