Beating Roma

EUROFOOTBALL

In the Italian Championship, Juventus, thanks to the victory over Roma, reduced the gap from the capital club - and therefore second place - to one point. Inter, in turn, are 11 points ahead of Roma. Barcelona, after the defeat of Real Madrid, is now only five points from Madrid. Manchester United unexpectedly beat Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Spanish Championship

“Real” and “Barcelona” had to play somewhat similar matches in the 23rd round of the Spanish championship: both giants met with the middle peasants of the championship on the road, and at first glance, both should have taken their three points. But this is only at first glance: the density of teams in the middle of the table is such that, for example, Madrid's rival Betis, if they win, could jump three positions higher at once - from fourteenth place to tenth. “Barcelona” actually came across a very strong “Zaragoza” squad. So in these couples everyone needed glasses.

Real started the match with Betis in the same way as they started the previous meeting with Valladolid: with an early goal. In the seventh minute, Royston Drenthe opened the scoring, having received a place in the lineup due to Robinho's injury. The goal that was scored calmed the guests down - Real slowed down and demonstrated with all their appearance that the match could already be ended. However, Betis did not think of giving up and in the first half twice punished Real for being overconfident: two goals - by Edu and Mark Gonzalez - within four minutes. The culprit of both goals was the Madrid left-back Marcelo: he twice lost the fight to the Betis players. In the second half, the hosts wisely gave the initiative to Real - although the guests had the ball for most of the match, they created only a couple of dangerous chances throughout the entire half. The last opportunity to equalize was missed by substitute Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose shot hit Ricardo's goal post in the 65th minute.

The match between Barcelona and Zaragoza began almost immediately after the end of the meeting in Seville. Barcelona head coach Frank Rijkaard sent Catalan captain Carles Puyol to the right flank, having recovered from injury, and replaced him in the center of defense with Rafael Marquez, who lost his place in the starting lineup this season. In the absence of Samuel Eto'o, who returned from the African Cup of Nations with an injury, Barca's usual trio of Giovanni - Thierry Henry - Lionel Messi played in the attack. True, this time the role of center forward was assigned to Henri, who gravitated towards the left flag. This change paid off only once during the match: in the 34th minute, Thierry Henry gently chested Deco's pass from the flank and, without letting the ball hit the ground, rolled it past the hosts' goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez, who was flying at the feet. At the end of the first half, Rafael Marquez (the weakest link in Barca's defense), unable to keep up with Ricardo Oliveira's rush, brought down the Brazilian in the penalty area. But the penalty was mediocrely wasted by Zaragoza's regular penalty taker Diego Milito. The penalty that was not taken at the end of the half did not discourage the hosts: the Zaragoza players not only quickly came back (the ball was scored by Ricardo Oliveira from under Rafael Marquez), but also continued to threaten the Barcelona goal until the middle of the second half, when they left the field due to injury The scorer left. The home team's coach, Javier Irureta, replaced the Brazilian forward with midfielder Oscar Gonzalez, and the Catalans' edge at the goal immediately disappeared. And towards the end of the meeting, the referee came up with a penalty for a handball by a Zaragoza player, which was not even close. Ronaldinho didn't miss. Barcelona got three points, and now their lead over Real no longer seems insurmountable.

Italian Championship

The decisive match in the race for second place in the Italian Championship could be the game between Juventus and Roma in Turin. The Romans were four points ahead of the Turin team and were obliged to at least grab a draw in order to maintain an acceptable lead, because in the next round Roma would again face a difficult meeting - with Fiorentina. The loss actually deprived Juventus of the chance to compete for championship silver: a seven-point gap would have been too large. The head coach of the guests, Luciano Spalletti, fielded a squad that was typical for the Romans and atypical for Italy - without nominal strikers, but with a large group of attacking players. But his colleague Claudio Ranieri surprised by releasing three forwards onto the field from the first minutes: central ones - David Trezeguet and Vincenzo Iaquinta, and Alessandro Del Piero helped them on the right.

The match took place in typical Italian style, when teams battle tactical formations on the field. The hosts competently neutralized Roma's scheme, depriving Francesco Totti and company of free zones to rush into the back of the defenders. However, the construction of Claudio Ranieri did not bring results. The outcome of the match was decided by the performing skills of one player - Alessandro Del Piero brilliantly executed a free kick at the end of the first half. Drying the second half for Juve was a matter of technique, especially after replacing striker David Trezeguet with prop Mohamed Sissoko, who had recently moved from Liverpool. Thanks to this victory, the Turin team almost caught up with Roma - now there is only one point between the teams.

Milan, which successfully got involved in the fight with Fiorentina for fourth place, has been experiencing obvious problems with its squad in recent matches: two Brazilian forwards are injured - Ronaldo and Alexandre Pato, Kaka (who still entered the field) has a slight injury, and Genaro Gattuso I recently recovered from an injury, but have not yet reached optimal condition. Milan head coach Carlo Ancelotti seems to have decided to sacrifice the match with Parma for the upcoming championship battles with Arsenal - Milan have Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Oddo, Paolo Maldini and Alberto Gilardino in reserve. The result was a predicted away draw, which, however, allowed the Milanese to catch up with Fiorentina in terms of points, and thanks to additional indicators, even reach the much-coveted fourth place. However, the Florentines have one game in hand.

Leading Inter once again achieved a home victory over Livorno, achieving results in the opening 20 minutes of the match: David Suazo scored two goals. For two seasons now, the Milanese squad has been difficult to divide into main and reserve. However, Roberto Mancini still saved the main star - Zlatan Ibrahimovic remained in reserve. Inter, in principle, does not need the help of competitors, but Juventus helped the Milanese just in time by beating Roma. Now Inter and the rest of the Italian championship are separated by an 11-point gap, and the Milanese can fully concentrate on the Champions League, where things have not gone well for them so far.

FA Cup

The FA Cup is a prestigious competition, but the Premier League giants often prefer to play in this tournament with either mixed or reserve squads, only connecting the base at the final stage. The match between Manchester United and Arsenal in the 1/8 of the FA Cup is, of course, important, but both Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger chose not to tear their veins and fielded mixed squads. At Manchester United, it basically resembled the main one, with the exception of midfield. Wenger redrawn all the lines of his team, which ultimately played a cruel joke on Arsenal. The match was miserably failed by the Gunners' revamped defense, with the main blame falling on central defenders Kolo Toure and William Gallas: the tall Frenchman twice lost to the "little ones" Wayne Rooney and Darren Fletcher in the goalkeeper's goal. The result in the match was made already in the first half, which Arsenal lost with a score of 3:0. And at the beginning of the second, the Londoners were let down by Emmanuel Eboue, who went straight into a harmless collision, for which he was immediately sent off the field. The match, in fact, was already over, but in the end Darren Fletcher scored a double - 4:0, an unconditional victory for Manchester United.

Petr Kommersant-Kuznetsov

Juventus played along with Inter