The Spanish League is a boring affair. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the ones always fighting for the title, glory and money, while the rest of the teams are left with the spoils. And one of those spoils is the UEFA Europa League, as the two giants are left to fight for the Champions League title. The UEFA Europa league is indeed a B-league, where one sees the teams that are simply not strong

The last time Fernando Torres played at the Camp Nou...

It was the 20th of May 2007. And it got ugly. Like more fingers than you (should) have on your right hand ugly.

Now that Chelsea have progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League, partially due to the recent contributions of Torres, you'll begin to hear the hype coming from the English and Spanish media.

Atlético Madrid has signed a one match deal with Chinese telecommunications company Huawei for their April 11th Madrid Derby with Real Madrid. The short-term sponsorship was announced to the public...

Atlético Madrid has signed a one match deal with Chinese telecommunications company Huawei for their April 11th Madrid Derby with Real Madrid. The short-term sponsorship was announced to the public...

The UEFA Europa League final is upon us. It's an all-Spanish match later today, with Atlético Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao facing off at the National Arena in Bucharest. It's a late kickoff in Romania: 9:45pm EEST, which corresponds to the usual 2:45pmET/11:45amPT for those of in the US.

Slowly but surely, we are getting back into the gear of things in international football. In a sea of potentially crappy matches in the FA Cup's third round this weekend, the biggest match of them all is floating around as we will be treated to another Manchester derby as United visits City looking for revenge for last season's semifinal matchup.

Football resumed in Spain after the short winter break, and it did not take long for the first upset of 2012 to occur, as a late equalizer from Espanyol in the Barcelona derby dented Barca's title hopes.

Real Madrid started off 2012 like they ended 2011, scoring goals. This week Madrid beat Granada 5-1 with Karim Benzema scoring twice and Cristiano Ronaldo hitting his 21st league goal of the season.

ALL BOYSAltas: Martín Morel (Universitario - Perú)Bajas: Patricio Pérez (Boca Unidos)
ARGENTINOS JUNIORSAltas: Gabriel Peñalba (Lorient, Francia)
Bajas: Santiago Salcedo (Lanús), Juan Mercier (Al Wasl, E.Arabes Unidos), Roberto Brum (Banfield)
ARSENALAltas:Bajas: Mauro Óbolo (Vélez)

ATLÉTICO RAFAELAAltas: César Carignano (Universidad Católica, Chile), Lucas Bovaglio (Tecos, México)Bajas: Matías Zbrun (DTUniversitario, Ecuador), Jherson Córdoba (Nacional, Colombia), Luis Lagrutta (Boca Unidos)
BANFIELDAltas: Jorge Da Silva (DT), Roberto Brum (Arg.

We're getting back into the swing of things in weekend football, though we are still a few weeks away from being at full speed. Nevertheless, we have some interesting matches for your viewing enjoyment this weekend.
Even though there are no battles between WCR Top 25 Clubs coming up, there a couple of very interesting matches.

Barcelona returned to within five points of Liga leaders Real Madrid with a 4-2 defeat of ten-man Real Betis, on a day when Athletic Club improved their European chances by beating Levante.

Josep Guardiola's men made an explosive start at Camp Nou as Xavi Hernández opened the scoring after ten minutes and Lionel Messi took his league tally to 18 shortly afterwards.

With the return of the Bundesliga, we have pretty much a full slate of European football this week. For those of you with a South America fetish, we even have some Brazilian futebol since the State Leagues are returning to action.
The highlight of the weekend, though, has to be Sunday's Premier League doubleheader, when City/Spurs is followed by Gunners/United.

Qual é a probabilidade de um jogador de um clube do quarto escalão do futebol espanhol ter os seus cinco minutos de fama nos vários cantos do mundo? Certamente diminuta, mas Kily Álvarez conseguiu-o ontem ao marcar um golo espectacular que garantiu a presença inédita da Guiné Equatorial nos quartos-de-final da CAN, competição onde participa pela primeira vez e graças ao estatuto de anfitrião (a par do Gabão).

Well, I didn't see the match v Racing this past weekend, but from all accounts, it was yet another shit performance from both Unai Emery and his players. Emery tried to play some nice offensive football away in Santander, starting both Tino Costa and Éver Banega in midfield, and within 2 minutes VCF was down 1-0.

As we enter February, the shortest month of the year (let me be the first to remind you that this year February has 29 days), Valencia's coaching staff must think this is some kind of sick joke. 8 games in 29 days. It's been done before, of course. But not quite like this. To start the month, Valencia host Barcelona at the Mestalla in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Michael Farfan talks about his training stint with Sunderland, most of which was spent with the Sunderland reserves. "I don't think it was any change of play compared to here," Marfan says. "It was a good level and I held my own.

Marfan says players were interested to learn more about MLS.

There's a whole slate of FA Cup matches in England, including Sunderland-Arsenal (see PoliticalFootballs' most recent post for a full list of those fixtures), and domestic matches in Germany, Italy, etc. But we're finding ourselves getting increasingly fascinated by Spanish football beyond the big two.

Last week, I complained because there wasn't much on television as far as world football was concerned. Well, it's a week later and the complaints have come to an end. We have three matches this weekend featuring a pair of clubs from the WCR Top 25 Clubs in the World. We're happier this week.

Gerard Piqué, photobombed with love

Piqué started on the bench this past Sunday at the Vicente Calderon as Atlético Madrid hosted Barcelona. Many questioned Pep Guardiola's decision, but this girl could not be happier with it. Also, it needs to be noted that that Piqué seems to be sporting the MJ single glove look.

Yes, there are two more 2nd leg Round of 16 matches today, but unlike yesterday's Super Tuesday matches, we probably won't tune in for either of today's two matches. But if you must, check here & here for your local listings for today's fixtures:

More » Barcelona 20:45 Leverkusen Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR) – Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona (ESP) More » APOEL 20:45 Lyon Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP) – Stadium: GSP Stadium, Nicosia (CYP)

Why not?

21.02.2012 - José Pekerman (62), el 3º seleccionador colombiano en lo que va de las eliminatorias sudamericanas, publicó su primera lista de (22) convocados para el amistoso frente a México (Miami, 29.02.2012).
Con la baja de Freddy Guarín (Inter), la primera convocatoria del central Bernardo Espionsa (Racing de Santander) y el regreso del volante Aldo Leao Ramírez (Morelia, Méx), Pekerman empieza a trazar su perfil para remontar el 6º puesto colombiano en las eliminatorias latinoamericanas (2014) y meter a Colombia en un Mundial después de (16 años) tres ausencias consecutivas (2002, 2006 y 2010).

22.03.2012 - Con goles de Radamel Falcao (´50 y ´71), Atlético Madrid venció (2-1) a Athletic (Martínez ´91) por la 28º jornada de la Liga española.
Antes de enumerar causas hay que decir que el Atlético de Simeone, al que no le desespera el control de la pelota, plasmó su superioridad en el resultado.

27.03.2012 - Con goles de De Marcos (ATH´77) y Alberto Lora (SG ´90), Athletic empató (1-1) con Sporting Gijón en San Mamés y, si bien cortó la racha de tres derrotas consecutivas en Liga, se aleja (9 puntos) de la clasificación a Champions League.
Después de las caídas ante Osasuna, Valencia y Atlético Madrid (rivales directos por puestos europeos), Bielsa dispuso el once titular (regreso de Iraola y Llorente) para sumar ante el débil Sporting Gijón dirigido por el ácido Javier Clemente.

Yes, we're eagerly looking forward to the big-name UEFA Champions League semifinal ties but don't overlook UEFA's other final four. (Indeed, as Zonal_Marking wrote for ESPN today, the Europa League deserves more respect.) Given our growing interest in La Liga beyond the Big Two, yesterday's quarterfinal results make for an especially interesting Europa League run-in: Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, and Sporting Clube de Portugal advanced to the semifinals, setting up an all-Iberian set of semifinal ties:

1st legs on Thursday April 19: Atlético Madrid-Valencia & Sporting CP-Athletic Bilbao

2nd legs a week later, Thursday April 26: Valencia-Atlético Madrid & Athletic Bilbao-Atlético Madrid

As we wrote earlier in the week, the Athletic Bilbao-Schalke tie was the only was that was pretty much wrapped up after the 1st leg, with Athletic's 4-2 win in Germany.

It's that time of the year. We've reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League and it's time to award Super Bonus Points to clubs that made it this far. Super Bonus Points are the largest rankings modification that we make and the results will be obvious below, especially when you see a club that is in fifth place in its domestic league sitting at sixth place in the overall rankings.

MADRID (EFE).— El Bayern Múnich vuelve, dos años después, a disputar la final de la Liga de Campeones, que disputará en su estadio, el Alianz Arena, el próximo 19 de mayo, el título ante el Chelsea, que jugará su segundo partido decisivo en la Copa de Europa. El conjunto bávaro, que ha eliminado al Real Madrid en los penaltis, jugará la novena final de su historia en la máxima competición continental.

A Spanish team will win a European title in 2012. If someone had said this a year ago, most people would have probably burst out either Barcelona or Real Madrid, but truth is that neither of these sides will win a European title this season. Instead, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid will face one another to be the Spanish side to take the title in the UEFA Europa League.

02.05.2012 - Con goles de Higuaín (´16), Ozil (´19) y Cristiano Ronaldo (´50), Real Madrid venció (0-3) al Athletic en San Mamés y se coronó campeón de la Liga española (a falta de una jornada para la finalización del torneo).
Parecía más complicado de lo que a la postre fue.

Saturday, May 5

FA Cup Final: Liverpool vs Chelsea (12:15pmET, FSC & Fox Deportes): Two teams that have been underwhelming in the league but surprisingly successful in cup competitions. Liverpool has already won the League Cup, while this is the 1st of two cup finals Chelsea will be competing for this month.

07.05.2012 - Sin goles, Athletic y Getafe empataron (0-0) en San Mamés por la 37º jornada de la Liga española.
El último partido de la temporada en San Mamés fue (un trámite) para cumplir calendarios. Sin premios ni objetivos en juego, Athletic y Getafe se fueron en cero.

Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
An AFR Giveaway x The EURO 2012 shirt collection from Didi

16 nations will be represented in Ukraine and Poland at next month's EURO 2012. Some star players will shine, while others will undoubtedly fall short of their fans' expectations.

10.05.2012 - Con goles de Radamel Falcao (´7 y ´34) y Diego (´85), Atlético Madrid venció (3-0) a Athletic Bilbao en el Estadio Nacional de Bucarest (Rumania) y se consagró campeón de la Europa League 2011-12.
"No me interesa la posesión de la pelota", se le oye decir a Simeone por estos tiempos en los que Barcelona deleita al mundo con su dominio en base a posesión y hace de ella el paradigma que se proyecta al fútbol del mundo.

I was on my way back to Caracas from Maturin, perfectly planning to arrive to watch the Europa League final in Bucharest between Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao. But due to a delay in my flight with Aserca, the match started while I was in the air, and only managed to watch the second half in my local bar "Machangos", where Atletico Madrid was already ahead 2-0 on two great goals by the

Images: AFP Photos; Twitter via a reader tip.

Hallelujah, the Europa League is over. Many games were played by various teams, all except one were not watched by ourselves.

Double hallelujah for the sexy six packs of Atlético Madrid (including Alvaro Dominguez; Falcao; Diego and Mario Suarez, at left, far left.

I'd say that about covers the story of both his and Atlético Madrid's second crown in three years. - Greg Seltzer

While the title race has been decided, there is still the matter of a Champions League spot, two Europa League berths and two relegation places are to be claimed or avoided in what promises to be a nerve-wracking finale to the La Liga season on Sunday.

Here are some of the stories to follow Sunday in Spain.

While the title race has been decided, there is still the matter of a Champions League spot, two Europa League berths and two relegation places are to be claimed or avoided in what promises to be a nerve-wracking finale to the La Liga season on Sunday.

Here are some of the stories to follow Sunday in Spain.

FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi has won the 2011-12 Pichichi Trophy, which is awarded to La Liga's goalscorer for each season. Messi's 50 goals breaks the previous record of 41 set by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2010-11 season.

Messi's season has been record breaking in many ways as he's scored over 70 in all competitions and average around 1.

13.05.2012 - Con goles de Ghezzal (´44 + ´68) y Farinós (´88 penal), Levante venció (3-0) a Athletic en el estadio Ciutat de Valencia por la última fecha de la Liga española (38) y clasifica (por primera vez en su historia) a la Europa League.
Terminó la Liga y Marcelo Bielsa sacó sus conclusiones (públicas): "el balance de la Liga para el Athletic es negativo".

25.05.2012 - Mientras Mariano Rajoy sigue recortando y erosionando el bienestar español, la capital española es tomada por hinchas vascos (Athletic) y catalanes (Barcelona).
Se teme que, como en 2009 en cuya final participaron los mismos contrincantes, el himno español (sin letra) sea silbado por todo el estadio.

25.05.2012 - Con goles de Pedro (´2 y ´24) y Messi (´20), Barcelona venció (3-0) a Athletic Bilbao en el Estadio Vicente Calderón (Atlético Madrid) y se adjudicó la 38º versión de la Copa del Rey (su 26º Copa).
Un Barcelona aplanador liquidó el pleito en el primer tiempo para regular en el segundo mientras un Athletic sin piernas no dejó de buscar un honorable descuento.