In the penultimate games of the Italian season champions Inter slipped up in an unimportant game for them, 2-1 at Cagliari. Ibrahimovich had given them the lead, but the fact that they went on to lose will have been more than made up for by the fact that Jose Mourinho has signed an extension to his contract.
In the chasing places, Juventus caught up with Milan on points after a pair from the evergreen Del Piero and one from Marchisio gave them a comfortable 3-0 win at Siena whilst Milan lost 3-2 at home to Roma. Ambrosini twice equalised for the home side but a goal from Totti five minutes from the end gave the points to the visitors.
The penultimate weekend in Spain saw champions Barcelona play a reserve side at home to Osasuna and come unstuck 1-0. Despite having already won the league Pep Guardiola still managed to get himself worked up enough to get sent from the touchline when he complained too much about the sending off of his seventeen year old debutant Muniesa. A rare opportunity for the likes of Eidur Gudjohnsen was not taken and the established first team players were safe for their Champions League success in midweek.
Real Madrid’s horrible season continued to slide towards its sorry end with a 3-1 home defeat against Mallorca. The only bright moment for the Whites was when top scorer Higuain gave them an early lead.
Sevilla guaranteed Champions League football when a last minute goal from Perotti gave them a 1-0 win over Deportivo.
Atletico Madrid take a two point advantage over Villarreal into the last game in the battle for the fourth spot after they both had comfortable wins. Diego Forlan scored a hat-trick for Atletico in their 4-1 win in Bilbao whilst Llorente bagged a pair for Villarreal in a 3-1 win at home to Valencia.
The German league came to an exciting climax at the weekend with four teams having a chance of taking the title. The leaders Wolfsburg knew that a victory would be enough for them to take it and they duly got what they needed in style, winning 5-1 against Werder Bremen. The unstoppable Grafite scored twice to give Wolfsburg an unexpected and wonderful title triumph.
Bayern Munich finished second after doing all they could by beating Stuttgart 2-1to end their hopes and Hertha Berlin fell away with a disappointing 4-0 defeat at Karlsruhe.
One game to go in France and Bordeaux hold a three point lead over Marseille. A first half goal from Chamakh gave Bordeaux a nervy 1-0 win over Monaco whilst Marseille kept up the pressure with a 2-1 win at Nancy.
Bordeaux travel to struggling Caen knowing that a point is all they need, but their superior goal difference of just one goal means that defeat in that game could hand the title to their rivals.
Champions Porto finished their season with a tame 1-1 draw in front of their own fans against Braga. A goal from Farias gave them a first half lead but they couldn’t hold onto it after the break.
Second and third placed Sporting and Benfica finished in better style with both teams having easy 3-1 wins.
In the end Rangers took the SPL by a comfortable margin of four points. Going into the last day, Celtic were two points behind their rivals and needed them to slip up at Dundee United.
As it turned out, first half goals from Lafferty and Mendes and a second half inevitable goal from Kris Boyd gave Rangers an easy 3-0 win and the title.
It was Celtic who slipped up, only managing a 0-0 draw at home to Hearts. The result led to manager Gordon Strachan leaving his post after the game and the search for a new Celtic manager is on.
One game to go in Turkey and the title is between leaders Besiktas and second placed Sivasspor who are two points behind. Both teams had hard fought wins at the weekend with Besiktas seeing off Galatasaray 2-1 and Sivasspor winning 3-2 at home to Genclerbirligi.
Both sides are away at the weekend but Besiktas have the easier task and will be devastated if they miss out on the title.
The Greek season came to an end with Olympiacos finishing eight points clear of PAOK. The Salonica club managed to keep second place despite going down 4-1 to third placed Panathinaikos.
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