Euro football roundup 28/4
Monday, 28 Apr 2008 17:07
Franck Ribery scored twice for German champions-elect Bayern Munich
A comprehensive roundup of all the action from the top leagues in Spain, Italy, Germany and France begins with news from southern Europe.
Barcelona saw their slim Primera Liga title hopes ended by Deportivo at the weekend as the Catalan giants slumped to a 2-0 away defeat. Juan Rodriguez and Pablo Amo scored the goals for the home side in the second half to leave Barca 14 points behind leaders Real Madrid with only 12 to play for.
Real's comfortable 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao, thanks to Javier Saviola, Arjen Robben and Gonzalo Higuain, extended their lead at the summit to ten points, meaning one more win out of their final four games will be enough to guarantee they retain their title.
Villarreal are now the only team capable of catching Madrid after a narrow 1-0 win over Betis Sevilla.
This also gives them the upper hand over the Nou Camp outfit in the race for second and a guaranteed spot in the Champions League group stages.
Inter are closing in on the Serie A title after their 2-1 home win over Cagliari on Sunday. Goals from Julio Cruz and Marco Materazzi sealed the three points, keeping them six clear of second-placed AS Roma - who remained in touch after their 4-1 home win over Torino.
Juventus stayed third after a high-scoring 5-2 win over Lazio at the Stadio delle Alpi; Fiorentina are still fourth after a 2-2 home draw with six-placed Sampdoria; while AC Milan in fifth made ground on the team ahead of them after a 4-1 away win over Livorno.
Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich need only one point to regain the title they surrendered to VfB Stuttgart last season after they beat the current champions 4-1 at the weekend.
Luca Toni opened the scoring for the hosts at the Allianz Arena after eight minutes before Antonio da Silva equalised shortly afterwards.
However, second-half strikes from Mark van Bommel and a Franck Ribery brace sealed the points.
Werder Bremen remain second, but are now 12 points behind with only four games left and an inferior goal difference after they could only draw 3-3 at Karlsruher.
FC Schalke 04 pulled level on points with Bremen after a hard-earned 1-0 victory at Hamburger SV, thanks to Kevin Kuranyi's second-minute strike.
Lyon stumbled on their way to a seventh successive Ligue 1 title as they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by midtable Caen. Both of the champions' goals came from Karim Benzema, but they also had defender Fabio Grosso sent off for a second bookable offence.
Despite the leaders' slip, however, second-placed Bordeaux failed to take advantage after drawing a blank in their goalless draw at home to Nice, who were also reduced to ten men following Cyril Jeunechamp's red card.
The results mean Lyon still hold a four-point advantage, now with only three games to go in the campaign.
Marseilles moved up to third after a thrilling 3-2 win away to AS Monaco, with former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse grabbing the visitors' winner nine minutes from time.
The Eredivisie finished last week with PSV Eindhoven wrapping up their fourth consecutive title, and 21st in total, ahead of rivals Ajax.