Manchester United clinched its sixth English Premier League title in eight years, winning 3-2 at Southampton on Saturday. David Beckham, Francis Benal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in the first 30 minutes as Manchester United clinched the title with four games to play. It has 87 goals in 34 league games.
"This is the best side Manchester United has ever had," coach Alex Ferguson said. "It's fantastic, winning the league and with that number of goals. It's been outstanding."
On Wednesday, Manchester United was eliminated from the European Champions Cup with a 3-2 loss at home to Real Madrid. Manchester United won the Champions Cup, Premier League and The Football Association Cup last year.
Charlton Athletic, the Division One leader, clinched no worse than second place, guaranteeing promotion to the Premier League, when third-place Ipswich) lost 3-1 at Queens Park Rangers.
Glasgow Rangers won the Scottish League title for the 11th time in 12 years, clinching with six games left when second-place Glasgow Celtic (18-9-4) was held to a 1-1 at home by Hibernian.
Juventus of Turin maintained its five-point lead over second-place Lazio of Rome with three games left in the Italian League.
Alessandro Del Piero scored the game winner for Juventus in its 1-0 home win over Fiorentina with a penalty kick in first-half injury time. It was Del Piero's eighth league goal of the season, all on penalty kicks.
Lazio, ousted by Valencia in the Champions Cup quarterfinals, kept its thin title hopes alive winning 2-0 at Piacenza on goals by Diego Simeone and Juan Sebastian Veron.
Four days after ending Manchester United's reign as European champion, Real Madrid lost 4-2 at home to Racing Santander.
The loss all but ended the league title hopes of fourth-place Real Madrid. Deportivo de La Coruna took a five-point lead over second-place Barcelona by beating Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Barcelona beat Seville 2-0 on goals by Patrick Kluivert and Jari Litmanen.
In France, second-division Gueugnon pulled off a huge surprise by beating Paris-Saint Germain 2-0 in the final of the French League Cup, meaning that a team from a village with just 9,000 inhabitants will play in next season's UEFA Cup.
French soccer is getting used to upsets. Calais, a fourth division amateur team, made it to the French Cup final by beating Bordeaux and faces Nantes (Agencies).
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
