Euro football roundup 3/3
Robinho came off the bench to net twice for Real Madrid
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Monday, 03, Mar 2008 11:31
A comprehensive roundup of all the action from the top leagues in Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands begins with news from southern Europe.
The pendulum in Spain's Primera Liga title race swung back towards league leaders Real Madrid over the weekend as they reopened the gap to bitter rivals Barcelona in second.
The Bernabeu side earned the spoils in a hard-fought and sometimes overzealous contest at Recreativo, which saw three players dismissed - including the home side's Quique Alvarez for a horror tackle on Arjen Robben that was reminiscent of the incident that broke Eduardo's leg so graphically a week earlier.
Real substitute Robinho was the hero for Bernd Schuster's men, scoring twice within minutes of coming on. He added to Raul's first-half equalizer that cancelled out Martin Caceres' opener before Carlos Martins scored late on to make the visitors sweat out the closing minutes.
Meanwhile, Barcelona were involved in a similarly titanic struggle as they went down 4-2 to Real's crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid.
Ronaldinho opened the scoring for the visitors but Atletico stormed back and opened up a 4-1 lead thanks to two goals from Sergio Aguero and a goal apiece for Maxi Rodriguez and Diego Forlan. Samuel Eto'o pulled a goal back for the Catalan giants but it was too little, too late and enabled Real to extend their advantage at the top of the standings to five points.
Villarreal stay third, despite a disappointing goalless draw at home to Osasuna, seven points adrift of Barca with Atletico three points further back in fourth.
In Italy's Serie A leaders Inter Milan suffered a Champions League hangover after their late collapse at Anfield against Liverpool - going down to their first defeat of the season at Napoli. Marcelo Zalayeta grabbed the only goal of the game after just three minutes.
The result meant AS Roma closed the gap on the runaway leaders to a much more manageable six points, following their 4-0 demolition of Parma at the Stadio Olimpico.
Juventus' pursuit of the leading pair was dented with a 3-2 home defeat to fourth-placed Parma in arguably Italy's game of the week.
Massimo Gobbi opened the scoring for the visitors before former Liverpool midfielder Momo Sissoko equalised and Mauro Camoranesi put the hosts in the lead before the hour mark.
However, a further strike from Senegalese forward Papa Waigo and a late, late goal from Pablo Osvaldo gave the visitors the spoils, despite them having the winning goal-scorer sent off for a second bookable offence in the melee that followed.
Fifth-placed AC Milan suffered a setback of their own as they were held to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro by midtable Lazio.
In Germany's Bundesliga, the top three - Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV all tallied another three points to move clear of fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen, who lost 2-0 at VfL Bochum.
Bayern beat Schalke 04 with an impressive 1-0 win in Gelsenkirchen, thanks to German international striker Miroslav Klose's solitary goal after 14 minutes.
Klose's former club Bremen kept the pressure on the leaders with a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund, thanks to Markus Rosenberg's double either side of half-time.
And Hamburger SV are still in the hunt, six points behind Bayern, after their 4-1 demolition of Frankfurt.
France's top division, Ligue 1, so very few goals this week, with only 13 goals in the ten games played.
One of those goals came from Lyon's Brazilian striker Fred, who secured all three points for the top side after their 1-0 victory from a difficult trip to Lille.
Second-placed Bordeaux - more specifically midfielder Wendel - scooped three more of those goals in a 3-0 home win over Paris Saint Germain, which keeps them just three points off top spot.
However, the chasing pack seems to be dropping off the pace somewhat as the business end of the season approaches.
AS Nancy only managed a 0-0 draw at FC Lorient, which leaves them ten points behind the leaders after only two wins from their last eight games. Marseilles picked up their fourth win in five with a 2-1 home victory over Auxerre that leaves them only three points adrift of third.
And finally, in the Dutch Eredivisie, PSV Eindhoven's gargantuan lead at the top has been trimmed to six points after their 3-1 defeat to Utrecht on Sunday coincided with a superb performance from second-placed Ajax in a 4-0 home win over Excelsior.
Klass-Jan Huntelaar grabbed a brace for the Amsterdam giants, who are now three points ahead of third-placed NAC after their 3-0 win at home to Sparta.
Feyenoord, whose recent slump in form continued, lost further ground on the leaders after a 3-1 home reverse against NEC. It was the Rotterdam outfit's second game without a win in a run of seven matches that has seen them win just twice.