Real ride out Anelka storm as Juve recover from misery

Anelka appeared to realise, belatedly, that he had gone over the top last night when he said he would attend training today after revealing that coach Vincente del Bosque had indicated the door was still open for him to return.

The irony is that Real didn’t miss their dissident forward as they saw off basement club Seville 3-1 on Saturday with goals from Raul, Guti and Fernando Morientes to keep in touch with leaders Deportivo la Coruna, who stayed in touch after beating relegation-haunted Real Sociedad 2-1.

The win left the Galicians clear of modest Alaves, who stayed in touch after beating relegation-haunted Sociedad 2-1. Barcelona, seeking a third title in a row, are third, of Real on goal difference after a 4-0 away success at Athletic Bilbao with two goals for Philip Cocu and one each for Patrick Kluivert and Luis Figo.

But both the Catalan club and Real remain five points adrift of Deportivo, who thanked goals in either half from fran, a header from a cross by Manuel Pablo, and Flavio for their triumph over sixth-placed Valencia.

UEFA Cup quarter-finalists Celta Vigo followed up their 4-0 thrashing of Juventus with a shocker, losing 3-0 at Espanyol, to stay seventh.

As Vigo went from the sublime to the almost ridiculous Juventus trod the opposite path in Italy’s Serie A, taking a giant stride towards their 26th league title yesterday when two second-half goals from Filippo Inzaghi saw the leaders beat bottom club Piacenza 2-0.

Juve, atrocious in Vigo in midweek, are now six points clear of second-placed Lazio, who were lucky to draw 2-2 at home to Inter Milan on Saturday night.

"Superpippo" Inzaghi scored the opener on 68th minute, guiding home a free-kick from Alessandro del Piero at the far post. And Del Piero also created Juventus’ second – beating two defenders on the left side before squaring a neat ball between a third defender and the goalkeeper for Inzaghi to prod into an empty net.

Defending champions AC Milan dropped two points in a 3-3 draw with Verona, who recoveed from 2-0 and 3-2 down.

Milan’s Demetrio Albertini, dropped and heavily criticised in recent weeks, scored off a 17th minute free-kick and then supplied the pass for Ukrainian hotshot Andrei Shevchenko to score.

But the second half started disastrously for Milan when Argentinian Jose Antonia Chamot was dismissed.

Verona then levelled through Luigi Appolloni and Dane Martin Laursen after goalkeeping errors by Christian Abbiati only for league top scorer Shevchenko to bag his 19th goal of the season from a penalty.

However, Fabrizio Cammorata notched Verona’s equaliser with a glancing header in injury time. Roma’s title hopes also nosedived as they lost 1-0 in Sardinia to Cagliari.

In the German Bundesliga, reigning champions Bayern Munich marched into the post Lothar Matthaeus era in style to maintain their title push Saturday, hammering Schalke 4-1 as rivals Bayer Leverkusen remained in close touch — ousting Wolfsburg by the same score.

Ghanaian defender Sammy Kuffour put Bayern in front three minutes from the break and Alex Zickler followed up his two goals against Real with another brace after 47 and 66 minutes.

Paraguayan teenager Roque Santa Cruz made it four two minutes later before Emile Mpenza snatched a consolation. The result leaves the Bavarians two points clear of Leverkusen.

Former European champions Borussia Dortmund endured a 1-0 defeat at struggling Hansa Rostock on Sunday and are stuck in tenth place — which would mean no European competition for them next season, a financial catastrophe.