Chewing over the latest and greatest in the major footy leagues. A big week for Bayern Munich and Liverpool, not so much for a few others. The German league title is already decided, Italy is getting close, France too, but we're in for a thrilling race to the finish line in England and Spain. 

England

Don’t look now, folks, but Liverpool are in prime position to win the Premier League. Yeah, I know. We’re as shocked as you. The Reds met Tottenham this week in a big game for both clubs, and commenced to rip them viciously to shreds. It started with a Younis Kaboul own goal in the second minute, and ended in a 4-0 Liverpool win, Luis Suarez scoring his 29th league goal of the year (see below). The Scousers storm to the top of the EPL table with that, and will win their first Premier League title if they can win out from here (they play Chelsea and Manchester City in that time).

Manchester United started the weekend off by falling behind to Aston Villa, causing all sorts of knee-jerk commentary reactions, only to run away with a comfortable 4-1 win in the end, thanks to a double from Wayne Rooney, plus a first United goal for Juan Mata and the forgotten man Javier Hernandez sealed things late on. They close the gap on Spurs with that, but not on Everton who stormed away to a 3-1 away win at Fulham, who are looking more and more doomed each week. Everton play Arsenal next week, and a win against the Gunners will close the gap between them and fourth place to just 1 point with a game in hand. Arsenal themselves were impressive in holding Manchester City to a 1-1 draw, while the big shock was Chelsea falling 1-0 to Crystal Palace. Maybe Jose Mourinho’s calls that his team cannot win the EPL weren’t just mind games after all? City are still just 4 points off Liverpool with 2 games in hand, with Chelsea between them in second, 2 behind Pool, though the Blues have lost 2 of their last 3. With Liverpool unbeaten in 13 league games, and on an 8 game win streak, they look like the favourites right now.

As far as relegation goes, Sunderland’s loss to West Ham leaves them still in big trouble, though it gives the Hammers a lot of breathing room. Swansea had a valuable win over Norwich, and Crystal Palace’s big win was the only other one of note at that end. West Brom nearly stole the points with a 95th minute goal against Cardiff, only for the Welsh team to equalise in the 96th minute. Pepe Mel was NOT a happy chappy.

Side note – would you pay £90 (NZ$173) for one of these? No, us neither. But that’s what the FA are charging for the new England jerseys which the team will wear at the World Cup.

Spain

We know it’s a three horse race in Spain. Possibly one of the great finishes in years is on the cards even. Traditional heavyweights Barcelona and Real Madrid have been joined by Atletico Madrid, with just three points separating the trio on the table. Any dropped points are going to be devastating from here on in. Well, all three did what had to be done. Real Madrid destroyed Rayo Vallecano 5-0 to right the ship after consecutive losses saw them drop from clear first to third. The first loss was to Barca in El Classico, while the second was much less excusable – midweek to Sevilla. Ronaldo gave them the early lead in that game, but they couldn’t hold it, falling 2-1. Against Rayo Vallecano, Gareth Bale inspired proceedings with a double (see below), Ronaldo also adding his 28th league goal of the year. Barcelona piled on the pressure by beating Celta Vigo 3-0 midweek (Neymar 2, Messi), then took advantage of Real’s slip up, beating Espanyol 1-0 after a second half penalty converted by, who else, Lionel Messi. But the real dark horses in this race are Atletico Madrid. Beating Granada and then fighting back for a 2-1 away win at Bilbao means that they’re now clear out in front on 76 points (Barca on 75, Real 73) with just 7 games remaining in the season. Strap yourselves in folks, we may have a new champion! At the other end of the table, Real Betis look stranded in last, while Villadolid made things interesting by winning and tightening the gap between the in second to last and Granada in 12th to just 4 points. 

Italy

It was a big week for Italian footy with the weekend's action being coupled with some midweek fixtures. This led to some very interesting results, mainly Juventus who despite still leading the comp by 11 points couldn't put back to back wins on the board. They started by beating Parma 2-1 but then fell to third place Napoli 0-2. They were without their striking top dawg Carlos Tevez who was suspended and it showed with a lack of fire power up front.  The only team who have a realistic shot of catching Juventus, AS Roma sit in second with a game in hand after the got the W traveling to Sassuolo, 2-1 . They have a double header this week playing Parma and Caligliari, two games you would expect them to win which could make things interesting.

AC Milan had two wins, 2-0 over Fiorentina and 3-0 over Chievo which does nothing to move them out of the mid table scramble but would please many fans who have struggled through a tough season. What's even more pleasing the Milan fans is that Inter could only managed two draws a dour 0-0 battle against Udinese and 2-2 against Livorno. Speaking of Inter, Christian Chivu recently announced his retirement from footy having made 115 appearances in the black and blue jersey. Kiaora.

Germany

Bayern Munich are champions again. They sealed the deal midweek with a 3-1 win at Hertha Berlin, thanks to goals from Kroos, Gotze and Ribery. Scarily, after winning a treble last season, they’ve actually got even better. Winning officially with 7 games to spare beats the German record of 6 games left that Bayern set last year. And y’know what, with Manchester United to come tomorrow in the Champions League, and Kaiserslauten awaiting in the German Cup semi-finals, another treble is still on the cards. Bayern did suffer a 3-3 draw with Hoffenheim on the weekend, ending their record 19 game winning streak in the Bundesliga, though they rested a number of players for the game. The biggest problem from that game is the injury suffered by Thiago Alcantra which will rule him out for up to 8 weeks.

As for all the pitiful rest of them? Dortmund and Schalke both won, putting some distance between them and Leverkusen for the second and third (of three) Champions League spots. Leverkusen could only draw with last placed Braunschweig at home. Marco Rojas’ Stuttgart were the team that lost to Dortmund, and it means that they sink into the relegation playoff spot. Hamburger SV are the other team facing the drop if things don’t improve in the final 6 games.  

France

In France, PSG continued their dominating form as they defeated mid table Nice 1-0. Well they dominated but have to thank Nice's Thimothee Kolodzieczak for an own goal as Yohan Cabaye, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Edison Cavani and Zlatan Imbrahimovic all unable to convert chances. Quite a line up huh?

Elsewhere, second place Monaco slipped up in their chase of PSG loosing 0-1 to Evian Thonon. This leaves them 13 points behind PSG and with third place Lille 6 points behind Monaco in third (1-0 win over Guingamp) it looks like the French Lique 1 is set in stone.

Put a Stamp on It

The man who is Zlatan has had a further honour bestowed upon him. He’s being immortalised in philatelic form in his native Sweden. By which we mean he’s gonna be on stamps.  5 million of the little beggars have already sold in advance. The images are of Zlatan in that memorable 4-2 win over England in 2012. Y’Know, where he scored that insane bicycle kick?