Barça battle has barely begun for Puyol

Having put daylight between themselves and the rest of their Liga challengers after a 2-0 win over Real Madrid CF on Saturday night, FC Barcelona's players can afford to put their feet up and enjoy the gift given them by their coach, a second successive day off.

Cool heads
Josep Guardiola's side battled hard to see off a determined Madrid, who came within seven minutes of departing Camp Nou with a point. In the end, late goals form Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi left Barcelona with a 12-point advantage over the men in white and an eight-point lead over nearest challengers Valencia CF and Sevilla FC. Barça's players, however, are reluctant to get carried away. "The euphoria around the place is something we can't control," Carles Puyol explained. "At the start of the season we weren't that bad and now we're not that good. We need to find a balance."

Strong rivals
Only once in Liga history have Barcelona put such a distance between themselves and Madrid after the same amount of games. In the 2004/05 season Frank Rijkaard's charges amassed as many points as Guardiola's side currently has, and although they went on to win the title it was by a much reduced margin of four points over the second-placed Merengues. "Madrid are a top quality team and they had important players missing," the Barcelona coach said after the game. "We were rewarded for the fight and the effort we put in but it would be a mistake to write them off." Goalkeeper Víctor Váldes echoed the sentiments of his coach when he said: "It's always important to beat Madrid but what's more important is the three points. They have a great team and played well here. We're going to keep working to stay at the top."

Dream debut
Had Eto'o not had a second-half penalty saved by Iker Casillas the home support among the 96,000 fans inside the stadium may have felt a little less anxious as the game entered its closing stages, yet having kept the crowd quiet for large parts of the match was something of a reward for Madrid coach Juande Ramos. "They were hungry to rack up a high score against us but with just seven minutes of the game to go it was 0-0 and the stadium was in a semi-hush," he said. "We had the game in our hands with one-on-one opportunities from Rosyton Drenthe and Miguel Palanca. After Christmas we'll have injured players fit again and two or three new signings. We're still alive in this league." It was a debut to remember for the Barcelona-born Palanca who was brought on as a substitute for Wesley Sneijder. "I asked Raúl [González] for his shirt after the match," the 20-year-old confessed. "I didn't want one of theirs. I'm still looking at it and can't believe what happened."