European round-up – It’s tense everywhere as Jurgen Klinsmann loses his job

Bayern Munich lost 1-0 at home to Schalke at the weekend and saw their star man Franck Ribery receive a red card.

With Wolfsburg also losing, 2-0 at Cottbus, Bayern remain within three points of the leaders but manager Jurgen Klinsmann has paid for disappointing performances with his job. Just eight months in the job, Klinsmann has been dismissed after failing to get his team to live up to expectations.

Hertha Berlin and Stuttgart both managed to pick up three points whilst Hamburg slipped to defeat.

With five games left just three points separate leaders Wolfsburg and Hamburg in fifth place. It looks like being an exciting end to the season.

Real Madrid kept the title race open at the weekend when they had an excellent 4-2 win at third placed Sevilla. The evergreen Raul scored a hat-trick and Marcelo scored in injury-time to put the icing on the cake.

Barcelona travelled to fourth placed Valencia and only managed to gain a point in a 2-2 draw. Messi had put Barca ahead but they found themselves 2-1 down at half-time. Only a goal from Thierry Henry ten minutes from the end, saved them from defeat.

Those results mean that Barcelona have a four point lead with five games remaining.

With Villarreal gaining a 2-1 win at Getafe courtesy of Capdevila and Llorente, the race for third and fourth place is really tight. Just two points separate Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal with Atletico Madrid just three points further behind.

Athletic Bilbao and Racing Santander played out a meaningless mid-table game on Sunday. Meaningless?! Two penalties, thirteen yellow cards and five red cards. Bilbao won 2-1.

Inter are somewhat stumbling towards the Serie A title. Seven points clear with five games left, it is surely theirs. This weekend saw them lose 1-0 to a Zalayeta goal at mid-table Napoli.

Juventus also faltered slightly, drawing 2-2 at bottom of the table Reggina. They had to come from behind twice through a Del Piero penalty and Zanetti.

Milan took advantage of the slip-ups by seeing off ten man Palermo 3-0. Inzaghi added to two Kaka penalties and Milan now sit in second place.

Marseille opened up a five point lead at the top when they won 2-1 at Lille with goals from Cheyrou and Niang.

Bordeaux sit in second place and they play their game in hand on Wednesday evening at Rennes.

Third and fourth placed Lyon and PSG did no favours to each others title hopes at all when they drew 0-0 on Friday.

Already crowned as champions, AZ Alkmaar managed to gain a 1-1 draw at Ajax who are now in third place. Second placed FC Twente remain a point ahead of Ajax after Janssen scored a last minute equaliser for Steve McClaren’s team at Heerenveen.

The top three all won in Portugal leaving Porto four points clear of Sporting who are four points clear at Benfica. With just four games to go, it seems unlikely that Porto will be caught.

Lopez scored both goals as the leaders beat Vitoria Setubal 2-0, whilst Sporting won 2-1 against Amadora and Benfica had an exciting 3-2 win over Maritimo after being 3-0 up in little over half an hour.

Champions Olympiacos picked yet another three points with a 2-0 away win to remain eleven points clear at the top.

The race for second place is still incredibly tight with just one point separating Panathinaikos, PAOK and AEK Athens. Only AEK failed to win this week drawing 1-1 at Ergotelis.

Leaders Sivasspor remain a point clear at the top after they had a comfortable 3-0 home win and second placed Besiktas won 2-0 away.

The top two are six points clear of the rest with just five games left.

Three games to go and Anderlecht and Standard Liege are still locked together some fourteen points clear of the rest.

Anderlecht had an easy 4-0 win at home to Dender, whilst Standard Liege eased past KV Mechelen 4-1.