Euro Round up: Chelsea the Big Losers But Roma Now Hovering in Serie A

More Woe for Juventus

European leagues are reaching crunch time and for the clubs dumped out of the Champions League during the week, the desperation for title success became more acute. There were a couple of shocks for sides who did well, and in two of the leagues all the top sides faltered to open new paths for others. Here is a round up of Europe’s major leagues.

Italy

It has been an awful week for both Chelsea, the West London club defeated midweek by an Italian team, and Juventus the Italian team defeated midweek by a West London club. Juventus lost again in Serie A this time to Sampdoria and fell to sixth behind their Genoese conquerors and Palermo. Above them all however are AS Roma whose 4-2 win over Udinese provided surprise dividends as both Milan clubs ahead of them dropped points.

Inter perhaps turned over the better result with a 1-1 draw at high flying Palermo in Sicily. On the contrary, a rough week for Milan ended with a poor 1-1 draw at home to Napoli, hardly the bounce back they required from their 4-0 thumping in Manchester.

Roma now find themselves just three points behind Milan and four behind Inter with nine games left.They have a tough match at Bologna next weekend but the week after have enormous chance to bring the dream a little nearer when Inter visit. A victory for Roma in that match could make Serie A very very interesting indeed.

England

Chelsea’s nightmare week continued with a dreadful 1-1 draw at Blackburn. They had already watched Arsenal reduced to ten men and facing a penalty against West Ham, come back for an unlikely victory. With United triumphing 2-1 over Liverpool, Chelsea lost ground on both. They now trail Manchester by four although they visit Portsmouth in their make up game on Wednesday.

Spain

In Spain, Barcelona appeared to be cruising in Zaragoza after a Lionel Messi hat trick put them 3-0 ahead with just five minutes remaining. However two quick Adrián Colunga goals reduced that margin to one before a late Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty extended the lead. Real Madrid also won so the two are locked together on 68 points. They meet in Madrid on April 10th.

France

Just one point separates three sides Bordeaux, Montpellier and Auxerre in Ligue Un. All three won home games. Montpellier have a tough match at fourth placed Lille next week. The top three have all played each other twice so games against lower sides will decide the trophy.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, Blaise Nkufo scored a vital equaliser for Twente as they seek their first title. The 1-1 draw in Eindhoven keeps the gap between the Seattle-bound striker’s side and PSV to five points.

Germany

Universal elation ensued in Germany as Bayern Munich finally lost. They had been leading Eintracht Frankfurt for 80 minutes when DR Congo’s Juvhel Tsoumou scored to deprive them of two points with just three minutes to go. Worse was to come for Bayern when the Czech forward Martin Fenin scored a shock winner for Eintracht moments later before 51,500 jubilant Hessians at the Commerzbank-Arena.

Nearest challengers Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg failed to take advantage after Bayer crumbled 3-0 in Dortmund and Schalke04 could only draw 2-2 in Hamburg. Bayern now lead by one point over Schalke who visit Leverkusen next week in a match crucial to both sides Bundesliga challenge.

See Also:

Benfica Win Season’s First Trophy

Blaise Nkufo Scores Goal That Could Win Dutch Title

Tags: France, Italy, Spain

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