You can never count out a Barcelona side that has Lionel Messi in it, and poor Villarreal discovered it at El Madrigal last night. They lead 4-2 at 90 minutes, but somehow ended up drawing the game 4-4. Another case of points dropped for them after their 3-2 loss to Celta at the weekend after having lead 2-0 at half time. That’s six points they should’ve picked up from these two games- six priceless points that could’ve gone a long way in helping them stay up, but they ended up with just one.

Real Madrid huffed and puffed against lowly Huesca but emerged victors in a five goal fixture thanks to Karim Benzema’s late strike. The Spanish press was full of praise for the French striker, who saved compatriot Zinedine Zidane from the potential embarrassment of dropping points against the league’s bottom club at home. The crowd at the Bernabeu was a disappointing one (<50,000)- Real's second lowest for a league game this season. Zidane later said after the game that it was difficult to motivate his players when there was really nothing to play for- Real Madrid are twelve points behind Barca in the league and have also been knocked out of Europe. Here are the headlines from Marca (Benzema salva los meubles) and AS (Leccion de Benzema).