Inter suffer stress fractures
It is the closest second-placed Roma have come to the top since December 7, after which Inter stretched their lead to as much as 11 points at one stage.
Their first home defeat of the season in the league at the hands of Juventus on Saturday night followed a shaky draw at Genoa in midweek and means that the champions have collected only nine points from their last seven games, as well as going out of the Champions League.
Those defeats by Liverpool have obviously damaged Inter’s confidence, but they have looked unconvincing since January, when they were fortunate to escape a home defeat against Parma.
Against Juventus they looked drained in the second half when they went 2-0 down to goals from Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet and could easily have conceded a third but for a great save from Julio Cesar. Inter substitute Maniche pulled one back and hit the post in the dying moments, but coach Roberto Mancini now faces a serious challenge, with the next two games being away to Lazio and Atalanta.
Roma would have been right on Inter’s tail but for their 3-2 defeat in the midweek derby against Lazio. After doing the hard work with a draw at Inter and wins against Milan and Napoli, it seemed they might have blown their chance. But the players responded on Saturday with a gritty win against Empoli which saw them dig deep with 10 men on a rain-soaked pitch, Simone Perrotta sent off with an hour gone,
Their next game is at bottom-of-the-table Cagliari , far from easy opponents at home and fired up after being docked three points for taking legal action against a former player without the permission of the Italian Football Federation.
Fiorentina made up for a midweek defeat at Napoli with a 1-0 home win against Lazio that keeps them in fourth spot, five points behind Juventus but still a crucial four points clear of Milan.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team recovered from two consecutive defeats to beat Torino at the weekend thanks to another goal from Brazilian starlet Alexandre Pato. Milan have a tough run-in, including a visit to Juventus and a Milan derby on May 4th that could be crucial in the title race.
Their advantage in the quest for that fourth Champions League place could be that Fiorentina, like Roma, are still involved in Europe. Both Milan sides will be hoping that the pressure of competing on two fronts will prove too much for their rivals.
THE Spanish title race took another dramatic twist yesterday, with Real Madrid losing at home again, this time to Valencia, who have now confounded expectations by beating both the top clubs within a week.
Midweek winners in the Copa del Rey against Barcelona, Valencia came to the Bernabeu on a high after months of disappointment, and gave an exhibition of classic counter-attacking play.
Goals by David Villa and Raul within a minute left the sides all-square at half-time, but in the second half Valencia came from behind to win 3-2 with a superb goal from Javier Arizmendi three minutes from time.
Madrid are thus pegged back to a four-point lead over Barcelona, who beat Valladolid 4-1, two of them scored by their newest prodigy Bojan Krkic.
Close behind them are Villarreal, who as in previous seasons are punching well above their weight, and Madrid’s second club Atletico, 2-1 winners at Sevilla and now closing in on their first Champions League qualification.
IT has been a tough week for the two Mediterranean contenders as both Marseille and Nice lost at home to lower-placed clubs.
Olympique Marseille’s 1-0 defeat at Sochaux concluded a horrible few days for one of France’s traditional big clubs, who were also defeated by the amateurs of Carquefou in their midweek cup tie.
Monaco also lost — 4-1 to Caen — a big relief to the side from Normandy who have been in freefall recently after a good run earlier in the season.
At the top, Bordeaux slipped again, losing 3-1 to Valenciennes, allowing Nancy to make up ground, but Lyon continued on their journey towards that seventh consecutive title with a 4-2 win against Paris Saint Germain that puts them nine points clear of Bordeaux.
PSG fought back from 2-0 down but then conceded two goals in seven minutes.
The question now for one of France’s biggest clubs is if they can avoid relegation this season.
WITH PSV Eindhoven beating Groningen 3-0 and Ajax defeated 2-1 at Twente, the title race in Holland seems effectively over.
Ajax’s one real chance to put pressure on the champions came in midweek, and PSV were relatively happy to play out a 0-0 draw.
The competition remains intense from second to fifth — where placings determine the draw for the end-of-season play-offs.
Feyenoord continue to look vulnerable, their latest setback being a 3-2 loss to Sparta in the Rotterdam derby.
Like Ajax their defeat was down to a goal conceded in the dying moments of the game, as has happened to both of these clubs on several occasions this season.
Their play-off opponents are most likely to be NAC and Heerenveen.
At the other end of the table AZ, who were title contenders until the last day of last season, are still hovering just above the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw against De Grafschaap.
GOALS from Luca Toni took Bayern Munich to a 2-1 victory against Bayer Leverkusen that almost certainly means they will recover the title they lost last season to Stuttgart.
Bayern have conceded fewer than anyone else, but with 16 league goals so far, the Italian has essentially been the difference between the leaders and the chasing clubs.
This week Hamburg could only draw 1-1 at Wolfsburg, while Werder Bremen were also held 1-1 by Arminia Bielefeld, who are close to relegation.
Bremen and Bayer were joined on 44 points by Schalke, and the battle for European places between these clubs looks like going right to the wire.
Stuttgart may also not be out of contention for a UEFA Cup place, after a 4-1 win against Rostock, but their inferior goal difference will make it a struggle. Meanwhile, in the Austrian Bundesliga, new Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni saw his SV Salzburg side hammered 7-0 at home by their title rivals Rapid Vienna.
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