Real held, Bayern cruise, Chelsea win Cup

LONDON (Reuters) - Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Villarreal on Sunday to leave them just two points ahead of Barcelona in the La Liga standings. Bayern Munich crushed Cologne 4-1 to stay eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and French champions Paris St Germain missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 when they were held to a 0-0 draw by AS Monaco. Chelsea won the first trophy of the English season when they overwhelmed Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 to lift the League Cup. That completed a perfect day for Jose Mourinho's team after their closest Premier League title challengers Manchester City lost 2-1 at Liverpool. SPAIN Real Madrid had their lead over second-placed Barcelona cut to two points when they failed to win at home for only the second time this season as Villarreal fought back from a goal down in an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu on Sunday. Champions Atletico Madrid also stumbled, a 0-0 stalemate at Sevilla denting their chances of a second consecutive Spanish title and leaving them five points behind Barca in third. Uruguay forward Luis Suarez had a hand in all three Barca goals in a scrappy 3-1 win at struggling Granada on Saturday, netting in between strikes from Ivan Rakitic and Lionel Messi. Real lead on 61 points with 13 games left and Barca, who host their great rivals at the Nou Camp in three weeks, are on 59. Atletico have 54 points, one ahead of fourth-placed Valencia who beat Real Sociedad 2-0. ENGLAND Chelsea claimed the first silverware of the season when they outclassed Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 to win the League Cup final at a rain-swept Wembley. John Terry opened the scoring just before halftime and Diego Costa's deflected strike sealed a comfortable victory for Chelsea. Manchester City missed the chance to close the gap on Chelsea at the top of the Premier League to two points when they lost 2-1 at Liverpool following Philippe Coutinho's fine late strike for the hosts. Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 to stay third and Wayne Rooney scored twice to keep Manchester United in fourth with a 2-0 win over Sunderland. FRANCE Champions Paris St Germain failed to move top of Ligue 1 after being held to a 0-0 draw by AS Monaco on Sunday. PSG remained one point behind Olympique Lyonnais, who suffered their first league defeat in three months against Lille on Saturday. Olympique Marseille are in third place, four points behind the leaders after losing 3-2 at home to Caen. GERMANY Leaders Bayern Munich continued their unstoppable march towards the Bundesliga title with a 4-1 demolition of Cologne to stay eight points clear at the top, with Bundesliga top scorer Arjen Robben scoring one and setting up two more goals. Coach Pep Guardiola said his team could play even better although Bayern have now scored a staggering 18 goals in their last three league games alone. VfL Wolfsburg stayed second after charging back from a goal down three times against in-form Werder Bremen to win 5-3 with Bast Dost and Daniel Caligiuri scoring twice each. Last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund can hope for European football next season after climbing up to 10th with a 3-0 victory over Ruhr valley rivals Schalke 04. ITALY Napoli's grip on third place, the Champions League playoff spot, weakened after they lost 1-0 at Torino while Lazio and Fiorentina behind them both won. Kamil Glik's goal gave Torino an impressive win and left Napoli with 45 points from 25 games, only two ahead of Lazio with Fiorentina a further point behind in fifth. Felipe Anderson, Miroslav Klose and Marco Parolo shared the goals in Lazio's 3-0 win at Sassuolo and Mohamed Salah's third goal in four league games since his move from Chelsea gave Fiorentina a 1-0 win at Roberto Mancini's Inter Milan. Leaders Juventus (57 points) visit second-placed AS Roma (48) in the top-of-the-table clash on Monday. PORTUGAL Christian Tello scored a hat-trick as Porto outclassed Sporting 3-0 at a fervent Dragao Stadium to stay four points adrift of Benfica at the top of the Portuguese standings after the leaders' 6-0 rout of Estoril. Benfica's win featured a brace from Jonas and goals fromcaptain Luisao, Eduardo Salvio, Pizzi and Lima as Estoril were completely dismantled at the Stadium of Light in front of nearly 47,000 fans. NETHERLANDS Champions Ajax Amsterdam snapped runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven's 17-match unbeaten streak with a 3-1 victory in the top-of-the-table clash on Sunday. An 83rd-minute free kick from Danish international Lasse Schone followed by a stoppage-time goal from Anwar El Ghazi ended PSV’s 100 percent home record this season and cut their lead to 11 points. SERBIA Champions Red Star Belgrade won an action-packed visit to Jagodina 3-2 thanks to a Darko Lazovic brace, cutting their deficit to bitter city foes Partizan to four points after the league leaders were held to a 0-0 home draw by Radnicki Nis. Superb goals by Lazovic and midfielder Aleksandar Katai gave Red Star a 2-0 first half-lead against the run of play, but Jagodina levelled with a quickfire double after Antigua and Barbuda striker Joshua Parker missed a penalty for the visitors. Roared on by several thousand away fans, Red Star snatched a late victory after Lazovic's floated cross into the penalty area deceived keeper Nikola Peric. (Editing by Ed Osmond)