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FIFA: Season's cheer for weekend winners

/noticias.info/ With many of Europe's top leagues about to enter their Christmas recess, some of the leading contenders such as Bayern Munich, Roma and FC Porto gave their fans early seasonal cheer with high-scoring wins this weekend. And while several clubs from the Northern Hemisphere were crowned honourary 'end of year champions', others on the opposite side of the Atlantic have been celebrating the real thing as their seasons draw to a close.

La Liga: a change at the top
Sevilla took full advantage of the absence of Barcelona, away on FIFA Club World Cup duty in Japan (add link), to regain top spot in Spain with a 3-1 win at Recreativo. The Andalucian side are now one point clear of the Catalan outfit, having played a game more.

Real Madrid also kept the pressure up on their arch-rivals by taking all three points from their trip to Espanyol. A 50th-minute goal by Ruud van Nistelrooij proved good enough for the Merengues, who were forced to play most the second half with ten men after the expulsion of Fabio Cannavaro.

At the opposite end of the table, Real Sociedad grabbed the headlines with their first win of the season, a 3-2 win over Gimnastic. After a fiercely contested encounter, the Basque side finally ended an eight-month winless streak, leaving their opponents to fill the bottom-place slot Real had hitherto occupied.

Serie A: record-breaking Inter
Inter Milan strengthened their grip on top spot in Serie A with a 2-0 home win over Messina thanks to goals from Marco Materazzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. This latest triumph set a new club record of nine consecutive league wins and continued their unbeaten start to the season. The win also ensured the defending champions will finish the year in pole position.

Seven points further back in second are Roma, who ran out 4-0 winners over Palermo at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday courtesy of a brace apiece from Alessandro Mancini and Francesco Totti. Although defeat meant the Sicilians lost further ground on the top two, there is still an eight-point gap between them and fourth-placed Catania.

Fiorentina and AC Milan, two sides currently in the bottom half of the table, had to make do with a share of the spoils after a 2-2 draw. Milan had Alberto Gilardino to thank for securing a share of the spoils after the striker grabbed the equaliser in the 90th minute. Gilardino had put his side ahead with just four minutes on the clock, only for Adrian Mutu to turn things round with a goal in each half. However, the home side were unable to withstand Milan's late pressure and the teams finished with honours even - an outcome that will do little for the aspirations of either side.

Ligue 1: the legend grows
Lyon stretched their lead at the top of the French First Division 1 to an incredible 17 points with their latest win this weekend, 4-0 at Lens. A double from Juninho Pernambucano and one apiece from Malouda and Cris did the damage against their nearest rivals, who lost for the first time in ten league outings. Though not yet halfway through the season, OL already appear to be out of reach.

Elsewhere, PSG could manage no better than a goalless draw with Nice, who continue to hover close to the relegation zone (17th) despite their point at the Parc de Princes. The draw continued the Parisian side's poor recent form, which has yielded a paltry three points from their last six games. AS Nancy, in contrast, continued their fine start to the season with a 2-0 win over Marseille that keeps them comfortably in sixth place.

Bundesliga: Werder mid-term 'champions'
A winning goal four minutes from time against Wolfsburg allowed Werder Bremen to head into the winter recess as Bundesliga leaders, albeit seperated from Schalke 04 only by goal difference (36 points apiece). Three points back in third lie defending champions Bayern Munich, who gave their fans an early Christmas present with a 4-0 win over bottom side FSV Mainz 05. Hamburg, for their part, could only manage a 3-3 draw with Alemania Aachen and remain second from bottom.

Premier League: United feeling the pressure
Eight points ahead of second-placed Chelsea only seven days ago, this weekend's results have seen the gap between the leading pair in England reduced to just two.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men fell to a shock 1-0 defeat away to West Ham, a side battling to extricate itself from the relegation zone, and now have Chelsea breathing down their necks. The Blues, for their part, won by the odd goal in five after a tremendous battle at Goodison Park. Twice behind, to goals from Mikel Arteta and Joseph Yobo, the reigning champions dug deep and took the points with superb strikes from Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba.

Liverpool, meanwhile, moved up to third courtesy of a 3-0 win at Charlton, but still trail the leaders by 13 points. A point further back are Arsenal, who still appear to be having teething troubles at their new Emirates Stadium, where they were held 2-2 on Saturday by high-flying Portsmouth.

Elsewhere...

FC Porto were declared 'autumn champions' after finishing the first part of the Portuguese season in pole position. The league title holders achieved the distinctinon with an emphatic 4-0 win over Pacos Ferreira, thanks in the main to inspired performances by Pepe and Quaresma. Five points behind the leaders are Sporting Lisbon, with Benfica back another six in third. Further north in the Netherlands, it is a case of as you were, with PSV winning again this weekend and still leading the way. In Scotland, meanwhile, the second Old Firm derby of the season ended in stalemate after a late Brahim Hemdani strike salvaged a 1-1 draw for Rangers against Glasgow rivals Celtic, who still hold a 14-point lead over second-placed Aberdeen.

Thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, there were joyous scenes for Quito side Nacional, who retained the Ecuadorian league title this weekend. Hugo Almeida's side took the club's league-title tally to 13 with this latest success, while arch-rivals, Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito had to make do with third place and the consolation of a berth in next year's Copa Libertadores. Emelec de Guayaquil claimed runners-up spot and will join the other two in the Libertadores.

The weekend also witnessed the destination of the title decided in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Venezuela, with Motagua, Municipal, Once Municipal and Caracas FC respectively all able to toast success.

Team of the Week
Though they are contenders for this nomination almost every week, we must nonetheless tip our hats once again to French league leaders Lyon, who not only made it 16 wins out of 18 this weekend, but did so by putting four goals past nearest rivals Lens in their own back yard.

Goal of the Week
Though almost swayed by Marco Materazzi's superb overhead kick for Inter, in the end we plumped for Didier Drogba's stupendous strike against Everton for its technical execution and importance. With just three minutes left on the clock, the Chelsea front man picked up the ball with his back to goal a full 35 metres out, before executing a dipping volley on the half-turn that flew over Tim Howard and re-ignited the race for the English Premiership.
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