Claude Makelele scored for Chelsea in the second minute of injury time Saturday, and the Blues celebrated their first league championship trophy in 50 years by beating Charlton 1-0.
Minutes before Chelsea was handed the English Premier League trophy, Makelele was given the chance to score the winner when the Blues were awarded a penalty.
Frank Lampard went down inside the area but it appeared that even if Charlton defender Talal El Karkouri had made any contact with him it was outside.
Makelele's spot kick was blocked by Charlton goalkeeper Stephan Anderssen, but the Frenchman followed up to stab the rebound home for the only goal of the game. The former France midfielder is in his second season at Chelsea and has played 94 games.
"On our diagram I was writing 'penalties, Frank Lampard. If a penalty on the minute 90 with the result 2-0, Claude Makelele,'" Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. "So it was in doubt, last minute but zero-zero. But the boys pushed him. It was a miracle."
At the bottom of the standings, Norwich moved away from last place and out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 victory over Birmingham. Two other relegation candidates, Crystal Palace and Southampton, drew 2-2. Danny Higginbotham scored an injury-time equalizer for the Saints.
The results sent West Bromwich Albion down to last place, but the Baggies had a chance to move higher later Saturday when it played at Manchester United.
After kissing the championship trophy, Mourinho said his goal now was to win it back again.
"My kids are so small they think I win every year because every season they see their father is a champion," he said. "One day they have to come down to reality because their father can't win every season.
"I want to have [the trophy] in my hands properly and have a photograph for my home. Afterwards, I want a photograph with all my staff and the players. After that, I don't want to touch it again -- I just want to win it again."
Chelsea had gone close several times before the late goal -- Anderssen pushed a Joe Cole shot onto the crossbar and John Terry's floated header hit the angle of the post and bar.
It was Chelsea's 28th victory in 36 league games, giving the team 91 points. Chelsea can set a record for top flight English soccer if it wins one more match, or draws it's remaining two. Manchester United set the record of 92 points in 1994.
Mourinho gave Mikael Forssell, who has been on loan at Birmingham, and third-choice goalkeeper Lennie Pidgeley their first appearances of the season as second-half substitutes. Carlo Cudicini, the No. 2 'keeper, started in place of Petr Cech, who was rested.
Second-place Arsenal, which has 77 points and won the title last season, hosts fifth-place Liverpool on Sunday.
In the relegation struggle, Dean Ashton's penalty in the final minute of the first half gave Norwich three valuable points against Birmingham.
Palace twice took the lead against Southampton with goals by Fitz Hall and substitute Nicola Ventola. But Peter Crouch replied for the Canaries from the penalty spot before he and Palace defender Gonzalo Sorondo were sent off for a violent clash, and Higginbotham netted the equalizer in injury time.
In other games on Saturday, Everton made virtually certain of fourth place and a Champions League spot by beating Newcastle 2-0 with goals by David Weir and Australia forward Tim Cahill.
In the race for UEFA Cup spots, sixth-place Bolton drew 1-1 at Portsmouth, Middlesbrough edged Tottenham 1-0 and Aston Villa tumbled 2-1 at home to reviving Manchester City, which has climbed to eighth under Stuart Pearce.
Fulham won 3-1 at Blackburn with United States international striker Brian McBride heading past countryman Brad Friedel. Steed Malbranque scored twice.
The final round of the Football League Championship was scheduled for Sunday with Wigan and Ipswich, equal on points, bidding to join champion Sunderland in the Premier League next season.
Marvin Andrews scored goals for each side, but Rangers edged Hearts 2-1 to return to the top of the Scottish Premier League.
The victory at Ibrox put Alex McLeish's team a point ahead of defending champion Celtic, although the Hoops can recapture their two-point advantage by beating Aberdeen at home Today.
Rangers took the lead in the eighth minute when Thomas Buffel headed home from close range after Hearts player Craig Webster had cleared a lob from Nacho Novo off the line.
Andrews, a Trinidad and Tobago defender, has returned to action earlier than advised after declining surgery on a knee injury. He added the second three minutes before halftime when he turned home a shot from Buffel which was going wide.
But he gave his fans a nervous final six minutes when he deflected a free kick from Michael Stewart past his own goalkeeper.
In other games, third-place Hibernian drew 2-2 at sixth-place Motherwell, lowly Livingston won 1-0 at Inverness and Dundee United drew 1-1 with Kilmarnock.
In the struggle to avoid relegation, Derek Young scored three to lead Dunfermline away from last place by beating Dundee 5-0 and leave the visitor there instead.
Ronaldo and Raul Gonzalez scored two goals each to help Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 5-0 and improve its chances of catching FC Barcelona in the title race.
The victory at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium moved Madrid within three points of the leaders, which need to win at defending champion Valencia today to double their advantage.
Ronaldo, who has scored eight goals in his last five matches, has 20 goals this season, two less than league-leading scorer Samuel Eto'o of Barcelona.
Michael Owen scored Madrid's opening goal, his 12th of the season, to set Madrid on the way to its seventh straight victory.
Barcelona leads the league with 78 points and four games left, while Real Madrid has 75 with three games remaining. Sevilla, which visits crosstown rival Real Betis in Saturday's late match, is third with 58 points, three more than Villarreal.
In other games, Athletic Bilbao beat Zaragoza 2-0, and Osasuna drew 1-1 with Mallorca.
Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo again omitted Luis Figo in favor of Owen. The Portuguese midfielder hasn't made the starting lineup in the last five games.
Owen justified his selection in the 29th minute by turning home Ronaldo's low cross from the goalline after the Brazilian had received the ball from Raul's spooned pass.
Raul then produced a similar through ball to Ronaldo, leading the Brazil striker to be felled by Santander goalkeeper Dudu Aouate in the penalty area. Ronaldo then fired home the resulting spot kick in the 36th.
Raul sidefooted Madrid's third goal in the 54th minute after Aouate had failed to hold a low cross from the left by Roberto Carlos.
The Madrid captain then fired home from the edge of the area 18 minutes later from Owen's pass, while Ronaldo scored his second goal in injury time after racing onto a pass from Figo, who came on with 15 minutes remaining.
Bilbao striker Ismael Urzaiz took his season's tally to 12 goals against Zaragoza and boosted his team's chances of earning a spot in next season's UEFA Cup.
Urzaiz, who signed a new contract with the Basque club this week, celebrated by firing a rising shot from inside the penalty area after receiving a pass by Spain international Joseba Etxeberria in the 55th minute.
Defender Jose Mari Lacruz added Bilbao's second goal from close range in the 83rd minute when he turned home Fran Yeste's free kick from the right.
Bilbao, which has 51 points, leapfrogged Zaragoza into eighth place. Zaragoza is ninth with 49.
Osasuna striker Savo Milosevic scored his first league goal since Sept. 26 to win his team a point against lowly Mallorca.
The Serbia-Montenegro international struck in the 83rd minute at Osasuna's El Sadar stadium to level Mallorca midfielder Francisco Javier Farinos' long-range opener in the 34th minute.
No. 18 Mallorca, which a month ago looked virtually certain to drop a division at the end of the season, extended its undefeated run to four games and still maintains hopes of avoiding relegation.
Mallorca, with 32 points, is three points behind No. 17 Levante, which visits last-place Albacete on Sunday. Albacete and Numancia have 24 points each and look set for two of the three relegation places.
Mallorca has three games remaining, while the other strugglers have four.
Striker Roy Makaay hit a hat trick for the second straight game to help Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich beat Mainz 4-2.
Makaay also notched three in last week's 4-0 win over Kaiserslautern that secured the title. His season tally is now 19, second on the Bundesliga scoring list.
Schalke and Stuttgart both won to stay locked in the battle for second place and a direct berth in next season's Champions League.
Bochum and Hansa Rostock lost and both look certain to join Freiburg in dropping to the second division.
Schalke won 2-0 at Arminia Bielefeld, while Kevin Kuranyi scored for Stuttgart two minutes from time for a 1-0 home win over Hannover.
With Bayern unreachable at 71 points, Schalke is second at 60 and Stuttgart third at 58, with two games remaining.
Mainz twice drew level with Bayern before Makaay scored twice in the last seven minutes. Still, it is now sure of staying in the top division because of other results.
Makaay and Michael Ballack scored in thee first half, only to see their efforts equaled by Benjamin Auer and Michael Turk.
But Makaay collected a Bastian Schweinsteiger pass to knock in the third from the edge of the area, and then drove in another long-range shot for 4-2.
At Bielefeld, Brazilian midfielder Lincoln earned and scored an early penalty to put Schalke ahead. Substitute Ailton made sure of Schalke's first win in five games in the final minute.
Stuttgart was on the verge of dropping behind in the battle for second place until German international Kuranyi notched a late winner for a team that had gained only one point from its previous three matches.
Hertha Berlin, also hoping for a Champions League place, moved past Werder Bremen into fourth place by beating Wolfsburg 3-1.
Berlin fell behind to a Martin Petrov free-kick, but battled back through goals from Arne Friedrich, Marcelinho and Alexander Madlung. Berlin now has 56 points, but could drop behind Bremen Sunday if last season's champion beats Borussia Dortmund.
Bayer Leverkusen got two goals from Dimitar Berbatov and one from Andrei Voronin to beat Rostock 3-0 and practically demote the only team from the former East Germany in the division.
Bochum also seems on the way down after losing 2-1 at Nuremberg, which needed the win to make sure of staying in the top division.
Marek Mintal scored his league-leading 23rd goal of the second for Nuremberg and Markus Daun added the second. Martin Meichelbeck got the consolation for Bochum in injury time.
The only hope for Bochum and Rostock is for Borussia Moenchengladbach to lose against Hamburger SV today. Even then, Moenchengladbach would still be five points ahead with two games to play.
Last-place Freiburg lost 2-1 at home to Kaiserslautern, which got goals from Stefan Blank and Ferydoon Zandi. Zlatan Bajramovic, who is heading to Schalke next season, scored for Freiburg.
Kevin Mirallas scored a late goal to give Lille a 1-0 win over visiting Paris Saint-Germain and deny Lyon the French first division title.
Mirallas scored in the 84th minute of a tense match to pull within eight points of Lyon -- which can win its fourth straight title if it beats visiting Ajaccio today.
A mistake by PSG captain Jose Pierre-Fanfan allowed Mirallas to run toward the goal and beat goalkeeper Lionel Letizi from close range. The win helped keep Lille on course for an automatic Champions League berth.
Also, third-place Monaco got knocked out of the title race after drawing 0-0 at Rennes and slipping 11 points behind Lyon, which leads the league with 69 points.
Lyon is trying to become only the third team to win four straight French league titles. Saint-Etienne (1967-1970) and Marseille (1989-1992) are the others.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
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