LONDON: Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Villarreal on Sunday to leave them just two points ahead of Barcelona in the La Liga standings with third-placed Atletico Madrid drawing 0-0 away to Sevilla.

Elsewhere, French champions Paris St Germain missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 when they were held to a 0-0 draw by AS Monaco, while Napoli slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Torino in Serie A.

Dutch striker Bas Dost starred again in VfL Wolfsburg’s 5-3 win at Werder Bremen to cement second place in the Bundesliga and cut the gap on leaders Bayern Munich to eight points.

Real failed to win at home for only the second time this season as Villarreal fought back from a goal down in an entertaining draw at the Bernabeu.

BATTLING VILLARREAL

Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 30th league goal of the season when he scored in the 52nd minute with a penalty he earned and converted but Villarreal striker Gerard Moreno’s thunderous equaliser 26 minutes from time earned the visitors a deserved point.

“We dropped two points, but we must make good the advantage we still have,” said Real boss Carlo Ancelotti.

Real lead on 61 points and Barca are on 59. Uruguay forward Luis Suarez had a hand in all three Barca goals in a scrappy 3-1 win at struggling Granada on Saturday, netting in between strikes from Ivan Rakitic and Lionel Messi.

Champions Atletico have 54 points, one ahead of fourth-placed Valencia who beat Real Sociedad 2-0 thanks to Pablo Piatti’s double. Sevilla are fifth, seven behind Valencia , while Villarreal are sixth.

FLUFFED CHANCE

Two-time defending champions PSG fluffed their chance to go atop Ligue 1 after wasting several good chances against a Monaco side which has kept nine clean sheets in its past 10 league games.

Winger Javier Pastore, striker Edinson Cavani and winger Ezequiel Lavezzi all missed good chances as PSG to take advantage after Olympique Lyon suffered their first Ligue 1 defeat in three months against Lille on Saturday.

“It’s frustrating because in terms of the game itself we deserved more than a point,” PSG coach Laurent Blanc said.

Lyon have 54 points from 27 games, followed by PSG on 53 and Olympique Marseille, beaten 3-2 at home by Caen on Friday, on 50. Monaco are fourth on 44.

GLIK WINNER

Napoli missed the chance to move level with second-placed AS Roma after a second-half header from defender Kamil Glik ended Torino’s recent barren spell in Serie A.

Defeat left third-placed Napoli, who occupy the final Champions League spot, with 45 points from 25 games, only two ahead of Lazio with Fiorentina a further point behind in fifth.

Felipe Anderson, Miroslav Klose and Marco Parolo shared the goals in Lazio’s 3-0 win at Sassuolo and Mohamed Salah’s third goal in four league games since his move from Chelsea gave Fiorentina a 1-0 win at Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan.

Sampdoria are a further three points further back after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Atalanta.

WHIRLWIND WOLFSBURG

Dost continued his prolific form with two more goals, taking his tally to nine in his last four league games, as Wolfsburg ended Werder Bremen’s six-match unbeaten Bundesliga run to stay in second place on 50 points.

Bayern continued their unstoppable march towards the title with a 4-1 demolition of Cologne on Friday while Borussia Moenchengladbach strengthened their grip on third spot with a 2-0 victory over struggling Paderborn on Sunday and are 10 points behind Wolfsburg.

Gladbach are four points clear of fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen who had a 1-0 win at home to strugglers Freiburg on Saturday. Borussia Dortmund are now eight points adrift of fourth place after a 3-0 victory over Ruhr valley rivals Schalke 04.

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

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