Game Over!

Barcelona dedicated their 3-1 victory over Real Valladolid on Saturday to Tito Vilanova. The team received some good news about their ailing manager before the day’s events, with Vilanova having undergone successful throat surgery and was home recuperating.

The players wore shirts honouring Vilanova during the warm up, and proceeded to stay perfect on their away travels with the victory—nine straight wins. 

Lionel Messi finished 2012 with 91 goals—scoring Barca's second of the match to finish six ahead of Gerd Muller's previous record and 16 better than third place Pele for the most goals in one calendar year. Point blank, Messi deserves to be called the greatest footballer ever. The fact that FIFA has to make up records for the little Argentine to break is a testament to his dominating stature and overall quality.

Xavi opened the scoring, with Christian Tello adding a late strike for insurance—minutes after Javi Guerra pulled one back for Valladolid. 

Barcelona opened up a nine point lead at the top over Atletico Madrid, and a monstrous 16 point lead over the defending champions Real Madrid following their loss in Malaga.

Roque Santa Cruz scored a brace in a four minute span to give the host's a 3-1 second-half lead—the first coming six minutes after a lucky deflection off a Karim Benzema shot cancelled out Isco's opener. Benzema scored eight minutes from time to pull Madrid within a goal, but it wasn't enough.

Another interesting note was the omission of Iker Casillas from the starting line-up, with Jose Mourinho selecting Antonio Adan instead—it was a gamble that blew up in the "Special One's" face. Mourinho had already stated that the league title was now out of their reach while talking to the media last week, though; continuing to drop points and falling further behind the runaway leaders is driving Los Blancos supporters to their limit, with many calling for Mourinho’s head.

The rumour mill is working on overdrive with reports that Mourinho might not last the season, and a sacking is imminent should results not change in a hurry. It seems like the natural step, considering Mourinho is probably not going to be behind the Madrid bench next season, and with the league lost already, why not pull the trigger and move in a different direction.