The race for the Bundesliga title is not the forgone conclusion that many in Germany had predicted following Saturday's results that saw the champions Borussia Dortmund cut leaders Bayern Munich's deficit at the top to six points as the teams go into the winter break.

Bayern were held to a goalless draw at home by fourth-placed Schalke, the team they knocked out of the German Cup recently, while Dortmund enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 win at bottom-of-the-table Cottbus with Czech Republic striker Jan Koller scoring twice and Brazilian duo Ewerthon and Marcio Amoroso also getting their names on the scoresheet.

Level on points with Dortmund in third place are Werder Bremen, who beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0 thanks to yet another goal from Brazilian Ailton, and Kaiserlautern secured a valuable three points in their quest to avoid relegation courtesy of an 87th-minute winning penalty from Harry Koch that gave them a 2-1 over Fulham's midweek conquerors, Hertha Berlin.

However, that win still keeps the six-times German champions one off the bottom and a massive nine points from safety. Stuttgart went fifth with a 2-1 win at Wolfsburg, who were making their first ever appearance at their brand new Volkswagen-Arena stadium, 1860 Munich are sixth following a 1-1 draw at VfL Bochum and Hamburg are seventh after their disappointing goalless draw at Hansa Rostock.

However, last season's Bundesliga runners-up and Champions League finalists Bayer Leverkusen are continuing to struggle and on Saturday they lost their seventh game of the season, 2-0 at the BayArena to struggling Nurnberg, a result that leaves Leverkusen down in 14th, four points off relegation.

The final fixture in Germany was a goalless affair between Hannover 96 and Arminia Bielefeld.

AC Milan retained their leadership of Serie A on Sunday when they beat bottom-of-the-table Como 2-1 with Massimo Ambrosini and Andriy Shevchenko scoring the goals that completed what has been an excellent week for the Rossonieri following their win at Dortmund on Wednesday.

However, one point behind them in second place are Roberto Mancini's Lazio, who came from behind in Turin to beat the champions Juventus 2-1 yesterday evening in the continents biggest game of the weekend.

Juve had taken an early lead through Lazio old boy Pavel Nedved, but strikes either side of the break from the boot of Stefano Fiore handed the Romans all three points and sent Juventus down to fifth, six points off the pace.

Internazionale occupy third spot after an unconvincing 1-0 win at San Siro over out-of-form Atalanta, the returning Mohamed Kallon, on for the injured Christian Vieri, with the winner.

Meanwhile Roma finally won a game after a recent run of poor results, 3-0 in the capital over Reggina, but that relief was tempered by the news that captain and scorer of their second goal, Franscesco Totti, had suffered a knee injury during the game.

In fourth place and the final Champions League spot are Chievo, who won 3-0 at Piacenza on Saturday, while Bolonga also won on the same day, 2-1 at home against Parma thanks to a Julio Cruz double.

And Roberto Baggio scored his 200th Serie A goal yesterday as Brescia followed up last week's impressive win over Juventus by beating Perugia 3-1, Udinese and Torino drew 1-1 and Empoli overcame Modena 1-0. I

In Spain's Primera División, time is running out for Barcelona's Dutch coach Louis van Gaal who saw his star-studded side lose for the first time at the Camp Nou on Sunday evening in Spain's televised game, 3-0 to Sevilla, the club's sixth defeat of the season and a result that leaves them in an astonishing 13th place, two points from the relegation zone and without a hope of winning their first title in four years. It was also the visitor's first away win of the season.

At the top of the first division, Real Sociedad will definitely be league leaders as Spain enters its winter break next weekend after they remained unbeaten this season by beating Real Mallorca 2-1 yesterday having gone a goal behind to Samuel Eto'o.

And Raynald Denoueix's Basques are a massive eight points ahead of Celta Vigo who compounded a miserable week for them by surprisingly losing 3-0 at Racing Santander after their loss to Celtic on Thursday.

No one should write off Real Madrid just yet, despite their faltering form of late both at home and in Europe and they were even given a shock by bottom club Recreativo de Huelva on Sunday, who took a two-goal lead at the Santiago Bernabéu, before prevailing 4-2 thanks to goals from Raúl Bravo, Iván Helguera, Raúl González and Luis Figo, a result that moves Madrid up to third, level on points with fourth-placed Celta.

Fourth-placed Deportivo La Coruña returned home from their midweek defeat to Manchester United to beat Leeds United's UEFA Cup conquerors Malaga 1-0 thanks to a late wonder goal from Alberto Luque, Real Betis were surprisingly beaten in Seville by Real Vallecano thanks to Russian international centre-back Victor Onopko's goal, ending what had been a bad week for Betis following their elimination from the UEFA Cup on Thursday to Auxerre.

At the bottom, Espanyol lost again, 1-0 at in-form Osasuna, as did Athletic Bilbao who went down 2-0 to Real Valladolid, while on Saturday the champions Valencia continued their recent good form, staying in touch with Sociedad by winning 2-0 at mid-table Villarreal, Norwegian international striker John Carew with both goals while Alaves enjoyed a 2-0 win at home over Atletico Madrid.

In France's Le Championaat, Marseille went top for the first time in three years thanks to the failure of both Lyon and Nice to record victories this weekend.

The former European champions beat Sedan 2-1 on Saturday thanks to a late Ibrahima Bakayoko strike in the Ardennes, while 24 hours later champions Lyon appeared to be heading back to the top of the first division until Montpellier grabbed a last-minute equaliser at the Stade Gerland to cancel out Eric Carrière's opener, a result that leaves Lyon in fourth, two points behind the new leaders.

Previous pacesetters Nice are second after losing 4-0 at Bordeaux with Brazilian winger Savio scoring twice and Pauleta and Eduardo Costa scoring the others, a result that makes up somewhat for Bordeaux's surprise defeat at the hands of Anderlecht on Thursday in Europe.

Didier Deschamp's Monaco have recovered from what was a very slow start to their season and are now up to fourth spot after a comprehensive 4-0 win in the Principality over high-flying Guingamp, who were reduced to ten men, with Manchester City target Shabani Nonda among the goalscorers, while Auxerre, looking to go top, could only draw a blank at home to Strasbourg and so go fifth, one place ahead of Guingamp.

Other results in France saw PSG lose again, this time 1-0 at struggling Rennes, meaning that the capital club have exited both the League and UEFA Cups this week as well as kissing goodbye to any lingering hopes they may still have had of winning the league.

And Sochaux maintained their unbeaten home record with a 2-0 win over Bastia on Saturday, Lens stayed in touch with the leading pack with a 1-0 win over Le Harve, 2001 champions Nantes continued their recent good form with a 1-0 win at home over Troyes and Ajaccio and Lille fought out a 2-2 draw.

PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND: Roberto Baggio

The 'Divine Pony-tail', as he is known as around the world, scored his 200th top flight goal in Italy on Sunday as his Brescia side beat Perugia 3-1 and the fact that the former FIFA World Player of the Year and European Footballer of the Year is still going strong in defensively the strongest league in the world is a sign of his enduring greatness.



Richard Morgan