Around The World In 600 Words: Real close in on Barca

European Leagues / Ben Lyttleton / 27 April 2009 / Leave a Comment

A weekend of shock results have set up thrilling finishes in a number of European leagues, says Ben Lyttleton.

It might have been nerves, or maybe fatigue, but this weekend's results showed that there is still life in the title races across Europe as leaders Inter Milan, Wolfsburg and Barcelona all dropped points in surprising circumstances. In Italy and Germany, their respective title rivals failed to capitalise while in Spain, Real Madrid won their 16th game in 17 to narrow the gap before next week's decisive super-clasico against Barcelona.

Juande Ramos's side had relied on a late missed penalty and some last-minute heroics from Gonzalo Higuain to beat Getafe 3-2 and keep the pressure on Barcelona in the midweek fixtures; and after seeing Barcelona draw 2-2 at in-form Valencia, and that only thanks to a late Thierry Henry equaliser, the trip to Ramos' former club Sevilla was the key game of their season.

Their saviour was Raul, who scored a hat-trick to help Real come from behind to win 4-2; the result narrows the gap at the top to four points, and leaves Sevilla only one point clear of Valencia in third and on a run of four straight losses.

Real's title price has come in to [5.6] - and it will be even shorter if they beat Barcelona, [1.21], next weekend - while in the race for third place, Sevilla have drifted to [1.32] and Valencia, one point behind, look value at [2.52]. Villarreal [6.2] beat Getafe 2-1 and, another point back, cannot be written off either. At the bottom, Espanyol won their third straight game to move out of the drop-zone for the first time this season.

After drawing their last two games, Inter seem set on tottering over the finishing-line in Serie A following a surprise defeat at out-of-form Napoli. Marcelo Zalayeta's second-half goal gave Napoli their first win since January and a great result for new coach Roberto Donadoni. As usual in Italy, Juventus failed to take advantage, drawing 2-2 at bottom club Reggina.

AC Milan, for whom Kaka scored two penalties on either side of another Pippo Inzaghi header, beat Palermo 3-0. Milan have reduced Inter's lead from 14 points to seven in the last three rounds, and their title price is now [15.5]. But their run might have come too late, as Inter's run-in is much easier. Milan still have to play Roma, Juventus and Fiorentina, who moved into fourth after smashing Roma 4-1 while Genoa slumped to a 2-0 loss at Bologna.

Bayern Munich, [2.66] for the Bundesliga, kicked off a weekend of shocks in Germany after falling to a 1-0 defeat at home to Schalke; but leaders Wolfsburg, [2.86], missed the chance to capitalise, ending a 10-game winning run with a 2-0 loss at relegation-threatened Energie Cottbus. With Hamburg, [11.0], losing at Borussia Dortmund, the big winners were Stuttgart, [10.0], who beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 for their fifth win in a row and are only three points back. They could be the king-makers in Germany as they still have to play Wolfsburg and Bayern: if they win those, they could be repeating their 2006-7 success, when they came from nowhere to "do a Stuttgart" and snatch the title on the last day of the season.

In France, Marseille, [1.7] for the title, won their sixth game in a row, a tricky 2-1 win at Lille, to move five points ahead of Bordeaux, [3.2], and six clear of Lyon, now a huge [7.2], who dropped more points at home in a 0-0 draw with PSG. Bordeaux have a game in hand, against Rennes on Wednesday.

Porto are still four points clear of Sporting in Portugal after both teams won at home.

In Brazil, Ronaldo has now scored eight goals in ten games after netting twice in Corinthians' 3-1 win over Santos in the Paulista final first leg.

Former Santos star Pele was at the game, after which Ronaldo said: "To be king for a day at the home of the king is wonderful."