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Wins hard to come by Madrid still No. 1 with Roma, Juve only winning teams
Updated: Monday March 05, 2001 7:09 PM
ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- A third consecutive draw wasn't enough to dethrone defending European champion Real Madrid, which made it three weeks in a row at No. 1 Monday in the CNN/World Soccer Top 10. Madrid's position wasn't threatened, as AS Roma was the only team among last week's top nine to earn a league victory. Having already clinched a spot in the Champions League quarterfinals, Spanish leader Madrid earned a controversial 2-2 home draw against rival Barcelona on Sunday. Barcelona's Brazilian ace Rivaldo scored two goals, including a 69th-minute equalizer, but had a late strike called back on a hotly contested offside call. Runaway English leader Manchester United keeps the second spot after drawing 1-1 against Champions League quarterfinalist Leeds United on Saturday. Mark Viduka headed an equalizer seven minutes from the end to deny Manchester the victory at Elland. The Group A leader faces Panathinaikos this week in the Champions League. Serie A leader Roma rises two ranks to third after defeating Inter Milan 3-2 on Sunday. Roma was previously eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Liverpool. Defending Argentine and South American champion Boca Juniors slips another spot to fourth after continuing its indifferent form with a 2-1 loss at struggling Racing Club. Defending Spanish champion Deportivo, which joined the list last the week all the way up at No. 4, slips one rank after losing 2-1 to Mallorca. Second in Champions League Group B, Deportivo hosts struggling Paris St. Germain on Wednesday. The only Top 10 team other than Roma to earn a league victory last week was Italy's Juventus, which rises four spots to sixth after keeping the pressure on Roma with a 2-0 victory on the road against Udinese. Spain's Valencia rises from ninth to seventh after earning a 1-1 draw at Real Zaragoza. The defending Champions League runner-up travels to face Austria's Sturm Graz this week in Champions League Group A. Having already been eliminated by Flamengo in the semifinals of the Carioca state championship, defending Brazilian and Copa Mercosur titlist Vasco da Gama drops one spot to eighth this week. The only new team in the rankings is defending Italian champion Lazio, which kept close to league-leading Roma with a 1-0 win at Brescia. Lazio has already been eliminated from contention in the Champions League. Dropping two spots to 10th is Germany's Bayern Munich, which slumped to a shock 3-2 defeat at unfancied Hansa Rostock on Saturday. With the loss, Bayern missed the chance to regain the Bundesliga top spot from Borussia Dortmund, which hammered Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 on Friday. In contrast with its domestic form, Bayern leads Champions League Group C, traveling to face Olympique Lyon this Tuesday. Dropping out of the list is Liverpool, which went down 2-0 at fourth-place Leicester. Other teams receiving votes included Barcelona (Spain), Flamengo (Brazil), Liverpool, Boavista (Portugal), Leeds, River Plate (Argentina), Dortmund, Arsenal (England), Galatasaray (Turkey) and Lille (France). The CNN/World Soccer Top 10 is a unique ranking of football clubs determined Mondays through voting by correspondents from CNN Sports and World Soccer magazine.
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