Manchester United and Arsenal each won in the English Premier League to keep the London team three points behind while Real Sociedad and Deportivo de La Coruna closed in on Spanish leader Real Madrid on Sunday.
In Italy, Juventus got two goals from Alessandro Del Piero and moved closer to its second straight Serie A title after beating AS Roma 2-1.
Manchester United, which survived a 2-2 draw at Arsenal on Wednesday, beat Blackburn 3-1 while Arsenal topped Middlesbrough 2-0.
Paul Scholes netted twice for United at Old Trafford, while Ruud van Nistelrooy got his 38th goal of the season. Arsenal's Thierry Henry scored one and set the other for Sylvain Wiltord.
Liverpool won the 168th Merseyside derby, beating Everton 2-1 with goals from Michael Owen and Danny Murphy. David Unsworth scored for the hosts.
Third-place Newcastle lost its third straight, falling at Fulham 2-1. Alan Shearer scored for Newcastle, but Sylvain Legwinski equalized and Lee Clark got the winner.
Manchester United is still in front with 74 points while Arsenal, with a game in hand, is second with 71. Newcastle is third with 61 points, followed by Chelsea with 60, Liverpool with 58 and Everton with 56.
Spain
Bitter rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona, both of whom have crucial Champions League encounters this week, engaged in a tempestuous war of words as the chase for the Spanish crown became even closer at the weekend.
After a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu, Barcelona coach Radomir Antic hit out at the referee Cesar Muniz claiming his team were denied a series of penalties.
"The referee was prejudiced against us and that affected the result," the Serb said after Luis Enrique had claimed a point for his side equalizing Ronaldo's opener.
"This team raised its game to the highest level possible under the circumstances and we deserved to win."
The game saw 11 yellow cards brandished, five of which were to Barca players, and one red when Real's Spanish international defender Michel Salgado was sent off three minutes from time.
Deportivo La Coruna and Real Sociedad then reduced Real Madrid's lead to just one point after the chasing pair both notched up convincing wins on Sunday.
Real are still on top with 61 points from 30 games but second-placed Deportivo closed the gap with a 3-1 win over Sevilla while Real Sociedad are third with the same points following their 5-0 thrashing of Rayo Vallecano.
Italy
Defending champions Juventus took a step closer to retaining their title after defeating AS Roma 2-1.
Alessandro Del Piero scored twice while Vincenzo Montella halved the deficit just before the break, but the home side held on for a crucial win as they attempt to land a 27th Scudetto.
Juventus coach Marcello Lippi said victory was sweet.
"A win against Roma is very satisfying as they are such a strong, determined team," he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier