Back among the goals
Four games to go in Spain and Barcelona still lead by just a solitary point from Real Madrid. The leaders made short work of bottom club Xerez, beating them 3-1. The goals came from Jeffren, Henry and Ibrahimovic.
What should have been a great experience for the visitors saw them lose, have eight players yellow carded and two sent-off in injury-time. That just about summed up their one and only year in the top flight.
Real Madrid made hard work of winning at Real Zaragoza but came out 2-1 winners in the end. Raul gave them a second-half lead but Zaragoza equalised despite going down to ten men. Kaka came up with a late winner to keep their title hopes alive.
Valencia look safe in third after a first-half David Villa penalty was enough for them to win at home to Deportivo.
Mallorca are in the driving seat for fourth place as they lead Sevilla by two points. Mallorca needed an injury-time Aduriz goal to give them a 1-1 draw at home to Malaga, whilst Sevilla lost 4-3 at Getafe, having Kanoute sent-off and then conceding the decisive goal in the ninety-fifth minute.
Just when you thought they may have messed it up for the first time in a few years and that Champions League success might damage their Serie A hopes, Inter are back in the driving seat being two points clear of Roma with just three games left.
On Saturday Inter recovered from going a goal down in the opening minutes to beat Atalanta 3-1. The goals came from Milito, Mariaga and Chivu.
Roma went into their game on Sunday at home to fourth placed Sampdoria knowing that they needed a win to go back to the top of the league. All looked good for them when they went in 1-0 up at half-time courtesy of a Totti goal but it all went wrong in the second half. A brace from Pazzini gave the away side victory and severely dented Roma’s dream of the Scudetta.
Milan look to be safe in third despite going down 3-1 at fifth placed Palermo.
Two games left in Germany and it is all square at the top. Bayern Munich failed to fully capitalise on their game in hand as they were held 1-1 at Borussia Munchengladbach. After going behind on the hour, Bayern were grateful to Klose for his equaliser.
Bayern are top from Schalke courtesy of a far superior goal difference. Schalke didn’t have a game this week and the two of them are seven points clear of the rest.
The battle for third is still tight with just one point separating Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund. All three teams picked up three points this week.
It will tense weekend next week as FC Twente and Ajax go into their last game with Twente leading by just a point. Steve McClaren’s Twente will go to NAC next Sunday whilst Ajax will travel to NEC.
Both teams had home wins this week. Twente beat Feyenoord 2-0 through goals in each half from Nkufo and Stoch.
Ajax continued their goal scoring form with a 4-0 win over Heracles. The goals were shared between De Jong and Pantelic.
PSV will finish third.
Four games to go in France and Marseille have a five point lead. Only Auxerre can catch them, with Lille, Montpellier, Lyon and Bordeaux fighting it out for third place.
A sixth minute goal by Valbuena was enough for the leaders to beat St Etienne 1-0, whilst Auxerre were slightly more impressive in a 3-0 away win at Toulouse. Jelen bagged two goals with the other coming from Pedretti.
The only team to win in the chasing pack were Lille, who won 2-1 at Le Mans. Bordeaux lost at Lorient whilst Montpellier were held to a goalless draw at Nancy. Lyon didn’t play.
Barring a mathematical miracle Benfica have won the league with two games left to play. They are six points clear of Braga and have a superior goal difference of some thirty-two goals.
Nobody can say that Benfica don’t deserve the title a they have had a remarkable season that has seen them win twenty-three of their twenty-eight games, losing just one and scoring seventy-five goals in the process.
They added another five this weekend when they hammered Olhanense 5-0. Cardozo chipped in with a hat-trick and the other goals came from Di Maria and Aimar.
Second placed Braga also had an emphatic win by beating Naval 4-0 at their home ground. Aguiar scored two of their goals.
Porto remain third and confirmed the domination of the top three with a 5-2 win at Vitoria Setubal.
Rangers clinched the title with a 1-0 win at Hibernian. A first half Kyle Lafferty goal was enough to win them the league and remain a remarkable eleven points clear at the top.
Celtic won 2-0 at third placed Dundee United in one of their better performances of the season. Goals from Kamara and a late Robbie Keane penalty gave them the points. Celtic’s woeful season was summed up by the fact that Robbie Keane, who has played less than half the season was voted as the fans player of the season!
Four games to go in Turkey and Bursaspor lead Fenerbahce by just one point at the top. Galatasaray are not totally out of it another four points further back.
Galatasaray missed the chance to close the gap right up as they had a goalless draw at home to the leaders who were probably very happy with the point.
Fenerbahce did close the gap with a 1-0 win at Kasimpasa.
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