The Euro Roundup: Ronaldo, Griezmann score as Madrid clubs share spoils

Derby fever had a hold over Europe this week with Italy and Spain seeing some their biggest rivals clash.

Serie A

The Milan derby hasn’t reached the heights it once reached in recent years. This week’s derby was probably the most high-stakes meeting between the two sides in a long time, although it was Champions League qualification, not a league title, on the line. Inter sit fourth, eight points clear of local rivals AC Milan, who are desperate to qualify for the Champions League due to financial troubles.

It’s truly a rare lull in arguably Italy’s biggest derby. Between them, Inter and Milan have 32 scudettos. In 1908, just 10 years after the club was founded, there was schism at AC Milan, with some members of the club advocating signing exclusively homegrown players and others hoping to incorporate foreigners. The latter group eventually founded Inter Milan.

By the time the clubs’ transfer policies had a aligned, the political and social differences, classic traits of the best derbies, had set in, with AC Milan coming to represent the working class while Inter represented the elite.

Wednesday’s derby might have lacked goals, but it certainly didn’t lack drama, with Inter having numerous chances to score, all falling to Mauro Icardi. His first big chance ended up in the net, but VAR intervened and ruled the goal to be offside. On the second and third, Icardi was guilty of poor finishing. The second of these came in the last minute of the game, but the Argentine could only slide the ball wide of the post with the goal at his mercy.

Despite Icardi’s misses, it was a good result for Inter, who then gave their rivals another chance to get back into the race for Europe with a 1-0 defeat to Torino. Gattuso’s men couldn’t take advantage, however, and needed a late goal to salvage a draw against Sassuolo.

Elsewhere, Napoli kept their title hopes alive with the latest of comebacks against Chievo. The Partenopei had a penalty saved in the 51st minute before falling behind in the 73rd minute. A defeat would have all but handed Juventus their sixth consecutive scudetto, after the Old Lady had seen off a brave Benevento side 4-2 on Saturday to move seven points clear at the top. However, any title celebrations were short-lived in Turin as Arkadiusz Milik and Amadou Diawara scored in the 89th minute and the 94th minute respectively to keep their side within four points of the leaders.

La Liga

The Madrid derby has witnessed a bit of a renaissance in recent years. In the lead-up to the 2013 Copa Del Rey final, Real Madrid had been unbeaten in 25 derbies, a run stretching back to the ’90s. However, Diego Simeone has made Los Rojiblancos competitive again, winning that particular cup final 2-1 in extra time. Since then, Real and Atleti have contested La Liga titles and two Champions League finals, a Champions League quarterfinal and a Champions League semifinal.

The derby itself dates back to the foundation of La Liga in 1929, but it was during the 1960s that it truly became a heated affair. The league title was won by one of the Madrid rivals for the entire decade, although Real won eight of them. Madrid and Aleti also contested European Cup games. When Madrid knocked out Atleti in a replay during the 1958-59 European Cup, Ferenc Puskas reveled in the delight of knocking out Los Blancos‘ “great rivals.” In later interviews, many of the players from the time described the Madrid derby as the biggest game of season.

Much like the Milan derby, the Madrid rivalry is about more than the sport. Atleti are the club of the working class, something encapsulated in their nickname, Los Colchernos, the mattress makers, an old taunt from Real fans that Atleti fans took quite a shine to.

As storied as the derby is, however, there wasn’t much to play for on Sunday; Barca are running away with the league and both Madrid clubs have bigger fish to fry in Europe. After a tense affair, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 53rd minute with a brilliant volley before Antoine Griezmann equalized following a Madrid defensive error. Following the flurry of goals, both coaches seemed happy with a draw, Real taking off Ronaldo and Atleti taking off Diego Costa. The draw meant Valencia had a chance to leapfrog Los Blancos into third place with a win over Espanyol, which they did, Rodrigo scoring the only goal in that game.

The European race took another interesting turn with Girona losing 5-0 to Real Sociedad, Sevilla losing 4-0 to Celta Vigo and Real Betis beating Eibar 2-0 to leapfrog Sevilla. The Seville sides face each other on the second-to-last week of the season with a place in Europe likely up for grabs.

At the bottom of the table, Deportivo won their first game under Clarence Seedorf, beating fellow relegation battlers Malaga 3-2. However, the real relegation six pointer was played in Valencia, where Levante triumphed over Las Palmas to move eight points clear of the drop, and leave Las Palmas 10 points from safety.

Bundesliga

Bayern won their sixth consecutive Bundesliga title with a 4-1 win over Ausburg on Saturday. The Bavarians have been champions-elect for months now, but a resiliant Schalke have kept the one-sided title race alive with a number of wins over the last few weeks. That run ended this weekend with a 3-2 defeat to relegation-battling Hamburg, opening the door for Jupp Heycnkes’ side to seal the title with five games to spare.

Next: Bayern’s early Bundesliga title won’t help them in Europe

It looked like Bayern would be forced to wait when Ausburg took the lead, but goals from Corentin Tolisso, James Rodriguez, Arjen Robben and Sandro Wagner gave Bayern the big win they needed.

Dortmund responded to their trashing last week with a 3-0 win over Stuttgart this weekend, Christian Pulistic opening the scoring with a fortuitous cross/shot. They closed the gap to Schalke to a single point, with the two facing off next weekend.

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That Hamburg win means their slim hopes of surviving and keeping their proud record of having never been relegated alive for at least another week. In the European spots, Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt shared the spoils to lift Frankfurt to fourth before Leipzig play Leverkusen in a massive game on Monday night.