PREMIER LEAGUE
Reds close in on Number 19 as chasm in class widens. Sergio’s scoring fails to clip Eagles’ wings. Flustered Foxes fall again to Dyche’s delight. Magpies master the art of smash and grab. Imagine how high up the table Wolves would be if they stopped conceding the first goal every time. Fleck fires Blades to a point. Tedious, toothless Tottenham halt Hornets’ flight. Honours even a fair result at the London Stadium. At the AMEX too. Howe long will the league’s longest serving manager hold on?
LA LIGA
WEEK 20 HIGHLIGHTS
A soft red opened the door to Messi and three points for Barca against Granada as Casemiro channelled Sergio Ramos for Real to keep pace with a victory over Sevilla. Their closest contenders, Atletico, fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat in Eibar, while the other capital derby saw Getafe multiply Leganes’ woes with a 3-0 win at the Butarque. There was better news for other clubs at the bottom, however, as Mallorca stunned Valencia 4-1, and Espanyol took all three points from the Ceramica. Celta could have done the same in Bilbao, but dropped two points late on as per. Elsewhere, Betis remain comfortably ensconced in mid-table after seeing off Sociedad, Alaves picked up a handy away victory at Levante and the scorers remained untroubled at El Sadar.
SERIE A
WEEK 20 HIGHLIGHTS
Mancosu made it an unhappy homecoming for Conte in Lecce as Inter dropped another 2 points, allowing a CR7 fuelled Old Lady to open up the biggest gap of the season so far at the top. Lazio have a game in hand on both and ran riot against Samp with Immobile bagging a hat-trick. Roma claimed fourth spot with a win at newly bottom Genoa, who were overtaken by SPAL after their shock comeback victory in Bergamo. Cagliari arrested their alarming slide with a point at Brescia, who lost Balotelli to a red card just seven minutes after coming on. The Rossoneri were instantly rewarded for finally letting Ante Rebic off the bench as he netted a brace in a 3-2 thriller against Udinese, but Gattuso’s Napoli’s misery continued with a 2-0 home defeat to Fiorentina, who seem to have turned a corner themselves. Elsewhere, Berardi fired the Neroverdi to a win over Il Toro while Bologna and Verona shared the spoils.
BUNDESLIGA
WEEK 18 HIGHLIGHTS
The Bundesliga exploded back into action with players refreshed and raring to go; none more so than Erling Braut Haland, who took just 23 minutes to score a hat-trick on his BVB debut in a 5-3 victory in Augsburg. The champions were also firing from the off as they ran in four second half goals in Berlin to move up to second. They remain 4 points behind Leipzig, however, as Timo Werner rattled in another brace with speculation mounting on a move to the Premier League. Schalke remain in the equation after a convincing win over early pacesetters Borussia MG sealed by a debut strike from Michael Gregoritsch. Nils Petersen has been at Freiburg a bit longer and decided he no longer wanted to share his record goal-scorer title with Jogi Low as they won in Mainz. The Billy Goats and Jhon (not a typo) Cordoba’s excellent pre-Christmas form continued in a 3-1 win against the Wolves, while Peter Bosz celebrated a new contract with a 4-1 win at the Benteler. Finally, a new year has brought new hope to both Werder and Eintracht, who picked up long overdue victories after dreadful runs of form.
LIGUE 1
Rennes and PSG both picked up three points from their games in hand midweek, whilst the Unicorns battled to a much-needed point against Reims. The weekend’s action was the Coupe de France last 32, with the only shock coming in Bordeaux’s loss at Pau. Elsewhere, Lyon nearly squandered a three goal advantage in a 4-3 win at the Beaujoire, whilst PSG left it late to scrape a 1-0 win at Lorient. Reunion side JS St Pierroise fell to defeat after journeying across Africa for their tie.
