England
Wednesday's clash between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur looks set to decide fourth place in the EPL—and the shot at the Champions' League that goes with it. A Champions' League run is worth $20 million or more, and would be a huge boost to long-suffering fans of either club.
Spurs beat Bolton 1-0 Saturday to rise to 67 points. City beat Aston Villa 3-1 to move to 66 points—and City will host Wednesday's showdown.
Liverpool's mathematical chances of stealing fourth place got a whole lot slimmer in the process, and the Reds will be starting in Europa League next season instead of the Champions' League. It'll be the same for Villa after Saturday's wasted opportunity.
The penultimate page in the title race gets written Sunday. Chelsea, on 80 points, are away to Liverpool in the early game. Manchester United, on 79, then hit the road to Sunderland.
Italy
Roma reclaimed the standings lead, at least for 24 hours, with a 2-1 win away to Parma. Roma must now hope bitter rivals Lazio can win Sunday's late game with Inter—otherwise, Inter are back in front.
In the late game, AC Milan firmed up a grip on third place, edging Fiorentina 1-0.
Spain
Normally mostly a Sunday league, La Liga played a lot of Saturday games. There'll be an extra round in midweek. The current weekend's round is #35 of 38. The bottom feeders all played Saturday, as did league-leaders Barcelona.
Barcelona bounced back from Wednesday's Champions' League exit with a 4-1 road thrashing of Villarreal. Lionel Messi paced the Catalans with two goals. Barcelona extended their lead to four points over Real Madrid; Real will try to bring the gap back to a single point on Sunday by hosting Osasuna.
Relegation threatened Real Zaragoza and Tenerife helped themselves with wins. Zaragoza beat a bored Deportivo side 1-0 away while Tenerife edged fellow strugglers Santander 2-1. Xerez beat Almeria 2-1, but with the win Xerez is still on only 30 points, five points below the line.
Valladolid haven't lost in five games since Javier Clemente's arrival on the touchline, but the former Bilbao and national team manager may have too little time to save the team from going down. Valladolid drew Getafe 0-0 Saturday, and sits on 33 points, two below the line.
Germany
Bayern Muenchen have essentially clinched the title with one round left. Entering Saturday's play, Bayern led Schalke 04 by 13 goals' difference with both clubs on 64 points. On Saturday, Bayern beat Bochum 3-1 and Schalke fell 2-0 to Werder Bremen. Bayern now lead by three points, and Schalke would need not only to win next Saturday and have Bayern lose, but to make up 17 goals in the process.
Bayern play Bremen in the Cup final on May 15, and Inter Milan in the Champions' League final on May 22. There's a real shot at this monumental treble.
Bremen, on 60 points, have the inside track in the push for third place. Bremen host Hamburger on the final day. Leverkusen, on 58 points, travel to Gladbach; Dortmund, on 57 points, are basically out of it on goal difference, and finish up at Freiburg.
At the bottom, Hertha has been relegated to the second division. Germany will now have the only capital city in Europe I can think of without a team in its top division. (If you come across another one, please post it.)
Freiburg clinched a spot in next year's Bundesliga with a 2-2 draw at Koln.
Hannover sits on 30 points, with Nurnberg and Bochum on 28 points each. After next Saturday one of these teams will survive, one will go down, and one will play the third placed team in the second division for survival. Bochum host Hannover in the must-watch game of the final day; Nurnberg host Koln.