This week was massive in La Liga and the Premiership, Serie A not so much due to AC Milan's inability to take 1st place, and while Real and Barcelona continue to be tied, Manchester United are looking to get their fourth Premier League title in a row.
Manchester United - LiverpoolA match which could've propelled Liverpool closer towards fourth place, and it seemed like they would be able to after Fernando Torres scored a great header in the 5th minute, helping Liverpool take the lead at Old Trafford. This didn't last long as Valencia tried to dribble around a physical Mascherano, Valencia goes down and Howard Webb sees it as a penalty. Rooney steps up only to have it saved, but the Englishman quickly tucked away the rebound, tying things up for Manchester United. After the interval, Manchester United came out with more attacking conviction, and eventually in the 60th minute, Darren Fletcher was able to strike a cross which Ji-Sung Park performed a Gullitt like diving header for the winner. Giggs makes his return, securing the squad, and while Sir Alex celebrates his two point lead at the top, Rafa Benitez complains about Manchester United's penalty.
In England, Chelsea continue their slump of poor results after a 1-1 draw away against Blackburn Rovers, everything seemed fine when after just 6 minutes Drogba scored, but Chelsea's diamond formation lacked width and eventually led to El-Hadj Diouf score the equalizer. Manchester City find some good form after a 2-1 win over Fulham, City was leading after 7 minutes with Santa Cruz's tap in, and then Tevez doubled the scoreline. Fulham came back with Murphy scoring a penalty, and the final minutes of the match were a bit too tense for a City that should've taken more chances. Tottenham stay in fourth spot after a great win against Stoke City, Gudjohnsen volleyed in the first in the 46th after replacing Pavlyuchenko, Stoke had Whitehead sent off, but they equalized with Etherington's penalty. Gudjohnsen created the winner for Kranjcar who lashed the ball into the back of the net, keeping the Spurs in a Champions League spot by two points. Portsmouth pull of a fantastic 3-2 win over Hull City, being 2-1 down in the 88th, Pompy had O'Hara curl in a fantastic free kick, and a minute later Kanu scored an epic winner for Portsmouth who are bottom with 13 points.
In Spain, Real Madrid came back to win 3-1 against Sporting Gijon, first Barral scored putting Gijon in front, but after Van der Vaart tapped in Ronaldo's saved free kick, and Xabi Alonso headed in the second, and Higuain slotted a good finish in, the match seemed finished. Mallorca keep their bid for Champions League football strong after a 4-1 win over Atletico Madrid, Atleti had Raul Garcia sent off, and Perea scored an own goal, making the match impossible to win. Valencia pulled off a 2-0 win over Almeria thanks to David Silva's genius, first the Spaniard created Mata's goal, then scored from the ground his own, keeping Valencia four points away from Mallorca. Three more fantastic goals came from Lionel Messi in Barcelona's 4-2 win away at Real Zaragoza, Messi has scored 11 in his last 5 matches, but Messi's three goals were almost challenged by Colunga. Colunga scored two in the 85th and the 89th, possibly preparing Zaragoza for a fantastic comeback, but Ibrahimovic netted a penalty in the dying minutes of the match to put the result in the bag for Barca.
In Italy, Cassano returns to his great former self after scoring a fantastic chip over Juventus' keeper Chimenti to allow Sampdoria to defeat Juventus 1-0, and the two revelations of the season, Bari and Parma, played each other and finished 1-1. Inter Milan drew 1-1 against Palermo, giving AC Milan a chance to take the top spot, but the rossoneri were only able to draw 1-1 with Napoli. The team which benefited the most from Inter's slip was Roma which won 4-2 against Udinese, a fantastic Vucinic hat trick along with a goal from Toni helped bring Inter only four points away, and next weekend they could bring the deficit to one as they'll play Inter Milan at the Stadio Olimpico.
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