LONDON: Two hotly-contested derbies were played late on Sunday in Europe with one having a bearing on the title race whilst the other being a mid-table clash for merely bragging rights.

Ten-man Olympique Lyon came from behind to earn a savagely-contested 2-2 draw at home to bitter rivals St Etienne and thereby climb back on top of the French Ligue 1 while Inter Milan drew 0-0 against AC Milan in a heated derby which hit their hopes of qualifying for Europe next season from Italy’s Serie A.

Elsewhere, Olympiakos Piraeus won the Greek Super League for a 42nd time, wrapping up the title with three matches to spare by thrashing visitors Levadiakos 4-0, to join PSV Eindhoven as the only other winners in Europe’s top 15 leagues this season. PSV won the Dutch Eredivisie on Saturday.

The German Bundesliga, meanwhile, could be decided as soon as next week after second-placed VfL Wolfsburg drew 1-1 against Schalke 04 on Saturday to leave leaders Bayern Munich 12 points clear at the top with five games of the season remaining.

BACK ON TOP

Lyon reclaimed top spot in Ligue 1 on goal difference after goals from Clinton Njie and Christophe Jallet earned them a point against St Etienne even though they were reduced to 10 men for most of the encounter at Stade Gerland.

Njie opened the scoring midway through the first half before Lindsay Rose was sent off in the 28th minute, allowing St Etienne to take the lead with a Max-Alain Gradel penalty and Romain Hamouma strike just before the break.

Jallet levelled three minutes into the second half to put Lyon on 65 points from 33 games, ahead of PSG who have a game in hand and Lyon coach Hubert Fournier hinted that the comeback stood his side in good stead for the fight with the Parisians.

“It shows we have both the mental resources and the technical ability to come from behind and to believe in ourselves all the way,” he said.

MILAN STALEMATE

The two Milan teams remain mired in mid-table after an entertaining match which saw three goals disallowed and a strong penalty claim by Inter denied. “I’m disappointed,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said. “We tried everything possible to win this match.”

Milan are ninth on 43 points, one place and a point ahead of their neighbours and six adrift of sixth-placed Fiorentina in the last Europa League qualifying spot.

Napoli gave themselves hope of sneaking into the final Champions League place by cruising to a 3-0 win at Cagliari later to close the gap to five points on third-placed Roma and second-placed Lazio, who are 15 behind champions-elect Juventus.

Napoli went in front after 24 minutes through Jose Callejon before Calgiari’s Antonio Balzano acrobatically headed a Marek Hamsik cross into his own goal a few seconds before the end of the half and Manolo Gabbiadini competed the scoring 14 minutes after the break.

FIFTH IN A ROW

Olympiakos had already secured their fifth domestic title in a row — and 17th in the last 19 seasons — after title rivals Panathinaikos earlier suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Panthrakikos and they celebrated with a stylish win over Levadiakos.

In a festive atmosphere at the Karaiskakis Stadium, Argentine midfielder Alejandro Dominguez scored two goals and assisted another by Uruguayan forward Jorge Benitez with Costas Forto­unis adding the other to prompt celebrations for Olympiakos who went into the weekend knowing a point would deliver the title.

Olympiakos now have 73 points after 31 matches with PAOK Salonika in second place on 60 points and Panathinaikos third with 59 points.

“I’m very happy because we’ve won the title with a clear difference of 13 points. We were the best team and we have the best players,” Olympiakos coach Vitor Pereira, whose side have made it to the semi-finals of the Greek Cup, said.

WOLFSBURG STUMBLE

Kevin De Bruyne rescued a point for Wolfsburg with a late equaliser against Schalke, firing in after 78 minutes for his 10th goal of the campaign but the draw saw them slip 12 points behind Bayern, who are on 73 points.

Wolfsburg’s dominated at their Volkswagen Arena, especially in the second half, only for Schalke’s Leroy Sane to score on a counterattack after a corner in the 53rd after winning the ball on the edge of his own area, sprinting away before beating two Wolves defenders to fire home.

Having also earlier gone close with a free-kick, Belgium international De Bruyne rescued the hosts when he hit the bottom right-hand corner from 20 metres out.

Schalke, who have now failed to win any of their last five league games and were missing many players through injury, remain fifth on 42 points, on course for a Europa League spot.

SEVILLA SLIP-UP

Meanwhile in Spain’s La Liga, Sevilla’s Champions League hopes suffered a blow as they were held to 1-1 La Liga draw at lowly Granada, whose defender Diego Mainz scored at both ends.

Sevilla took on Granada aiming to draw level on points with fourth-placed Valencia in fourth and the final Champions League qualifying spot but the draw left them six points adrift of third-placed Atletico Madrid and still two behind Valencia with just six games remaining.

Granada went ahead against the run of play in the 16th minute when Mainz shed his marker and had time to place a header from a corner kick into the far side of the net but Sevilla levelled when he could only turn Aleix Vidal’s cross into his own net 21 minutes from time.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2015

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