Arsenal must be getting fed up of Messi by now! Five years or so ago he put four past them in the Nou Camp, and on Tuesday night he netted twice in the Emirates stadium, the second from the penalty spot, to give Barcelona a hefty lead in their Champions League “Round of 32” tie. Atlético Madrid are also looking good for a place in the next round, although they still have some work to do after a 0-0 draw at PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday. Spain is looking set though to have full house in the next rounds of the European competitions after all four La Liga teams won through their Europa League ties on Thursday. Valencia in particular put another four past Rapid Vienna to make it a record 10-0 on aggregate, Rodrigo, Feghouli, Piatti and Vezo getting the goals in the second half. Four times champions Sevilla went through comfortably despite losing 1-0 at Molde on the night, the three goals they scored in the first leg more than enough to see off the Norwegian side. Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal had more problems however, both taking a one goal lead in to their second legs against Olympique Marseille and Napoli respectively, but having to come from behind to draw 1-1 on the night, and win through 2-1 on aggregate. Sabin and Tomás Pina were the two saviours.

The big game at the weekend was of course the local derby between Real Madrid and Atlético, Simeone’s side making it three wins on the trot in the Bernabeu stadium after a strike from Griezmann gave them a 0-1 victory. Leaders Barcelona didn’t slacken off though, and they came from behind to beat fifth placed Sevilla 2-1 on Sunday, opening up an eight point gap over Atleti and an enormous twelve over Real. Once again Messi began the comeback with a house-special free kick (his sixth of the season), and Luis Enrique’s side have now matched the best ever run of 34 games without defeat, set by Beenhakker’s Real Madrid some 27 years ago!

Sevilla’s defeat means that they have been caught by Celta, the Galicians beating Getafe 0-1 with a headed goal from Nolito. Athletic Bilbao stay three points behind them both though after they won 0-3 at Valencia, Aduríz getting the last of those, his first in the league in five matches. Nolito by the way has just returned from a long injury lay-off, as has Real Sociedad’s Agirretxe, who only took seven minutes to add to his tally, the striker coming on to score a late equalizer against Málaga. Elsewhere Rubén Castro netted twice in the first half for Betis, not enough as it turned out as Rayo’s half time substitute Manucho got two back himself soon after making his appearance, and Granada’s El-Arabi got a vital winner from the penalty spot at Deportivo, his team moving off the bottom of the table under new coach José González. (01.03.16)

Pichichi League Cup Europe Total (Penalties)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 25 5 11 41 (2)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 22 0 12 34 (7)
Messi (Barcelona) 16 6 8 30 (3)
Aduríz (Athletic Bilbao) 14 6 7 27 (3)
Benzema (Real Madrid) 19 0 4 23 (0)
Neymar (Barcelona) 18 3 2 23 (4)
Griezmann (Atlético) 13 3 4 20 (0)
Gameiro (Sevilla) 13 3 3 19 (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)
Agirretxe (Real Sociedad) 13 0 0 13 (0)
Iago Aspas (Celta) 9 4 0 13 (0)
Rubén Castro (Betis) 12 0 0 12 (2)
Bakambu (Villarreal) 8 1 3 12 (0)
Williams (Athletic) 7 3 2 12 (0)
Alcácer (Valencia) 9 2 0 11 (2)
Guidetti (Celta) 6 5 0 11 (2)
Negredo (Valencia) 4 5 2 11 (2)
Sanabria (Sporting) 10 0 0 10 (1)
Nolito (Celta) 9 0 0 9 (1)
Charles (Málaga) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Javi Guerra (Rayo) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Jozabed (Rayo) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Parejo (Valencia) 6 1 2 9 (3)
El-Arabi (Granada) 7 1 0 8 (2)
Sergi Enrich (Eibar) 6 2 0 8 (0)
Caicedo (Espanyol) 6 2 0 8 (0)
Banega (Sevilla) 4 1 3 8 (3)