Bayern hold no fear for Beckham
Bayern, who are currently second in the Bundesliga, play host to the Spanish league leaders in a Champions League second round, first leg tie tomorrow night.
“If Madrid play as well as we know we can, we will not have any problems in Munich,” said Beckham. “We’ve got nothing to fear. You don’t go out to play football like that. We’ve got respect for them because they are a tough outfit, but we also have a squad of players with a lot of talent.”
Bayern could be without goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and midfielder Michael Ballack who missed Saturday’s 1-0 Bundesliga victory over Hamburg SV with a sore back and bronchitis respectively.
Meanwhile, Real moved five points clear at the top of La Liga with a 4-2 win away to Espanyol.
Real’s victory, which also featured goals from Roberto Carlos and Raul Bravo, gave them some vital breathing space in their title battle with Valencia, who were beaten 1-0 at home to resurgent Barcelona.
With the Champions League set to resume next week, Real lead the standings with 56 points from 25 games, followed by UEFA Cup hopefuls Valencia on 51.
Deportivo Coruna’s hopes of making it a three-way fight for the championship suffered a blow when they were held to a goalless draw away to Atletico Madrid, leaving them third on 50 points.
Barcelona’s fifth successive league win, clinched when the former Valencia midfielder Gerard headed in from a corner, took them further clear in the race for the fourth Champions League qualification place with 43 points.
Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad, who will join Real Madrid and Deportivo in Champions League action next week, both suffered morale-sapping defeats.
Celta, who face Arsenal, remain in relegation trouble, going down 2-0 at home to Malaga, while mid-table Sociedad were beaten 1-0 at Sevilla. Celta were in trouble from the 12th minute when Sergio was sent off for fouling Edgar in the area and Salva Ballesta scored the resulting penalty.
Malaga were able to control the game from then on and Diego Alonso clinched the win in injury-time.
Real, who needed a controversial last-minute penalty to claim a 1-1 draw against Valencia last week, once again enjoyed the benefit of the doubt in the area when Raul went down with his back to goal midway through the first half.
There appeared to be little contact between Raul and Belgian goalkeeper Lemmens, but the referee pointed to the spot and Ronaldo gratefully slotted in to put Real 1-0 up.
Zinedine Zidane’s raking pass picked out Ronaldo in the 53rd minute and the striker teed up his fellow Brazilian Roberto Carlos to sweep in for 2-1. Raul Bravo met a corner from the right for Real’s third and Ronaldo took a pass from Esteban Cambiasso and beat the keeper for the fourth in the 70th minute. Lopo was left unmarked to score Espanyol’s second six minutes from time after a poor defensive header.
VfB Stuttgart, who host Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday, dropped 10 points off the pace with a 1-0 defeat at lowly Kaiserslautern.
Stuttgart, who started the season in style but have won just one of their last eight games, trailed after four minutes when Portugal midfielder Jose Dominguez scored for the home side.
AC Milan defender Alessandro Nesta is doubtful for the Champions League tie against Sparta Prague after picking up a muscle strain in Saturday’s 3-2 derby win over Inter Milan.
Alessandro Costacurta is likely to deputise for Nesta alongside captain Paolo Maldini.
Striker Filippo Inzaghi and midfielder Massimo Ambrosini are fit again for the European champions and are likely to be included in the squad for the game in the Czech capital.
Milan trailed 2-0 at the break following goals from Inter midfielders Dejan Stankovic and Cristiano Zanetti. But from the moment Danish substitute Jon Dahl Tomasson pulled one back for Milan 11 minutes into the second half, a comeback win always looked possible, even inevitable.
It duly arrived in spectacular style through Clarence Seedorf’s amazing winner in the 85th minute, when the Dutchman turned unpromising midfield possession into a drive to the top corner from over 25 metres out.
Antonio Cassano scored a hat-trick as AS Roma crushed Siena 6-0 in Serie A to keep within five points of leaders AC.
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