Inter moved nine points clear in Italy and picked up the city bragging rights as they beat rivals Milan 2-1 in a keenly-fought derby.
Adriano and Dejan Stankovic scored first half goals for Jose Mourinho’s men, with Alexandre Pato netting a second half consolation for Milan. On loan David Beckham limped off with a calf injury early in the second half.
Inter’s lead in the table was increased as Juventus could only manage a draw at struggling Sampdoria. It took a second half strike from Amauri to rescue a point.
The infamous former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu scored a hat-trick for Fiorentina as they recovered from 3-0 down to gain a point at Genoa in a remarkable game that saw six goals, two penalties, seven bookings and a sending off.
Inter were able to take another step towards defending their title thanks to Juventus’ failings against Sampdoria.
Roma’s European hopes took a massive blow as they were humbled 3-0 on the road at Atalanta.
The big news in Spain this week is definitely Raul. The Real Madrid icon, who just a few weeks ago I predicted was finished, scored another two goals to take his total to three hundred and nine and go past the previous Real Madrid record held by the great Alfredo di Stefano.
The striker, who couldn’t care less what I thought and if he did, would be really enjoying shoving my words back down my throat, bagged two goals in Real’s easy 4-0 win at Sporting Gijon. The other goals came from Huntelaar and Marcelo.
The win took Real to within ten points of Barcelona who dropped a very rare two points in their game at Real Betis. It could have been even worse for the leaders nut Samuel Eto’o scored in first half injury time and late on in the second half to rescue his side from being 2-0 down.
Sevilla strengthened their grip on third place with a 2-0 win at Espanyol courtesy of a Freddie Kanoute double whilst Valencia, Villarreal and Atletico Madrid could only manage draws.
Seven Ligue 1 titles in a row looks like becoming eight for Lyon as they opened up a four point gap at the top with a 3-1 win against bottom club Le Havre. Ederson, Keita and Juninho provided the goals in an easy win.
In second place sit Paris St Germain who beat St Etienne 2-1 with goals from Sakho and Clement.
Marseille moved into the UEFA Champions League places, as a solitary goal from substitute Bakari Kone was enough to beat Monaco.
Toulouse also won on Sunday, overcoming lowly Sochaux 2-1, while Bordeaux suffered a weekend to forget as they slipped to fifth after a 1-1 draw at home to thirteenth placed Grenoble.
Hertha Berlin moved to the top of the table on Saturday as they had an impressive 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich. Both goals were scored by Andriy Voronin the on-loan striker from Liverpool. Unsurprisingly, Hertha are looking to extend his loan. Klose replied for Bayern who slip to fourth place.
Going into the games, Hoffenheim were top of the table but their train came somewhat off the tracks in a 4-1 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen, dropping them to second.
Martin Jol’s Hamburg are back up to third after they had a comfortable 2-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld. Trochowski and Guerrero provided the goals.
AZ Alkmaar had won eleven games in a row before this weekend but that run came to an end at PSV where early goals from Swerts and Martens put them 2-0 up, only to concede twice in the second half and have to settle for a point.
Steve McClaren’s FC Twente closed the gap at the top to eight points with a 2-1 win against FC Volendam. The ‘wally with the brolly’ had Arnautovic and Nkufo for the goals.
Elsewhere, Ajax kept their faint hopes of claiming a first league crown in five years alive with a 2-0 success over Feyenoord, although they remain twelve points behind the leaders.
The big game in Scotland failed to live up to its pre-match billing and turned out to be something of a damp squib as Celtic and Rangers played out a goalless draw at Parkhead. There were only eight bookings and there was little controversy. Both teams worked exceptionally hard but there was little for the neutral to admire.
Celtic, therefore, maintain their narrow two-point lead over their rivals at the top.
Hearts reclaimed third spot in the table, and boosted their hopes of securing European football for next season, with a 2-1 win at home to Aberdeen.
Dundee United had a disappointing 1-1 draw with rock-bottom Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who continue to show signs of a revival under Terry Butcher.
The top of the table in Portugal remains intriguingly poised, with Porto, Benfica, Leixoes and Sporting Lisbon all sitting within four points of each other.
All four of these clubs had victories at the weekend with the most notable probably being Leixoes’ 1-0 win at sixth placed Braga courtesy of a late Angulo strike.
Olympiakos look to be heading towards a fifth consecutive league title in Greece, moving 14 points clear of Panathinaikos with a 2-1 victory over Aris Salonika, whilst their Athens rivals could only manage a 0-0 draw at Iraklis.
Sivasspor and Trabzonspor remain locked together and five points clear of the rest at the top in Turkey.
This weekend neither side could win, both drawing 1-1 against Bursaspor and Besiktas respectively.
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