Russian Premier kicks off

England Premier League

Tottenham is even further out of the race, after losing at home to Manchester United 1-3; Manchester City beat Bolton 2-0. Arsenal confirmed its good form with a 2-1 win at Liverpool, while Chelsea crashed 1-0 at West Bromwich Albion. Newcastle and Sunderland drew 1-1.

English Premier League after 27 games 

1. Manchester City 66 
2. Manchester United 64  
3. Tottenham  53  
4. Arsenal 49  
5. Chelsea FC 46  
6. Newcastle United 44 
7. Liverpool FC 39 (26 games)

Spain - Primera Liga 

Wins for the top three, Valencia is now 17 points behind Barça. Real dispatched Espanyol 5-0, Barcelona beat Sporting Gijón, Valencia won at Granada 1-0. Wins also for Athletic (Bilbao) 2-0 over Real Sociedad and Málaga (3-1 at Getafe). Levante received Bétis

Spanish Primera Liga after 25 games  
1. Real Madrid 67
2. FC Barcelona 57
3. Valencia CF 40   
4. Athletic Club 37
5. Málaga CF 37
6. CA Osasuna 35 
7. Levante UD 35 (24 games) 

Italy - Serie A 

AC Milan advanced two points over the main rival, Juventus with a 4-0 thrashing of Palermo (away) while Juve was held 1-1 at home by Chievo. A win for Lazio (2-1 at Roma) and a draw for Udinese (goalless home draw with Atalanta) saw a switch of places. Napoli beat Parma 2-1 away; Inter Milan drew 2-2 at home with Catania.

Italian Serie A after 26 games  
1. AC Milan 54 
2. Juventus 51 (25 games)
3. SS Lazio 48

4. Udinese Calcio 46

5. SSC Napoli 43
6. AS Roma 38
7. Inter Milan 37 

 

Germany - Bundesliga 

Dortmund seems to be pulling away from a pack where not so long ago there were four teams in the race. A 2-1 win over Mainz took the best advantage of the defeat of Bayern at Leverkusen and Moenchengladbach's defeat 1-0 at Nuernberg. Schalke also went down 2-1 at Freiburg, Bremen lost 1-0 at Hertha (Berlin) and Hannover drew 2-2 at home with Augsburg.

German Bundesliga after 24 games  
1. Borussia Dortmund 55
2. FC Bayern Munchen 48

3. VfL Borussia Moenchengladbach 47 
4. FC Schalke 04 44 
5. Bayer 04 Leverkusen 40 
6. Werder Bremen 36     
7. Hannover 96 35 

 

France - Ligue 1 

A win for PSG and a draw for Montpellier sees a change of positions at the top of the French Ligue 1. PSG thrashed AC Ajaccio 4-1 at home, while Montpellier drew 1-1 at Dijon. Lille also drew 2-2 at home with Auxerre. Rennes won 2-0 at Lorient while Saint-Étienne lost at home 0-2 with Évian; Toulouse beat Marseille away 1-0 while Lyon crashed 2-0 at Nancy.

French Ligue 1 after 26 games  
1. Montpellier Hérault 54 
2. Paris Saint-Germain FC 55
3. LOSC Lille Métropole 47
4. Stade Rennais 43
5. AS Saint-Étienne 43
6. Toulouse FC 43
7. Olympique Lyonnais 40 

Portugal - Primeira Liga 

As predicted here, a brilliant victory for FC Porto away at arch-rivals SL Benfica in Lisbon at the Stadium of Light by 3-2, a typically courageous display by the Blue Dragons who seem to have come to terms with the loss of Falcao and whose new manager Vitor Pereira has enjoyed the support of guru and historic President Pinto da Costa. A lesson in how to manage a club. FC Porto now depends on itself and will lose the championship, while its main rivals Benfica and Sporting Clube de Braga will have to win it.

Braga, Europa League finalist last season, pulls up into third place equal on points with Benfica after an excellent 3-1 win away at Nacional (Madeira). Sporting CP lost away at Setúbal 0-1 and Marítimo (Madeira) went down 1-0 at Guimarães

 

Primeira Liga after 21 games 
1. FC Porto 52  
2. SL Benfica 49
3. SC Braga 49 
4. SC Portugal 38   
5. CS Marítimo 38 
6. Vitória SC (Guimarães) 32 
7. Nacional 25 

Russian Premier kicks off

The crunch match was between last season's runners-up and the champions, and ended in a draw: CSKA Moskva 2 Zenit St. Petersburg 2, a good away result to moralise the team which travels to Benfica's Stadium of Light in Lisbon on Tuesday to defend a 3-2 home win. Kerzhakov scored his first of two for the visitors on 1'; Dzagoev equalised on 17'; Kerzhakov scored his second after 56' and Musa set the scoreboard at 2-2 on 68'.

Volga (Nizhny Novgorod) 1 Spartak Nalchik 0; Terek Grozny (Chechnya) 1 - Tom Tomsk 0; CSKA Moskva 2 Zenit St. Petersburg 2; Lokomotiv Moskva 2 - Kuban 0; Krasnodar 1 Rostov 0; Dinamo Moskva 0 Anzhi Makhachkala 1; Rubin Kazan 1 Spartak Moskva 1. Playing on March 6: Amkar (Perm) v. Krylya Sovetov

Russian Premier League - Final standings 2011-2012-03-05 (after 30 games) 
1. FC Zenit St. Petersburg 61 
2. PFC CSKA Moskva 59 
3. FC Dinamo Moskva 55 
4. FC Spartak Moskva 53 
5. FC Lokomotiv Moskva 53 
 
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 
Pravda.Ru