European round-up: Barcelona and Inter hit the top

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Clear leaders at the top in Spain as Barcelona win again and the new look Real Madrid come unstuck at in form Sevilla.

Barcelona struggled to overcome a determined and terribly defensive Almeria who as Jose Mourinho would say, ‘parked the bus in front of their goal’. A solitary first half strike from Pedrito was enough to take all three points for the champions.

Sevilla join Real Madrid in second place three points behind after they overcame the men in white by two goals to one. Jesus Navas gave the hosts a first half lead but Pepe equalised for Real soon after the break. Renato restored the lead for Sevilla with twenty-five minutes to go and Real couldn’t come back for a second time.

At the bottom Xerez picked up their first home point in a 1-1 draw with Malaga. Atletico Madrid also picked up their first win as goals from Jurado and Antonio Lopez helped them to a 2-1 win over Real Zaragoza.

Inter have made it to the top in Italy and who will be prepared to bet against them staying there? It is true that they stuttered to another victory and are looking less than inspired at the moment. Having said that, great teams keep going to the end and it was a goal three minutes into injury time from Sneijder that gave them the points after Udinese’s Di Natale had equalised the opener from Stankovic.

Whilst Inter were limping to victory their closest rivals all failed to do so. Sampdoria were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Parma and Fiorentina and Lazio finished goalless.

Meanwhile, Juventus were going down 2-0 at Palermo and Milan could only draw 1-1 at Atalanta.

All in all, despite not playing well this was a great weekend for Mourinho and his men.

Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg are still sitting pretty at the top in Germany after they both won again this weekend.

Leverkusen hardly broke into a sweat to beat struggling Nurnberg 4-0 with goals from Kroos, Rolfes, Derdiyok and Kiessling. Hamburg heaped more misery on bottom club Hertha Berlin by winning 3-1 in the capital. An own goal was added to by Jarolim and Ze Roberto.

Bayern Munich failed at home again drawing 0-0 with Cologne whilst champions Wolfsburg bounced back from defeat in Manchester with a 1-1 draw at Vfl Bochum with Dzeko again providing the goal.

Lyon bounced back to the top of the table in France with a comfortable 2-0 win at Lens. Goals in either half from Govou and Kallstrom saw them home.

Former leaders Bordeaux had a bit of a horror show losing 3-1 at St Etienne. The gig game in Marseille between the hosts and Monaco went the way of the visitors with Nene and Park helping Monaco to a 2-1 win.

At the wrong end of the table Grenoble made it eight defeats in eight as they went down 3-2 at home to Montpellier.

Leaders FC Twente won again to keep Steve McClaren on course for some sort of redemption as a coach! They won 3-1 at Heracles after going behind to an early goal.

PSV could only draw 0-0 at FC Utrecht and they had Dzsudzsak sent off. Ajax also only managed a point drawing 2-2 at Roda JC. Suarez scored both goals for the visitors.

The only team to keep up the pressure on McClaren were Feyenoord who won 3-0 at home to RKC Waalwijk.

Braga stay top with a 100% record as Paulo Cesar and Hugo Viana gave them a 2-0 win over Vitoria Setubal.

Porto won 3-0 at Olhanense but Sporting could only draw 0-0 at home to Belenenses.

It was the first of the big ones in Scotland this weekend and for the neutral we had the best result. Rangers beat Celtic 2-1 through two first half Kenny Miller goals. That leaves Rangers just a point behind their City neighbours and keeps the title race wide open. Well, wide open between those two anyway.

Olympiakos stay top after a 3-0 win at Levadiakos but Panathinaikos are just a point behind with a game in hand after an impressive 1-0 win at AEK Athens.

Fenerbahce have opened up a five point gap at the top in Turkey after they had an easy 3-0 win over Genclerbirligi and nearest rivals Galatasaray had a nightmare, losing 3-0 at Ankaragucu.