Chelsea lost for the first time in 22 matches this season and its lead in the English Premier League was trimmed to three points by Manchester City in a twist to the title race on Saturday.
Bayern Munich, though, remained undefeated in Germany and was seven points clear after beating Bayer Leverkusen.
Here’s a look at the best of the action in Europe’s top leagues:
___
ENGLAND
Man City capitalized on Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle by beating Everton 1-0, with a left knee injury sustained by star striker Sergio Aguero early in the game marring an otherwise great day for the champions.
Newcastle shattered Chelsea’s unlikely bid to go through the 38-game campaign undefeated, pushing 2-0 ahead through a second-half double from Papiss Cisse and then hanging onto its lead after the 81st-minute sending-off of Steven Taylor.
Didier Drogba’s headed goal in the 83rd set up a frantic finish but Chelsea came unstuck at St. James’ Park for the third straight season, ending a 14-match unbeaten start in the league.
At Etihad Stadium, Aguero, the league’s top scorer with 14 goals, limped off in tears after getting hurt in the second minute. If the Argentina striker had been on the field, he would have taken the penalty converted by Yaya Toure in the 24th minute for City’s winning goal.
Arsenal missed a chance to climb provisionally into the top four by losing 3-2 at Stoke, conceding to Peter Crouch after 19 seconds — making it the quickest goal of the season — and two more times in the first half.
Liverpool and Tottenham failed to make up ground in the race for the Champions League places, drawing 0-0 at home to likely relegation candidates Sunderland and Crystal Palace, respectively, to remain in mid-table.
___
GERMANY
Franck Ribery scored his 100th goal for Bayern Munich to give the runaway Bundesliga leader a 1-0 victory over Leverkusen.
The victory allowed the defending champion to remain undefeated and to shake off another potential rival in the chase for the title, and preserved Bayern’s seven-point lead over Wolfsburg.
Wolfsburg confirmed its second place by winning 3-1 in Hannover.
Augsburg, the surprise package of the season, jumped over Leverkusen into third place with its 2-1 win in Cologne, but was 12 points behind Bayern.
___
SPAIN
Atletico Madrid churned out a 2-0 win at Elche to provisionally move second in the Spanish league, while promoted Cordoba’s 42-year wait for a top-tier victory finally ended by beating Athletic Bilbao 1-0.
Atletico defender Jose Gimenez fired in the first goal in the 17th minute to end a dizzying series of one-touch passes by Siqueira, Jorge “Koke” Resurreccion and Arda Turan from a set-piece.
Striker Mario Mandzukic then finished Elche off in the 53rd by sprinting onto Gabi Fernandez’s lob and firing the ball inside the post.
The defending champions rose to within one point of leader Real Madrid, which hosted Celta Vigo late. Barcelona trails Atletico by one point before its derby with Espanyol on Sunday.
___
ITALY
Roma rallied from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw against Sassuolo with a stoppage-time equalizer from Adem Ljajic but missed the opportunity to close the gap on Serie A leader Juventus.
Ljajic, who got Roma back into the match with a penalty, earned a point for the hosts with practically the game’s last kick.
After Juventus was held to 0-0 at Fiorentina on Friday, Roma knew it could cut the gap to one point with a victory at Stadio Olimpico, where it had won all seven of its previous league matches this season, conceding just two goals.
But Zaza scored twice in three first-half minutes — the first following a mistake from goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis — and Roma’s chances diminished when Daniele De Rossi was sent off at the start of the second half.
Sassuolo defender Sime Vrsaljko was also sent off in stoppage time following two yellow cards.
Roma remained three points behind Juve.
___
FRANCE
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as a poor Paris Saint-Germain rallied to beat Nantes 2-1 and move provisionally to the top of the French league.
Four days before its trip to Barcelona in the Champions League, PSG struggled to create opportunities against an organized Nantes and relied on Ibrahimovic’s class to come out on top.
Laurent Blanc’s side improved after the interval but Nantes will feel a sense of injustice over a disallowed goal that would have put them into a 2-0 lead, and a refereeing decision that saw PSG midfielder Marco Verratti avoid a direct sending-off in the first half.
PSG moved two points clear of Marseille, which can reclaim the top spot by beating Metz on Sunday.
Leave a Reply