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European round-up: Joy for McClaren whilst Barcelona and Inter look strong

Graham Fisher in Editorial, General Soccer News 5 May 2010

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Joy for Twente and McClaren

Joy for Twente and McClaren

  • La Liga
  • Three games to go and Barcelona still lead Real Madrid by a point. Valencia look safe in third and Mallorca are two points ahead of Sevilla in the race for fourth.

    Barcelona had a comfortable and impressive 4-1 win at Villarreal on Saturday. Messi, Xavi and Bojan gave them a 3-0 half-time lead and although the home side pulled a goal back after the break, Messi added another to complete the win.

    Real Madrid had a tougher work-out on Sunday when they beat Osasuna 3-2 at the Bernabeu. After twice finding themselves behind.

    Cristiano Ronaldo equalised an early goal for the visitors but Osasuna again took the lead before half-time. In the last minute of the half, Marcelo managed to send the home side in at 2-2. A second goal from Ronaldo was the only addition to the scoring in the second-half.

    A second half double from Zigic all but secured third place for Valencia as they won 2-0 at Espanyol.

    Both Mallorca and Sevilla won their games 3-1, at Athletic Bilbao and at home to Atletico Madrid respectively.

  • Serie A
  • Just two games to go and Inter lead by two points from Roma. Milan are third, four points clear of Sampdoria with Palermo a further two points back in fifth.

    European Championship finalists Inter had a fine 2-0 win away at Lazio. Samuel gave his side the lead in injury-time at the end of the first-half and Motta sealed the points midway through the second.

    Roma stayed in touch with a 2-1 win at Parma. Goals from Totti and Taddei put them in control but a reply from Parma ten minutes from the end left Roma with a nervy ending to the game.

    Milan laboured to a 1-0 win over Fiorentina at the San Siro thanks to a Ronaldinho penalty in the second-half. They had Ambrosini red-carded shortly before the end of the game.

    Sampdoria and Palermo remain interested after they won 2-0 at home to Livorno and 2-1 away at Siena, respectively.

  • Bundesliga
  • With one game left Bayern Munich are the champions. Mathematically Schalke could overtake them but only with an eighteen goal turn around. Schalke are guaranteed second place whilst Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen battle it out for third.

    A Muller hat-trick saw Bayern Munich win 3-1 at home to VfL Bochum and all but give them the title after Schalke went down 2-0 at home to third placed Werder Bremen. Goals from Ozil and Hugo Almeida gave them the win and made them favourites to finish third.

    Bayer Leverkusen fell two points behind Bremen as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Hertha Berlin. Leverkusen had gone in at the break 1-0 down but equalised in the second-half through Friedrich.

  • Eridivisie
  • Steve McClaren’s FC Twente have become Dutch champions after they won their last game of the season to win the league by a point from Ajax. PSV finished third.

    Twente won 2-0 at NAC and were helped by the home side being reduced to ten men after just twenty minutes. A first-half goal from Ruiz and one in the second-half from Stoch, gave them the win they needed.

    Ajax fought hard to the end and they finished in style with a 4-1 win at NEC. Suarez scored twice and the others were added by De Zeeuw and Pantelic.

    PSV finished with a 1-1 draw at AZ Alkmaar.

  • Ligue 1
  • There are still three games left in France but Marseille look to be fairly comfortable with a five point gap at the top. Auxerre are second, three points ahead of Lille, who are two points ahead of fourth placed Lyon who have a game in hand on the others.

    Marseille will be more than happy with the 0-0 draw they picked up at Auxerre on Friday as that result kept the gap at the top as it was.

    Lille beat Nancy 3-1 with goals from Cabaye, Gervinho and Frau, whilst Michel Bastos scored the only goal as Lyon won 1-0 at former title hopefuls Montpellier.

  • Portuguese Liga Sagres
  • Just one game to go and unless Braga manage a thirty goal turn-around, Benfica will be the champions of Portugal. Porto are confirmed in third place.

    Benfica kept their fans waiting to celebrate as they went down 3-1 at Porto. Porto led 1-0 at half-time through Bruno Alves, but then had Fucile sent-off early in the second.

    When Luisao equalised for Benfica five minutes later it looked as though the away side would be celebrating winning the league. However, goals from Farias and Belluschi gave Porto an unlikely win.

    Braga kept their mathematical hopes alive with a 1-0 home win over Pacos Ferreira courtesy of a second-half strike from Meyong.

  • SPL
  • This article was prepared prior to the Old Firm game last night but the result of that is academic as Rangers are already crowned as champions and led by eleven points prior to the game.

    Celtic had a decent 4-0 win over Motherwell with goals from McGeady, O’Dea, Forrest and Keane. Rangers beat third placed Dundee United 2-1 thanks to goals by Boyd and Novo.

  • Greek Super League
  • The final games in Greece saw Olympiakos beat their Athens neighbours AEK 2-1 whilst PAOK won the battle of the Salonikas by the same score-line.

    Those results mean that Olympiakos have finished second ahead of PAOK Salonika who are third. Panathinaikos had already won the league and did so by six points in the end.

  • Turkcell Super Lig
  • There are still two games left in Turkey and Fenerbahce now lead the way by a point from Bursaspor. Galatasaray are third, five points further back.

    Fenerbahce scored both of their goals in the first-half as they beat Eskisehirspor 2-0 whilst Bursaspor did exactly the same at home to Kayserispor.

    Galatasaray had a 1-0 win away at Isatnbul BB.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Graham Fisher


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