Barca stumble

uncharacteristic slip-ups at the weekend, with varying consequences to their title hopes.
German Bundesliga trailblazers Dortmund fell to only their third defeat of the season, a 1-0 reverse to Hoffenheim; Barcelona were held 1-1 by Sevilla, and Milan suffered the same fate against Bari.
Despite their setback Dortmund are still on target to claim their seventh ever title as they hold a nine point lead over Bayer Leverkusen after a weekend marked by Bayern Munich’s sizzling 6-0 drubbing of Hamburg.
Dortmund fell to a second-half goal from Hoffenheim striker Vedad Ibisevic.
“This game was predestined for such a result,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp. “We were better in nearly all areas, but we didn’t make it count.
“Our approach to the game was right, so I am not worried by our first defeat of the year.”
Barca in contrast are now only five points clear of arch-rivals Real Madrid, who gave their title hopes a shot in the arm with a 2-0 win over Hercules.
Milan, knocked out of the Champions League last week by Tottenham, meanwhile, are five points to the good over fellow San Siro residents Inter Milan, who came away from their meeting with Brescia also with a 1-1 stalemate.
Antonio Cassano scored a late equaliser for the hosts when they were already down to 10 men after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s sending off to rock-bottom Bari to cancel out Gergely Rudolf’s first-half opener.
Milan now face the prospect of losing Ibrahimovic for the top-of-the-table derby with Inter in three weeks, depending on the length of his ban.
Coach Massimiliano Allegri suggested it may be Ibrahimovic’s recent dry spell in front of goal that had riled him.
“He has to stay calm, these periods can happen. He shouldn’t get annoyed because he hasn’t scored for a month, he’s giving a lot.”
“We knew this game wasn’t won before kick-off but we made things difficult by going behind in a terrible first half,” added Allegri.
“We’re disappointed and bitter. This week we’ve twice played well but not got what we deserved.”
A different fate to Dortmund and company lay in store for French leaders Lille, who emerged from the weekend action three points clear of closest pursuers Rennes after their Belgian starlet Eden Hazard bagged an injury time goal in their 2-1 win over Valenciennes.
The 20-year-old winger received a pass from Rio Mavuba and cracked a low shot into the bottom-left corner in the 91st minute, after Moussa Sow’s first-half opener for the hosts had been cancelled out by Gregory Pujol.
“I’ve scored two lovely goals,” said Hazard, who also scored a spectacular opening goal for Lille in their 2-1 win at Marseille last weekend.
“So much the better for me and the team. They’re two very important goals. We’ll go to Brest (next weekend) with a three-point lead.”
In Spain, Barcelona completely dominated the first half and took the lead on the half hour mark through Bojan Krkic who came on for the injured Pedro Rodriguez.
Andres Iniesta floated a pass to Diego Alves who found Bojan and he was able to walk the ball into the net.
After the break it was a different looking Sevilla who pressed forward and got their reward with Jesus Navas heading in an Alvaro Negredo cross.
Barcelona were on the back foot as Navas and Frederic Kanoute had good chances to score but late on the Catalan side rallied and could have won it when Iniesta hit the post.
“Generally I am happy with the performance, we always looked to control the match but you have to realise that there are other teams playing as well,” said Barca coach Pep Guardiola after the game.
“We played against a good side but we deserved more from the first half. In the second half they improved and were strong on the counter-attack.” Sevilla coach Gregorio Manzano was happy with a point against the champions.
“When we scored I felt we could go on to beat Barcelona but at the same time we could have lost. You have to keep working constantly against them and only Hercules have managed to beat them,” he said.
Earlier, an injury time penalty from Diego Castro gave nine-man Sporting Gijon a surprise 1-1 draw against Villarreal.
The home side looked to have moved onto the shoulders of third-placed Valencia, who were beaten 4-0 by Zaragoza, but they conceded a goal following a controversial refereeing call.
Villarreal were far from their best and Sporting dominated possession for long spells but lacked the finesse in front of goal.
Sporting gifted the opening goal to Giuseppe Rossi with keeper Ivan Cuellar dropping a cross at the feet of the striker who just had to place the ball into an empty net.
Sporting were reduced to 10 men when Jose Angel foolishly received a second yellow card for complaining to the referee and then Rafael Sastre was also given his marching order in the final minute for upending Rossi as last man.
It all looked to have gone against Sporting until deep in stoppage time when Gonzalo Rodriguez was adjudged to have fouled David Barral, and Castro coolly struck the ball home from 12 yards.
“I am not going to talk about the referee or give my opinion about the penalty,” said Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido.
“This was a difficult game and it went wrong for us with a debatable decision which I am not going to judge. We should have been able to deal with the game better but the team did as well as they could.”
Espanyol boosted their European hopes with a 2-0 win over 10-man Deportivo la Coruna. The home side had lost six of their previous seven games before the visit of the Galician side, but after a tight opening spell the match turned in Espanyol’s favour with the dismissal of Pablo Alvarez shortly before half-time. – AFP.