The big surprise in the cup midweek was the elimination of Real Madrid at the hands of lowly Real Unión. A hat-trick from Raúl in a 4-3 second leg win was not enough to avoid the humiliation of being knocked out on the away goal rule. The Irún based side, one of the 10 founding members of La Liga, do have a long cup history though, and actually beat Real Madrid in two cup finals back in 1918 and 1924.

Barcelona struggled as well against a second division B side, Messi coming to the rescue with a late goal to beat Benidorm 1-0 in the Nou Camp. Luis Fabiano got a hat-trick as Sevilla overturned a 1-0 deficit against Ponferradina, and Tchité got his seventh in five games as Racing came back from a goal down to knock murcia out of the competition.

The cup's top goalscorer to date though is not Raúl nor Luis Fabiano, but Poli Ejido's Jorge Molina. The striker scored his sixth of the competition as the 2B side beat Villarreal 6-1 on aggregate, and with his team -mate Gregory netting four to date as well, the Andalusians are out-gunning the big guns!

Yet another high-scoring round of fixtures at the weekend, with 35 in the ten games. Messi was on target again at Recreativo to take Barcelona three points clear at the top, whilst Madrid lost at Valladolid (and also lost Van Nistelrooy for the rest of the season) and Valencia were beaten by Sporting. David Villa did get his 100th of his league career against his old club and Mata also scored, but it was not enough.

Mata did get a first call up for Spain though, as did Athletic's Fernando Llorente, who celebrated with a goal against Osasuna. Several players who were reportedly on the short list missed out though, including the other Llorente, Joseba, who together with Rossi scored Villarreal's goals at Málaga (then got injured himself).

Almería's Negredo was also not on Del Bosque's list, but he may be in the future after scoring both his side's goals against Mallorca. And Euro 2008 squad member Sergio García also put in his reminder netting a brace for Betis against Racing.

Spain certainly has talent, but La Liga is more than that, as demonstrated by Forlán's two against Deportivo, and a fourth in four days for Luis Fabiano against Getafe. An aggregate of 139 goals in the last four weekends, and that can only be good for the game! (17.11.08)