A roundup of Saturday’s action in Spain and Italy’s top flights:
Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Real Madrid
With the latest installment of El Clasico just two weeks away, there’s a decent-to-good chance Barcelona will hold a one-point lead on Real Madrid in the La Liga title race when the two sides tangle at the Camp Nou, following Real’s latest slip-up on Saturday, a 1-0 defeat away to Athletic Bilbao. | FULL RECAP WITH HIGHLIGHTS
Deportivo La Coruna 3-4 Sevilla
The fact that Sevilla found the back of the net four times, and not a single tally came from talisman Carlos Bacca, is the most surprising thing about Sevilla’s high-scoring shootout away to Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.
Oriol Riera put the hosts ahead just before the half-hour mark, but Vitolo equalized for Sevilla five minutes later. Vitolo doubled the his tally and the lead in the 52nd minute and Kevin Gameiro added another from the penalty spot in the 65th minute, to put Sevilla 3-1 ahead. Riera bagged a second of his own with 20 minutes to play, but Deportivo defender Sidnei’s own goal in the 83rd minute proved to be the game-winning goal, despite Lucas Perez pulling one back in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.
Elsewhere in La Liga
Elche 1-0 Almeria
Granada 1-0 Malaga
Sunday’s La Liga schedule
Barcelona vs. Rayo Vallecano (7 am ET)
Real Sociedad vs. Espanylo (12 pm ET)
Villarreal vs. Celta Vigo (2 pm ET)
Atletico Madrid vs. Valencia (4 pm ET)
AC Milan 2-2 Verona
Milan, you are the gift that keeps on giving. The Rossoneri‘s struggles have been well-documented this year, and just when it looked like they had navigated a fairly routine 2-1 victory over Verona on Saturday, there was our old friend, bad Milan, to concede a 95th-minute goal to draw 2-2 with the 13th-placed team in Serie A.
Luca Toni — remember him? He’s 37 now — converted from the penalty spot to put the visitors ahead after 18 minutes. Jeremey Menez converted a spot-kick of his own just before halftime to draw Milan level. Panagiotis Tachtsidis scored an own goal two minutes into the second half to push Milan ahead, and they weren’t even going to have to win the game for themselves. It had been done for them, all they had to do was not screw it up.
Then, with seconds of stoppage time to be played, Nico Lopez raced by the entire Milan defense, waltzed into the penalty area and fired past Diego Lopez. With the draw, their third in four league games, Milan move one point past Palermo, who play Sunday, into 10th.
Elsewhere in Serie A
Sampdoria 2-0 Cagliari
Sunday’s Serie A schedule
Cesena vs. Palermo (7:30 am ET)
Chievo vs. Roma (10 am ET)
Udinese vs. Torino (10 am ET)
Parma vs. Atalanta (10 am ET)
Empoli vs. Genoa (10 am ET)
Napoli vs. Inter Milan (3:45 pm ET)