Juventus and Real Madrid Lose in Weekend of Surprises

Monday, October 5, 2009

Juventus_F.C._Logo Manchester United’s near defeat at home to Sunderland may have raised some eyebrows in England, and across the world, but they weren’t the only huge name to attract the attention of those who take some glee out of the wealthy being brought down a peg.

In Spain, Real Madrid minus Cristiano Ronlado and his injured ankle, were beaten 2-1 at Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Andalusia. They surrendered top spot in La Liga to Barcelona who beat Almería 1-0 for their sixth straight win. Sevilla join Madrid in second place on 15 points from six matches, surprising given they opened their campaign with a 2-0 defeat in Valencia. The biggest winners of the day were Sporting Gijón who thrashed Real Mallorca 4-1.

Juventus did Milan a favour by distracting attention from their miserable season. The Turin giants were comprehensively outplayed in Sicily as they meekly went down 2-0 to Palermo whose wastefulness in front of goal only prevented Juve from a more humiliating loss. Juve are now three games without a win in Serie A. Internazionale (Inter Milan) have taken over the league lead with 16 points, along with surprise packets Sampdoria of Genoa. Fiorentina and Sampdoria’s local rivals Genoa are fourth and fifth.

AC Milan’s miserable season continued with a 1-1 draw with Atalanta in Bergamo and they move down the table even further to 12th place. Livorno still prop up the table despite getting their first away point in a 0-0 draw in Siena.

In Germany, Bayern Munich could only draw 0-0 at home to Cologne. The pre-weekend league leaders SV Hamburg surrendered their position at the summit despite beating Hertha Berlin 1-3 in the capital. Unfortunately for them, Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-0 thumping of FC Nuremberg took them ahead of Hamburg on goal difference.