Spain
Barcelona stayed one point ahead of Real Madrid in the title chase as both sides won on Saturday. Barcelona cruised to a 3-1 win over a desperate Xerez team at Camp Nou. Xerez, seemingly doomed to relegation, picked up seven cards in the last seven minutes. Fabian Orellana and Matias Alustiza were sent off for rough play and face suspensions.
Real Madrid won 2-1 away at Real Zaragoza. Substitutes provided all three goals. Raul and Kaka scored for Real Madrid; Adrian Colunga had 10-man Zaragoza's goal. Both teams were very disjointed in the first half. Raul replaced Rafael v. d. Vaart when the Dutchman limped off after 16 minutes; Colunga subbed in for Humberto Suazo after Suazo suffered a separated shoulder and could not continue after 20 minutes of play. Kaka, in his first match in six weeks after recovering from a groin injury, was only asked to play the last 15 minutes, and made the most of them
Barcelona holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Real Madrid. Barcelona's last four games are much tougher, however, with road games away to Villarreal and Sevilla.
Valencia edged Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 with a David Villa penalty on Saturday to solidify its grasp on third place and the final automatic Champions' League place that goes with it.
At the bottom, Zaragoza's loss leaves them only two points above the drop zone. Zaragoza is over 100 million Euro in debt. The club brought in seven players over the winter transfer window in a bid to stay up. The board has mused aloud that the club might cease to exist if it is relegated: dropping down to the Segunda would rob Zaragoza of the TV money it needs to service the debt.
Italy
Inter Milan leapfrogged Roma at the top of Serie A this weekend.
Inter ran past Atalanta 3-1 on Saturday after falling behind 1-0 after five minutes. Inter manager Jose Mourinho sent out two-thirds of his first choice team but subbed off Wesley Sneijder, Diego Milito, and Dejan Stankovic once the lead was reclaimed. Inter travels to Barcelona for the second leg of the Champions' League semis on Wednesday.
Inter's lead is two points after Roma saw captain Francesco Totti's first half goal beaten down by two strikes from Sampdoria's Giampaolo Pazzini in the second half.
Palermo beat AC Milan 3-1 on Saturday but remains six points behind Milan in the chase for third. After Sampdoria's win in Rome, Sampdoria is four points behind Milan and two in front of Palermo with three games left. Third place gets the Champions' League, fourth gets a qualification playoff, and fifth ends up in Europa League next season.
At the bottom, Atalanta are five points below the line with three matches to play following the loss at Inter. Siena lost 4-1 at Udinese on Sunday, leaving only the slimmest mathematical chance of survival through a potential playoff. Livorno beat Catania 3-1 but Livorno is going down regardless after Bologna simultaneously beat Parma 2-1.
England update (and Denmark too…)
Chelsea thrashed Stoke 7-0 to reclaim top spot. Stoke and Denmark international goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen appeared to suffer a broken elbow in the first half. If he cannot recover for the World Cup, that's a massive blow for the Danes to take. Sorensen was a star in qualifying: Denmark allowed only five goals in winning a group that included Portugal and Sweden.