Xavi produced a goal of surgical precision to give Barcelona a 3-2 win over AC Milan on Wednesday in an enthralling Champions League match which also featured Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring against the Catalan club he left acrimoniously last year.
Real Madrid thrashed arch-rivals and league leaders Barcelona 4-0 to reach the Copa del Rey final
The first legs of the ties will take place on February 16, with the return match a week later on February 23.
The numbers behind Sunday's 'El Clasico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Bernabeu stadium.
Barcelona's fourth defeat of the season left them seventh in the standings on 14 points after 10 games, 12 points behind leaders Atletico.
Lionel Messi's late penalty saw bedraggled Barcelona scrape a 2-1 victory over Leganes on Sunday at a divided Nou Camp as the La Liga champions looked as if they had still not recovered from their harrowing midweek defeat to Paris St Germain.
English Premier League leaders Manchester City and Chelsea slugged out a magnificent 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Bayern Munich and Barcelona registered easy wins, while Manchester United came from behind to beat CSKA Moscow 2-1 and Chelsea surrendered the top spot after a 1-1 at home against Atletico Madrid.
Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane made up for the absence of Sergio Ramos by scoring one goal and making another to help his side to a hard-fought 3-0 win at Getafe. La Liga leaders Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw at struggling Espanyol on Saturday as China striker Wu Lei came off the bench to grab a late equaliser in a pulsating city derby.
Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position to stretch his Formula One championship lead to 53 points.
Barcelona's hopes of wresting the league title from Real Madrid suffered another blow on Saturday when they twice surrendered the lead to draw 2-2 at relegation-threatened Recreativo Huelva. The draw left Barca six points behind leaders Real Madrid with six games to play but the champions could extend that to nine if they beat struggling Real Murcia at the Bernabeu on Sunday.
Barcelona finally made a statement of intent in what has been a chaotic season as they came from behind to beat La Liga leaders Real Sociedad 2-1 at home on Wednesday.
World No 8 Robin Soderling, the highest-ranked player left in the Barcelona Open after a slew of withdrawals, sprinted into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain's Feliciano Lopez on Thursday.
Barcelona were held to a 1-1 home draw, a result which leaves the champions three points behind league leaders Sevilla.
'We have to improve and become stronger in defence, which is the most important thing.'
A summary of Wednesday's matches in the UEFA Champions League.
Barcelona have given their full backing to Lionel Messi in the Argentina forward's tax fraud case and vowed to fight "external decisions" they say are unfairly targeting the club.
La Liga champions Barcelona stayed on the heels of leaders Real Madrid by coasting to a 3-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday as Lionel Messi became the club's top scorer from free kicks.
Cristiano Ronaldo ensured Atletico Madrid fans will have bitter memories of the last local derby at the Vicente Calderon stadium by scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win for La Liga leaders Real Madrid on Saturday. Ronaldo's deflected free kick put Real in charge in the 23rd minute in the first meeting of the teams since the Champions League final in May. The prolific Portuguese killed off Atletico's resistance by winning and converting a penalty in the 71st minute and capped a harrowing night for the home side by tapping in the third in the 77th.
The dazzling Lionel Messi returned from illness to score yet another double to help Barcelona ease into the knockout stages of the Champions League for a 13th successive year with their 2-0 win at Celtic on Wednesday.
Real Madrid are comfortably perched on top of the La Liga standings with 66 points while Barca are now third on 54 points with a game in hand, three points behind second-placed Sevilla.
A lacklustre Barcelona squandered the chance to go top of La Liga after crashing to a shock 1-0 home defeat by Malaga on Saturday.
IMAGES from the soccer matches played across European leagues over the weekend.
The Jordan driver finished 17th after two practice sessions ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Rafa Nadal moved to within one victory of an eighth Barcelona Open title in nine years when he thrashed Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-0 on Saturday to set up a final against fourth-seeded Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro.
Atletico Madrid took full advantage of Barcelona's defeat at Real Sociedad and closed to within eight points of the La Liga leaders when Adrian and Koke struck in a 2-0 win at home to Levante on Sunday.
World number one Rafa Nadal notched up his 500th career win on Saturday and clinched a place in the Barcelona Open final by beating unseeded Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-2.
Karim Benzema's seven-minute hattrick saw Real Madrid thrash Real Valladolid 6-0 in their La Liga encounter
Barcelona will put Manchester City to the sword if they commit the same kind of errors as they did in their Champions League encounter last month, coach Luis Enrique said.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar motored past 100 goals for the season.
Lionel Messi notched a 20th assist of the season to help a lacklustre Barcelona secure a 1-0 win away to Real Valladolid on Saturday, maintaining the pressure on La Liga leaders Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo converted two penalties, both awarded for handballs and the second in the last minute, as Serie A leader Juventus twice hit back to draw 2-2 with Atalanta to move closer to a ninth successive Serie A title on Saturday.
Chelsea came from two goals down at Manchester United to draw 2-2 in a thrilling FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday that capped a bad week for the Premier League leaders who were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Rafael Nadal extended his astonishing winning run on clay to 42 consecutive sets as he reached the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Slovakia's Martin Klizan on Friday. The defending champion will face David Goffin on Saturday after the Belgian beat Spaniard Roberto Bautista 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-2.
Round-up of football matches played around Europe on Saturday.
Eleven-times champion Rafael Nadal booked his place in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open semi-finals by beating German Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 7-5 in a hard-fought match on Friday.
A round-up of Sunday's matches in LaLiga, Ligue 1 and Serie A
Former 100 metres world champion Tori Bowie has died at the age of 32.
A 5-0 victory over Racing Santander left Real three points behind Barcelona with three games to play after this weekend's matches.
Roundup of Champions League matches played on Wednesday night
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances