Madrid - Real Madrid are now just three points behind Spanish leaders Barcelona after a stormy 5-2 win Saturday at Athletic Bilbao.

It was the perfect way for the whites to recover from Tuesday's 4- 0 Champions League meltdown at Liverpool.

Real now have 60 points from 27 games, just three points less than Barcelona, who play Sunday at midtable Almeria.

Two second-half goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar, who was ineligible to play against Liverpool, tipped the balance in Real's favour after Bilbao had pulled two goals back.

Madrid  -

Madrid - Josep Guardiola is raising eyebrows across Spain with his innovative travel plans for leaders Barcelona.

Teams in Spain normally travel either one or two days before away matches, then have a good rest in a local hotel.

Guardiola, however, is an original thinker, and has radically changed Barca's travel plans.

His idea is to allow his players as much time at home with their families between games, even if this means flying out actually on match day.

Madrid - Spanish police have detained four men in connection with the killing of Colombian drug lord Leonidas Vargas at a Madrid hospital on January 8, police sources said Friday.

The three Colombians and one Romanian citizen were held in the Madrid region late Thursday.

Police seized pistols, ammunition, bulletproof vests and other materials.

Vargas, 59, was shot dead in his hospital bed while undergoing treatment for lung and heart problems.

Madrid  - The French daily Le Monde will have to compensate Real Madrid with 330,000 euros (421,000 dollars) over allegations of doping, the Spanish club said Thursday.

A Madrid court said a piece by the journalist Stephane Mandard in which the defending champion of La Liga was linked to the doping scandal around Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes was not suitably based on evidence.