Princely stars rush into 'Liga' action

In the end, the honor of the national team was maintained at Friday's Prince of Asturias Awards ceremony, with the leading clubs sending at least one representative to Oviedo to pick up the prize for sporting achievement stemming from this year's victory in the World Cup, Spain's first.

When the scheduling of the ceremony for a Friday, 24 hours before both Real Madrid and Barcelona were due to play Liga matches, had first become clear, however, an embarrassing institutional crisis began to develop. Both Real Madrid coach José Mourinho and his counterpart at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola, were adamant that their players would not be attending, royalty or no royalty. Real, with the weight of its name and reputation as an unquestionably loyal Spanish club weighing heavily, was quick to overrule its Portuguese coach, announcing earlier this month that goalkeeper and Spain captain Iker Casillas would be given leave to travel to Asturias the day previous to Racing Santander's visit to the Bernabéu. In the end, injured defender Sergio Ramos joined Casillas in the Real camp in Oviedo on Friday.

Guardiola: "My job is to look out for the best interests of Barcelona"

Predictably, with Barça the issue has been a somewhat more delicate one, with Guardiola seemingly receiving complete backing for his refusal to allow anyone on the teamsheet for Saturday evening's trip to Zaragoza to join his national teammates. There was the rub. In the end, Xavi Hernández's Achilles problems saved the day, as they meant the Spain and Barcelona midfielder was not selected for the game this weekend.

"Xavi is not in a fit state," Guardiola confirmed on Friday, stressing his pride at the fact that "eight Barcelona players" were among the national squad summoned to Oviedo for the ceremony. "I know that the Royal Palace has spoken to the president of Barcelona," Guardiola added, defending his own desire to "look out for the interests of the club."

Saturday night's action will also include Valencia's bid to return to winning ways after a narrow defeat at Barcelona last weekend and a scrambled tie against Glasgow Rangers in the Champions League on Wednesday. Unai Emery will accept nothing less than a three-point effort from his side, the early Liga pacesetter until a week ago, against visitor Mallorca, particularly as Michael Laudrup's team has only managed one point out of a possible nine on its travels to the mainland so far.

But the most enticing fixture this weekend involves two teams with few worries in terms of Asturias prize collectors. Atlético Madrid did not supply any players to Spain's successful South Africa raid, while Villarreal only has defenders Joan Capdevila and Carlos Marchena in need of whisking home from the north before Sunday night's big game. Both teams proved their form with useful home wins in the Europa League on Thursday night; Atlético shrugging off Rosenborg 3-0, while Villarreal eased to a 1-0 victory over Greece's PAOK Salonika.

Elsewhere, Sevilla won 0-1 at Karpaty Lviv but Getafe spoiled an otherwise perfect night for the Liga contingent, losing 1-0 at Stuttgart.