Barcelona and Paris St-Germain on verge of titles

 

After Real Madrid's success last season, Barcelona will secure the return of the Spanish title from their great rivals if they beat Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

The Catalans' celebrations could get off to an early start, however, should Real fail to beat La Liga's other Barcelona-based team - Espanyol - the day before.

If Barcelona, eight points clear at the top, wrap up the title it will be their fourth triumph in five years and the first for Tito Vilanova, who succeeded Pep Guardiola as coach in June.

Vilanova's Real Madrid counterpart Jose Mourinho will, as so often, be the centre of attention after a week in which he crossed words with several of his own players.

After defender Pepe had come to the defence of dropped club legend Iker Casillas, Mourinho ignored club president Florentino Perez's call for unity by claiming that his fellow Portuguese's comments stemmed from frustration at losing his place in the team to 20-year-old Rafael Varane.

The relegation battle continues with Real Zaragoza and Deportivo La Coruna among those caught up in a bottom group of five teams separated by only four points.

France 

Paris St-Germain's expensively assembled array of stars find themselves in a similar situation to Barcelona with victory against Lyon on Sunday guaranteeing the Ligue 1 championship, but a Toulouse win over their closest challengers Marseille on Saturday also bringing the title race to an end.

Individual honours

Paris St-Germain dominated the nominations for the French Players' Union's Ligue 1 Player of the Year award announced this week. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Blaise Matuidi and Thiago Silva all made the four-man shortlist.

Should Marseille draw, PSG would only have to match that result to secure their first title since 1994.

While PSG remain overwhelming favourites for the title, they are without influential centre-back Thiago Silva for their meeting with third-place Lyon after the Brazilian was sent off in the 1-1 draw with Valenciennes last weekend.

Sporting director Leonardo has been provisionally suspended for allegedly barging into referee Alexandre Castro after the match, while midfielder Marco Verratti and goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu are also banned.