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European round-up – Inter and Barcelona march on whilst Lyon slip up again

Graham Fisher in Editorial, General Soccer News 17 Mar 2009

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  • Serie A
  • Claudio Ranieri’s Juventus briefly put pressure on leaders Inter after they easily beat Bologna 4-1 on Saturday. Trailing 1-0 at half-time Juve hit back with two goals from Del Piero and further strikes from Salihamidzic and Giovinco.

    Inter bounced back from their defeat at Manchester United and Juventus cutting their lead by beating Fiorentina 2-0 at the San Siro courtesy of a brace from Ibrahimovic. That win restored Inter’s seven point lead.

    AC Milan won 5-1 at struggling Siena with two goals from the evergreen Filippo Inzaghi taking him past 300 career goals. Pirlo and a pair from Pato concluded the scoring.

    Fourth placed Genoa maintained their challenge with a 1-0 win at Cagliari.

  • La Liga
  • Real Madrid got back to winning ways after they were humiliated by Liverpool in the Champions League as they demolished lower mid-table Athletic Bilbao 5-2 away on Saturday. The goals came from Klaas Jan-Huntelaar who scored two, Higuain, Robben and Heinze. So are Liverpool really good or is the quality of La Liga pretty poor?

    Leaders Barcelona ensured they remain six points clear of Real after two goals from much talked about youngster Bojan Krkic handed them victory at Almeria.

    Third placed Sevilla rescued a point at in-form Malaga with goals from Kanoute and Luis Fabiano grabbing a draw for the visitors after they had gone two behind.

    Atletico Madrid climbed to fifth with a thrilling 3-2 success over fourth placed Villarreal. Villarreal had gone two ahead before Aguero pulled a goal back for the hosts. Two late goals from Forlan and Antonio Lopez gave Atletico a fine win.

    At the other end of the table things are looking pretty glum for Numancia who were thrashed 5-0 at Racing.

  • Bundesliga
  • Hertha Berlin are still at the top after yet another goal from on-loan Liverpool striker Andriy Voronin was enough to get the win against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday. Did Voronin wear his boots on the wrong feet last season?

    Bayern Munich, though, kept within four points of the leaders with a convincing 3-0 success at VfL Bochum. Ze Roberto, Lahm and Demichelis scored the goals.

    Wolfsburg and Martin Jol’s Hamburg are level on points with Bayern after they won 4-3 against Schalke and 2-0 against Cottbus respectively. Grafite netted a hat-trick for Wolfsburg.

    At the wrong end of the table Karlsruhe looked doomed after a 1-0 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Arminia Bielefeld.

  • Ligue 1
  • After Lyon were humbled by Barcelona in midweek things went from bad to worse as their lead at the top was cut to just one point. They were comfortably beaten 2-0 at home by mid-table Auxerre with a goal in each half.

    Second and third swapped places as Marseille beat Paris St Germain 3-1 in Paris with goals from Zenden, Kone and Cana, to move above them and a point behind Lyon.

    Bordeaux remain fourth after their 2-1 win against Nice.

  • Eredivisie
  • AZ Alkmaar are still eleven points clear at the top of the table after they recorded a fourth straight league victory and a record twenty-fifth game without defeat. They won 1-0 at FC Utrecht at the weekend with a goal from Martens.

    FC Twente kept up their forlorn looking chase with a 2-0 win over Willem II.

    Ajax remain third after a 3-0 win over De Graafschap, goals courtesy of a pair from Suarez and another from Cvitanich.

    Heerenveen cemented fourth place with a comprehensive 5-1 win over struggling Sparta.

    SPL
    With Celtic and Rangers playing in the CIS Insurance Cup on Sunday, a game Celtic won 2-0, attention turned to the race for third place. Chris Maguire’s goal for Aberdeen against Hamilton saw them close the gap on Hearts to five points.

    Hearts were defeated by their Edinburgh rivals Hibernian 1-0 at Easter Road.

    At the other end, Inverness Caledonian Thistle continued their great escape with a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock.

  • Portugal
  • Porto remain four points clear after beating Naval 2-0 with a pair from Gonzalez. Sporting move into second after a 1-0 win over Rio Ave whilst Benfica are a point further back after a surprise 1-0 defeat at home to Guimaraes.

  • Greece
  • Olympiakos are nine points clear at the top after two goals from on-loan Blackburn Rovers striker Matt Derbyshire helped them to an easy 5-0 win over Iraklis.

    Panathinaikos remain second whilst PAOK lost ground after they could only manage a 0-0 draw at Larissa.

  • Turkey
  • A 2-0 win for Sivasspor at Ankaragucu was enough for them to stay a point ahead of Besiktas who had an easy 3-0 win over Genclerbirligi.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Graham Fisher


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