As they approach the winter break, Barcelona, Bayern Munich (1/3 German Bundesliga 2011/2012 Outright) and Udinese (10/1 Serie A 2011/2012 Outright) made significant moves in their domestic title chases at the weekend while Juventus have a chance to return to the Serie A summit tonight against injury-hit Roma.
Barcelona’s 3-1 victory at the Bernabeu on Saturday night brought them back on to level points with their title rivals Real Madrid, although Jose Mourinho’s side have a match in hand.
However, the psychological damage that Barca’s win inflicted on Madrid minds will be measured in the wees to come – making it possibly fortunate for Real that La Liga shuts down for three weeks after this weekend’s round of fixtures.
In Germany, Bundesliga favourites Bayern won 2-1 away at Stuttgart while title holders Borussia Dortmund failed to beat struggling Kaiserslautern – all but ensuring that Jupp Heynckes’ side will be the winter champions.
Bayern hold a three-point lead and 10-goal advantage over Dortmund going into the last round of fixtures this weekend with Bayern at home to Cologne on Friday night.
Schalke are only three points behind Bayern ahead of their clash with Werder Bremen on Saturday after hitting a rich vein of form which has seen them take 16 points from the last seven Bundesliga matches.
Juventus (6/4 – Serie A Outright 2011/2012) face Roma at the Stadio Olimpico tonight as Antonio Conte attempts to capitalise on a weekend slip-up from AC Milan, who drew 2-2 with Bologna.
Napoli also lost ground when they only managed a 1-1 draw away to lowly Novara while Inter, down in 10th place, already appear to be out of the title race.
Juventus (23/20 – Match Prices, Roma 5/2, draw 11/5) will be without injured ex-Roma striker Mirko Vucinic but Conte has a wealth of attacking options at his disposal with red hot striker Alessandro Matri (9/2 – First Goalscorer) and Italian international Simone Pepe expected to start.
This match could be the last-ever Serie A clash between two ageing gods of Italian football with Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero hoping to make an impact off the bench while Roma icon Francesco Totti is fit again after ankle trouble.
But under-fire Roma coach Luis Enrique is struggling for numbers at the back and may even press midfielder Daniele De Rossi into action as an emergency centre-back with Simon Kjaer and Marco Cassetti having joined the long list of injured Giallorossi defenders.
Nicolas Burdisso, David Pizarro and Fabio Borini are also injured while defender Juan, midfielder Fernando Gago and striker Bojan Krkic are suspended after picking up red cards in Roma’s 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina last week.
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