Tuesday, 3 March 2015 01:09
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Reuters: Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Villarreal on Sunday to leave them just two points ahead of Barcelona in the La Liga standings.
Bayern Munich crushed Cologne 4-1 to stay eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and French champions Paris St Germain missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 when they were held to a 0-0 draw by AS Monaco.
Real Madrid had their lead over second-placed Barcelona cut to two points when they failed to win at home for only the second time this season as Villarreal fought back from a goal down in an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu on Sunday.
Champions Atletico Madrid also stumbled, a 0-0 stalemate at Sevilla denting their chances of a second consecutive Spanish title and leaving them five points behind Barca in third.
Uruguay forward Luis Suarez had a hand in all three Barca goals in a scrappy 3-1 win at struggling Granada on Saturday, netting in between strikes from Ivan Rakitic and Lionel Messi.
Real lead on 61 points with 13 games left and Barca, who host their great rivals at the Nou Camp in three weeks, are on 59. Atletico have 54 points, one ahead of fourth-placed Valencia who beat Real Sociedad 2-0. Champions Paris St Germain failed to move top of Ligue 1 after being held to a 0-0 draw by AS Monaco on Sunday.
PSG remained one point behind Olympique Lyonnais, who suffered their first league defeat in three months against Lille on Saturday. Olympique Marseille are in third place, four points behind the leaders after losing 3-2 at home to Caen. Leaders Bayern Munich continued their unstoppable march towards the Bundesliga title with a 4-1 demolition of Cologne to stay eight points clear at the top, with Bundesliga top scorer Arjen Robben scoring one and setting up two more goals.
Coach Pep Guardiola said his team could play even better although Bayern have now scored a staggering 18 goals in their last three league games alone. VfL Wolfsburg stayed second after charging back from a goal down three times against in-form Werder Bremen to win 5-3 with Bast Dost and Daniel Caligiuri scoring twice each.
Last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund can hope for European football next season after climbing up to 10th with a 3-0 victory over Ruhr valley rivals Schalke 04.
Christian Tello scored a hat-trick as Porto outclassed Sporting 3-0 at a fervent Dragao Stadium to stay four points adrift of Benfica at the top of the Portuguese standings after the leaders’ 6-0 rout of Estoril.
Benfica’s win featured a brace from Jonas and goals fromcaptain Luisao, Eduardo Salvio, Pizzi and Lima as Estoril were completely dismantled at the Stadium of Light in front of nearly 47,000 fans.
