Real move within seven points of Barca
In an ill-tempered tie, Luis Figo opened the scoring from the penalty spot after a foul on Roberto Carlos after 36 minutes. However, Campano had the visitors level within five minutes after an error by Iker Casillas.
Real pressed for a winner which arrived in the final 10 minutes with goals from Walter Samuel and Santiago Solari. There was further good news for Real as Atlético de Madrid slumped to a 1-0 defeat away to Málaga in last night’s other game.
Barcelona are on 48, Real have 41 and Valencia are third with 36. The odds on the latter retaining their Spanish league title lengthened after the reigning champions went down 3-1 at local rivals Villarreal with Argentine international Juan Roman Riquelme hitting a hat-trick. Riquelme got the opener from the penalty spot after 17 minutes and then added a second a minute before half-time, going past two Valencia defenders.
Valencia fought back and hit the bar twice late in the game from efforts by Pablo Aimar and Stefano Fiore but eventually got a goal three minutes into injury-time, Aimar scoring from the spot after Gonzalo Rodriguez had brought him down. However, it took just a few seconds for Riquelme to restore Villarreal’s two goal advantage with another penalty.
Valencia remain third but are 12 points behind runaway league leaders Barcelona, who beat Racing Santander 3-0 on Saturday with goals from Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Deco.
The win means that Barca have been undefeated in their Nou Camp stadium for a calendar year.
Sevilla maintained their ambitions of a place in the Champions League with a 2-0 win at struggling Albacete to move them up to fourth.
Espanyol slipped back a place to fifth after they were thashed 4-1 at Deportivo La Coruna with Diego Tristan and Juan Carlos Valeron amongst the scorers.Real Betis were comfortable 4-0 winners over bottom club Numancia while Levante enjoyed a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad. In Italy, AC Milan slipped five points behind Serie A leaders Juventus when they lost 1-0 to their former midfielder Roberto Donadoni’s Livorno side.
Juventus, who beat lowly Brescia 2-0, are on 47 points from 20 games with Udinese a distant third on 34 points after they were beaten 2-0 by Reggina.
Milan’s second defeat of the season was the result of an aggressive, adventurous performance by Livorno. In the 28th minute, a foul by Jaap Stam gave Livorno a free kick midway inside Milan’s half. Dida reacted quickly to palm away a header by Portuguese midfielder Vidigal, but was powerless to stop striker Corrado Colombo firing in the rebound.
Milan’s misery was completed when Alessandro Nesta received a red card for a second bookable offence deep in stoppage time.
Juventus comfortably beat a Brescia side that had earned just two points in their last five games with a strike from David Trezeguet and a Maurizio Domizzi own goal. The only cloud on a bright day for the home side was Pavel Nedved’s 70th-minute exit with a suspected knee injury.
It was also a bad day for Lazio, who fell behind after just 22 seconds of their game against Sampdoria when sloppy defending allowed Vitali Kutusov the space to blast a shot past goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi. Three minutes later Francesco Flachi doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot after being clumsily upended by Peruzzi.
Lazio striker Tommaso Rocchi pulled one back just past the hour, but could not prevent the Rome-based side suffering their second defeat in a row. Sampdoria’s 2-1 win lifted them to fifth, one point behind Inter Milan, who drew with Chievo Verona on Saturday.
In Italy’s late match, AS Roma moved to 7th after a 2-1 win over Fiorentina with goals from Antonio Cassano and Vincenzo Montella.
Bayer Leverkusen spoiled the party for Hanover 96 fans with a ruthless 3-0 victory that took them up to sixth place in the Bundesliga yesterday. Goals from Andriy Voronin and Dimitar Berbatov gave Bayer a two goal lead at the break. Paul Freier completed the scoring for the visitors in the 58th minute.
After 18 games, Bayern Munich lead the standings on 37 points following a 3-0 win at home to Hamburg SV on Friday, with Schalke 04 trailing them on goal difference after beating Werder Bremen 2-1 on Saturday. Stuttgart are third, three points behind, after beating FSV Mainz 3-2 away. Two goals from Wesley Sneijder and Ryan Babel gave Ajax Amsterdam a 2-0 win at Utrecht to stay in touch with the leaders in the Dutch first division yesterday.
PSV Eindhoven cruised to a 4-0 win against NAC Breda. AZ Alkmaar drew 1-1 with NEC Nijmegen on Friday.
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