They are 10 points clear of Barcelona, who beat Sporting Gijon 3-1. Elsewhere in La Liga, Valencia’s hold on third place was strengthened by a 1-0 win over Granada. Athletic Bilbao beat Real Sociedad 2-0, Villarreal lost at Zaragoza (2-1) and Sevilla drew 1-1 with Atletico Madrid.
In England, Manchester United beat Tottenham 3-1 to keep pace with Manchester City, who won 2-0 against Bolton. Arsenal moved closer to Tottenham with a 2-1 win at Liverpool, whilst Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to West Brom meant the end for Andre Villas Boas, fired afterwards. Newcastle drew 1-1 with Sunderland whilst Fulham crushed Wolves 5-0.
In the French league, there was change again as Montpellier drew 1-1 at Dijon, with PSG beating Ajaccio 4-1 to go back to the top of the league. Lille drew 2-2 at home to Auxerre to lose ground, whilst Rennes won 2-0 at Lorient to go fourth. Toulouse beat Marseille away 1-0 to go sixth, behind St Etienne, who lost 2-0 at home to Evian. Olympique Lyonnais lost 2-0 at Nancy, whilst Bordeaux’s good 2012 ended with a 2-1 home loss to Nice.
In Italy, AC Milan won 4-0 at Palermo to go three points clear of Juventus, who have a game in hand, at the top of Serie A. Juve are still unbeaten though after a 1-1 home draw with Chievo Verona. Lazio beat Roma 2-1 in the Rome derby to go third, with Udinese drawing 0-0 at home to Atalanta. Napoli won 2-1 at Parma, Inter drew 2-2 at home to Catania, whilst Fiorentina beat Cesena 2-0.
Borussia Dortmund’s title defence is still on track after a 2-1 win over Mainz in Germany, whilst Bayern Munich were stunned 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen. With Schalke losing 2-1 at Freiburg, and Borussia Moenchengladbach losing 1-0 at Nurnberg, Dortmund had a perfect weekend. Werder Bremen lost 1-0 at Hertha Berlin, Hamburg were beaten 4-0 at home by Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern were held 0-0 at home by Wolfsburg.
Steve McClaren’s Twente pulled off an amazing result in Holland, winning 6-2 at PSV, who lead the championship going into the weekend. AZ are now top ahead of Twente after beating Heracles 3-1. Ajax beat Roda JC 4-1. Feyenoord beat Gronigen 1-0. In Portugal the top of the table clash saw Benfica lose 3-2 at home to Porto.
In Argentina, Boca Juniors beat San Lorenzo 2-0 to go top of the Clausura championship at the weekend. Tigre beat Lanus 1-0 to stay in touch with Boca. Santos beat Corinthians 1-0 in the Sao Paulo state championship in Brazil to end the champions’ unbeaten run.
