(CNN) — A first-half hat-trick by Lionel Messi helped Barcelona to a 5-0 win over Mallorca at the Nou Camp on Saturday.
The Argentina international opened the scoring after 13 minutes with a spot kick after Emilio Nsue had handled the ball in the penalty area.
Eight minutes later he tapped in after a miscue from Adriano before completing his hat-trick on the half-hour mark, expertly guiding home a cross from Dani Alves.
Twenty-year-old Issac Cuenca scored his first senior goal for the club five minutes into the second half, while Alves rounded things off with a superbly taken goal in injury time.
A ninth-minute goal from Argentina striker Higuain earned Real Madrid a 1-0 win at Real Sociedad on Saturday night.
The win puts them one point ahead of Barcelona at the top of La Liga with 25 points, although Levante will depose them if they win at Osasuna on Sunday.
Two goals from Frenchman Sofiane Feghouli and one for Aritz Aduriz earned fourth-placed Valencia a 3-1 win over Getafe, while Villareal were comfortable 2-0 winners over Rayo Vallecano — Bruno Soriano and Borja Valero scoring goals in either half.
Meanwhile in Italy, Juventus remain top of Serie A after a 2-1 win at Inter Milan on Saturday.
All the goals came in an action-packed first half with Juve taking an early lead thanks to a 12th minute strike from Mirko Vucinic.
Maicon equalized for the hosts in the 28th minute, but it wasn’t long before the visitors were back in front — Claudio Marchisio scoring in the 33rd minute.
The win gives Juve a two-point lead at the top of Serie A, but that will be reduced to one point if Udinese beat Palermo on Sunday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as AC Milan beat Roma 3-2 at the Stadio Olimpico to send the reigning league champions up to second in the table.
The Swedish striker opened the scoring in the 17th minute before Nicolas Burdisso equalized for the home side in the 28th minute.
Alessandro Nesta restored Milan’s lead two minutes later before Ibrahimovic made it 3-1 in the 78th minute to all but clinch three points.
Bojan Krkic pulled one back for Roma three minutes before the end but it wasn’t enough to deny the Rossoneri vital away points.
There was this big derby today, Manchester United vs Manchester City. Mario Balotelli aka Super Mario scored 2 goals in City’s victory of 6-1. “Why always me ?”
This is not turning into a Balotelli blog, I promise.
Mario Balotelli is not just an Earth treasure, he’s a UNIVERSAL treasure. Truly.
Why Always Me?
Have a look at this ridiculous strike from Dani Alves during Barcelona’s 5-0 romp over Mallorca yesterday, and pay special attention from 0:16 to 0:19 of Andres Iniesta on the bench as the players are reacting to the goal.
And these last three hours are bloody dull save Jim White’s Scottish overemphasis on everything LIKE IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD IN FOOTBALL.
- Mikel Arteta to Arsenal fell apart, so now Wenger wants Yossi Benayoun on loan
- Still waiting on Craig Bellamy to take a medical at Liverpool
- David…
The Haunting Beauty of NGC 3190 —A Deadly Supernova Factory
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This magnificent galaxy inspires us, again, to ask: does advanced life exist there? The fact that we have no proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe may simply mean that intelligent civilizations have all too finite lifetimes. NGC 3190 is a spiral galaxy of unbearable beauty in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. In 2002, astronomers uncovered one supernova in March in the southeastern part and then another team uncovered a second supernova on the other side two months later -sure destroyers of vicinity-based life.
The spectacular image below is the “Trio in Leo.” There is actually a fourth member of this group which not shown- but the group also goes by another catalogued name of “Hickson 44.” These galaxies are estimated to be 60 million light years away. The galaxy furthest to the left is an elliptical galaxy (NGC 3193) and is fairly devoid of detail. The top center of the image features NGC 3190.
(via dailygalaxy)
