Back in the goals
Things suddenly got interesting at the top of the Spanish League. Real Madrid had a fairly regulation win at bottom club Xerez. Although it took them over an hour for Arbeloa to break the deadlock they eventually ran out 3-0 winners with Ronaldo grabbing another brace.
With the gap closed to two points Barcelona travelled to Real’s city rivals Atletico and found themselves 2-0 down inside twenty-three minutes. Ibrahimovic pulled a goal back for the leaders very quickly but that was the end of the scoring and the race for the title was blown open again.
Valencia stay third despite dropping points in a 1-1 draw at Sporting Gijon. After conceding an early goal Valencia had to wait until the seventy-sixth minute for a Mata goal to save them a point.
Sevilla are fourth after they laboured to a 1-0 win over Osasuna. Luis Fabiano scored the first-half goal that saw off their mid-table opponents.
Inter are only seven points clear at the top after they were held to a goalless draw at fourth placed Napoli.
Roma stay second after they spanked Palermo 4-1. Brighi scored twice and Julio Baptiste and Riise added the others.
Milan are two points back from Roma but have a game in hand on them and Inter. They had a thrilling win by the odd goal in five against Udinese on Friday. Huntelaar struck twice and Alexandre Pato chipped in with another.
Bottom club Siena gave themselves a little hope with a 1-0 win at Chievo. This was only their fourth win of the season.
Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich remain locked together at the top in Germany after they both enjoyed home wins on Saturday.
Leverkusen won 2-1 against Wolfsburg with Reinartz and Derdiyok grabbing the goals before the visitors pulled one back and gave the leaders a nervous last ten minutes.
Munich had a comfortable 3-1 win against Borussia Dortmund. The visitors shocked Bayern by taking an early lead but goals from Van Bommel, Robben and Gomez sealed the expected win.
Schalke are three points back from the leaders after a goal in each half from Matip and Farfan gave them a 2-0 win over Cologne.
Hamburg look out of it in fourth place although new signing Ruud van Nistelrooy scored twice for them in a 3-1 win at Stuttgart.
The top three in Holland all won this weekend leaving PSV three points clear of FC Twente and Ajax some way back in third.
PSV needed a second-half Toivonen goal to give them a 1-0 win at Heracles. Twente nearly handed the title to PSV as they were 1-0 down with eight minutes to go at Vitesse. Ruiz equalised and then Stam won the game for them deep into stoppage time.
Rommedahl and Suarez gave Ajax a comfortable win at Heerenveen.
Bordeaux are three points clear of Montpellier at the top of the French league after they both won at home in slightly different fashions.
Bordeaux cruised to a 3-1 win over St Etienne with the goals coming from Chamakh and a pair from Wendell, whilst Montpellier struggled to a 1-0 win over bottom club Grenoble.
Lille and Lyon are still third and fourth as they both enjoyed home success as well, but the French League is tight with just five points separating third from seventh.
Benfica are a point clear of Braga at the top but the second placed club have a game in hand.
Porto remain third and Sporting in fourth place, are a remarkable twenty points behind the top two and twelve adrift of Porto.
Braga had Meyong and Aguiar to thank for their 2-1 win over Maritimo, whilst a solitary Cardozo goal was enough for Benfica to see off Belenenses.
Things go from bad to worse for Celtic. They scored four goals at Aberdeen on Saturday with Kamara, Fortune, Keane and McGeady finding the net. When they went 4-2 up with just eighteen minutes left victory was surely assured. Not with Celtic it wasn’t! Two late goals saw Aberdeen earn an unlikely draw.
Still, Rangers had a tough game against third placed Hibernian. Maybe they would drop points too. Hibs held them until half-time but goals from Whittaker, Boyd and Miller gave then a relatively easy win in the end and increase the gap over Celtic to an almost unassailable ten points.
It is a three horse race in Greece with Panathinaikos leading the way. They are three points clear of Olympiakos who are two ahead of PAOK Salonica. The rest are a long way back.
Panathinaikos gave hope to other two this weekend by losing 2-0 at home to Kavala. Olympiakos won 3-1 at Asteras Tripoli and PAOK saw off Giannina 1-0.
Fenerbahce are two points clear at the top in Turkey from Galatasaray who have a game in hand. Kayserispor remain third.
Only Fenerbahce played this weekend and they gave the others hope as they were held 2-2 at struggling Manisaspor.
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