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 - Doubts have been raised in Spain about the stunning 8.71 metres long jump by unheralded German Sebastian Bayer at last weekend's European indoor championships in Turin, Italy.

News reports on Wednesday quoted Spanish athletics chief Jose Maria Odriozola as saying that one judge may have made a wrong measurement.

"I have the feeling that - apart from the advantage of the run-up track - a measuring error occurred," Odriozola said.

The official said that he was close to the long jump pit and said that one judge "had been measuring wrongly all day."

Madrid - There was both disappointment and delight in the Spanish spring air on Wednesday, as a result of the contrasting Champions League performances of Real Madrid and Villarreal.

Real were slaughtered 4-0 by Liverpool on Tuesday in an embarrassingly one-sided round of 16 clash, and crashed out of the competition on a 5-0 agggregate.

Villarreal, by contrast, defiantly won 2-1 at Greek side Panathinaikos to go through 3-2 from both games.

Real's Anfield meltdown was front-page news in practically every Spanish newspaper on Wednesday.