FC Barcelona maintained its six-point lead over Real Madrid in the Spanish league by beating Getafe 2-0. Real Madrid won its fourth straight with a 2-0 victory at Levante.
Ronaldinho and Ludovic Giuly scored a goal each for Barcelona, which is trying to win its first title since 1999. Ronaldo scored both goals in Madrid's 2-0 win.
Barcelona needs four more victories from its remaining six matches to win the league title.
PHOTO: AFP
FIFA Player of the Year Ronaldinho gave Barcelona the lead at Camp Nou with a curling free kick in the 30th minute. The shot left Getafe goalkeeper Javier Sanchez Broto rooted to the spot.
Giuly clipped in the second goal over the advancing Sanchez Broto in the 56th minute after receiving Ronaldinho's deft pass.
Barcelona leads the league with 72 points from 32 games, followed by Madrid with 66.
Ronaldo scored the first goal at Levante's Ciudad de Valencia stadium in the 37th minute after Michel Salgado sent the ball across the front of the goal.
The Brazilian added a second in the 83rd for his 15th goal of the season after a solo run that ended with him rounding goalkeeper Juan Luis Mora and sending the ball into the net.
Ronaldo has now scored three goals in two matches after having scored just one in 14 games for Madrid and Brazil.
"What I liked most was the result. I really liked the way we played because we knew it would be a hard game against a well-organized team," Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo was quoted as saying by news agency Efe.
Sevilla and Villarreal are even with 52 points each, but Sevilla is third on head-to-head results. Villarreal has a game in hand.
Barcelona, which played without suspended captain Carles Puyol and injured leading scorer Samuel Eto'o, rebounded from its 4-2 loss to Madrid last week.
Deco, who missed the last game at Madrid through suspension, played a major part in the victory. Eto'o's replacement, Maxi Lopez, initially struggled in the first ever league game between the teams at Barcelona's stadium.
After Giuly's goal, Barcelona produced some excellent soccer, inspired by Ronaldinho, and had several chances to add to its winning margin.
Barcelona midfielder Thiago Motta came on as a substitute in the 89th to make his first appearance in seven months after a serious knee injury.
Madrid, which played without injured midfielder Thomas Gravesen and sick defender Ivan Helguera, fielded Michael Owen and again left Luis Figo on the bench.
Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas kept his team in the lead with first-half saves on Alberto Rivero's deflected drive and Vladimir Manchev's shot.
"Today we saw the best goalkeeper in Europe by a long way," Levante coach Bernd Schuster said.
Both teams had a good chance to score in the second half. Madrid striker Raul Gonzalez hit the bar in the 50th minute and teammate Roberto Carlos cleared Jesule Barbadilla's header off the line in the 72nd.
Juventus thrashed Lecce 5-2 and AC Milan lost at Siena 2-1, allowing Juve to break a tie atop the Italian league and take a three-point lead with seven rounds remaining.
Bouncing back from its Champions League exit, Juventus was powered by a hat trick from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, plus goals from Stephen Appiah and Pavel Nedved.
Milan went ahead 1-0 on Hernan Crespo's 63rd-minute strike but then allowed goals by Siena's Enrico Chiesa in the 72nd and Francesco Cozza in the 86th.
Replays showed that Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko had a goal annulled for an incorrect offside call in the 10th minute.
"Shevchenko's goal was valid. But then we went ahead anyway and we didn't know how to close it out," Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "When we went in front, we could have marked better by putting in [Alessandro] Nesta. But the team was playing well and I thought it was best to continue as we were."
Kakhabar Kaladze, who played in place of Nesta, got beat on the game-winning goal when Cozza was first to head in a cross by former Inter player Giovanni Pasquale.
Juventus improved to 70 points with the win, while Milan remained on 67.
Juventus' win came against old nemesis Zdenek Zeman, the coach of Lecce whose accusations seven years ago led to the conviction of Juventus' club physician in November for administering banned substances to players between 1994 and 1998.
At San Siro, Inter Milan beat Cagliari 2-0 in its first match since the suspended Champions League derby against Milan. Inter has a solid hold on third place with 56 points.
No crowd trouble was reported as many of Inter's 44,000 season-ticket holders stayed home.
When Brazilian midfielder Ze Maria and Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins scored for Inter, there were few cheers.
On Tuesday, the Milan derby was cut short when Inter fans threw flares onto the field, hitting Milan goalkeeper Dida on the shoulder.
UEFA's disciplinary committee handed Inter a four-match home fan ban, although that does not apply to league play.
Burn marks on the field where the flares landed were still visible Sunday.
Darren Bent scored an equalizer with a minute to go, and third-place Ipswich salvaged a point in a 2-2 draw against League Championship leader Sunderland.
The draw keeps Sunderland from moving five points clear in the promotion race.
Also, Manchester United outplayed Newcastle United 4-1 to set up an FA Cup showdown with Arsenal. Ruud van Nistelrooy ended an eight-game scoreless run with two goals, and Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo added the others for the Reds at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
Richard Naylor scored in the 66th minute to give Ipswich the lead, but Stephen Elliott leveled five minutes later. Carl Robinson then gave the Wearsiders the lead in the 84th minute.
Bent scored the match-winner in the 89th to keep Ipswich in contention to capture one of the two automatic promotion spots.
With three games to go, Sunderland has 85 points, followed by Wigan with 82 and Ipswich with 80.
Wigan stayed in second place after defeating host Leicester 2-0 on Saturday.
Sunderland was handed a great chance to take the lead midway through the first half when Ipswich defender Fabian Wilnes was judged to have handled a cross and Marcus Stewart stepped up to take a penalty. But the former Ipswich striker rolled his spot kick wide of the post.
Shola Ameobi scored the only goal for Newcastle when his team was trailing 3-0.
Van Nistelrooy fired the first in the 20th minute and Scholes added the second in the final minute of the first half. Van Nistelrooy added a third in the 58th minute, but Ameobi replied a minute later. Ronaldo scored the fourth with 14 minutes remaining.
Arsenal reached its fourth final in five years on Saturday. The two most successful teams in the 133-year history of the competition will meet in the final on May 21 at Millennium Stadium.
Manchester United, aiming to win the trophy for the second year in a row, has 11 FA Cup titles while Arsenal has nine.
Dado Prso scored to give Rangers a 1-0 win over Dunfermline in the Scottish Premier League.
Rangers moved to within two points of leader Celtic ahead of next week's Old Firm match.
Prso scored after seven minutes, when he headed in a Fernando Ricksen cross.
"It is important because we must win but, after the Celtic game, we will still have four matches," Prso said.
Prso said the surprise 1-0 defeat to Dundee United on Tuesday had shaken the team.
"We were glad to win today because we know we failed against United at home," he said. "We had a big disappointment after the defeat by Dundee United."
On Saturday, Craig Bellamy scored early in the second half to rally Celtic to a 3-2 victory over Aberdeen.
In other Saturday Premier League games, it was: Dundee United 2, Hearts 1; Hibernian 0, Livingston 3; Inverness 3, Dundee 2; and Motherwell 1, Kilmarnock 1.
Celtic has 83 points from 33 games, with Rangers on 81 from 32. Behind the leaders are Hibernian with 56 points, Aberdeen with 52, Hearts with 48 and Motherwell with 43.
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