Round The World in 600 Words: Dumped Champions League teams bounce back domestically

Champions League / Ben Lyttleton / 16 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

The likes of Sporting Lisbon, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid may have said goodbye to the Champions League for the year but they went some way to rectifying that on the domestic front with convincing wins. Ben Lyttleton talks us through the weekend action.

The European clubs knocked out of the Champions League last week responded in impressive style over the weekend as focus reverted back to their league campaigns. Real Madrid scored five goals away from home, Atletico Madrid scored three and Juventus four in home wins, while Inter beat Fiorentina and even Sporting Lisbon won to move into second place in Portugal. The only exception, in fact, was in France, where struggling Lyon lost at home to Auxerre, their fourth defeat in a row, to throw the French league wide open.

It's not so open in Italy, where Inter are still seven points clear after Zlatan Ibrahimovic's two goals - the first a tap-in, the second a late free-kick, were enough to beat Fiorentina 2-0. Juventus came from behind to beat Bologna 4-1, while Milan went even better, winning 5-1 at Siena as Pippo Inzaghi's two strikes brought up his career tally to 300 goals. Milan did lose Kaka and Christian Abbiati to injury but look solid in third place, six points clear of the chasing pack. Zlatan's price to finish top-scorer has come in to ([3.5]): he's now just two goals behind Marco di Vaio, ([2.3]), but keep an eye on in-form Alex Pato, five goals back and still an ([8.6]) price.

In Spain, the goalscorers' market is also worth looking at, after Diego Forlan's two goals in Atletico Madrid's amazing 3-2 win over Villarreal moved him four goals behind Samuel Eto'o at the top of the Spanish charts. Forlan is ([7.0]) with Eto'o, who started on the bench as Barcelona won 2-0 at Almeria, ([1.26]). Real Madrid thrashed Athletic Bilbao 5-2, Klass-Jan
Huntelaar scoring two more goals to make his total six since joining in January. Real Madrid, ([7.2]) for the title, are still six points behind Barcelona, ([1.15]). The result of the weekend in Spain, though, was Racing Santander's 5-0 win over Numancia, with all the goals coming in the first half.

Hoffenheim have dropped out of the running in the Bundesliga, as a fourth straight draw leaves them six points behind leaders Hertha Berlin, 1-0 winners over Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern Munich and Hamburg both won to stay four points behind, as did Wolfsburg, who beat Schalke 4-3 for their sixth straight win. Grafite, tipped on the European Football Show a fortnight ago at ([11.0])scored a hat-trick and is now two goals behind injured Vedad Ibisevic in the top-scorer market at just ([2.26]). The title race is still wide open, with Hertha now ([4.5]), Bayern ([1.84]), Hamburg ([15.0]) and Wolfsburg, who play Bayern at home in three weeks, ([10.0]).

There are now six teams within four points of each other in France as Lyon lost at home to Auxerre, while Marseille won 3-1 at PSG and Bordeaux beat Nice 2-1. Lyon, ([1.71]), are still top but have lost their last two, while Marseille, ([4.6]) and PSG, ([6.2]), are just one point back. Even Bordeaux, three points back but with possibly the easiest run-in, are still in
contention at ([7.8]). In Portugal, Sporting Lisbon took advantage of Benfica's surprise home defeat to Guimaraes and beat Rio Ave 2-0 to move into second place and go some way to exorcising their humiliating Champions League loss to Bayern Munich.

Juan Roman Riquelme received chants of support from Boca Juniors fans for quitting the Argentina national side as he inspired the team to a 3-0 win over Argentinos Juniors. Lanus remain top, six points ahead of Boca, after beating Colon 2-1. Hernanes and Washington scored in Sao Paulo's 2-1 win over Marilia in Brazil while Ronaldo stayed on the bench in Corinthians' 0-0 draw with Santo Andre. Former Lyon striker Fred scored twice on his debut for Fluminense, who beat Macae 3-1.