Barcelona

Barcelona, the defending Copa del Rey champions, are on the cusp of being able to defend their title after defeating Atletico Madrid 2-1 in Madrid. Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi put Barca up 2-0 by halftime, but Antoine Griezmann managed to pull one back for Atletico in the 59th minute. 

Over 48,000 inside the Vicente Calderon witnessed a nightmare start as Suarez opened the scoring for Barcelona in the seventh minute. With Javier Mascherano returned to the defensive midfield role, his crunching tackle saw the ball roll free to Suarez. 

Real Madrid’s mini-crisis heading into the weekend was completely reversed in a matter of hours. First, Barcelona travelled to Sevilla to play Real Betis. In a match that Barca were heavy favorites in, they found themselves trailing 1-0 in the 79th minute. 

Then, after Neymar had been dragged down in the box with no foul given, a Betis defender sent the ball into his own goal. It clearly crossed the line, but a desperate clearance from inside the net was adjudged to have prevented the goal by the referee.

Barcelona’s 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal became a mere footnote as the Blaugrana thrashed their opposition in the return leg, 5-2.

Lionel Messi registered a goal and two assists, Luis Suarez added a goal and a fantastic assist of his own, while Denis Suarez benefited from the vision of his teammates to score two. Arda Turan was also on the scoresheet for Barcelona.

Last week, British magazine Coach published what they contended was an exclusive interview with Lionel Messi, in which the Barcelona star supposedly said he would like to stay at Barcelona.

It turns out they published nothing of the sort.

The "interview" has been taken down and replaced with this message:

Snapchat knows how to keep us entertained. The popular social media platform recently paired up with Europe’s top football clubs to debut a series of lenses for fans to show their support. 

The new lenses are available for fans of Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, PSG, Marseille, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Inter Milan, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona. Those who are fans of these clubs will only be able to use the virtual face filters at each team’s respective stadium for the rest of the season. 

Barcelona closed the gap on Real Madrid to two points, although Real still have a game in hand, following their 4-0 victory over Eibar on Sunday. Denis Suarez opened the scoring before goals from the attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar finished the contest.