LONDON: Manchester United enjoyed a stroll in the spring sunshine Saturday as it eased to a 2-0 home win over Fulham to open a 10-point lead at the top of the Premier League. United, which hosts Chelsea in the second leg of its Champions League quarterfinal Tuesday, rested several first-choice players and had just the sort of undemanding afternoon it wanted as first-half goals by Dimitar Berbatov and Antonio Valencia proved decisive at Old Trafford. United has 69 points with Arsenal, which visits Blackpool Sunday, second on 59 with two games in hand. Chelsea moved up to third on 58 points after a 67th-minute Florent Malouda goal was enough to beat bottom club Wigan Athletic 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Manchester City, which visits Liverpool Monday, has 56 points, three clear of Tottenham Hotspur which beat Stoke City 3-2. With Wayne Rooney suspended, United manager Alex Ferguson still felt able to make seven other changes from the team which won 1-0 at Chelsea in the Champions League last week. Fulham had won one away game all season while United went into the match with 14 wins and a draw from 15 at home and those numbers proved a reliable form guide. United went ahead after 12 minutes when Nani slid a cross into the path of Berbatov, who slotted his 22nd of the season. Nani was the provider again after 32 minutes when his shot was deflected towards Valencia who had a simple header. Peter Crouch, whose early red card Tuesday played a big part on Tottenham's 4-0 Champions League defeat at Real Madrid, did his best to get the fans back onside with two early goals as Spurs led Stoke 3-2 at halftime and that was the final result. Wolverhampton Wanderers remain second-last after losing 3-0 at home to Everton with West Ham United third-bottom after going down by the same score at Bolton Wanderers. Barca rallies to win Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona rallied for a 3-1 win over last-place Almeria Saturday in the Spanish League to maintain its eight-point advantage over second-place Real Madrid, which beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0. Almeria took the lead in the 50th when Miguel “Corona” Garcia scored on a counterattack, but Messi equalized from the penalty spot three minutes later and in the 64th served a corner kick for Thiago Alcantara to head in. Messi added his league-best 29th goal in injury time. At San Mames stadium, Madrid winger Angel Di Maria earned two spot kicks that Kaka converted in the 14th and 54th. Cristiano Ronaldo came on as a second-half substitute, and capped the win in the 70th. Inter bounces back Inter Milan bounced back from two devastating losses to beat Chievo Verona 2-0 in Serie A Saturday with second-half goals from Esteban Cambiasso and Maicon. Inter was coming off a 3-0 derby loss to AC Milan and a 5-2 home defeat by Schalke in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Inter's victory moved the five-time defending champion back into second place, two points behind Milan and one in front of Napoli. Dortmund earns a draw Borussia Dortmund needed an injury time goal from substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski to earn a 1-1 draw at 10-man Hamburger SV Saturday and remain on course for the Bundesliga title. Hannover beat Mainz 2-0 to move back into third place ahead of Bayern Munich, which squandered an early lead and had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Nuremberg after a mistake by goalkeeper Thomas Kraft. In other matches Wolfsburg lost 1-0 to Schalke, Freiburg beat Hoffenheim 3-2 and Kaiserslautern won 4
