Domestic action round-up 1/26/11. Cup news.

Starting in beautiful Portugal, Porto v.s. Nacional was the only game of the day with Porto wiping their visitors out with a 3-0 scoreline. Hulk struck in the 3rd and 33rd minutes to make it 2-0 before James Rodriguez made it 3-0 a minute before the half. The second half however, was much less inspiring as Rodriguez was given a yellow, Fernando Belluschi was also carded, and Juninho was carded for Nacional. Up north in Scotland, Celtic met Hearts in Glasgow and destroyed them, winning 4-0 as James Forrest, and Patrick McCourt struck while Anthony Stokes scored twice. Despite the immense scoreline, there were, however, a ton of cards as Celtic had four players booked while Hearts had three. In Ranger's match against Hibernian, they won, but not as convincingly, with a 2-0 scoreline. Both goals came in the first half as Madjid Bougherra and Nikica Jelavic both scored. Again, there were plenty of cards to go around with seven bookings the combined total. Inverness' match with Aberdeen was a bit better mannered with only a red card for Grant Munro (Inverness) and a yellow for Rory McArdle (Aberdeen). Otherwise, the match was all about the football as Ryan Jack scored just before half-time and Nick Blackman scored in the 49th to make it a 2-0 game for the visitors. Aberdeen were happy to collect the three points to be sure. St. Johnstone were lucky against Motherwell, winning thanks to a penalty conversion by Liam Craig in the 62nd. Beyond that, the game wasn't too spectacular with a combined five cards being shown to the teams and no goals from open play. St. Mirren and Dundee United played out a good game, despite the fact that it was a draw. Yes, yellows were shown a number of times, but that only shows the fighting between the two teams. Darren McGregor's 38th minute goal really put the pressure on the visitors as St. Mirren held the lead into the half. No matter, David Robertson then brought Dundee level with two minutes left in the game to give the teams a draw and end the game in dramatic fashion. Just south in England now, Liverpool played a very close game with Fulham that ended with the home side walking away with the three points. John Pantsil, however, was the man who did a lot through the game. Yes, he is a Fulham player, and yes, he gave Liverpool the winning goal in the 52nd minute with his own-goal. He also collected a yellow in the 69th to cap off a kind of bad day for everyone. Liverpool's performance was poor, Fulham couldn't equalise. In the Italian Cup, AC Milan have been driven into the semi's on Pato-power. Alexandre Pato was the young blood who struck twice when AC needed him most to claim a 2-1 victoryfor AC Milan over Sampdoria. AC Milan controlled the play for much of the game before Pato beat Samp keeper. Junior Costa with his first shot. Urby Emanuelson then gave Pato a delicious opportunity for his second which he had no qualms about taking. Flavio Roma served his side nobly though, as he kept several Sampdoria chances from getting into his net. Stefano Guberti was the man who finally beat Roma though, heading home a Massimo Maccarone cross. Antonio Cassano then almost scored against his old team as the game died but the score was left 2-1.  Meanwhile, in Spain, Real Madrid are looking comfortable following a 1-0 win over Sevilla curtesy of Karim Benzema. That was, however, the only real excitement of the game though, as chances came and went for both sides and even some post-game drama occured but the scoreline remained the same. In Germany, Bayern were successful in their destruction of Aachen, winning 4-0 in the DFB- Pokal and advancing onwards.