Deportivo banking on neighbours

The Catalan giants travel to the Spanish capital to face second division-bound Atletico Madrid.

On paper, this looks a relatively easy assignment for Barca coach Louis van Gaal but victory is by no means assured given their last trip to the Vicente Calderon Stadium, in the Spanish Cup, ended in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat.

Lying third, one point off Barcelona and half a dozen off Deportivo, are Real Zaragoza who are still by no means out of the title hunt and will fancy their chances of eating into their deficit against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

In one of those ironic quirks in the programme book Real Madrid have an away fixture against Espanyol — the side that knocked them out of the Spanish Cup in midweek.

In Italy, Juventus could have their 26th Italian title in the bag by Sunday but a more likely scenario would see those celebrations put on ice for one more week.

The Turin outfit take on Verona and rivals Lazio face lowly Venezia with Juventus five points clear at the top with three matches left.

Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti is not expected to spring any surprises like last week’s replacement of Filippo Inzaghi with Darko Kovacevic.

Though Verona have all but avoided the prospect of relegation, Ancelotti is taking nothing for granted.

“It’s a very tricky away match,” he said. “They haven’t been beaten in 12 games and are the most on-form side at the moment.”

Lazio should certainly win at home to Venezia, who would then be condemned to relegation to the Serie B. Cagliari and Piacenza are already assured of the drop, but two more teams must join them.

Sunday’s spotlight will also be on the race for one of Italy’s two slots in the preliminary rounds of the European Champions League. Four clubs are involved — AC Milan (54 points), Parma (54), Inter Milan (52) and AS Roma (51).

Milan will be counting on Andriy Shevchenko, Serie A’s top-scorer with 22 goals in his debut season, for their game with Piacenza. Parma will have to be wary of goal-happy Udinese — only four teams have scored more than the northeastern club — while Inter need to beat Perugia away if they are to make any headway.

However, Inter will be without midfielder Luigi di Biagio, who pulled a muscle in Italy’s 2-0 midweek win over Portugal.

Roma have the most difficult job – away to a Bari side who need the points if they are to stay just outside the relegation zone.

Roma’s inspirational skipper Francesco Totti is suspended and will be replaced by Japan’s Hidetoshi Nakata.

Bayern Munich will be anxious to brush aside struggling Hansa Rostock and close in on Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

The defending champions, three points off the pace with three games left, will be counting on maximum points from their humble visitors.

Rostock, though, may take some solace from Bayern’s recent form which has delivered just one win — last weekend against Borussia Dortmund — from their last three games.

Bayer Leverkusen face a more taxing away match thisweekend – at third-placed but fading Hamburg SV.

With Monaco already crowned as champions the focus of interest in the French First Division falls on the race for the two remaining places in next year’s Champions League.

Realistically, three teams are fighting over the two remaining tickets to Europe’s top club competition: Lyon, Paris St Germain and Bordeaux.

Third-placed Paris St Germain may be glad to get out of the French capital after their League Cup Final humilation at the hands of second division Gueugnon.

But a trip to Corsica on Sunday, where local favourites Bastia are undefeated at home this season, is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire.