Euro football roundup 31/03
Hernan Crespo scored Serie A leaders Inter's goal at the weekend
Monday, 31, Mar 2008 08:51
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.
And the headlines from Italy are dominated by the death of a fan, which led to the cancellation of the weekend's big game - third-placed Juventus at home to Parma.
Reports suggest the death is the result of an unfortunate accident, when the Parma supporter was hit by a Juventus coach, but understandably the authorities were somewhat jumpy given the events last year with regards to fan violence and football-related fatalities.
On the field in Serie A, however, the now hotly-contested title race between AS Roma and Inter Milan stuttered slightly as both teams could only take a point from their respective matches.
Inter, top of the table but only four points ahead of the Rome side, drew 1-1 in the capital against Roma's local rivals Lazio - Hernan Crespo's opener being cancelled out by Tommaso Rocchi's second-half goal.
But Roma failed to take advantage of their neighbours' helping hand as they could only draw 1-1 at Cagliari.
Francesco Totti was on the scoresheet for the league leaders, but he collected a thigh injury and will miss the first leg of the Champions League showdown with Premier League top side Manchester United in midweek.
In Spain's Primera Liga Barcelona lost 3-2 to Betis Sevilla - and also lost second place in the table - to lose ground in the title race.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead into half-time thanks to Bojan Krkic and Samuel Eto'o, striker Edu's double and Juanito's goal in the space of 15 second-half minutes secured the win for the home side.
Leaders Real Madrid took full advantage of their great rivals' slip, beating Sevilla 3-1 at the Bernabeu.
Gabriel Heinze scored his first goal for the club since his move from Manchester United, while Raul and Gonzalo Higuain were also on the scoresheet. Fredi Kanoute got the visitors' only goal.
Villarreal claimed Barca's second spot after recording a convincing 3-0 win over Real's local rivals Atletico, who remain fourth, thanks to Nihat Kahveci's brace.
It was a bad weekend for all of the top five in the Bundesliga, as all the teams failed to manage a win between them.
Top side Bayern Munich continue to lead the way, but could only draw 1-1 with bottom side FC Nuremburg - and that only thanks to Lukas Podolski's 81st minute equaliser.
Hamburger SV failed to take advantage of Bayern's profligacy against a relegation-threatened side with a disappointing result of their own, also drawing 1-1 at home to second-from-bottom Bielefeld.
The match witnessed two sendings off, Jorg Bohme for the visitors and David Jarolim for the home side and looked on course for a shock defeat for Hamburger until Paolo Guerrero grabbed a late equaliser to cancel out Markus Bollmann's opener.
Third-placed FC Schalke 04 drew 0-0 at Karlsruher, while Leverkusen suffered a 2-0 reverse at home to Frankfurt.
And Werder Bremen's title challenge that looked so promising earlier in the season has now almost entirely evaporated after their fourth defeat in their last six games - this time at home to third-from-bottom MSV Duisburg.
The title race in Ligue 1 is now realistically a two-horse race after leaders Lyon and second-placed Bordeaux both picked up vital wins, while third-placed Nancy lost ground.
Bordeaux's Fernando Cavenaghi scored twice to give his side a 2-1 win over Nancy, keeping them in touch with the six-time reigning champions, although the gap remains a significant one at nine points with seven games to go.
A second-half strike from Sidney Govou gave Lyon a 2-1 victory over Valenciennes to maintain the gap, while at the bottom FC Metz are virtually doomed after a third straight defeat, this time at home to fellow strugglers Toulouse, left them 14 points adrift at the foot of the standings.
Ajax pulled back a potentially vital two points on Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven after the Amsterdam side earned an impressive 4-2 victory over Heerenveen, who dropped to fifth place. Klass-Jan Huntelaar scored twice for the visitors, who are now within five points of the leaders.
PSV themselves could manage only a 0-0 draw with midtable NEC - their third draw in their last four games.
And fellow Dutch giants Feyenoord continued to lose ground in the scrap for European football next season after a 3-1 defeat to rivals NAC, who moved up to third, while Feyenoord dropped to a lowly sixth in the table.
FC Twente leapfrogged into fourth after a 1-0 win at FC Utrecht, thanks to a last-minute winner from striker Stein Huysegems.