European round-up – Juve slip up as Inter fail to take advantage and Barcelona march on

Here we go with a review of this week’s games in Europe:

Juventus missed the chance to put pressure on Inter Milan as they started the weekend with a surprise 3-2 defeat at home to in-form Cagliari. Sissoko and Nedved scored for Juve but the visitors took the points with goals from Biondini, Jeda and Matri.

Great chance for Inter to stretch further away at the top then as they were at home to second from bottom Torino. As it turned out, Mourinho’s men could only get a point and they were grateful to Nicolas Burdisso who’s strike cancelled out Rolando Bianchi’s opener for the struggling visitors.
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Alexandre Pato, Massimo Ambrosini and Kaka scored the goals as a David Beckham inspired AC Milan, won at Lazio to move them above Juventus and in to second place, six points behind their city rivals.

I had a bit of a go at Raul last week suggesting that he is no longer good enough. Well, he answered that by equalling the club record as he scored his 307th Real Madrid goal in the 2-0 victory over Numancia on Saturday. The other goal was scored by the in form Arjen Robben.

Real remain 12 points behind Barcelona after Pep Guardiola’s side recorded a ninth consecutive victory against Racing Santander despite being reduced to nine men late on with Marquez and Pique being sent off. Lionel Messi bagged both goals in Barca’s 2-1 win.

Third placed Sevilla lost 1-0 to Sporting Gijon whilst fourth placed Valencia opened up a gap on Villarreal by beating Almeria 3-2 whilst Villarreal went down 3-0 at Deportivo. David Villa netted twice for Valencia.

Leaders Lyon could only manage a draw at home to St Etienne with Juninho to thank for their equaliser.

They managed to remain one point clear at the top though as second placed Bordeaux drew 2-2 at home to Lille. Bordeaux’s goals came from Bellion and Gouffran.

One of Europe’s forgotten giants, Paris St Germain, climbed to third place in the league with a comfortable 2-0 victory against Caen. The PSG scorers were Hoarau and Luyindula.

Goals from Ba and Sanogo gave Hoffenheim a 2-0 win over Energie Cottbus, keeping them two points clear at the top.

Hertha Berlin are now second courtesy of their 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt with Pantelic getting both goals.

Hamburg had occupied top spot for 24 hours after beating Bayern Munich 1-0 on Friday with a Petric goal, but they have now slipped to third with Bayern Munich in fourth.

Rangers defeated third placed Dundee United 2-0 at Ibrox but needed a John Fleck converting and a last minute Kyle Lafferty goal to do so.

Celtic only needed to win at bottom club Inverness Caledonian Thistle, playing their first game under Terry Butcher, to keep their lead at the top to four points. They failed miserably in a 0-0 draw to leave frustrated manager Gordon Strachan to moan, “At this moment in time, we are not getting performances. We’ve got the footballers, we’ve got the better players, but we didn’t play well, especially in the first half.”

It was a bad weekend for European chasing clubs Hearts and Aberdeen who both lost. Hearts going down 2-0 at Hamilton whilst Aberdeen were beaten 1-0 at Falkirk.

AZ Alkmaar strengthened their hold on top spot with a 2-0 success at Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday. The goals came courtesy of Dembele and El Hamdaoui.

In second place sit FC Twente who were held 0-0 by mid table Utrecht.

Level with Twente, some nine points behind Alkmaar, are Ajax who lost 1-0 at home to Heerenveen.

Goals from Hulk, Rodrigues and Gonzales gave Porto a 3-1 victory at struggling Belenenses. The victory kept them one point ahead of Benfica who beat Rio Ave 1-0 and three points above Sporting who drew 0-0 at Trofense.

Olympiakos kept up their title charge in Greece as they beat AEK Athens 1-0 to remain eleven points clear of PAOK Salonica who beat Ergotelis 2-0.

Trabzonspor moved level on points with Sivasspor by winning 2-0 at Ankaraspor whilst the leaders were held 0-0 at Kayserispor.