Ronaldo inspires Real’s Rout of Villareal

We start this week in Spain where the leading pair found the goal with ease. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured, Barcelona recalled Thierry Henry to lead the line. The Frenchman had cut a forlorn figure from the bench for the last three games, but he showed his quality netting only his third goal of the season from a free-kick in the leaders 4-0 rout over Racing Santander. In Pep Guardiola’s 100th game in charge, Rafa Marquez, Andres Iniesta and substitute Thiago scored in a comfortable win. Real Madrid romped home in a convincing and stylish 6-2 thumping of Villarreal. Cristiano Ronaldo was on top form, scoring a trademark free-kick and assisting four goals, showing incredible unselfishness. Indeed, after his opener and Kaka’s penalty, Ronaldo went on to set up both of Higuain’s goals, Kaka’s second and won a second penalty which was converted by Xabi Alonso. It was a much needed win for Real and especially for boss Manuel Pellegrini after the disappointing result against Lyon in the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid, last week’s conquerors of Barcelona, fell to a last gasp winner by Pablo Piatti as his Almeria side claimed all three points, halting Atleti’s recent revival. Mallorca’s bid to secure a European spot took another hit, as they lost their exemplary home record to nine-man Sevilla 3-1, despite having taken the lead. The win moves Sevilla up to just a point off Valencia in third, who play on Monday night. Basque side Athletic Bilbao kept their chase up for a European spot by trouncing Tenerife 4-1. The islanders look doomed and their task was made harder after the sending off of Jose Culebras. Fellow strugglers Valladolid were moments from lifting themselves out of the bottom three, but conceded a late equaliser away at Osasuna, which came courtesy of an instinctive finish by Javier Camunas.

Deportivo 2 – 1 Xerez

Barcelona 4 – 0 Racing

Mallorca 1 – 3 Sevilla

Osasuna 1 – 1 Valladolid

Zaragoza 1 – 3 Sporting de Gijon

Malaga 2 – 1 Espanyol

Athletic Bilbao 4 – 1 Tenerife

Almeria 1 – 0 Atletico Madrid

Real Madrid 6 – 2 Villarreal

Valencia – Getafe

The big story from the weekend in Italy was the 0-0 draw between Inter and Sampdoria at the San Siro. Sampdoria boss Gigi del Neri has something of a curse over Inter, with his sides having performed well in the past and taken points of the Nerazzurri in previous years. Saturday’s game was no different, though many felt that his side should have been more positive, given that Inter played most the game with just nine men. Walter Samuel was adjudged to have elbowed Nicola Pozzi and then Ivan Cordoba was sent off for two bookable offences. Unsurprisingly, Jose Mourinho was not best pleased about the officiating. Mourinho did not appear at the post-match press conference, though was unofficially quoted as saying that Inter can be disadvantaged, but won’t be stopped in pursuit of the Scudetto. Sampdoria also had a man sent-off midway through the second half, with Giampaolo Pazzini hitting the changing room early. Nevertheless, Inter came close to winning the game late on through Samuel Eto’o. The dismissals required some shuffling of the Inter pack, with Lucio, in line for rest, summoned from the bench and looking solid ahead of a monumental clash against Didier Drogba in the week.

Elsewhere, Roma capitalised on Inter’s draw by disposing of Catania 1-0. With Italian front pair of Francesco Totti and Luca Toni both injured, Mirko Vucinic has stepped up his game in recent weeks, scoring against the visitors to seal all three points for Claudio Ranieri’s in-form side, who are now five points away from Inter. Leonardo’s Milan bounced back after the mid-week loss to Manchester United by taking all three points at Bari 2-0. Ronaldinho appears to be back to his creative best, setting up both goals, the first an absolute acrobatic stunner from Marco Borriello and the second from Alexandre Pato. Returning goalkeeper Christian Abbiati performed well, saving twice from Paulo Barreto – first from an excellent free-kick and then late on denied the frontman from the penalty spot.

Juventus stole a march on their rivals in the race for fourth after a patchy 2-1 away win at Bologna. Playmaker Diego, often criticised for his lack of big performances, came up trumps with the opener, slicing through the hosts defence before coolly slotting home. Bologna equaliser highlighted the weakness in Juventus’s three-man defence (as I predicted Zaccheroni would employ). However, it was Zaccheroni’s men who would have the final say in proceedings, with substitute Antonio Candreva finishing after a great pass by captain Alessandro del Piero.

Palermo boss Delio Rossi inflicted a defeat on his struggling former club Lazio 3-1. Edy Reja believed that mercurial forward Fabrizio Miccoli went down too easily when winning the Sicilians a penalty that helped ensure that Lazio went back to Rome with no points. Udinese’s loss at Genoa will be remembered for two reasons. Firstly, Roberto Acquafresca, who struggled on loan at Atalanta in the first-half of the season, capped off his recent good form with an instinctive brace. Secondly, after the game, Udinese sacked boss Gianni De Biasi. Former Torino manager De Biasi had only arrived at the north-east club in December to replace Pasquale Marino. Oddly enough, Udinese then took the decision to re-hire Marino and his backroom staff. Under Marino, Udinese started the season well and still have top scorer Antonio di Natale in their ranks. However, Marino’s first task must be to reverse the slide his charges have experienced as of late, which has seen them plummet to just a point from the relegation zone.

Genoa 3 – 0 Udinese

Inter Milan 0 – 0 Sampdoria

Roma 1 – 0 Catania

Siena 0 – 0 Napoli

Cagliari 2 – 0 Parma

Palermo 3 – 1 Lazio

Fiorentina 2 – 1 Livorno

Bologna 1 – 2 Juventus

Atalanta 0 – 1 Chievo

Bari 0 – 2 Milan

My player of the weekend has to be Stuttgart’s Brazilian-born German international Cacau. The forward scored four times as his side beat Cologne 5-1 at home. The striker has just come back from an injury layoff and has found playing time throughout this season hard to come by, with the preferred pairing being Pavel Pogrebnyak, who also scored, and the currently unavailable Ciprian Marica. Cacau’s performance gave the mid-table side a morale-boosting victory ahead of their daunting tie with Barcelona in midweek.

Bayern Munich saw their 13 game winning streak come to an end after a 1-1 draw at Nuremburg. The Bavarian derby seemed to be heading Munich’s way after Thomas Muller put the visitors ahead. However, Ilkay Gundogan’s equaliser meant that the hosts, second from bottom, took a share of the spoils. As a result, Leverkusen had the opportunity to move two points clear on Sunday, but squandered their opportunity, conceding a late Per Mertesacker equaliser at Werder Bremen and drawing 2-2. Wolfsburg dented Schalke’s title bid with a 2-1 victory with Grafite’s brace securing the points.

The strange case of Hertha Berlin, a side near the top of the table last year now bottom this season, took another twist, with the capital city side winning 3-0 at fellow struggler Freiburg. Hertha are still some four points from safety, but it now moves them back to within a realistic chance of survival. Third from bottom Hannover took another beating as they were comfortably seen off by Borussia Dortmund 4-1, who recovered well after last week’s loss to Bayern Munich.

TSG Hoffenheim 2 – 2 Mönchengladbach

FC Köln 1 – 5 VfB Stuttgart

Nürnberg 1 – 1 Bayern Munich

Hamburg 0 – 0 Eintracht

Borussia 4 – 1 Hannover 96

Mainz 0 – 0 VfL Bochum

SC Freiburg 0 – 3 Hertha BSC

VfL Wolfsburg 2 – 1 Schalke 04

Werder Bremen 2 – 2 Bayer Leverkusen

French leaders Bordeaux did not play this weekend. The French league agreed to delay their fixture with Auxerre until later to give the champions a break before their clash with Olympiakos in midweek. This gave second placed Montpellier the opportunity to move level with Bordeaux, albeit with the champions having the Auxerre game in hand. Many might have believed the game at struggling St Etienne would be a formality for the relentless title contenders, but a late goal from young substitute Emmanuel Riviere meant that the visitors remained second. Montpellier are a club with an incredible story this season, having been promoted to Ligue 1 for the start of the current campaign. Their achievements thus far have been nothing short of incredible.

Two teams notched significant wins this weekend. Nice ended a run of 11 games without a 1-0 victory by toppling Le Mans thanks to a Loic Remy penalty. PSG won by the same scoreline against 10-man Toulouse with Guillaume Hoarau also notching a penalty. Carrying on the theme of strugglers, there was a massive game between the two sides just ahead of bottom-side Grenoble, who lost again 1-0 to Valenciennes, as Boulogne hosted Le Mans. It was the away side that took the three points, winning 3-1. However, the gap between Le Mans and the duo above them of St Etienne and Nice remains six points.

Running Cacau close for the player of the weekend has to be Lyon’s Michel Bastos. The sometimes left-back sometimes left-midfielder/winger answered any criticism of his recent performances for the conquerors of Real Madrid in their 4-0 win at Sochaux with a magnificent hat-trick. Try and get these goals up on youtube – Bastos netted from a free-kick, a powerful drive and then scorching volley. Lyon remain in fourth after third-place Lille also triumphed at Rennes, with Marseille hot on both sides heels with a 3-1 home win over Nancy.

Next time – a look at the Champions League matches in the week. I will make predictions – a chance to redeem myself or another case of egg on face? We’ll have to wait and see.

Olympiakos 1 – 1 Bordeaux: I like Laurent Blanc’s Bordeaux and fancy them to nick an away goal. I’m a bit torn on whether they will concede, as they had the best defensive record in the group stage, but the Greeks are a handful at home and could easily salvage a draw from the game.

Stuttgart 0 – 2 Barcelona: I cannot see Stuttgart doing anything to challenge Barcelona, despite the Spanish side’s injury crisis. Stuttgart are mid-table and Barcelona should coast to victory.

CSKA Moscow 1 – 1 Sevilla: The Andalucians have too much firepower to be denied an away goal. CSKA could nick this though as the conditions will favour them heavily.

Inter 2 – 2 Chelsea: This is the closest game of the midweek fixtures and perhaps all the ties in the last 16. Inter have firepower and enough to trouble Chelsea, who look susceptible defensively from set-plays and the Blues have not travelled well this season. However, Chelsea have Didier Drogba. He will be an absolute handful for Inter’s backline and Chelsea have enough to offer going forward to suggest that they will score.