European football review: Lionel Messia & Cristiano Ronaldo bang in the goals, title race hots up in Italy

Italy is now the only big European league with an active title race after the weekend, while Liverpool fans were smiling after Bayern Munich lost and Cristiano Ronaldo continued his amazing form.

Serie A

We’ve got a genuine title race in Italy, unlike the rest of the big European leagues, after Napoli took advantage of a rare slip-up by Juventus to close the gap down to two points with nine games each left to play.

Former Real Madrid defender Raul Albiol headed in the winner at home against Genoa in the 72nd minute to grab what could be a huge three points for Napoli.

Juventus had earlier drawn 0-0 with struggling SPAL to temporarily move five points ahead but Napoli crucially reduced that back down to two.

If things stay the same then April 22 will be a monumental game that will decide the Serie A title as Napoli travel to Juventus in the penultimate game of the season.

Elsewhere, Mauro Icardi scored four times as Inter Milan thrashed Sampdoria - which saw him break the 100-goal mark in Serie A as he's not got 103 goals in 180 games.

Italian title race: Juventus 2/5 Napoli 15/8

La Liga

Barcelona took another step towards the title as Atletico Madrid lost 2-1 to Villarreal in La Liga to fall 11 points behind the leaders.

Lionel Messi scored for the sixth game in a row as Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 and it now seems a formality that they’ll be crowned kings of Spain again.

Real Madrid a languishing miles behind their fierce rivals but Cristiano Ronaldo’s form is hotting up as they look to claim a third Champions League title in a row as he bagged another four goals.

Ronaldo completed his 50th career hat-trick as Real battered Girona 6-3, taking his recent tally to 17 goals in his last eight games.

Real Madrid are 9/2 to win the Champions League with Sky Bet

Bundesliga

The almost unthinkable happened in Germany at the weekend as Bayern Munich actually lost - in a game that attracted a lot of attention on Merseyside as upcoming Liverpool signing Naby Keita starred in a 2-1 win for RB Leipzig.

Keita set Reds fans alight on social media as he scored the first and set up Timo Werner as Bayern lost for the first time in 20 games, having won 18 and drawn one of their previous 19 outings.

The result only cut Bayern’s lead over Schalke to 17 points with just seven games left to play, but it at least gave the rest of the league something to smile about.

Not smiling so much will be Chelsea fans after Michy Batshuayi scored his sixth goal in seven games for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund made it 12 games unbeaten as Batshuayi scored the only goal of the game against Hannover to continue his amazing form in Germany.

Bayern Munich are 7/2 to win the Champions League with Sky Bet

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