Barcelona brought out the big guns for their second leg cup tie against Celta, and in half an hour it was all over, Messi scoring twice and setting up Jordi Alba for the third, and Luis Suárez getting a fourth soon afterwards. Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla will be amongst the teams joining them in the quarter finals, new boy Vietto netting a hat-trick for Valencia against Las Palmas (having not scored a single goal for Atlético throughout last year!), and Ben Yedder starting things off for the Andalusians against Cádiz. Barça’s rivals in the next round will be city neighbours Espanyol, who overturned a first leg defeat against Levante with goals from Leo Baptistao and Gerard Moreno.

Barcelona ended the first half of the league season nine points clear at the top of the table after coming back from two down to beat Real Sociedad 2-4 on Sunday, Paulinho getting their first, Luis Suárez adding two more, and Messi converting a free kick, after Willian José had given the Basque team the lead. Atlético stay second after a Gameiro strike gave them a 0-1 win at Eibar, and Valencia are still third after they won 1-2 at Deportivo, Rodrigo getting the winner there. Elsewhere Stuani converted a penalty, Portu was also on target and Olunga got three more (the first player from Kenya to score in the league) as Girona thrashed bottom club Girona 6-0, and Gerard Moreno added to his tally as Espanyol drew 1-1 against Athletic Bilbao. (16.01.18)

Pichichi League Cup ** Europe * Total (Penalties)
Messi (Barcelona) 17 3 3 23 (3)
Ben Yedder (Sevilla) 5 3 8 16 (2)
Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 4 1 11 16 (3)
Aduríz (Athletic) 7 0 8 15 (6)
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 13 1 0 14 (0)
Bakambu (Villarreal) 9 2 3 14 (1)
Willian José (Real Soc) 8 0 5 13 (2)
Iago Aspas (Celta) 11 1 0 12 (2)
Rodrigo (Valencia) 9 2 0 11 (1)
Gerard Moreno (Espanyol) 8 3 0 11 (2)
Stuani (Girona) 10 0 0 10 (1)
Zaza (Valencia) 10 0 0 10 (0)
Maxi Gómez (Celta) 9 0 0 9 (0)
Paulinho (Barcelona) 8 0 0 8 (0)
Sergio León (Betis) 6 2 0 8 (0)
Santi Mina (Valencia) 6 2 0 8 (1)
Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad) 6 0 2 8 (0)
Griezmann (Atlético) 5 1 2 8 (1)
Bacca (Villarreal) 5 1 2 8 (0)
Raúl García (Athletic) 4 1 3 8 (1)
Sanabria (Betis) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Portu (Girona) 7 0 0 7 (0)
Calleri (Las Palmas) 4 3 0 7 (0)
Asensio (Real Madrid) 4 3 0 7 (1)
Bale (Real Madrid) 4 1 2 7 (1)

* Includes European Super Cup
** Includes Spanish Super Cup