Mourinho poised to finally clinch deal for elusive Essien

GHANA midfielder Michael Essien is poised to join Chelsea from Olympique Lyon, a source close to the French champions said last night.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas had said he would make a decision about the future of Essien within the next 24 hours.

Aulas, who has repeatedly said he will not sell the Ghanaian for less than 45 million, met Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and chief executive Peter Kenyon on Friday.

The 22-year-old Essien, who has said he is desperate to join the London club, was not included in Lyon’s squad for last night’s 1-1 draw with Olympique Marseille.

Nigerian defender Taye Taiwo opened the scoring with a deflected free kick on seven minutes for Marseille. Lyon gradually recovered and Norway striker John Carew equalised from close range 10 minutes before the break.

The champions, chasing an unprecedented fifth successive title, move up to third, level on points with second-placed Auxerre and two points behind leaders Paris St Germain, the only side on maximum points from three games.

In Germany, Dutch striker Roy Makaay scored a hat-trick to fire champions Bayern Munich to a 5-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

Bayern’s victory sent them top of the table with six points and eight goals in their first two matches.

Michael Ballack opened the scoring against his former side, powering home a perfectly-placed shot into the corner of the net in the third minute.

Makaay put Bayern 2-0 up eight minutes later but Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov netted a penalty in the 32nd minute, briefly bringing Bayer into the game.

Four minutes later Ali Karimi extended Bayern’s lead to 3-1 and Makaay turned the screw, scoring twice within seven minutes in the second half. Bayer’s Marko Babic got a late consolation.

Borussia Dortmund took the lead in the 17th minute against Schalke 04 through Ebi Smolarek, but Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi headed an equaliser and clinched a winner 13 minutes into the second half before a sell-out crowd of over 81,000.

Schalke have the same number of points as Bayern and Hamburg SV, 2-0 winners at Arminia Bielefeld. Promoted MSV Duisburg troubled Kaiserslautern in an action-packed game before losing 5-3.

Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni is still searching for his first Bundesliga win as VfB Stuttgart coach after his side fell to a shock 3-2 home defeat by promoted FC Cologne yesterday.

In Spain, League champions Barcelona made a sparkling start to the new season with a classy 3-0 win away to King’s Cup winners Real Betis in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup on Saturday.

Superbly crafted second half strikes from French winger Ludovic Giuly and last season’s leading scorer Samuel Eto’o as well as a stunning free kick from World Player of the Year Ronaldinho set the Catalans well on the way to their first trophy of the season.