European round-up: Barca and Inter stay ahead of the field

On target for Valencia

Barcelona remain one point clear at the top of La Liga with Real Madrid still sitting in second after both sides had wins at the weekend.

Barcelona saw off Mallorca 4-2 at the Camp Nou. Pedrito put Barca ahead early on before Mallorca netted a surprise equaliser. Pedrito again and then Thierry Henry gave Barca a 3-1 lead before half-time. Messi added a penalty near the end before Mallorca scored a consolation from the spot in injury-time.

Real Madrid looked to be coasting to a win at their neighbours Atletico before things started to go wrong. Kaka, Marcelo and Higuain had put them 3-0 up before Sergio Ramos got himself sent-off twenty-four minutes before the end.

Within fifteen minutes Forlan and Aguero had made it 2-3 but Real managed to see out the last nine minutes and pick up a hard-earned three points that had looked as though they were going to be comfortable.

Elsewhere Sevilla and Valencia stay third and fourth as Sevilla had a narrow 3-2 win over Villarreal thanks to a Luis Fabiano double and Freddy Kanoute. Valencia had first half goals from Mata, David Villa and Pablo to thank for their 3-1 win over Real Zaragoza.

Malaga and Xerez occupy the bottom two places despite both getting creditable away draws. Malaga drew 2-2 in Tenerife whilst Xerez drew 0-0 at Valladolid.

Juventus closed the gap at the top to five points this weekend as Inter could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Roma. Going in at half-time 1-0 down a Samuel Eto’o goal early in the second half gave them a point but they couldn’t go on to find a winner against Claudio Ranieri’s side.

Meanwhile Juventus were winning spectacularly, 5-2 away at Atalanta. Camoranesi bagged a brace and Trezeguet also got his name on the scoresheet.

Milan have quietly slipped into third place and they are only two points further back than Juventus after Thiago Silva and Pato gave them a 2-1 win at Lazio.

Sampdoria lost ground after they went down 2-0 at Cagliari.

At the bottom Siena are two points adrift after they lost 4-2 at Genoa.

Bayer Leverkusen are three points clear in Germany from Werder Bremen and Hamburg.

Bayer Leverkusen had an easy 4-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday night courtesy of goals from Kiessling, Reinartz, Kroos and Bender and then sat back and watched as their nearest challengers dropped points.

Werder Bremen were held at home 1-1 by Borussia Dortmund and Hamburg could only draw 2-2 at Hannover 96 who twice equalised, the second time with an 88th minute penalty.

Bayern Munich’s season continues to limp along as they were held 1-1 at home by Schalke, who stay in fourth place.

Bottom club Hertha Berlin were beaten at home again, this time 1-0 by Cologne.

Steve McClaren’s FC Twente continue to set the pace in Holland and they had a crucial 1-0 home win over third placed Ajax. Ruiz scored the only goal early in the second half.

PSV remain just two points behind the leaders and their good form continued with a 5-1 win at ADO Den Haag. Toivonen scored four of PSV’s goals.

Feyenoord are becoming detached in fourth place after they could only draw 1-1 at AZ Alkmaar.

Bordeaux remain top by one point from Lyon, but that doesn’t come close to telling the story of their games in France this week.

Leaders Bordeaux slipped up, losing 2-0 at struggling Lille.

Lyon closed the gap a little but could only pick up a point in a remarkable 5-5 draw at home to Marseilles. Pjanic put Lyon ahead after 3 minutes but Marseille hit back quickly to equalise. On 14 minutes Govou put Lyon ahead again but Marseille equalised again just before half-time.

Things went from bad to worse for Lyon as Marseille scored again early in the second half and then went 4-2 ahead in the 79th minute.

Lyon hit back a minute later with a Lopez penalty and then Lopez found an equaliser in this remarkable game after 83 minutes. Michel Bastos then scored for Lyon to give them a 5-4 lead in the final minute and seemingly give the points to the leaders. Unbelievably,, two minutes into injury-time, Marseille found another equaliser and gained a deserved share of the spoils.

At the other end of the table something even more remarkable happened. In their twelfth game in Ligue 1 they managed to pick up their first point in a 0-0 draw at fourth placed Monaco. Well done to them.

It’s ‘advantage Rangers’ this weekend as they have closed the gap on Celtic to only two points and have a game in hand.

Rangers beat St Mirren 2-1 with Kris Boyd inevitably getting the goals, whilst Celtic were held 3-3 in a thriller at Falkirk. Caldwell and a pair from McDonald had put them 3-2 up but an 83rd minute equaliser made life even more uncomfortable for Tony Mowbray.

Braga remain top despite losing for the first time this season, 1-0 at Guimaraes. Benfica are just three points behind and have a game in hand.

I don’t know what the disciplinary rules are in Portugal but I would guess that Leixoes might find themselves in trouble. In their 4-2 defeat at home to Nacional they managed to have eight players booked and two sent-off!

Panathinaikos have opened a two point lead over Olympiakos. The leaders won 2-0 at Levadiakos, whilst Olympiakos could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Iraklis.

Galatasaray closed the gap on Fenerbahce at the top to three points by winning their game in hand. They won 2-1 at Diyarbakirspor.