Manchester defeats London

EPL: In the battle of two cities, Manchester came out on top as both Manchester City and United defeated their capital rivals. City staved off a valiant fight back from Tottenham coming from two goals down only to lose to an extra-time penalty won and scored by Mario Balotelli.

City went ahead shortly after the break through summer acquisition Samir Nasri and defender Joleon Lescott doubled the lead before Tottenham hit back through Gareth Bale and Jermain Defoe. United, on the other hand, dispatched former champions Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

The Red Devils went ahead through winger Antonio Valencia but that was cancelled out by Premier League top-scorer Van Persie only for Danny Welbeck to win it late on for United. Liverpool suffered an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to relegation-threatened Bolton while QPR defeated Wigan by a similar margin.

Graham Dorrans' 90th minute free kick handed West Brom all three points at the Britannia Stadium against Stoke. On-loan LA Galaxy striker Robbie Keane struck twice in his full debut for Aston Villa to lead them to a 3-2 victory over Wolves. Craig Gardener struck a superb volley to give Sunderland a comfortable 2-0 win over Swansea while Everton drew 1-1 with Blackburn.

Title-chasers Chelsea could only manage a goalless draw away to Norwich and American international Clint Dempsey hit a hat-trick to lead Fulham to a come from behind 5-2 victory over Newcastle.

Magical Messi

La Liga: Barcelona cruised to a comfortable 4-1 victory over Malaga with Argentine Lionel Messi stealing the show with a hat-trick. The forward continues to fuel the flame clamoring that he is the best footballer ever.

The Argentine put his team ahead with a header before Alexis Sanchez added a second. After the break, Messi added his second with a brilliant solo effort, doing the same 10 minutes from time to help his team pull within two points of Real Madrid. Christiano Ronaldo was equally as impressive as he scored twice to lift Madrid to a come from behind 4-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao.

Sevilla missed the chance to close in on fourth-placed Levante after being held to a 1-1 draw by Real Betis. Radamel Falcao also claimed a hat-trick as Atletico Madrid claimed their first La Liga away win of the season with an impressive 4-0 hiding of Real Sociedad.

Getafe came from behind to end Racing's five-game unbeaten run with a 2-1 win, Espanyol extended their unbeaten run to five league games thanks to a comfortable 3-0 win over Granada and Mallorca edged promoted Rayo Vallecano 1-0. Valencia could only manage a 1-1 draw with Osasuna and it was goalless with Levante and Zaragoza.

Old Lady Singing

Serie A: Juventus maintained their lead atop the Serie A standings with a comfortable 2-0 win over Atalanta. The Old Lady had to wait until the 55th minute for Stephan Lichsteiner to break the deadlock and the points were secured eight minutes from time when substitute Emmanuelle Giaccherini doubled their advantage.

Francesco Totti hit two goals as Roma climbed to sixth by crushing lowly Cesena 5-1 at home. The brace pushed Totti to 211th goals for Roma, a league record for a single club. AC Milan kept up the pressure on the leaders with comfortable a 3-0 victory over Novara to close the gap to within a point of top spot.

Bologna versus Parma and Cagliari against Fiorentina both ended in goalless draws. Lecce had a 2-2 draw with Chievo and Udinese edged Catania 2-1. Palermo came out the victor in an eight-goal thriller against Genoa. Rodrigo Palacio gave Genoa the lead on 14 minutes, but a hat-trick from Igor Budan turned the game in Palermo's favour for the 5-3 win.

On-loan Inter striker Goran Pandev's late strike rescued Napoli in a 1-1 draw at struggling Siena. Giampaolo Pazzini scored in the 63rd minute to hand Inter all three points against Lazio in a 2-1 win.

Bayern humbled

Bundesliga: Borussia Monchengladbach took advantage of a Manuel Neuer mistake to inflict a 3-1 defeat upon Bayern Munich to move within a point of leaders Munich and fourth in the standings. German international Marco Rues opened the scoring on 14 minutes before Patrick Hermann struck twice to secure a 3-1 win for Gladbach.

Polish duo Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Blaszczykowski then took charge as they both claimed braces to lift defending champions Dortmund to a 5-1 thumping of Hamburg. Bayer Leverkusen moved to within a point of fifth placed Werder Bremen after a hard fought 3-2 home win over Mainz.

Meanwhile, Freiburg edged Augsburg 1-0. Kaiserslautern played out to a goalless draw with Werder Bremen, as did Hoffenheim against Hannover. Nurnberg put some daylight between themselves and the relegation places after a 2-0 home victory over Hertha Berlin. Schalke took advantage of Bayern's slip and trounced Stuttgart 3-1 to move level on 37 points.

Wolfsburg have substitute Sebastian Polter's to thank for the three points as his 78th minute goal clinched a 1-0 home win over Cologne.

— Michael Thompson

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