It was a bitter sweet week for Deportivo Alaves.
ADVERTISEMENTIt was a bitter sweet week for Deportivo Alaves.
On Wednesday they reached their first ever Copa del Rey final, where they will meet Barcelona.
But three days later in the league Barca were in devastating form and gave Alaves a sharp and painful reminder of what to expect in the May 27 final.
Luis Enrique’s Barcelona could not have sent a clearer message to Alaves.
Luis Suarez scored twice while Neymar and Lionel Messi also found the back of the net to help Barca to a 6-0 demolition of the promoted Basque side.
Ruano Delgado scored an own goal while Ivan Rakitic also got his name onto the scoresheet.
Suarez, who opened and closed the scoring on the night now has 18 goals this season, making him the league’s top scorer, one ahead of team-mate Messi.
The win was slightly overshadowed by a serious injury to Barca full-back Aleix Vidal, who dislocated his right ankle and will miss the rest of the season.
Barcelona are second in the league a point off leaders Real Madrid, who have two games in hand.
Up and down
It wasn’t only Barcelona on the up in Spain this weekend.
Zinedine Zidane continues to cement his legendary status at Real Madrid.
The Frenchman has reached 100 La Liga points quicker than any other coach in the club’s history.
In fact he needed just 40 games to do so – a 3-1 win over Osasuna pushed him over the line.
Sevilla are also on the up as their 1-0 win over Las Palmas kept them in sight of the two pace setters Real and Barcelona.
They are the first team to beat Las Palmas at their fortress of a ground – the Estadio Gran Canaria – this season.
Sevilla are third in the league three points off Real and two behind Barca.
Atlético Madrid came from behind twice to beat Celta Vigo 3-2 and move into fourth.
ADVERTISEMENTFernando Torres scored one of the goals of the season before chalking up the club’s third penalty miss in three games.
Yannick Carrasco and Antoine Griezmann completed the comeback with four minutes left.
We might be wrong
On Tuesday it’s Valentine’s Day and to the delight of the people in love with football it coincides with the return of Europe’s top club competition. This week the Champions League round of 16 kicks off with four fixtures. How will they end? Here are our predictions. Have a go yourselves using #TheCornerScores.
Benfica 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
PSG 1-2 Barcelona
Bayern Munich 3-1 Arsenal
Real Madrid 2-2 Napoli
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