Top league leaders all win

Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim moved three points clear at the top after Bayern Munich’s five-match winning run came to an end with a careless display against Borussia Moenchengladbach. Leverkusen enjoyed a great 2-1 win at home to rivals Schalke 04, with goals from in-form forwards Stefan Kiessling and Patrick Helmes, to keep hold of top spot on goal difference, after Hoffenheim saw off Wolfsburg 3-2.

Bayern should have stayed on their shoulders after taking a 2-0 lead away to Gladbach with goals from Luca Toni and Franck Ribery but they conceded twice in two crazy second-half minutes and ended up having to settle for a point.

NETHERLANDS

Ajax Amsterdam brushed aside PSV Eindhoven with a 4-1 home victory to go top of the Dutch league with 25 points, ahead of NAC Breda on goal difference after they beat Heracles Almelo 3-0.

AZ Alkmaar slipped to fourth, two points behind the leaders, after being held to a 1-1 draw by Vitesse Arnhem. They trail Groningen, 3-0 winners over Graafschap Doetinchem, also on goal difference.

PORTUGAL

Unheralded Leixoes continued their excellent start to the season with a 1-0 win at Sporting on Saturday to stay top of the standings with 19 points from eight matches, one ahead Benfica.

Maritimo, who beat Trofense 2-0 on Friday, champions Porto, who defeated Vitoria Guimaraes 2-0 on Saturday, and Nacional Madeira, who drew 0-0 with Rio Ave on Sunday, share third spot with 14 points each.

SCOTLAND

Celtic retained their four-point lead over Rangers but left it late to secure a 2-1 win at Hamilton despite the league’s bottom side having Martin Canning sent off late in the first half. Paul Hartley got the winner four minutes from time after a Shunsuke Nakamura penalty cancelled out Richard Offiong’s opener.

GREECE

Olympiakos Piraeus moved four points clear at the top of the Greek Super League after every other team in the top eight failed to win at the weekend.

Olympiakos’ 2-0 win over second-placed PAOK Salonika, thanks to goals from Christos Patsatzoglou and Diogo, put the champions four points clear with 23 points. Xanthi are level with PAOK on 19 after drawing 0-0 with lowly Panthrakikos.

RUSSIA

Brazil striker Vagner Love notched a second-half hat-trick to power CSKA Moscow to a 4-0 win over newly-crowned champions Rubin Kazan in a penultimate round of the Russian premier league season.

The league’s top scorer took his tally for the season to 20 after scoring seven goals two games and sealing second place and a spot in next year’s Champions League for the army club.

CSKA have 56 points from 29 matches, five points ahead of city rivals Dynamo Moscow, who held last year’s champions Zenit St Petersburg to a 1-1 draw to stay in third place.

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