Spain

Real Madrid overcame a two-goal half-time deficit on Sunday to register a 3-2 victory at Real Valladolid in a match that saw both sides reduced to ten men.

The win kept the champions two points ahead of second-placed Valencia, who had hit struggling Málaga for six the previous day.

It was the first division’s top scorer, Ronaldo, who was Madrid’s star man after netting his 17th and 18th goals of the season, including an injury-time winner, while Luís Figo was also on target for the visitors from the spot.

Other results in La Liga saw two sides battling for the fourth and final Champions League berth for next season, Atlético de Madrid and Osasuna, share the spoils in a 1-1 draw in the capital, although only after Demis Nikolaidis had headed in a last-minute equaliser for an Atlético team that had been reduced to ten men.

Meanwhile Radomir Antic’s first game in charge of relegation-threatened Celta Vigo, who face Arsenal in the European Cup later this month, ended in a 1-0 defeat at Real Betis, third-placed Deportivo La Coruña overcame Sevilla 1-0 at home in last night’s live match thanks to Diego Tristán’s penalty and fifth-in-the-table Barcelona thrashed struggling Albacete 5-0 at Camp Nou, with recent new signing Edgar Davids getting on the scoresheet.

And Real Sociedad won their fifth league game in a row, 1-0 at home to Racing Santander, while Murcia recorded their first victory under new coach John Toshack in a hard-fought 1-0 home win over fellow strugglers Real Zaragoza, but remain rooted to the foot of the table because Espanyol also enjoyed a rare win.

Player of the weekend: Ricardo Oliveira. The Brazilian striker netted his second hat-trick of the season on Saturday night as Valencia thrashed ten-man Málaga 6-1 on their travels to briefly move to the top of the table after week 22 of the first division season.

Top of the Table

 

Pld

W

D

L

GF

GA

Pts

Real Madrid

22

15

4

3

43

23

49

Valencia

22

14

5

3

42

16

47

Deportivo

22

13

4

5

37

17

43

Atletico Madrid

22

10

6

6

30

25

36

Barcelona

22

9

7

6

33

26

34



Italy

AC Milan extended their lead at the top of Serie A to five points yesterday after winning 2-0 at Bolonga, while 24 hours earlier Roma were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at mid-table Brescia.

The European champions’ goalscoring heroes were striking duo Andriy Shevchenko and substitute Jon Dahl Tomasson, while Jonathan Bachini’s first-half penalty earned a Roberto Baggio-less Brescia the three points against their Roman visitors.

Also playing yesterday were third-placed Juventus, whose slender 1-0 in Turin over Chievo, secured thanks to Mauro Camoranesi’s early strike, moved the champions level on points with second-placed Roma, although with an inferior goal difference after week 19 of the season.

Other results in the first division saw both Parma and Lazio, in fifth and sixth places respectively, held to draws, the former 2-2 at lowly Perugia, the latter 1-1 in the capital against Sampdoria, while in Sunday night’s televised encounter fourth-placed Internazionale overcame Sienna 4-0 at San Siro thanks to two goals apiece from South American striking duo Alvaro Recoba and Adriano.

Player of the weekend: Andriy Shevchenko. Milan’s Ukraine international forward was on target once again, recording his 16th league goal of the season to keep him at the top of the first division goalscoring charts.

Top of the Table

 

Pld

W

D

L

GF

GA

Pts

Milan

19

15

3

1

37

9

48

Roma

19

13

4

2

37

9

43

Juventus

19

13

4

2

42

21

43

Internazionale

19

10

5

4

33

13

35

Parma

19

9

6

4

28

21

33



Germany

Werder Bremen maintained their four-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga after a comfortable 4-0 win at bottom-of-the-table Hertha Berlin on Saturday, and with champions Bayern München being held to a 1-1 draw at lowly Eintracht Frankfurt, Stuttgart are now second in the table thanks to their 2-0 home win against Hansa Rostock, their first victory in four games.

Prolific Dutch striker Roy Makaay gave Ottmar Hitzfeld’s men the lead after just 39 seconds, only for fellow front man Claudio Pizarro to then concede a penalty that left the visitors in third, six points off top spot. Meanwhile Chelsea’s opponents in the knockout stages of this month’s Champions League, Stuttgart, relied upon second-half strikes from Aleksandr Gleb and Kevin Kuranyi to see off Hansa.

And yesterday fourth-in-the-table Bayer Leverkusen fell seven points off the pace following a surprise 1-0 defeat at Freiburg, meaning that the visitors have now won just once in their last six matches.

While on Friday night Schalke moved above Borussia Dortmund in the table courtesy of a 1-0 win at the home of their Ruhr rivals in front of a record 83,000 crowd. Denmark international forward Ebbe Sand got an 89th-minute winner for the visitors in a match that saw both sides have a player sent off, including reported Chelsea target Tomáš Rosický for Dortmund, as well as Schalke’s Frank Rost repelling two penalties.

Player of the weekend: Ailton. Bremen’s Brazilian striker, top scorer in the Bundesliga, continued where he had left off before the mid-winter break by grabbing a brace as his side remained top of the first division after week 18 of the season.

Top of the Table

 

Pld

W

D

L

GF

GA

Pts

Werder Bremen

18

13

3

2

49

20

42

VfB Stuttgart

18

11

5

2

26

9

38

Bayern Munich

18

10

6

2

41

20

36

Bayer Leverkusen

18

10

5

3

34

18

35

VfL Bochum

18

8

5

5

31

22

29



France

Second-placed Lyon closed the gap on Monaco at the top of Ligue 1 to four points after the leaders were held to a 1-1 draw at home by fifth-in-the-table Paris Saint-Germain on Friday, and the champions secured a narrow 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Toulouse the following day.

On the South Coast, promising young French defender Sébastien Squillaci headed Didier Deschamps’s side into a 27th-minute lead, only for alleged Chelsea target Gabriel Heinze to draw the capital club level just five minutes later, while Lyon needed midfielder Vikash Dhorasoo’s second-half strike to overcome a stubborn Toulouse team.

And level on points in third and fourth places respectively, seven adrift of Monaco, are Auxerre and Sochaux following contrasting victories on Saturday. The former scored four times in the first half of their match with mid-table Bordeaux before running out eventual 5-0 winners, while the latter were forced to come from behind to beat ten-man Marseille 2-1 at home.

Didier Drogba gave the visitors a third-minute lead with his 13th goal of the season, but soon found himself the villain of the piece after giving away a penalty 20 minutes from time that was converted by Pierre-Alain Frau for Sochaux’s winner, and his 13th of the campaign as well.

Player of the weekend: Djibril Cissé. Auxerre’s France international responded in style on Saturday to the news that UEFA have upheld his five-match ban for kicking an opponent in an Under-21 match, meaning he will miss Euro 2004, by scoring twice and creating another in his side’s 5-0 demolition of Bordeaux. His 16th and 17th goals of the season maintained his position as the leading scorer in Le Championnat.

Top of the Table

 

Pld

W

D

L

GF

GA

Pts

Monaco

22

14

6

2

37

16

48

Lyon

22

13

5

4

39

17

44

Auxerre

22

13

2

7

39

18

41

Sochaux

22

12

5

5

34

24

41

Paris St Germain

22

11

7

4

27

17

40