Bayern in Cruz control in title race

BAYERN MUNICH once again showed their resolve when they scraped out a 2-1 win in Cologne to retain top spot in the Bundesliga.

The defending champions, whose huge injury list includes Carsten Jancker, Thomas Linke, Mehmet Scholl, Stefan Effenberg, Paul Sergio, and Alexander Zickler, were outplayed in the first half before 41,000 fans.

The took the lead, however, when Elber scored in the 15th minute. But Cologne hit back and Matthias Scherz equalised in the 41st minute.

Bayern's mettle was tested in the second half, but once again they came up trumps when Roque Santa Cruz scored the winner in the 73rd minute to hand Cologne their first home defeat of the season.

Third-placed Schalke 04 thrashed Borussia Dortmund, who had been equal on points with Bayern, by 4-0 in Dort-mund while VfL Wolfsburg and Hamburg SV played out a 4-4 draw.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa's Luc Nilis fears he may not play again after breaking his right leg earlier this month.

The Belgian international striker suffered a double fracture in a collision with Ipswich keeper Richard Wright.

Nilis said: "Things could change, but I fear that could be it for my football career. I should be grateful I still have my leg.

"The most important thing is to get well again and do the things every normal person can do, such as playing with the children. Football? Right now, I'm not thinking about it."

Nilis joined Villa from Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven at the beginning of the season.

In Italy, Valerio Bertotto's 88th-minute goal gave Udinese a 2-1 win over Piacenza and a place in the Italian Cup quarter-finals. The first leg had finished 1-1 in Piacenza.

Udinese took the lead in the 10th minute through Belgian Johan Walem. Piacenza equalised in the 24th minute when Francesco Zerbini tapped-in. The game was heading for extra time until Bertotti struck.

AC Milan and Fiorentina coasted into the last eight after runaway first-leg wins last week.

Milan, coming off a 3-1 win in Turin, fielded a shadow side and conceded a 15th-minute penalty goal, scored by Stefan Schwoch. However, they had few prob-lems holding on to advance on a 3-2 aggregate.

Fiorentina had little to play for after sending five past Salernitana first time out, but they won 3-1. Goals from Predrag Mijatovic and Paolo Vanoli took their advantage to 7-0 before Salernitana pulled one back in the 88th minute through Stefano Guidoni. Enrico Chiesa completed the 8-1 hiding with a penalty.

Atalanta stunned AS Roma 4-2 in their second-leg match to claim an unexpected quarter-final berth after a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Rome.

In Russia, two goals by midfielder Andrei Gashkin helped Torpedo Moscow beat city rivals Lokomotiv 3-0 to increase the chances of Spartak winning the title.

Spartak, who did not play due to their Champions League game with Sporting Lisbon, lead on 58 points with four games left. Loko have 52 points, but have a game in hand.

Gashkin's first goal came after 15 minutes when slotted the ball past Lokomotiv goal-keeper Ruslan Nigmatullin.

Vladimir Kozakov put Torpedo two up after 65 minutes and a Gashkin penalty sealed the win.

Anji Makhachkala, premier division newcomers, have surprised everyone by reaching third position, but they came unstuck when they crashed 4-0 at CSKA Moscow.

A goal by Vladimir Kulik (15), two by Alexander Semak (20, 54) and one by Mikhail Lunin finished off Anji.

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