European Review - Big dogs bitten

November 3, 2008

In a weekend that gave us a few surprise results across the continent, we also saw Rubin Kazan secure their first league title in Russia.

At home we saw two of the ‘big four’ beaten on their travels to relegation troubled opponents, whilst champions Man Utd were pushed close at home by play-off promoted Hull running out 4-3 winners in the end.

In Spain title challengers Valencia and Sevilla both lost, with los che going down 4-2 at home to struggling Santander. Elsewhere in la liga, the next big thing from Argentina - Pablo Piatti, scored a late equaliser for Almeria against Real.

Porto lost away at Naval, leaving surprise leaders Leixoes out in front with Benfica on their tail.

After a couple of disappointing results and performances Lyon were back to their old selves, winning to go four points clear. Challengers Bordeaux lost to lowly Nancy, losing ground to the leaders.

Serie A saw high-flyers Napoli and Udinese drop points, and Both Milan teams make push up the standings with wins. It is the first time since 2004 that AC have been top of the table, the year in which they clinched their last title.

The saw a return to form of the big three this weekend with PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord all recording wins. Previously impressive Groningen lost their 2nd game in their last four outings as they again faltered.

In Scotland it was business as usual as the duopoly continued, Rangers and Celtic won comfortably to remain at the summit.

Hoffenheim recorded yet another comfortable win, beating Karlsruhe 4-1 with Vedad Ibisevic notching a brace to take his season’s tally to 13, and keep 1899 on top of the pile in Germany. Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, early league leaders continued to slip as they beaten convincingly 3-0 by Hannover. Bayern coach Jurgen Kinsmann seems to be settling now, and they won again to go third.

Trabzonspor continued their surprise lead of the Turkish league, with an impressive 4-0 win. Ankaraspor kept on their heals as they collected three points. Beşiktaş lost ground by losing, and Fener could only draw to remain mid-table.

The story of the weekend comes as Rubin Kazan, a fairly unknown team from a large industrial town not known for it’s football club, won it’s first title. CSKA’s 1-0 home loss to Spartak on Saturday left Rubin knowing that victory would take them ten points clear with three games remaining. Substitute Savo Milošević’s last-gasp strike clinched a 2-1 win against Saturn, and so the Russian Premier-Liga title went to a club outside of Moscow for only the third time since it’s inception in 1992.

rubinkazan