Copa Del Burro Kicks off

The one they all want to win, the Copa Del Burro kicked off last night. There were four fixtures, including a huge derby as Atletico Madrid entertained Roy Keane's Real, and Sporting travelled to Porto for an all Portuguese tie. The other two games saw Celta Vigo host Malaga, whilst Barcelona travelled to Bilbao and faced Athletic Club.

The Copa Del Burro, Top 100's most coveted trophy 

Madrid bosses Roy Keane & The Doctor

Tom Parfitt, Houdini Smiff, Nathan Prince, Gareth Crisp et al 

The Iberian clubs were represented superbly by the three games on offer last night, and as can be seen, the bosses of the clubs playing were joined by the four that sat out last night. 

Group A

Atletico Madrid 0 - 5 Real Madrid Att: 11,749

Group A started with a bang, and the Madrid derby. Both clubs have already tasted Top 100 success, Real winning last seasons League Shield, and Atletico the current youth cup champions. Fireworks were expected in this game, and it didnt dissapoint.

The first real attack of the game came in the 9th minute, and saw the visitors pushing. Real won a corner which was crossed into the mixer by Vidal, and finished expertly by Lewandowski. 

A minute later and Lewandowski was close to his and Real's second. Eriksen played him in, and the striker beat Oblak, but saw the ball role just wide of the post. The Pole came close again on 17, but this time Oblak made the save. 

After 19mins though, the pressure finally told. After spurning two opportunites, Lewandowski turned provider and played in Gareth Bale for the visitors second.

It wasnt until the 25th minute that the home side looked any kind of threat. Angel Correa though fired over without causing any problems for the Real keeper. Aside from Cerci's booking on 35, that was about it for the first half action.

The second half started equally as ferociously, and Cerci brought down Sergio Busquets on 49. The player saw red, and made a quick return to the changing room. Three minutes later, the home side wer made to pay as Gareth Bale put Arturo Vidal in to make it 3-0 to the visitors. 

Lewandowski finished off another set piece on 72, this time putting away Neymar's free kick. The punishment still wasnt over for Atletico though. Roy Keane urged his side on, willing his side to continue to put the hosts to the sword and cement Real's position as Madrid's top side. 

The 5 Star performance was completed on 87. Yet another set piece was delivered into the box, again courtesy of Neymar, and Eriksen finished it off. 

The Doctor will be keen to pick his troops up ready for the league encounter, whereas Keane and Real continued there winning run, and will head into the next few games full of confidence.

Group B

Athletic Club 3 -  2 Barcelona Att: 9,348 

The shock of the night came in Bilbao, as the div 2 stragglers entertained the div 1 leaders. The home side got off to the perfect start, Hulk registerring after 11 minutes, finishing Draxler's free kick. 5 minutes later and Mbokani made it 2-0. The DR Congo man making some space for himself before firing past Neuer. 

Just before half time, Bilbao put the tie out of site, Rakitskiy firing home on 40mins to send the home side into delerium and give the side the belief that they have more than enough to get out of trouble at the bottom of the table. 

Muller managed to pull one back for the visitors before the half time whistle. Messi, the little magician played a free kick in, and the German tucked it away. 

Claudio Bravo, who only left Barca a couple of weeks ago, was in inspired form for his new side, pulling off several top draw saves at the start of the second half, before he was finally beaten by Martinez, who was again fed by Messi. 

3-2 is how the game finished, and Gareth Crisp will have seen more than enough to know that his side have what it takes to climb out of the danger zone. Equally, Scott McKenzie will be keen to get his Barcelona side back on track in the league. 

Group C 

Porto 2 - 1 Sporting Att 10,987

Another big game took place in Portugal, with Houdini Smiff taking his Sporting side to Porto. The first half was one of few chances. A few efforts from both sides, but neither keeper was required to get his gloves dirty.

The fans were hoping for some more entertaing fayre in the second half, and the teams were able to oblige.

It took a while, but on the hour mark, the home crowd at least finally had something to shout about as Romelu Lukaku side footed Porto ahead. 14minutes later and Danillo Pereira doubled Porto's lead. 

With Sporting having caused no problems at all, the points looked safe. That is exactly how it panned out. Sporting got a consolation through Sacko two minutes from time, but never looked like gtting anything.

Group D

Celta Vigo - Malaga Att 6,231

The final game of the evening saw Malaga leave the Costa Del Sol to travel to Vigo, and Ryan Chisholm's promotion chasing side. Both managers are new to their respective clubs. Greg Millington was given the Malaga job due to his stand out credentials. Rumor has it though that Chisholm is only in the job because AC Milan boss Stephen Beddows involved some of Italy's underground element to pull a few strings. Time will tell how the appointment pans out, but if this game is anything to go by, work will be needed.

Things started well enough though, Nolito giving Vigo the lead as early as the 5th minute. There wasnt much else to report in the first half. A few yellow cards, but not a lot else. 

Ten minutes into the second half though, Torres equalised for the visitors, smashing the ball home. Malaga made changes on the hour, with Horta one of the players coming off the bench. It proved to be an inspired change, Horta put Malaga in front on 72mins. 

Five minutes befor the end,Kameni was on hand to make a good save, and the game petered out into a win for the away side.   

Team of the week

C Kameni Malaga

T Juanfran R. Madrid

V Marcelo R. Madrid

Y Rakitskiy A. Club

D. Godin R. Madrid

J Koke A. Madrid

Neymar R. Madrid

A Vidal R. Madrid

L Messi Barcelona

R Lewandowski R. Madrid

G. Bale R. Madrid

Next week

Next weeks game's see the remaining sides play their opening games. In group A Villareal host Atletico Madrid, who will be looking to get last night out of their system.

Group B's encounter is Levante against this weeks shock makers, Athletic Club. Group C is Sporting hosting Sevilla, and the final game is Malaga at home to Espanyolin Group D.

If next week's fixtures live up to last nights, we can expect four more cracking encounters as the chase for the Coppa Del Burro Continues.