Ligue 1 round 35

Grenoble 4-0 PSG
Monaco 1-1 Le Mans
Valenciennes 2-0 Bordeaux

Another defeat for Bordeaux and they are on the brink of relinquishing their title. They lie 14 points off the summit with five games to play. Basically it ain't gonna happen for them as Gregory Pujol and Foued Kadir struck in either half to score a decisive win for VA. Grenoble aren't going quietly and dropped PSG into the bottom half of the table - that's not going to be good enough for the board as they come to reassess Antoine Kombouaré's position - as four different players got themselves on the scoresheet. Laurent Batlles and Nicoas Dieuze made it 2-0 by half time and second half goals from Nassim Akrour and Danijel Ljuboja completed a comprehensive win for the bottom club. Mathieu Dossevi's early strike for Le Mans was pegged back by Ouwa Maazou early in the second half as Monaco came back to draw.

Auxerre v Marseille
Lille v Nancy
Valenciennes v Lorient
Rennes v Sochaux
St Etienne v Lens
Boulogne v Nice
Bordeaux v Toulouse
Montpellier v Lyon

Big game this weekend comes on Friday night at the Abbe-Deschamps where Auxerre and Marseille face off in what almost amounts to a championship play-off. A win for Marseille and they're pretty much uncatchable. A draw helps neither, but Auxerre can do everyone a favour - not least themselves - with a win. They've not lost in the league at home since early December and they were the last side to beat Marseille at the Vélodrome. It's set up for a cracker.

Bordeaux's faltering challenge even for European football next season sees them take on Toulouse. Laurent Blanc is pointing to his own team's lethargy for their downfall, which has been dramatic. "We no longer have the technical, mental or physical force to put our opponents in danger", he said after the VA defeat, which is pretty scathing. The feeling that Blanc himself is already half-way to accepting the national coach job after the World Cup grows with every utterance on these lines.

Montpellier and Lyon are vying for a Champions League place, but given the way Lyon played midweek - and that's off the back of the LFP rearranging games to give them last weekend off - which was so weak and short of ideas, then Montpellier have a great chance. Lille remain in the box seat for that third CL place and are at home to Nancy this week. Should St Etienne get a win at home to Lens on Sunday, then it all but relegates Le Mans and Boulogne. Le Mans have the weekend off, but Boulogne are at home to Nice where three points is a must if they're to stand a chance. Valenciennes are at home to Lorient and Sochaux go to Rennes in a pair of mid-table clashes in the remaining games.

Bundesliga round 33

Hannover v Monchengladbach
Leverkusen v Hertha
Hamburg v Nurnberg
Cologne v Freiburg
Eintracht v Hoffenheim
Dortmund v Wolfsburg
Schalke v Bremen
Stuttgart v Mainz
Bayern v Bochum

With two rounds of fixtures remaining, everyone kicks off at half two (UK time) on Saturday. There's a growing war of words between the title rivals. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, perhaps getting a bit carried away from the 3-0 tubbing of a hopeless Lyon side in the Champions League in the week, reckons Bayern can win the lot - league, Cup and Champions League. Felix Magath is a master of this kind of thing though and did what he does best; take the pressure off his players completely with a few well-placed soundbites. Despite Bayern facing Bochum and Bayern in these last two games, Magath said "I believe that the guys from Munich are still going to slip up in the run-in". Schalke have Bremen at home and Mainz away left to play, both tricky opponents, but a full-strength squad to pick from. Bochum, Bayern's opponents this week, have sacked Heiko Herrlich after a run of ten games without a win. Herrlich was only in the job for six months having taken over from Marcel Koller in October. Daruisz Wosz takes over for the last two games as Bochum begin the final fortnight in the bottom three.

Hertha will be down if they fail to win this week, and there's every chance that'll happen as they go to Leverkusen this week. Hannover are in the other automatic relegation spot and they have a visit from Gladbach. Nurnberg are still deep in trouble and face troubled Hamburg while Freiburg aren't completely out of it, though a point will do for them this week at Cologne.

Dortmund and Stuttgart retain hopes of Champions League qualification and are both at home, to Wolfsburg and Mainz respectively. In a mid-table, nothing to play for sort of game, Eintracht face Hoffenheim.

Valbuena keeps OM on course: Ligue 1 reviews

Lorient 1-0 Bordeaux
Le Mans 1-2 Lille
Nice 2-1 Grenoble
Sochaux 0-3 Boulogne
Nancy 0-0 Montpellier
PSG 1-1 Rennes
Toulouse 0-3 Auxerre
Lens 1-1 Valenciennes
Marseille 1-0 St Etienne

The top five can all still take the Championnat, but it's looking increasingly likely that Marseille are going to take it. Mathieu Valbuena's sixth-minute goal gave OM a 1-0 win over St Etienne and that maintains their gap back to the rest. Auxerre remain the nearest pursuers after blowing Toulouse away in the second half after a goalless first 45. Benoit Pedretti put them in front a couple of minutes into the second half and two from Ireneusz Jelen sealed it. Lille's win at Le Mans puts them into third place and the last Champions League spot. Tulio de Melo put them in front early on, but they were pegged back by Modibo Maiga early in the second half. A penalty from Yohan Cabaye won it after Gervinho was brought down in the box. Lyon remain in with a theoretical chance with their game in hand, as do Montpellier despite a goalless draw with Nancy. Bordeaux lost yet more ground as Kevin Gameiro won it for Lorient, but the reigning champions are still in with a shout - albeit a slim one. They've now lost four of their last five. That is not the form of champions.

St Etienne's defeat means that Le Mans and Boulogne still retain a chance of getting out of trouble. Boulogne beat ten-man Sochaux, Jacques Faty sent off with quarter of an hour to go when the score was 1-0. Gregory Thil had put Boulogne ahead, but it was only after the red card that they made it safe with Mustapha Yatabaré and Jeremy Blayac on target. Grenoble can't even give their fans something to cheer as they limp out of the league with a whimper. They blew a lead, not for the first time, after Nassim Akrour had put them ahead. Eric Mouloungui pulled Nice level and Emerse Fae won it for them. PSG could only draw with Rennes, Guillaume Hoarau equalising Jerome Leroy's opener. Lens and Valenciennes battled to a stalemate as well, Gregory Pujol equalising for VA after Sébastien Roudet had put Lens in front on the half hour.

There are a few midweek games as clubs catch up:

Monaco v Le Mans
Grenoble v PSG
Valenciennes v Bordeaux

Bordeaux have to win or they can forget about retaining their title. There's a lot less riding on the other games.

Labbadia out after Hamburg cop a flogging: Bundesliga reviews

Bochum 0-2 Stuttgart
Nurnberg 2-3 Dortmund
Hertha 0-1 Schalke
Monchengladbach 1-1 Bayern
Leverkusen 3-0 Hannover
Mainz 3-3 Eintracht
Bremen 1-0 Cologne
Hoffenheim 5-1 Hamburg
Freiburg 1-0 Wolfsburg

The writing was on the wall for Bruno Labbadia from a while back, but the Hamburg board acted after a gubbing from Hoffenheim. Vedad Ibisevic and Chinedu Obasi both got doubles as Hoffenheim ended a grim run of results with a 5-1 thrashing. Ibisevic put The Villagers two up in ten minutes before Obasi's first on the half hour made it three. Robert Tesche pulled one back, but Obasi got Hoffenheim's fourth shortly before Sejad Salihovic added a fifth. Worse still for Hamburg, substitute Tolgay Arslan was sent off in stoppage time for violent conduct. Normally, there wouldn't be too much shock at the coach getting the boot, but the timing is a little odd with the second leg of their Europa League semi-final against Fulham in a few days time. Ricardo Moniz will be in charge for that one and for the rest of the season. The final of the Europa League is at the Volksparkstadion and the weight of expectation on the club reaching that final has been overwhelming.

Up at the pointy end of the table, Bayern dropped points at Gladbach. Marco Reus put Gladbach ahead on the counter-attack on the hour, but Miroslav Klose came off the bench to head home an equaliser from Phillip Lahm's free-kick to rescue a point. It looked like Schalke were about to pass up the chance to level it up at the top as they were being held by Hertha at the time, but Heiko Westermann swooped on Jefferson Farfan's parried shot to prod home a late winner. Bayern lead by a superior goal difference of 13.

It is now a two-horse race. Bremen and Leverkusen needed the top two to lose all their remaining games to stand a chance. Both are now seven points adrift with two games to go. Bremen won against Cologne, but got lucky. It was deep in stoppage time when Pedro Geromel was sent off for handling in the box and Torsten Grings slammed the penalty home. Stefan Kiessling went back to the top of the goal-scoring charts with two of Leverkusen's three against Hannover coming either side of Burak Kaplan's goal, his second in as many games for the club. Bremen lead Leverkusen by just two goals in the race for the final Champions League spot. Dortmund lie just a point further back thanks largely to a Lucas Barrios hat-trick. Christian Eigler pulled it back to 3-2 six minutes from time, but Dortmund held out for the win. Stuttgart also remain hopeful of Champions League football after a 2-0 win over Bochum on Friday night. Early goals from Cacau and Ciprian Marica sealed it.

Bochum's loss drops them into the bottom three as Freiburg won against Wolfsburg. Cedric Makiadi got the only goal of the game late in the first half as they leap up to 14th. Honours were even on the Main as Eintracht twice blew a lead in Mainz. Alexander Meier put them two up inside twenty minutes, but Aristide Bancé pulled one back seconds before the break and Jan Simak equalised shortly after it. They were level for just seven minutes before Umit Korkmaz restored Eintracht's lead, but Bancé's second came a few minutes from time to square it up once more.

Ligue 1 round 34

Lorient v Bordeaux
Le Mans v Lille
Nice v Grenoble
Sochaux v Boulogne
Nancy v Montpellier
PSG v Rennes
Toulouse v Auxerre
Lens v Valenciennes
Marseille v St Etienne

Just nine games this weekend. The LFP agreed to Lyon's request to postpone their game with Monaco in order to prepare for their Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern. This has greatly annoyed the Germans, which is presumably why the LFP did it.

Marseille are in the box seat and really ought to be beating St Etienne. Les Verts are all but safe - another couple of points should do it - and look relatively simple opposition to l'OM bandwagon which has built up such a head of steam. Auxerre can take advantage of Lyon's inaction to put some daylight between the sides should they beat Toulouse. Who knows which Toulouse will show up. Montpellier are at Nancy where anything would do to put them in front of Lyon and into the Champions League places, even if it is only temporary. By beating Le Mans, Lille could leapfrog the pair of them should Montpellier fail to win as could Bordeaux if they get their season back on track against Lorient.

Boulogne will finally be relegated unless they beat Sochaux, though if St Etienne get anything from Marseille, they're gone anyway. Grenoble are down and go to Nice. Elsewhere, Valenciennes are at Lens and Rennes are in the capital to take on PSG.

This is it: Eredivisie final round preview

AZ v PSV
Groningen v Sparta
Utrecht v Vitesse
Feyenoord v Heerenveen
NAC v Twente
NEC v Ajax
Waalwijk v VVV Venlo
Roda v Willem II
Heracles v Den Haag

So it's come to this. 90 minutes to decide the destination of the soup dish. It's already left Alkmaar as the champions had no chance ages ago. It's in Twente's hands to take their first ever championship. All they need to do is win in Breda. Simple eh? Well, yes it is. The real test of their title credentials was last week when they pulled off a terrific and professional win over Feyenoord. They have refused to buckle under the pressure of Ajax's marvellous run of form that's taken them to within a point and onto 102 league goals. Ajax really ought to see off NEC with ease, but they'll also need a big leg up from NAC. Were it the other way round, Twente going to Nijmegen, then perhaps Ajax fans would have more hope as NEC have been something of a bogey side for Twente over the years. All eyes are on those two games. The others are pretty much a sideshow.

Not to us though. PSV finish against AZ. Both sit in the Europa League qualifying spots, but Feyenoord - home to Heerenveen - need a hand from PSV if they're to pip AZ to fourth. Heracles and Utrecht - home to Den Haag and Vitesse respectively - will finish in the Europa League play-offs and will play each other in the first round, the only question remaining is about who plays where when. The final spot is currently in Groningen's hands and they're at home to Sparta who will finish in the relegation play-offs. NAC and Roda are looking to gatecrash the Europa League play-offs and Roda face the other relegation play-off 'qualifiers' in the shape of Willem II.

The play-off systems mean there's generally a lot to play for right through the season. Not so this year. Waalwijk v VVV has nothing riding on it at all. Still, eight out of nine ain't bad.

One final note. With Ajax and Feyenoord facing each other in the cup final, there's been a change of format. The potential for trouble has seen the KNVB decide against the traditional one-off final at De Kuip and instead play it over two legs, one at the Amsterdam ArenA and one at De Kuip with no away supporters allowed at either match. The first leg went to Ajax in Amsterdam, Siem de Jong with two early goals in a 2-0 win.

So Twente or Ajax? Place your bets.

Bundesliga round 32

Bochum v Stuttgart
Nurnberg v Dortmund
Hertha v Schalke
Monchengladbach v Bayern
Leverkusen v Hannover
Mainz v Eintracht
Bremen v Cologne
Hoffenheim v Hamburg
Freiburg v Wolfsburg

This is the last chance saloon for Bremen and Leverkusen. Nine points behind league leaders Bayern, should either slip up, they're out of the title race. Even as it stands, they need a minor miracle given the number of goals they have to make up on the Bavarians, especially after that seven-goal haul last week. That came against Hannover and they're up against Leverkusen this week. Bremen should be favourites to beat Cologne too, but it's out of their hands. Schalke are the only realistic challenger and they're away in Berlin this week. Hertha are desperate for points, but Schalke ought to be too strong. Either way, everyone's waiting for Bayern to slip up. Despite the ongoing scandal involving Franck Ribery, they have quality in the squad that nobody else in the league can boast. Young Diego Contento, for instance, has burst onto the scene and looks a terrific prospect. Good luck Gladbach. You'll need it.

It's derby time on the River Main as Eintracht take the short trip out of the city up the road to Mainz. Local bragging rights are very much at stake with Mainz just a point behind their bigger neighbours but with a very good home record. That's the main point of interest in mid-table. Once again, it's the bottom end where the most interest lies. Freiburg, Bochum and Nurnberg are all locked on 28 points above the bottom two. Bochum kick the weekend off on Friday at home to Stuttgart - hard to see them get anything out of that - while Freiburg are at home to Wolfsburg - again... - and Nurnberg are also at home to Dortmund. BvB will be without Mohamed Zidan, indeed he's gone for six months with a cruciate ligament injury, but surely look too strong for Nurnberg. Time is running out for all these three.

Finally, there's a game between Hamburg and Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim could probably use some points as they're in a small amount of danger of getting sucked into it at the bottom. They should be OK, but it's getting a bit too close for comfort.

Marseille march on: Ligue 1 reviews

Rennes 0-0 Nancy
Boulogne 1-2 Marseille
Valenciennes 0-1 Le Mans
Auxerre 4-1 Lorient
Grenoble 2-2 Sochaux
Nice 0-0 Lens
Bordeaux 2-2 Lyon
Lille 4-0 Monaco
Montpellier 1-1 Toulouse
St Etienne 0-0 PSG

Five games still remain in Ligue 1, so nothing at the top end is decided yet. It is beginning to take shape though and the form of Marseille far exceeds that of any of the other sides in the league. They needed a late Taye Taiwo penalty to maintain their run of five straight wins. Mathieu Valbuena had put them ahead late in the first half, but Boulogne weren't about to roll over and were back in it through Jeremy Blayac eight minutes from time. In the last minute, Yoann Lachor was adjudged, harshly, to have handled in the box and Taiwo thumped in the spot kick. OM remain five points clear of Auxerre who eased to a 4-1 win over nine-man Lorient. Dennis Oliech, Ireneusz Jelen and Valter Birsa had put AJA into a three-goal lead before Jeremy Morel was the first Lorient player dismissed. Kevin Gameiro pulled one back, despite the numerical disadvantage, but Fabien Audard followed Morel off the pitch and the game was up. Cedric Hengbart added a late penalty to complete the win.

Lyon lost ground in a draw with Bordeaux, but the talking point wasn't Les Gones coming back from a goal down twice, but the three dismissals in the last minute following a mass brawl. Arsenal-bound Marouane Chamakh put Bordeaux in front in the first half, only for Ederson to peg it back ten minutes after the restart. Jaroslav Plasil restored the lead seven minutes later, but just ten more minutes had elapsed when Cris nodded in a second equaliser. In the last minute, Anthony Reveillere was sent off for a bad foul on Benoit Tremoulinas who was also dismissed alongside team-mate Jussie as tempers boiled over. Montpellier couldn't take advantage to move back into the Champions League places as they were held by Toulouse and Colin Kazim-Richards' last minute equaliser after Alberto Costa had put Montpellier in front in the first half. Two Yohan Cabaye goals were a feature of Lille's 4-0 win over Monaco as they move to within a point of those coveted European places.

Grenoble picked up a point at home to Sochaux, but they're already down. Boulogne's defeat means they have to win all their remaining games to get out of it while Le Mans grabbed a huge win over Valenciennes despite going down a man - Guillaume Loriot sent off at 0-0 with seven minutes to go. Sebastien Corchia grabbed the winner in stoppage time. They're eight points behind St Etienne who were held to a goalless draw at home to PSG. There were also goalless draws for Rennes at home to Nancy and Nice, who are edging their way to safety, against Lens.

Bayern hit seven to remain in charge: Bundesliga review

Cologne 2-0 Bochum
Freiburg 2-1 Nurnberg
Hamburg 0-1 Mainz
Wolfsburg 2-4 Bremen
Schalke 3-1 Monchengladbach
Stuttgart 2-1 Leverkusen
Bayern 7-0 Hannover
Dortmund 1-1 Hoffenheim
Eintracht 2-2 Hertha

Bayern produced a virtuoso performance to crush lowly Hamburg and stay in control of the Bundesliga. The highlight was a hat-trick from Arjen Robben who was in sparkling form throughout, the Dutchman combining pace, vision and a deft touch in front of goal to finish with a treble. Ivica Olic headed in the opener and ended with two while wunderkind Thomas Muller also helped himself to a brace. Schalke remain on their heels after beating Gladbach, Ivan Rakitic getting two including a late penalty. A loss for Leverkusen and a win for Bremen mean they both retain mathematical chances of the title, but it will take a minor miracle for the other results they require to go for them to materialise. Bremen had the veteran international midfielder Torsten Frings at the top of his form as they twice came from behind to Wolfsburg. Edin Dzeko's opener was pegged back by a Frings penalty before Grafite restored the lead. Claudio Pizarro squared it up for a second and Frings' second and a fourth from Hugo Almeida won it. Leverkusen went ahead through Stefan Kiessling early on, but lost Tranquilo Barnetta to a red card shortly afterwards. They couldn't hang on and Cacau got both of Stuttgart's goals as they turned it round.

It's at the bottom where the real intrigue lies. Results this week see one point cover 14th to 17th place. Hertha remain adrift despite a draw with Eintracht. Gojko Kacar put them in front and, though Umit Korkmaz equalised for the Frankfurters, they took heart from Pirmin Schwegler's missed penalty late in the first half. Following that, Hertha were straight on the attack and Raffael finished a sweeping move. Marco Russ secured a point for Eintracht on the hour. Hannover's defeat sees them in the second relegation place with three clubs just a point above them. Two of those are Freiburg and Nurnberg who faced each other on Saturday, Freiburg getting the win thanks to Dominic Maroh's early own goal and Demba Cisse's strike on the hour. Maroh atoned in part for his early error with a late goal, but it wasn't enough to prevent Freiburg's win. Bochum went down to two Zoran Tosic goals on Friday night in Cologne and remain deep in trouble.

A late equaliser from Vedad Ibisevic denied Dortmund all three points against Hoffenheim which means BvB couldn't take advantage of losses elsewhere to move into the Champions League places and their title push is over. Nelson Valdez had put them in front before the Bosnian Ibisevic nicked a point. Hamburg also lost ground, going down to Aristide Bancé's 20th minute strike which won it for Mainz.

Twente within touching distance: Eredivisie reviews

Den Haag 4-0 Waalwijk
Ajax 4-0 Heracles
Heerenveen 0-0 NAC
PSV 3-1 Groningen
Sparta 0-3 Utrecht
Twente 2-0 Feyenoord
Vitesse 2-5 Roda
VVV Venlo 2-0 NEC
Willem II 0-3 AZ

We postulated the theory that fans of Twente would be hoping for a favour from their big rivals Heracles. Instead, the team did what they had to do and saw off Feyenoord themselves and maintained their single-point lead on the table. Blaise N'Kufo put them ahead just before the break, slipped past a statuesque defence by Bryan Ruiz and slamming the ball past Erwin Mulder. Miroslav Stoch sealed it in the second half, again springing the offside trap and finishing in style. Ajax are now the ones hoping for favours from elsewhere. All they can do is win and hope and they did that in some style at home to Heracles. Siem de Jong headed in for a first-half double, the second Ajax's 100th league goal of the season. Marko Pantelic took over after the break, bagging a double of his own. The first saw him lob the keeper with the outside of his boot - delightful - while his second came from de Jong's header which came off the bar to fall at the Serbian's feet.

Feyenoord's defeat cost them fourth place as AZ scored yet another win, this time over Willem II. Hector Moreno put them ahead early and two in five second half minutes from Brett Holman and Mounir El Hamdaoui sent them into the automatic Europa League places above the Rotterdam side. PSV will finish third. They came from behind to beat Groningen who were ahead within three minutes through Tim Matavz. Zakaria Labyad, on his first start for the club, got two either side of a Balázs Dzsudzsák strike.

Waalwijk lost again, Den Haag sealing their Eredivisie status for next season with a 4-0 win. Two up by the break through Timothy Derijck and a Kees Luijckx penalty, they closed out a vital win through Andre Oper and a late one from Danny Buijs. This, combined with the loss for Willem II to AZ and Sparta's loss at home to Utrecht means that the bottom three are settled. Jacob Lensky put Utrecht ahead against Sparta and when Rydell Poepon missed from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time, that sinking feeling began to get worse for the Rotterdam side. Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Erixson Danso wrapped up the win.

Willem Janssen and Mads Junker both hit two in a thumping win over Vitesse while Ruud Boymans got both for VVV in a 2-0 win over NEC. Heerenveen couldn't take advantage of the dismissal of NAC's Robbert Schilder, Gerald Sibon missing the resultant penalty.