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Madrid, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Its the same old story for Barcelona heading into a fresh round of La Liga fixtures. The Catalans are unbeaten through six league matches, a streak they will hope to extend with a positive result at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday. Barcelona cruised to a resounding 6-0 victory over Granada in its last league outing. The Catalans have yet to concede a goal in league play, but it is the budding partnership between Neymar and Lionel Messi that is stealing the majority of the headlines. In football, you never know when things happen but due to his quality it is obvious that Neymar is going to be the best in the world, Messi said of his Brazilian teammate on Thursday. He is a great player and it is a pleasure to share a pitch with him. I have a great relationship with him and we get on well both on and off the pitch. Both players scored in Champions League action on Tuesday, but PSG managed to break the seal in Marc-Andre Ter Stegens net to get a 3-2 home victory at the Parc des Princes and hand Barcelona its first loss of the campaign. Now, the Catalans must regroup in time for a potentially stiff test against a Rayo Vallecano side that has taken eight points through six games, leaving the club in the top-half of the table. Perhaps the most intriguing match of the weekend will take place at the Mestalla on Saturday as Valencia will play host to Atletico Madrid. The two clubs enter the weekend tied for second place on 14 points apiece, meaning that a win for either side would be enough to claim top spot should Barcelona suffer defeat at the Campo de Futbol de Vallecas. Also on Saturday, Eibar will host struggling Levante, Elche will travel to Almeria and Malaga will welcome Granada to La Rosaleda. Real Madrid had been flying in recent weeks while scoring goals for fun, but the club only managed to get a 2-1 win at Ludogorets in Champions League action on Wednesday with the winning goal coming from Karim Benzema in the final quarter of the match. The Galacticos will hope to return to top gear on Sunday when they host Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabeu. Sevilla comes into the weekend in fourth place on 13 points, and the club will look to build off of its dramatic point in Europa League play when it hosts Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday. Elsewhere in the Spanish top flight on Sunday, Espanyol will play host to Real Sociedad while Villarreal will head to Celta Vigo. Fridays lone La Liga fixture saw Baba Diawara score two minutes from time to help Getafe salvage a point from a 1-1 draw with Cordoba. 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"I dont believe she has an injury," Hobart tournament director Mark Handley said.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Montee Ball acknowledges he was "a little bit" intimidated by Peyton Manning last year, something he says contributed to his slow start. Trying to please the famously meticulous quarterback is enough to unnerve any rookie, even one who ran for an NCAA-record 83 touchdowns at Wisconsin. "He did a great job of calming me down, though, keeping me comfortable, working with me after practice," Ball said. "But Im still a little nervous, of course. Im only human." A jittery Ball failed to win the starting job last year after he whiffed on Seattle middle linebacker Bobby Wagner in the preseason and Manning got squished. Then, after fumbling just twice in 924 carries in college, he matched that total in his first 31 runs in the NFL. Again, butterflies. "I was nervous, trying to do too much," Ball said. That Ball was a bundle of nerves around Manning came as somewhat of a surprise to offensive co-ordinator Adam Gase. "You dont usually hear anybody saying anything when theyre going through it. Now that were a year removed, Im sure hes kind reflects back and says, man, I felt like this. But if he was like that, he hid it pretty good," Gase said Friday. "I just kind of looked at it like he was a rookie and there were a lot of things going on and he just locked up a little bit. "And I watch him now and I feel like he can just play football now." Ball finally settled down and by December he had a tight grip on both the football and his role in Denvers record-breaking offence. He finished his rookie year with 559 yards rushing and four TDs. "The first half I was a little shaky in there," Ball said. "Im man enough to admit that I was making terrible mistakes early on. But it finally came along. Like they say, better late than never. And I took off from there." When Knowshon Moreno took his 1,586 all-purpose yards, 14 touchdowns and balky knees to South Beach this off-season, Ball assumed the featured role in the Broncos backfield. Money, health and Balls emergence aall played a role in letting Moreno leave even though none of the Broncos remaining running backs had started an NFL game.dddddddddddd Running backs coach Eric Studesville shrugged off the notion that heading into a Super Bowl-or-else season without any starting experience in the backfield is risky business. "Oh, the whole starting thing is hard for me, because really the guys that start the game are either on kickoff or kickoff return, you know?" Studesville said. "Thats kind of inconsequential to me." Gase also called it a non-issue, suggesting he could even start bruising tight end Virgil Green, who had a 6-yard run in the playoffs: "I never even think about it. Ill put Virgil out there. These guys are NFL players." Ball downplayed any concern, too, noting that by last seasons end, "it was pretty much 1A and 1B, Knowshon and me." "We felt good about both of them at the end," Studesville agreed. "We felt like we had two really good backs that we could trust in there at all times, and they were kind of interchangeable." Joining Ball in the backfield are third-year pro Ronnie Hillman and second-year C.J. Anderson, who have one combined career touchdown run, along with undrafted free agents Juwan Thompson, Brennan Clay and Kapri Bibbs. This youth movement has forced Studesville to alter his coaching style. "You cant say this is a veteran guy whos seen this for six years, so he knows what this is. No. Weve got to talk about everything from Square 1," Studesville said. "And that makes it fun to go back to the beginning because now youve kind of got to defend all of your techniques and all your philosophies and everything. And its good for me. Its rejuvenated me as a coach in a lot of ways just because I love going back and teaching the basics." Notes: LB Von Miller (ACL) is increasing his workload at practice. "My knee is not my issue when Im out there," he said. "Its just connecting the mind with the body and getting that reaction time down." ' ' '