The Euro Roundup is back after a brief siesta – lord knows this season on the continent has been so unbelievable that we just needed a quick lie-down.With two English teams still in European competition, this week will see them both take to the field against Spanish teams in the Europa League – is it time for that handover in ascendency from Spain to England yet?We shall see, but England’s teams had the luxury of resting their players or playing reasonably easy games this week – Villarreal and Real Madrid have league matters to worry about. For once, the fatigue stakes seem to favour the English teams!On another note, well done to Feyenoord and their manager Gio van Bronkhorst, who won the Dutch Cup – their first trophy in eight years!This week’s Euro Roundup wishes this season could last just a little bit longer!
Germany
Bayern Munich were made to wait to seal their fourth straight Bundesliga title as Borussia Dortmund also recorded a win this weekend. But the biggest game left in the German football calendar must surely be the DFB Pokal final as Bayern go head to head with Dortmund. The title race may be over – though it wasn’t really a race, more Dortmund staying exactly the same distance behind Bayern for most of the season – but there’s still a trophy for Dortmund to play for.
League-wise, the biggest race left now is for the Champions League, and with their win this weekend, Bayer Leverkusen seem to have sewn up third spot. The are now six points clear of fifth spot with three games to go. It was a stunning comeback against Champions League qualification rivals Schalke that did the trick, too.
Elsewhere, the long-awaited Hertha Berlin collapse looks to be continuing, though their defeat away to Bayern Munich is still somewhat expected. They cling onto fourth spot, but Borussia Monchengladbach are only a point behind them after their win over Hoffenheim, and Schalke and Mainz are a further three points back.
At the bottom, it’s still incredibly tight. Hannover are, of course, officially gone, but Frankfurt’s win over high-flying Mainz brings them right back into the picture, and then there’s the relegation play-off to come after the season ends, too. Germany’s battle against the drop will continue for quite some time.
Winners: Leverkusen, whose win all but cements their status as a Champions League side next season.
Losers: Hertha Berlin, Mainz and Schalke, who all lost ground in the Champions League race.
Italy
Juve have won 24 of their last 25 Serie A games, the other one they drew just days before they hosted Bayern Munich in the Champions League. That’s 73 of the last 75 points available. This week they dispatched of Fiorentina in gritty style in a gritty rivalry. The only part of the country where there is no Juventus supporters club, the legend goes, is Fiorentina. Moments after Nikola Kalinic had equalised for Fiorentina, Alvaro Morata gave Juve the lead again, and Gigi Buffon sealed the points with yet another penalty save to add to the list. And that’s just this season.
Their focus has been maximal and the title is now theirs.
At least, it will be if Napoli fail to beat Roma today in an unnerving, and downright scary, Monday 2pm kick off on Italy’s Festa della Liberazione.
In fact, if Roma win that game, the will cut the gap between them and Napoli to two points with three games to go. Napoli have ceded the title and are being hunted by Luciano Spalletti’s Totti inspired side. Maybe the rift was all just a piece of stunning man-management just to get the Roman God to lift his squad, after all.
Elsewhere, Inter moved to within four points of Roma who occupy the final Champions League spot, but of course, that depends on Napoli’s trip to Roma – if Roma lose, the She-Wolf be hunted herself.
Elsewhere, Palermo beat Frosinone in a result that will send shockwaves throughout places 17-19 in the Serie A table. That win brings Palermo above Frosinone and level on points with Carpi in their quest to leave the doomed spots. More importantly, though, it brings their number of wins to within one of their managerial changes this season. How’s that?
Winners: Juventus, who just simply cannot be caught now, barring sheer ridiculousness.
Losers: By the end of Monday, possibly (probably?) Napoli, but at the time of writing Frosinone, whose defeat leaves them looking doom full in the face.
France
With the league already won, the focus for PSG is now to win the cups. Or rather, to not lose them and be mocked mercilessly for not winning every trophy available to them every season.
That they did this weekend with a victory over Lille in the Coupe de la Ligue final. Scenes of glory and jubilation followed, prompting Nasser Al-Khelaifi to declare that Laurent Blanc will remain as PSG coach next season, such was the weight of his decisive victory at the Stade de France, presumably.
Elsewhere, the race for the Champions League spots is still incredibly tight – Monaco succumbed to a draw with Rennes as Lyon, Nice and St Etienne all won their games, meaning that all four teams are separated by two points, with only two Champions League places available. Lille themselves could move just a further two points back if they manage to win against Angers on Wednesday in their game in hand. Watch these two remaining spaces.
Elsewhere, Marseille still can’t win at the Velodrome and the club is a complete mess. Up for sale, managerless and now only two places above the drop zone. They are five points clear of relegation with three games to go. They won’t drop – surely – but avoiding relegation was certainly not on the club’s list of objectives at the start of the season. Gazelec Ajaccio and Reims will battle it out to avoid doom, with Reims in the final relegation spot and Gazelec a point ahead.
Winners: Gazelec’s win over Corsican rivals Bastia takes them out of the relegation zone, but with two of their three remaining games involving Lyon and PSG, it’s hard to see them staying up.
Losers: Monaco, whose stuttering end to the season has seen them have to battle for a Champions League spot – unthinkable a few weeks ago
Spain
Where do you start with Spain? It’s the most exciting title race anywhere for a long time. Three teams separated by a point battling it out to see who will blink first.
After their almost Devon Loch style collapse, Barcelona have managed to shake off their malaise and win 8-0 and 6-0 in their last two games. Luis Suarez has scored 8 (eight) goals in 2 (two) games and Barca look back to their best.
Lionel Messi, meanwhile, has scored more than 40 goals in seven consecutive season – can you even do that on FIFA? What’s that? No? Okay then.
If only they’d done that a few weeks ago, they’d be in a Champions League semi final and they’d still be 15 points ahead of Real Madrid.
Real themselves had an interesting weekend. Clearly with one eye on Manchester City in midweek, they rested Cristiano Ronaldo who has a slight hamstring strain, and it was down to Gareth Bale to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat away to Rayo Vallecano on Saturday. He scored twice at the weekend as Real were 2-0 down before coming back to win 3-2. The Welshman has 18 goals and 10 assists this season in only 19 Liga starts.
The other team in the title race may just be the most reliable team in the race, Atletico Madrid. They beat Malaga 1-0 to keep the pace with the other two, record yet another La Liga win, and yet another La Liga clean sheet.
In fact, that’s 101 clean sheets in Diego Simeone’s 208 league games in charge of Atletico Madrid. Though this one was hard fought. So hard-fought was it, indeed, that Diego Simeone was sent off as a ball was thrown onto the pitch in order to slow down a Malaga counter attack! I guess it’s worth a go if you’re really worried about conceding and lack any sort of conscience.
Elsewhere, Villarreal’s draw at the weekend – with one eye on Liverpool on Thursday, one suspects – sort of opened the door for the teams behind them to make ground in the race for the final Champions League spot. Athletic Bilbao will be kicking themselves, but Celta Vigo have the chance to go within four points of Villarreal with only three games left if they win on Monday night.
Heading closer towards doom, and Getafe spurned a glorious late chance to beat The Club Formerly Known As Gary Neville’s Valencia and lift themselves out of the doomed spots, but instead had to make do with a 2-2 draw. Sporting Gijon’s 6-0 defeat at the hands of Barca was, perhaps expected, but nonetheless Granada will have the chance to go five points clear of doom if they beat Celta on Monday night. Levante are surely gone.
Winners: Barcelona, whose second cricket-score win in just a few days, puts them back in the favourites slot for the league title – though anything can happen!
Losers: Athletic Bilbao, who could have made some good ground and challenged for a Champions League spot.