Weekend Recap: Burning Up

How did those weekend games we talked about on Friday come out?

Saturday

Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United
Chelsea’s Michael Ballack put away a penalty in the 86th minute, and suddenly we have a title race. Manchester United could have essentiall (if not numerically) locked it up with a win here. Instead, Chelsea and ManU are now even on points. ManU’s frustrations continued after the game, where they were involved in a dustup with Chelsea groundsmen and stewards. (Photos here.)
Chelsea Offside recap here.
Manchester United Offside prefers to focus on the future.

PSG 3-1 Auxerre
Paris St. Germain would like you to know that they are not yet dead. Pauleta scored one and Amara Diane scored a brace, and suddenly things are looking a little less dire for PSG. They not only won, they won at home. They’re still in the relegation zone, with 38 points, but the two teams above them, Toulouse and Lens, are also sitting on 38. Now they’re hoping for a blazing end to the last three games of the season, and a little luck.
PSG Offside match recap here.

Shanghai Shenhua 1-2 Chengdu Blades / Shaanxi Baorong 2-1 Beijing Guo’an
It’s a horse race in the Chinese SuperLeague, with Shaanxi Baorong the surprise leaders after beating Beijing Guo’an this weekend. From Goal.com:

Xin Feng put Shaanxi ahead after 20 minutes only for Beijing’s Honduran star Walter Martinez to equalise 14 minutes later. Substitute Jiang Chen scored the winner midway through the second half to send Shaanxi to the summit and inflict Beijing’s first defeat of the season.

Early season pacesetters Shanghai Shenhua also lost their first match of the campaign, going down 2-1 at the home of newly promoted Chengdu Blades, despite taking a first half lead. Chengdu move into third, one place below Shanghai on goal difference.

Sunday

Galatasaray 1-0 Fenerbahçe
Those are Galatasary fans in the photo, which was taken after Galatasaray’s win over crosstown arch-rivals Fenerbahçe. The goal was scored by Nonda in the 37th minute.
From the match report from Galatasaray Offside>

We went into the match with only one foreign player, Shabani Nonda. Fener went in with eight, with their Brazilians in tow. And our youngsters tore them to shreds.

Any Fenerbahçe fans want to offer up the other side?

Valencia 3-0 Osasuna

Sometimes a fresh start is all it takes to move things in a new direction. New Valencia coach Voro got a perfect start to his career at Valencia with the win. The home side got a boost early on when the Osasuna goalkeeper saw red in the 17th minute and Valencia sent home the resulting penalty. And it just got better from there, with later goals from Juan Mata and Joaquin.

There is so much congestion at the bottom of the La Liga table that this win moved Valencia out of the relegation zone and all the way up to 15th, four points above the drop.
Valencia Offsice match recap here.

Real Madrid 3-0 Athletic Bilbao, Villareal & Barca

Real Madrid could have sewn up the title this weekend. They did their best, scoring three and taking all three points from the match with Athletic Bilbao. But Villareal remains theoretically and mathematically alive after a 1-0 win over Real Betis. Real is ten points clear at the top, so Villareal would need a series of miracles to beat them. But Madrid will have to wait at least one more week before celebrating.

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Category: Asia, English Premier League, Europe, French Ligue 1, Spain La Liga, World Football