PARIS (AFP) - England striker Michael Owen continued his goalscoring form for Real Madrid on a weekend when Juventus stayed top in Italy, Bayern Munich were a whisker from doing likewise in Germany and arch rivals Paris Saint Germain and Marseille had an eventful derby.
Madrid moved up to second place in Spain after goals from Luis Figo and Michael Owen helped the 29-times Spanish champions to a 2-0 win at Malaga on Sunday.
Luis Figo opened the scoring from the penalty spot midway through the first half, after Zinedine Zidane had been brought down on the edge of the area, although the Malaga players protested long and loud that the foul happened oustide the box.
Owen then ensured three points with his fifth goal in six games for Real, his strike coming 12 minutes from the whistle.
The England striker had only been on the pitch eight minutes, coming on for a lacklustre Ronaldo, after Real coach Mariano Garcia Remon had decided to bolster his midfield and leave Owen on the bench.
Real now have 19 points from their 10 games but they are still seven points in arrears of league leaders Barcelona, who extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 2-1 win over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.
AC Milan missed out on the chance to reduce Juventus' lead at the top of Serie A to two points when Roma held them to a 1-1 draw on Sunday.
Juventus took a five-point cushion into Saturday's away match against Reggina, but their surprise defeat, their first of the season, gave the defending champions the chance to close the gap on their title rivals.
AC Milan began well, taking an early lead through Andriy Shevchenko's header.
But the Ukrainian failed to return for the second half after suffering a muscular injury and without his presence Milan lost their momentum.
Roma equalised shortly after half time when Vincenzo Montella cashed in on a defensive mix-up to grab his ninth league goal of the season.
AC Milan came desperately close to sneaking a win in the closing stages, but Ivan Pelizzoli tipped Manuel Rui Costa's shot on to the crossbar.
AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti lamented his team's failure to build up a more impressive lead at half time.
"My major regret from the match was that we should have made more of our goalscoring opportunities," he said. "We were less organised in the second half and allowed Roma too much room to use their pace in attack."
Bayern Munich put their painful midweek European defeat to Juventus behind them with a 3-0 triumph over Hannover at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.
The win moved Felix Magath's side to within one point of leaders VfL Wolfsburg who were crushed 4-0 by FC Nuremberg.
The top of the table is now even tighter with Schalke 04 level on 24 points with Wolves in second while VfB Stuttgart are third ahead of Bayern on goal difference.
On and off-pitch drama dominated Paris Saint Germain's 2-1 victory over Marseille on Sunday night with PSG reduced to 10 men, three spectacular goals, and the visitors having their team bus attacked near the Parc des Princes stadium.
This fixture between arch rivals is rarely uneventful whether it is the performance of the players or the behaviour of the supporters that stands out. This match had both.
Elsewhere, Lyon beat Lens 1-0 on Saturday night to earn a valuable three points away from home to ensure they remain at the top of the French league table with 29 points, a point ahead of Lille, who won 2-0 at Istres, and six points ahead of Auxerre, who drew 1-1 at Nantes.
11/07/2004 - 23:07 GMT - AFP