European round-up – Inter and Barcelona continue to dominate

Inter are seven points clear at the top after a 3-0 win over relegation fodder Reggina at the San Siro.

The ‘opinion dividing’ Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two to take his tally to nineteen for the season with the other goal coming from Esteban Cambiasso.

Second place Juventus had a fantastic result when they beat Roma away 4-1. Sitting sixth, Roma’s Champions League hopes are fading fast.

Vincenzo Iaquinta scored two goals with Olof Mellberg and Pavel Nedved completing the scoring. When you look at that list of names it is hard to understand why they are not more of a force in Europe.

Third placed Milan fell fourteen points behind their city rivals when they could only draw 0-0 away at Napoli.

Barcelona remain six points clear at the top after a resounding 6-0 win over a Malaga side who until very recently were the surprise package of the season and looking for European qualification.

Barcelona’s goals came courtesy of a double from Samuel Eto’o and strikes from Xavi, Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Daniel Alves.

Former Real Madrid striker Hugo Sanchez returned to the Bernabeu in charge of Almeria but saw his side, still only a couple points above the drop zone, lose 3-0. Two goals from in-form January signing Klaas Jan Huntelaar made it eight in six for him and the other goal came from Marcelo.

Sevilla are six points clear in third after their good form continued with a 4-1 home win over Real Valladolid with the remarkable scoring exploits of Fredi Kanoute continuing with a hat-trick and Luis Fabiano scoring the other.

Villarreal are five points clear in fourth after goals from Santi Cazorla and Fernandez gave them a 2-0 win over Bilbao.

At the other end of the table Espanyol are looking increasingly doomed after they went down 1-0 to fellow strugglers Osasuna.

The race at the top of the table has become even closer after leaders Hertha Berlin lost 2-0 away at sixth placed Stuttgart.

Sitting just one point behind Hertha are Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Hamburg. All three teams picked up three points over the weekend with Bayern winning 1-0 at home to Karlsruhe through a first-half Sosa goal.

Gentner, Grafite and Dejagah gave Wolfsburg an easy win at Arminia Bielefeld and Martin Jol saw a pair from Guerrero give his Hamburg side an excellent 2-1 win at Schalke.

After two straight defeats and a hammering by Barcelona, Lyon were looking pretty vulnerable. However, they bounced back this weekend with goals from Ederson and Anthony Mounier giving them a comfortable 2-0 win over Sochaux.

Marseille remain just a point behind after they beat Nantes 2-0 through Renato Civelli and Brandao. Bordeaux are two points further behind in third after they won 3-0 away at Le Havre.

Toulouse got themselves back in the title race in fourth place with a 4-1 win over fellow high flyers PSG who fall to sixth place as a result.

AZ Alkmaar will not exactly be panicking but they saw their lead at the top reduced to nine points after they could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to mid-table Feyenoord.

Second placed FC Twente had a 2-1 home win over FC Groningen. Elia and Wisgerhof scored the goals that make the frightening prospect of Steve McClaren managing in the Champions League become even more likely.

Ajax are only three points back from Twente after they recorded their fifth win in six games with an impressive 3-0 away success at NAC Breda with goals from Thomas Vermaelen, Gregory Van der Wiel and Luis Suarez.

Rangers tried to hand the title to Celtic on Saturday by only managing a 2-2 draw at home to Hearts. Goals from Kyle Lafferty and Barry Ferguson were not enough to get the three points they needed.

However, on Sunday, Celtic blew the chance to make the most of it by also drawing 2-2 at Dundee United. After Scot McDonald put Celtic ahead United came storming back and it took a late Lee Naylor goal to rescue a point for the leaders.

Porto stretched their lead at the top in Portugal to four points after a 2-0 home win over Naval Primeiro de Maio.

Formerly second placed Benfica went down 1-0 at home to Guimaraes and were overtaken by Sporting who had Moutinho and Rochemback to thank for a 2-0 win over Rio Ave.

Olympiakos increased their lead at the top to eleven points after they scraped a 3-2 win at Panionios Athens whilst second placed Panathinaikos could only manage a 1-1 draw at Asteras Tripoli.

The top two played each other in Turkey with leaders by one point, Sivasspor, maintaining that position after a 1-1 draw with Besiktas.