Good Day
Barcelona
PepâÂÂs Dream Boys - as officially endorsed by FIFA on Monday night, according to the local press - beat Deportivo using the most basic trick in the tactical book against the Galician outfit: staying awake for the whole ninety minutes when facing their terrifically tedious opponents.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The big question to be asked after RonaldoâÂÂs hat-trick against Villarreal on Sunday night is not how many goals the smoldering Portuguese forward will end up scoring this season, but whatâÂÂs with the âÂÂangry kittenâ goal celebration he appears to have taken a shine to in recent weeks? Tool.
Ronaldo scored the perfect hat-trick against Villarreal in the Bernabeu, one with the right foot, one with the left and a header - but it was perhaps the latter which saved his sideâÂÂs bacon coming just before the half time break to deal âÂÂa major blowâ to Villarreal as their blustering boss, Juan Carlos Garrido, confessed after the game.
And while LLL is here and hanging about, it really is time for a summit to take place between everyone in the game in Spain with different media organisations giving different goal tallies for Ronaldo, at the moment, depending on their suck-up levels to Real Madrid and how they interpret a free-kick smacking into PepeâÂÂs back in a victory over Real Sociedad.
Villarreal
A huge pat on the back to Villarreal who came to the Bernabeu looking for all three points, unlike many of their fellow cowardly custard teams this season. And LLL is looking at you, Sevilla.
The first sign that Villarreal were going for Real MadridâÂÂs gonads with a swift kick on Sunday was a breathtaking opening move that eased its way though the home sideâÂÂs midfield and defence, a sign of what was in store for Madrid for the rest of the first half.
Juan Mata
The Valencia striker is being a bit of a cheeky monkey at the moment, having bagged a late winner for the men from Mestalla last weekend with a header that was âÂÂthis muchâ offside.
Mata repeated the feat on Sunday in the local derby against Levante where the visitors deserved the winner, but relied on a through ball to Mata who looks a good metre offside when it was initially delivered.
Levante coach, Luis GarcÃÂa, certainly thought so and appeared to be on the brink of tears after the game lamenting a number of decisions that he claims have gone against his plucky Primera outfit, this season. âÂÂI donâÂÂt really feel like managing on Monday,â sniffed GarcÃÂa as the press corp offered up tissues and Tequila.
Manuel Preciado
Once again, it looks like the Sporting coach will be hanging on for another week in his post. A defeat - and instant sacking for Preciado - looked on the cards with Racing winning 1-0 and the match in injury time. But then a header for Diego Castro gave Sporting a mighty point and lifted the side off the bottom of the table.
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic left it very late indeed to pick up a point at Málaga with Javi MartÃÂnez reverse heading a free kick in the third minute of injury time from a free kick.
âÂÂThis team never gives a game up as lost,â puffed JoaquÃÂn Caparrós.
Freddie Kanouté
A couple of lovely efforts from the most graceful striker in the game gave Sevilla a second successive league win after a sparkling 3-2 victory at Real Sociedad.
Mallorca
Gained revenge for conceding four goals to AlmerÃÂa in the Balearics in a cup clash, on Thursday, by scoring four of their own in a 4-1 win in an identical fixture.
Espanyol
An awful Zaragoza and a perky perico performance in El Prat-land is the theme of the day from Paul from Barcelona who was there to watch a 4-0 win for his team.
âÂÂIf you are a Zaragoza fan you might not want to read this. God! Your team are poor. They lacked everything...skill, pace, commitment and tons more. Just from the way they lined up in the first two minutes could see it was only going to end one way.
Espanyol dominated from start to finish. After Osvaldo opened the scoring with a glancing header from a great cross from DÃÂdac, that was it. The second half was played at half speed and apart from one superb stop from Carlos Kameni, Zaragoza offered nothing.
Sergio GarcÃÂa opened his Espanyol account by scoring against his old team, an open goal after a defensive howler, even Sergio couldnâÂÂt miss. The scoreline actually reflected the play. Espanyol really were four goals better.
800 Zaragoza fans who were vocal and respectful throughout (minuteâÂÂs silence, the Jarque minute). Hats off to them as opposed to that bunch of morons we had here on Thursday (Atlético - LLL). The Zaragoza fans deserve better. They showed more passion in two mins than their team did in 90. If they carry on like this they will be down by the end of March.
Espanyol needed the points to stop the rot especially as the next few games are really tough. Three out of four away then Real Madrid at home. A good performance today that showed the squad ainâÂÂt half bad. The ref was fine. Not biased and thatâÂÂs all we ask for.âÂÂ
Paul, Barcelona
Bad Day
Málaga
Was that a frown of frustration that LLL caught on the forehead of the normally docile Manuel Pellegrini? It may well have been with Málaga dropping two points at home from a set-piece play in injury time from Athletic Bilbao in a 1-1 draw.
Incidentally, a note to Marca - was it really necessary to make the former Real Madrid boss your âÂÂbad guyâ of the week on the back page of SaturdayâÂÂs edition, simply for losing 5-0 at home to Barcelona in the Camp Nou amongst other crimes? Gah! LLL is such a silly Billy. That was José Mourinho wasnâÂÂt it?
Juan Carlos Garrido
âÂÂI am what I am, active, restless,â and really, really, scary. And quite angry too. The Villarreal coach only fielded two questions after the Real Madrid match on Sunday night. The first was an answer of âÂÂit was a tough gameâ to one particularly poking journalist who received a death stare in return.
The second was an uninterrupted five minute rant about the refereeing performance - which LLL thought was fairly decent on the whole, but there you go - and all sorts of other nonsense that the blog eventually tuned out on.
Zaragoza
Paul from Barcelona has already spouted plenty on his thoughts on these seemingly Segunda-bound softies. But AS also noted that the side played âÂÂwithout spirit or soulâ in the 4-0 defeat to Espanyol with manager, Javier Aguirre, lamenting that âÂÂwe chose a bad day and a bad place to play our worst match.âÂÂ
Real Sociedad
Four league defeats in a row now for Real Sociedad, but SaturdayâÂÂs 2-3 setback against Sevilla was a tad harsh with the Basque club playing some fairly sprightly stuff. LLL will be heading down to Getafe on Saturday to have a closer look at the suffering side from San Sebastian and see whatâÂÂs up.
Osasuna
The Pamplonans have only managed to score three goals in their last six league matches. The problem is those strikes all arrived in one match and only resulted in one point in a 3-3 draw against Valencia. OsasunaâÂÂs latest lock-out was against Getafe in a goalless draw.
This unfortunate situation is not going to get any better with the imminent sale of Juanfran to Atlético and the continuing absence of Javad Nekounam on Asian Cup duty with Iran.
