Saturday, March 16, 2013

Juventus join Europe's double-digit leaders

Claudio Marchisio scores the second goal as Juventus beat Bologna 2-0 at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Saturday.

(CNN) -- All four of Europe's major soccer leagues have leaders with double-digit advantages following Juventus' 2-0 victory at Bologna on Saturday.

The Italian champions moved 12 clear of closest rivals Napoli, as Mirko Vucinic and Claudio Marchisio scored in the second half.

"We've taken an important step forward but there are still 27 points available and we have to keep going," coach Antonio Conte told reporters.

"We deserve to be in this position but we have to keep our feet on the accelerator."

Second-placed Napoli can trim the deficit with victory in Sunday's home match against lowly Atalanta, but with nine games to play Juve look like joining Bayern Munich (20 points), Manchester United (15) and Barcelona (10) as runaway title winners this season.

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Montenegro striker Vucinic netted his seventh Serie A goal this season -- his first since February 9 -- when he broke the deadlock in the 61st minute to fire a low shot on the turn from Marchisio's pass.

Their roles were reversed just over 10 minutes later as Marchisio scored his fifth goal of the campaign.

Both players scored in the first leg of the Champions League victory over Celtic last month but neither featured in the home win that guaranteed a place in the quarterfinals, where on Friday Conte's team were handed a clash with Bayern.

The German leaders have now won 22 of 26 Bundesliga matches this season, following Saturday's 2-1 win at third-placed Bayer Leverkusen.

The Bavarians now need just two wins from eight remaining games to wrap up a 23rd national title, ahead of the postseason arrival of new coach Pep Guardiola.

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Leverkusen had inflicted Bayern's only league defeat this season, and leveled through Simon Rolfes with 15 minutes to play following Mario Gomez's first-half opener.

However, Bayern took the points when Bastian Schweinsteiger's late free-kick went in off the shoulder of Leverkusen's Philipp Wollscheid.

Second-placed champions Borussia Dortmund kept the title race mathematically alive with a 5-1 thrashing of Freiburg, as Robert Lewandowski scored twice to take his season tally to a Bundesliga-leading 19 goals.

The Poland striker, who has been strongly linked with a move to England, has now been on target for a club record eight successive league matches.

Midfielder Nuri Sahin, who came from England after an unsuccessful loan spell at Liverpool, also netted two goals for Dortmund -- who will play Spanish side Malaga in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Sahin has not been needed by his parent club Real Madrid, who let the Turkey midfielder return to Germany on an 18-month loan deal after he failed to earn a regular place following his 2011 move to the Bernabeu.

Real closed to within 10 points of Barcelona on Saturday, coming from behind to crush Mallorca 5-2 as Gonzalo Higuain ended his recent poor run with two goals in the club's 2,600th La Liga match and his 250th overall for "Los Blancos."

The Argentina striker had scored just once in his previous nine appearances, but found the net along with Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and substitute Karim Benzema as Real rattled in three goals in five second-half minutes.

It put Jose Mourinho's team four points clear of third-placed city rivals Atletico, who travel to Osasuna on Sunday while Barca host Rayo Vallecano.

Ronaldo followed up last weekend's double against Celta Vigo to score his 27th of the league season, leaving him second in the "Pichichi" standings behind Lionel Messi's 40 as he headed in a corner to make it 2-2.

Modric lashed in a superb right-root shot to put Real ahead -- another vital goal after his superb effort against Manchester United in the Champions League which helped earn Madrid a quarterfinal clash with Turkey's Galatasaray.

In the 57th minute substitute Mesut Ozil set up Higuain, who later gave Benzema a simple chance in time added on for the Frenchman's eighth in the league.

Real Sociedad claimed fourth place with a 4-1 win at home to Valladolid, while Valencia moved up to seventh with a 3-0 victory over fellow European hopefuls Real Betis.


Via: Juventus join Europe's double-digit leaders

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