Italy EURO 2008 Scarf

Country: Italy #622434.RO The Azzurri needs YOU for the EURO 2008

This result in addition with Birmingham City's 3-1 win over Manchester City confirmed Derby's relegation and the only thing they are playing for is not to be the official worst ever team in the premiership in regards to amount of points accrued. The worst is Sunderland with 16 points and they are currently on 11.

There has been little doubt that they have been 1 of the worst ever teams to play top flight football in any league as they have a plethora of poor players without any outstanding ones. Apart from the potential of Gilles Barnes, you would be hard pressed to see any of their players being bought by premiership sides next season.

In other news, Arsenal came back from 2 goals and a man light with Abou Diaby sent off for a shocking tackle in the 1st half; with a 3-2 win over their bogey team Bolton, to halt a poor run of results that have seen them go from 5 points in the lead to 6 points behind leaders Manchester United.

Manchester United defeated an increasingly poor Aston Villa by 4-0 with Cristiano Ronaldo continuing his hot streak in front of goal with the 1st and Wayne Rooney grabbing a couple; his 1st goals at Old Trafford since October.

Elsewhere Sunderland boosted their chances of staying up by defeating West Ham by 2-1, Reading played out a lackluster 0-0 draw with Blackburn and Portsmouth warmed up for their upcoming FA Cup semi final next week by defeating Wigan Athletic 2-0.

In Scotland Glasgow Rangers boosted their chances of winning the Scottish premier league by defeating their archrivals Glasgow Celtic by 1-0 with the goal scored by Kevin Thompson just before half-time to put them 6 points clear of Celtic with a game in hand.

Debt-ridden Gretna were relegated after losing 2-0 at St. Mirren to add to the catalogue of woes that has affected them this season as they have gone into administration as well.

In Italy Roma missed the chance to pile more pressure on league leaders Inter Milan by only drawing 1-1 at struggling Cagliari where they needed a free kick from their influential captain Francesco Totti to cancel out an own goal by Matteo Ferrari.

Inter Milan had a tricky looking game at Lazio that they also managed to draw despite going in front with Hernan Crespo but Tommaso Rocchi equalized in the 2nd half to leave Inter still 4 points ahead of Roma in the race for the title.

In Germany Lukas Podolski scored his 1st Bundesliga goal of the season to rescue leaders Bayern Munich at Nuremberg. Title rivals Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen both lost at home to Duisburg and Eintracht Frankfurt respectfully.

Schalke could only manage a draw at Karlsruhe while Hamburg could also just manage a draw at home to Arminia Bielefeld leaving Bayern 7 points clear at the top of the table.

In Spain Barcelona managed to let a 2 goal lead in the 1st half were they were totally dominant and could have been 5 goals up to lose 3-2 to Real Betis as they totally collapsed in the 2nd half. Betis even managed to miss a penalty and still win in what was a total transformation for both sides as Betis were dreadful in the 1st half and Barcelona were terrible in the 2nd half.

In an entertaining game Barcelona went 2 goals in front through Bojan Krkic and Samuel Etoo with both goals set up almost identically by Xavi Hernandez and then Edu scored from a header to make it 2-1 and he then missed a penalty when Eric Abidal who had a shocker, brought down substitute Victor Odonkor but almost immediately from Victor Valdes' penalty save, Betis captain Juanito scored a stunning goal as he brought the ball down with his chest and hit a great volley to make it 2-2.

Edu then made amends for his weak penalty by hitting a glorious winner to aid Betis' hopes of survival.

This result would pile more pressure on beleaguered manager Frank Rijkaard, who took of his team brightest spark, Bojan Krkic when they were 2-0 up in the 2nd half.

At the time of writing Villarreal, who were 3rd and just 2 points behind Barcelona were leading Atletico Madrid 2-0 at half time and if the result stands would leapfrog Barcelona into 2nd place and would just be 3 points behind stuttering leaders Real Madrid who have a tough game tomorrow at home to Sevilla.

In France Bordeaux defeated Nancy 2-1 with Fernando Cavenaghi getting both goals as they look to secure champions league football for next season.

In Holland leaders PSV could only manage a goalless draw away to Nijmegan while rivals Ajax went to Heerenveen and won by 4-2.

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