European football review - Le Championnat, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga

After a dull first half at Monaco, Bordeaux caught fire and scored six in the second half to record an astonishing 6-0 victory.

Inspirational playmakers Fernando Cavenaghi and Johan Micoud scored twice, while Monaco's miserable evening was completed by a red card for midfielder Diego Perez for a vicious tackle on David Bellion with his side already 3-0 down.

The match was a triumph for Bordeaux coach Laurent Blanc, making such a big impression in his first season, and all the more so as Monaco are now coached by Brazilian Ricardo. He left Bordeaux in the summer after a decent season but one marred by criticism of his defensive tactics.

Lyon put in a poor performance as they looked ahead to facing Manchester United in the Champions League, and lost 1-0 to Le Mans, who dominated the second half and eventually broke the deadlock through an 11th of the season for Brazilian striker Tulio.

Lyon's long-time challengers Nancy continued their miserable form as they crashed 4-0 at St Etienne and are now only three points ahead of a resurgent Marseille, who beat bitter rivals Paris St Germain 2-1.

Marseille are enjoying a revival as new coach Eric Gerets starts to get his team into shape, and they recovered from conceding a penalty to Jerome Rothen on the half-hour to lead by the break with a header from Taye Taiwo and a fierce drive by Mamadou Niang.

Metz finally secured their first home win of the season and only second overall to beat Valenciennes 2-1 after being behind at half-time, but the game was memorable for an extraordinary incident involving the visitors' Moroccan defender Abdeslam Ouaddou.

After being racially abused by a spectator, Ouaddou climbed into the crowd to confront the offender and had to be persuaded to return to the pitch by stewards before being booked by the referee.

"The words were very strong," Ouaddou said. "I told the referee about it but he told me to concentrate on the match. The insults continued so I walked towards that person. I wanted an explanation."

In Spain, Real Madrid suffered their second defeat in three games as they went down 2-1 at struggling Real Betis despite taking an early lead through young Dutchman Royston Drenthe, converting a cross by compatriot Arjen Robben.

Madrid were cruising as they looked ahead to midweek Champions League action against Roma, but were hit by two headed goals just before half-time as defenders Marcelo and Sergio Ramos were outjumped by Edu and then former Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez.

Barcelona closed the gap to five points with a controversial 2-1 win at Real Zaragoza, ensured by a late penalty from sub Ronaldinho after the referee gave a handball when it seemed to hit Juanfran's shoulder.

Thierry Henry had given Barca the lead against the run of play then Diego Milito blasted a penalty over the bar before Ricardo Oliveira levelled.

Villarreal fell further behind as they were held 0-0 at home by Racing Santander, but they held on to third spot as Atletico Madrid crashed 2-1 at home to Athletic Bilbao despite taking the lead through Antonio Lopez.

Espanyol stay fifth but crashed 4-2 at home to Sevilla as Brazilian striker Luis Fabiano led the way with his 17th of the season.

The title race in Italy looks stone-dead as Inter Milan extended their advantage to 11 points by beating Livorno 2-0.

Key strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Julio Cruz were rested for Tuesday's visit to Liverpool, so reserve forward David Suazo took advantage with two early goals before Inter slipped back into cruise control.

Roma lost ground as they were beaten 1-0 at Juventus, Alessandro Del Piero curling a superb free-kick on half-time for the only goal as Juve closed the gap on Roma to a point.

Fiorentina went three points clear of Milan in the final Champions League spot as they beat Catania 2-1 with a stunning 25-yard shot from Adrian Mutu for his 14th of the season.

Milan could only draw 0-0 at Parma in a game only notable for the 1,000th career appearance of Paolo Maldini, who made his Serie A debut 23 years ago as a 16-year-old.

The top three all won in Germany, so Bayern Munich retained their three-point advantage with a 3-0 win over Hanover, all the goals coming in the second half from Italian striker Luca Toni.

Werder Bremen stayed second by beating Nuremberg 2-0, helped by the early dismissal of Ivan Saenko, before Markus Rosenberg headed in the opener and Ivan Klasnic made the game safe late on.

Hamburg stayed in contention, three more points adrift, by beating Bochum 3-0 with the help of two goals from Czech midfielder David Jarolim.

Schalke's challenge is fading as they failed to build on a lead given them by Vicente Sanchez on 65 minutes, as Grafite levelled for Wolfsburg after a defensive blunder and then hit a late winner from the spot.