[EUROPEAN RACES] Chelsea, Marseille, Bayern Munich and Barcelona gained in their bids to capture their respective league race, while Roma displaced Inter Milan at the top of Italy's Serie A for the first time in more than six months ...

ENGLAND
74 Chelsea
73 Manchester United
71 Arsenal
(games left: Manchester United 4; Chelsea, Arsenal 5.)
Three-time defending Manchester United dug itself a deeper hole when it could only manage a 0-0 tie at Blackburn on Sunday. “It’s going to be very, very difficult to win this league now,” acknowledged United manager Alex Ferguson.

FRANCE
62 Marseille
60 Auxerre
58 Lyon
58 Montpellier
56 Bordeaux
(games left: Auxerre, Lyon, Montpellier 6; Marseille 7; Bordeaux 8.)
Marseille took command of the Ligue 1 race when it thrashed Nice, 4-1, on goals by Bakary Kone, Stephane Mbia, Mathieu Valbuena and Souleymane Diawara. Auxerre is second place thanks to its 1-0 victory over Nancy. Lyon fell off the pace when it tied Lille, 1-1, while defending champion Bordeaux lost to Paris St. Germain, 3-1.

GERMANY
60 Bayern Munich
58 Schalke 04
(games left: 4.)
Bayern Munich got a break when it only managed to tie Bayer Leverkusen, 1-1, but relegation candidate Hannover 96 beat Schalke 04, 4-2. A day later, Schalke coach Felix Magath said his team "too soft" to win the Bundesliga. "We haven't shown the required winning mentality. We lost confidence in ourselves after the defeat to Bayern [2-1 loss the previous week]."

ITALY
68 Roma
67 Inter Milan
64 AC Milan
(games left: 5.)
Inter Milan's bid for a fifth straight Serie A title is in jeopardy after it only managed a 2-2 draw at Fiorentina. Roma replaced Inter atop the standings for the first time since Oct. 3 when it got first-half goals from Mirko Vucinic and Marco Cassetti and held on to beat Atalanta, 2-1. Third-place AC Milan rallied from two goals down to tie Catania, 2-2.

SPAIN
80 Barcelona
77 Real Madrid
(games left: 7)
Barcelona's 2-0 win over Real Madrid extended its winning streak to six games and ended Real's 12-game winning streak. Between La Liga and Champions League games, Barcelona has midweek and weekend games every week for the next month.