Friday 29 November 2013 13:20, UK
Who'd have thought Barcelona would suffer their first defeat of the season to a side from the Dutch Eredivisie?
Behind the scenes, the tensions of the San Siro boardroom struggle principally involving owner Silvio Berlusconi's daughter Barbara, a club director, and vice-president Adriano Galliani, seem to be taking their toll on head coach Massimiliano Allegri. Publicly, the club are offering him their support, but surely if the Rossoneri's form doesn't improve, he can't last past Christmas. Germany Der Klassiker could have turned out so differently if Borussia Dortmund had taken their chances, but Bayern Munich made them pay for their profligacy after half-time and waltzed to a 3-0 victory. It's hard to see where the Bundesliga champions will drop points this season, having already travelled to Dortmund, Leverkusen and Schalke. On top of that, Pep Guardiola now has Mario Gotze and Thiago Alcantara back after injury, so whispers of a potential unbeaten league campaign have already begun to go around. Dortmund, however, are winless in three domestically, and an injury crisis has started to hit hard: Neven Subotic is out for the season, Mats Hummels until the New Year and Marcel Schmelzer for another couple of weeks. Should Mainz expose Jurgen Klopp's weakened defence this weekend, then surely hopes of a ninth Bundesliga title would evaporate completely, especially with Bayern taking on bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig and second-placed Bayer Leverkusen facing winless Nurnberg. France In Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain now lead by four points and are still undefeated. Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic may not be going to the World Cup, but he continues to take his frustrations out on PSG's opponents in France's top division. Lyon are the visitors to the Parc des Princes this weekend - a significant step up in quality for Remi Garde's side, after decent victories over Guingamp and St Etienne to get their season back on track. PSG's nearest challengers are now Lille, with Rene Girard using the same formula for success as he had at Montpellier two seasons ago, based on a robust defence. In fact, that's putting it mildly; Lille haven't conceded in 855 minutes in Ligue 1, and it could be 10 clean sheets in a row this weekend at Valenciennes. One of the previous nine was against Monaco, and the pressure building on Claudio Ranieri was only slightly alleviated by their 1-0 win at Nantes. Like in Italy, France's bottom three all have different coaches to the ones who started the season, which has meant Fabrizio Ravanelli has sadly departed Ajaccio. The former Middlesbrough striker did impress with his work ethic during his time in charge on the island of Corsica, and he'll surely be back in management soon. Still, lower-to-mid-table clubs should take that as a warning - with Christmas around the corner, chairmen and owners often make changes ahead of the January transfer window to give the new man a chance to shape the squad with signings. December is clearly not the month to lose form, because patience will be in short supply.