Barca clear, Juve, Milan win

A round-up of action in Europe over the weekend:

SPAIN

Barcelona look to have wrapped up the Primera Liga title after establishing an 11-point lead with their 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid's surprise 2-1 defeat by Getafe.

Barca bounced back from their Champions League exit at the hands of Chelsea with first-half goals from midfielders Deco and Ludovic Giuly in a morale-boosting win for the Catalan club.

They now have 65 points to Real's 54 after the Madrid club, dumped out of Europe by Juventus, could only manage a 90th minute consolation goal from Santiago Solari in their defeat.

Villarreal are third on 47 points after Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, who flopped at Manchester United, scored his 17th goal of a tremendous season, made another and also won a penalty in their 4-1 win over fourth-placed Espanyol.

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ITALY

A late strike by Uruguayan Ruben Olivera gave Juventus a controversial 1-0 win at Chievo Verona to leave them level with leaders AC Milan, who hung on for a 1-0 victory over Sampdoria.

A 65th-minute header from Kaka put Milan on 63 points before Juve matched them in Sunday's late game, while third-placed Inter Milan are 16 points adrift following a 1-1 draw at Lazio.

At the San Siro Milan's Brazil playmaker gave the champions the sixth 1-0 win in their last nine games in all competitions.

Through to the last eight of the Champions League, Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti said the "close attention" to defending properly was the key to his team's recent success.

Inter are level on points with Sampdoria and two clear of Udinese, whose David Di Michele scored a hat-trick in their shock 5-1 win at Palermo.

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GERMANY

Sunday's top of the table clash between Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich, who had been level on 50 points each, went Schalke's way after Brazilian midfielder Lincoln sent a free kick past Oliver Kahn midway through the second half.

"I think that was the most important goal of my career," said Lincoln, whose team have no European distractions.

Bayern's aggregate win over Arsenal in midweek means they now have the Champions League quarter-finals to contend with.

Werder Bremen, last season's German double winners, rounded off a dismal week after a 7-2 mauling by Lyon in the Champions League with a 0-0 home draw against FSV Mainz, who are fighting relegation.

Werder slipped to fourth on 44 points after VfB Stuttgart won 2-0 at Borussia Dortmund to reach 45 points on Sunday.

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ENGLAND

Holders Manchester United, Premier League champions Arsenal, Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers all booked their places in Monday's draw for the FA Cup semi-finals.

United tore a re-shuffled Southampton side to pieces at St Mary's, winning 4-0 thanks to a double strike by Paul Scholes and goals from skipper Roy Keane and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Arsenal, like United midweek Champions League losers, scored their winner inside eight minutes at Bolton Wanderers through Fredrik Ljungberg. Bolton forward El-Hadji Diouf was sent off for elbowing keeper Jens Lehmann in an off-the-ball incident.

Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United also went through. Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert got Newcastle's goal in a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur while Rovers beat Leicester City 1-0 with a late penalty from Paul Dickov against his old club.

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FRANCE

France striker Sidney Govou kept Olympique Lyon on course for a fourth consecutive league title by firing a second half winner in their 2-1 victory over bottom club Istres.

Lyon striker Sylvain Wiltord, who scored a hat-trick in a midweek Champions League win over Werder Bremen that booked them into the quarter-finals, said: "We put some extra pressure on our rivals. It's been a very good week."

Lyon are top on 59 points, eight points clear of Olympique Marseille, whose playmaker Steve Marlet scored twice to secure a 2-1 home victory over Racing Lens at the Stade Velodrome.