6/4/14 – Weekend Round-up from across Europe’s top Football Leagues – Spanish Title Race hots up as the top three all pick up important wins

Perhaps the most exciting title race in Europe at the minute once again delivered as La Liga’s three leading teams, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid, all picked up wins on Saturday.

Current league leaders Atletico Madrid, who were missing top goal scorer Diego Costa due to a hamstring injury, maintained their tight 1 point lead at the top with a 1-0 win at home to 7^th placed Villarreal, a 14^th minute header from Raul Garcia proving to be the only difference between the two sides. 2^nd place Barcelona had to dig in for their win, the Catalan giants unconvincingly beating the leagues bottom side Real Betis 3-1 at home. Messi had put the hosts 1-0 up from the penalty early in the first half and their advantage was doubled in the 67^th minute after an own goal from Betis’ Jordi, only for Castro to pull one back for the visitors just a minute later. Messi however finished the game off with 4 minutes to go, the argentine pouncing on the rebound after his second spot-kick of the game was saved by Adan. 3^rd place Real put four past Champions League hopefuls Real Sociedad, goals from Illaramendi, Bale, Pepe and Morata gifting them with an impressive 3 points away from home.

Elsewhere at the bottom of La Liga, four of the leagues current relegation candidates came up against each other. First half strikes from Riera Magem and Arribas for 17^th placed Osasuna earned them all 3 points away to 19^th placed Almeria, despite a late second half goal from Soriano and in the weekends other relegation 6 pointer, a stoppage time winner from Boakye gifted them a valuable 3 points at home to Getafe.

Germany

Over to the Bundesliga and bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig kept up their last ditch fight for survival, with a 3-0 win at home to fellow strugglers Hannover 96 in the Alarmstufe Derby.

Braunschweig, now unbeaten in 3 games, took the lead in the 14^th minute through Congolese forward Kumbela, lashing home into an empty net after Zieler in the Hannover goal had parried the ball into his path. The hosts double their lead 7 minutes later when a finely hit left footed half volley from Neilson found the bottom corner of the Hannover net and things only got worse for the visitors in the second half. Firstly Hoffman was sent off just after the hour mark and then in the dying minutes, an unmarked Hoschdeit put Braunschweig 3-0 up, placing the ball past Zieler from just 8yrds out.

In the other games, champions Bayern Munchens 53 game unbeaten run in the league was ended as FC Augsburg picked up a shock win at home to the league leaders, striker Sascha Molders scored the only goal of the game in the 31^st minute against a supposedly weakened Bayern side. Elsewhere relegation threatened VfB Stuttgart won 2-0 at home to Freiburg.

A 2-1 defeat away to strugglers in the league Hamburg on Friday night, proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Bayer Leverkusen manager Sami Hyypia, the Fin was dismissed just 24hrs after the match following a run of bad form which included only one win in their past 9 games.

France

Paris St-Germain maintained their 13 point lead over 2^nd placed Monaco with a comfortbale 3-0 win at home to mid table Reims.

 

Two own goals from the visitors added to Edinson Cavani’s first half strike for the league leaders, who were without their Swedish talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has scored 25 goals in the league so far. The victory opened up a 16 point gap at the top for 24 hours at least, before Monaco also picked up a home win against Nantes, with goals form J. Rodriguez (2) and Raggi giving them a 3-1 win.

In the weekends other games St Etienne were held 1-1 at home to Nice, Lyon picked up a 2-1 win away to Valenciennes and 3^rd place Lille also won 2-1 away to Toulouse.

Netherlands

Onto the Dutch Eredivisie and in the game of the weekend, this seasons surprise package Vitesse came up against the leagues front runners Ajax.

Vitesse struck first in the 25^th minute. Traore found himself in the 6yrd box with an easy tap in after World Cup hopeful Jasper Cillessen, could only parry a powerful freekick from Zakaria Labyad. Ajax however equalised immediately after the half time interval, as K. Sigthorsson strolled into the area and slotted past a stranded Velthuizen in the Vitesse goal. As the game drew to a close, home fans began to throw missles at Cillessen, luckily the goalkeeper was unharmed and carried on in the game.

Elswhere in the league, two goals from Graziano Pelle guided feyennord to a comfortable 2-0 win at home to RKC Wallwijk, taking the strikers league tally up to 20 for the season. Heerenveen also recorded a home win against PSV, the visitors who have been consistently poor all season went down 3-0 in an extremely unconvincing performance.

Italy

Action from Italy’s Serie A now and AS Roma kept alive their slight chances of winning the Scudetto after an impressive hat-trick from Mattia Destro.

Destro scored his first of a glorious sunny sunday afternoon in the 32^nd minute, tapping in a pass from Gervinho. He added his second in the 56^th minute with a neat low finish and completed his hat-trick with 17mins to go, after yet more good work from Gervinho. Chilean Mauricio Pinella added a late consolation from the penalty spot.

Earlier on in the day, 10 man Lazio had beaten Sampdoria 2-0 at home and there were also wins for Fiorentina, Sassuolo and Torino. Inter were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Bologna on the Saturday night, despite twice being in the lead.

In the weekends tie of the round, 7^th placed Parma recorded a win over Rafael Benitez’s Napoli side who sit 3^rd in the table, the only goal of the game coming from Marco Parolo in the 55^th minute.

Portugal

Benfica weren’t in action this weekend and it was up to second place Sporting Lisbon to keep up the pace on the league leaders.

And they did just that with a 3-1 win away to Pacos De Ferreira. Goals from Carvalho, Roja and Perruchet Silva, took Sporting to within 4 points of Benfica who now have a game in hand over their title rivals. Porto in 3^rd place also picked up a 3-1 win at home to Academica.

Other notable fixtures this weekend in Europe

On Sunday the most fiercely contested derby in the whole of Turkey took place, Galatasary beat their big rivals and current league leaders Fenerbahce, 1-0 at home in a game where both sides finished with 10 men and consisted of 14 yellow cards.

The only goal of the game came in the opening 10 minutes, Wesley Sneijder with a crisp side footed finish. The win keeps alive Galatasary’s faint hopes of winning the league, taking them to within 7 points of Fenerbahce who have a game in hand over them.