Weekly World Club Wrap-Up:  Europe

While I'm remiss to start this feature with England for the second week in a row, you have to admit:  That's where the biggest news was.

Manchester City celebrated its 4-3 victory over Sunderland on Saturday by terminating the contract of Mark Hughes.  He was replaced by former Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini.

You can read a retrospective on Hughes here, but here are his highlights from this one-and-half season stretch at the City of Manchester Stadium:  left seventh place Blackburn for ninth place City in June 2008; led the transfer from Tkahsin Shinawatra to the Abu Dhabi United Group; brought in Robinho from Real Madrid (amongst other signings and sellings); finished tenth in 2008-09; brought in Barry, Tevez, Adebayor, Touré and Lescott; sat sixth at the time of his ouster.

Elsewhere in England, the top of the table continues to stumble.  Chelsea needs a fortunate penalty call to draw with West Ham (1-1).  Manchester United was run off the pitch at Craven Cottage, losing to Fulham (3-0).  Arsenal's win over Hull City (3-0) puts them two back of United (five back of Chelsea) with a game in hand.  They're trailed by Aston Villa (1-0 over Stoke), who is even on points, and Tottenham (2-0 at Blackburn), how are two points back of the Villans.

Spain:  Real Madrid made up their game in hand on Barcelona with a resounding 6-0 win over Real Zaragoza, getting braces for Gonzalo Higuaín and Rafael van der Vaart.  That win has helped confirm the idea that Spain is Madrid, Barcelona, and everybody else, a notion affirmed with Sevilla's 2-1 loss to Getafe at the Sánchez Pizjuán (thanks to two goals from Roberto Soldado).

With 30 points, Sevilla is now seven back of Madrid (who are two back of Barça).  One point behind Manolo Jimenez's men is Valencia, who drew at Deportivo La Coruña on Sunday, with Depor keeping David Villa and teammates off the scoresheet.

Portugal:  In Europe's marquee weekend match, Benfica dealt a huge blow to Porto's chances for a fifth straight Liga Sagres title with a 1-0 win in the Portuguese "classico."  Javier Saviola's early goal was all a normally prolific Benfica could muster, but in doing so kept pace with Braga at the top of the table, who put on another defensive clinic in winning 1-0 at Pacos de Ferreira.  In a league where the co-leaders are now four points clear with a high-rate of 33 points in 14 matches, Porto is now in serious danger of losing pace in league while still juggling Champions League responsibilities.

Italy:  Four matches were postponed because of a storm that went through Italy.  Among them was Milan's trip to Fiorentina, meaning Internazionale's 1-0 win over Lazio gives the Nerazzurri an eight point lead atop the table.  Samuel Eto'o put back his own rebound for the match's only goal.

Juventus's crisis continues with a 2-1 loss at home to Catania, a club that came into the weekend bottom of the league.  Mariano Izco's 87th minute goal gave the visitors three points which - even amidst Juve's injuries and struggles - is shocking.  Juventus hate making mid-season coaching changes, but Ciro Ferrara has to be in trouble.  I will be checking La Gazzetta dello Sporto daily, expecting the move.

Ironically, it's Juve's last coach - Claudio Ranieri - that might be having the league's greatest coaching success.  His Roma side got a solid 2-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico over formerly-fourth place Parma.  Parma exhibited their typical able defense, but Ranieri had a plan in place that eventually broke them down.  Now Roma, through all their financial concerns, sits fourth in Serie A, a mere two points behind the Old Lady.

France: I have been a huge critic of Bordeaux, mostly because I've felt the pro-Girondins coverage has gotten a bit out-of-control (that's a bid of a pattern with me).  I've found their approach stagnant and their results less a function of their excellence and more a result of their ability to take advantage (rather than create) others' mistakes.  That is a formula that can lead to great success, but as we've seen with the recent versions of Internazionale, there is a difference between a plan for grinding out league results and a plan for continental success.  These people who are saying "watch Bordeaux in the Champions League," I contended, were neither watching Bordeaux nor heeding precedent.

Please allow me to eat my words as, on Saturday, Bordeaux finally exhibit some desire to excel.  Some will see their 4-1 win over Lorient as something inferior to their Champions League dismantling of Juventus, but that was the first time this season Lorient had allowed more than two goals in a league match.  By the 52 minute mark, Bordeaux had three.

Girondins now has an eight point lead atop Ligue 1, with Marseille having climbed to second and 32 points after a 0-0 draw at St. Etienne.  Behind them, there are five clubs within three points of OM, the most prominent of which is Lille, whose 3-0 win over Le Mans has then third, one point back of Marseille with the second-best differential in the league.

Germany:  The league's top three (Bayer, Schalke, Bayern) all won, with München getting goals from five different players in their win against Hertha.  Hamburg's 2-1 win down a man, in the snow against Werder Bremen vaulted them into fourth, dropping Bremen to sixth after Borussia Dortmund's 1-0 over Freiburg put them into fifth.

Ukraine:  Metalist Kharkiv rebounded from last week's surprising lost to Obolon with a 3-2 win versus Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, increasing the distance between them and fourth place Dnipro to seven points, keeping them within a prayer's distance of the league's top two.  Jajá Coehlo had two early goals for Metalist.

At the very top of the table, Dynamo Kyiv's 83rd minute, tie-breaking goal from Artem Kravets salvaged three points at then-fifth place Tavriya Simferopol.  Second place Shakhtar Donetsk - the only Ukrainian team still alive in Europe - got two goals early in the second half to down Illychivets Mariupol, 2-1.

Turkey:  The table is back to "normal" in the Turkcell SuperLig, with wins from Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray putting the two Istanbul powers back atop the table.  Fener got a strong 1-0 at Trabzonspor on the back of a goal from Daniel Güiza.  Gala got a relatively late goal from Harry Kewell to get three from Genclerbirligi, 1-0.  They sit on 36 points, one point behind Fener, and one point ahead of Bursaspor, who defeated Besiktas 3-2 on Friday.

Belgium:  Games involving both Anderlecht (slowly running away with the league) and Club Brugge were both postponed.

Netherlands:  The league's Sunday matches - which involved all of Twente, PSV, and Ajax - were postponed.

Greece:  Olympiacos's surprise loss at Aris (1-0) opened the door for Panathinaikos, whose 4-0 win over relegation-battling PAS Giannina put them top, holding 38 points and a two point lead at the season's half-way point.  Djibril Cissé had two goals for Panathinaikos, bringing his league-leading goal total to 11 for the season.