LONDON, Nov 24: Inter Milan beat Juventus in the big match in Italy while Spanish leaders Barcelona were held 1-1 at home by Getafe in European league action at the weekend.
Both hold three-point leads and Hoffenheim also went three clear in Germany.
ITALY
A spectacular Ronaldinho free kick could not stop second-placed AC Milan being held 2-2 at Torino, allowing champions Inter Milan to open up a three-point advantage.
Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari gave Inter a well deserved 1-0 win over Juventus with a second-half goal.
Napoli are tied with Juve in third place with 24 points, six behind Inter, after they drew 2-2 at home with Cagliari.
Last-season’s runners-up AS Roma followed up on their victory over Lazio in the Rome derby seven days ago with a 3-0 win at Lecce that eases their troubles after a miserable start to the campaign.
SPAIN
Leaders Barcelona failed to make the most of Villarreal’s first defeat, coming from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe.
Barca moved on to 29 points from 12 matches, three ahead of Real Madrid.
The champions climbed into second place with an unimpressive 1-0 home win over Recreativo Huelva that did little to dispel the doubts raised by their poor recent performances.
Villarreal were surprisingly thumped 3-0 by Real Valladolid at the Madrigal and with 25 points are one ahead of Valencia and Sevilla who drew 0-0 at the Sanchez Pizjuan.
GERMANY
Hoffenheim took advantage of a slip from Bayer Leverkusen to go three points clear thanks to a 3-1 win away to Cologne.
Vedad Ibisevic made it 16 goals this season as he scored twice for the wealthy village team, who lead the standings with 31 points from 14 matches.
Leverkusen remain second on 28 after losing 2-1 at Arminia Bielefeld, with Bayern Munich now trailing them only on goal difference following a Franck Ribery-inspired 4-1 victory at home to Energie Cottbus.
Further down the table, Werder Bremen remain in neutral after losing 2-1 at Hamburg SV on Sunday, while VfB Stuttgart coach Armin Veh lost his job after a 4-1 defeat by Wolfsburg left the 2007 champions in 11th place.
FRANCE
Olympique Lyon suffered their second defeat in Ligue 1 this season when they were beaten 1-0 at Paris St Germain.
Ludovic Giuly’s first-half header sent PSG up to fifth, seven points adrift of the seven-time champions.
Nice moved up to second five points off the pace with a 1-0 defeat of St Etienne that sent the 10-times French champions to the bottom.
Boudewijn Zenden found the back of the net with a stoppage-time free kick to earn Olympique Marseille a 2-2 home draw against Lille.
Marseille dropped to third, six points behind Lyon with Stade Rennes fourth one point further back after a 1-1 draw at Girondins Bordeaux.
NETHERLANDS
AZ Alkmaar leapfrogged Ajax Amsterdam after beating them 2-0 with Demy de Zeeuw and Ari on target either side of the interval to move on top with 26 points after 12 matches.
NAC Breda were held to a 1-1 draw by NEC Nijmegen and are second on goal difference, while fourth-placed Groningen suffered a 3-0 defeat at Willem II Tilburg.
Champions PSV Eindhoven scored four first-half goals to brush aside Heracles Almelo and recover from three defeats in a row. They are fifth five points behind the leaders.
SCOTLAND
Celtic stayed four points clear with a 3-1 win at St Mirren. It was goalless for an hour but two in two minutes by Georgios Samaras and Shunsuke Nakamura turned the game before Cillian Sheridan added the third.
Rangers beat Aberdeen 2-0 with second-half goals by Jean-Claude Darcheville and Kris Boyd.
PORTUGAL
Unbeaten Benfica won 2-0 at Academica to close the gap on surprise leaders Leixoes, who beat Rio Ave 2-1, to one point.
Nacional Madeira are third and Sporting, who won 1-0 at Naval despite playing from the 67th minute with nine men, fourth.
Academica’s Senegalese striker Modou Sougou hit the post in the 17th minute before Benfica went ahead through midfielder Ruben Amorin with an close range shot after being set up by captain Nuno Gomes on the half hour.
Benfica, unbeaten at Academica’s ground for 35 years, made sure with a penalty by Paraguay striker Oscar Cardozo.
GREECE
Olympiakos Piraeus maintained their four-point lead in the with a 3-0 win at Iraklis despite playing the whole of the second half with 10 men.
Captain Predrag Djordjevic and Argentine Fernando Belluschi scored in the first half but defender Christos Patsatzoglou was shown a second yellow card a minute before halftime for a high challenge on Tassos Katsabis.
Iraklis were unable to take advantage of their extra man and Brazilian Dudu wrapped up the points in the 83rd minute.
Asteras Tripolis gave new coach Nikos Costenoglou a winning start when a first-half hat-trick from Daniel Cezarek gave them a 3-1 win over Ergotelis.—Reuters
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