Round the world in 600 words: Valencia and Villa make up ground for fourth spot

Champions League / Ben Lyttleton / 20 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ben Lyttleton talks us through the main stories from the weekend's football from around the world as Inter close in on the title, Van Gaal's AZ wrap up the title and Valencia start to look good for a Champions League place.

Lyon's hopes of winning an eighth consecutive title in France took a massive hit after losing 1-0 win at title rivals Bordeaux, with former Lyon midfielder Alou Diarra scoring the only goal of the game. The result leaves Lyon in third place, four points behind leaders Marseille, who came from behind to beat Lorient 2-1, and two behind Bordeaux. Lyon have the toughest run-in of the three contenders, with games against PSG, Marseille and Toulouse to come, and that is now reflected in their ([3.45]) price. Marseille are ([2.22]) and Bordeaux, tipped in this column when trading at ([5.5]) only last week, have come in to ([2.76]).

Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath is still refusing to countenance title talk but his team remain Bundesliga front-runners after beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 for a German record tenth successive success thanks to another double from top-scorer Grafite. "You could see the team are not used to being top of the table but we will have to keep working hard," said a relieved Magath after the game.

The Wolves stay three points clear of Bayern Munich, for whom Luca Toni scored in their 1-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld. With six games left, Wolfsburg are ([2.74]), Bayern ([2.4]) and Hamburg, who beat Hanover 2-1 and level on points with Bayern, ([6.4]). Stuttgart may have timed their run of form too late though, as Mario Gomez hit a hat-trick in their 3-0 win over Cologne.

Lionel Messi hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career with the winner in Barcelona's 1-0 win over Getafe. Real Madrid pegged their lead back to six points with the same narrow margin over Recre, and as La Liga enters its decisive period, with the top five sides all set to play each other, now may be the time to back Real, with 15 wins in their last 16, at ([8.4]).

Ever Banega, Diego Forlan and Simao Sabrosa scored as Atletico Madrid beat Numancia 3-0 to move into fourth place: but they did not stay there long, soon overtaken by a resurgent Valencia, who beat ten-man Sevilla 3-1 after Fernando Navarro's late handball allowed the impressive Juan Mata the chance to score from the penalty spot, after David Villa had scored from the spot earlier himself. Valencia have now won four in a row and are five points behind Sevilla in the race for third place.

It was a thrilling weekend in Italy too, even if the top-of-the-table Derby D'Italia between Juventus and Inter ended in a 1-1 stalemate that suited the leaders far better. AC Milan took advantage and joined Juventus in joint-second place with a 5-1 win over Torino. Pippo Inzahghi scored a
hat-trick to make it nine goals in his last six games, while the recalled David Beckham won plaudits for setting up the first two goals. The race for the fourth and final Champions League qualifying spot is still up for grabs after Lazio beat Genoa 1-0 while Fiorentina are two points back after they lost 3-1 to Udinese. Francesco Totti scored twice for Roma in their 3-2 win over Lecce, and they are lurking five behind Genoa.

Congratulations are due to Louis van Gaal and his AZ Alkmaar team, who lost to Vitesse Arnhem but were still crowned champions for the first time since
1981 after PSV thrashed Ajax 6-2.

In Brazil, Ronaldo was on the score-sheet as Corinthians beat Sao Paulo 2-0 to win their Paulista championship semi-final 4-1 on aggregate and secure a place in the final where they will play Santos, 2-1 winners over Palmeiras. The big game in Argentina ended 1-1 after Marcelo Gallardo's 25-yard free-kick for River Plate cancelled out Martin Palermo's 30-yard opener for Boca Juniors, who were missing the injured Juan Roman Riquelme. Velez Sarsfield are still top after beating Arsenal 2-0, with Colon one point behind.