Snowy Weekend

EPL: Only two matches were able to be played on the weekend as heavy snowfall caused a postponement of the round’s fixtures. In the first of the two fixtures, Sunderland edged out Bolton Wonderers 1-0 condemning them to a second successive defeat.

Danny Welbeck notched his fifth of the season as his impressive performance for the Black Cats continue. Substitute Junior Stanislas earned West Ham a priceless point in their fixture against Blackburn Rovers scoring the equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

Derby Delight

La Liga: Champions Barcelona plundered Espanyol 5-1 in the Catalan derby. Pedro and David Villa scored a brace a piece as Barcelona made it 14 wins from 16 matches in La Liga. Villarreal defeated Mallorca 3-1 but still remain 10 points behind the leaders. Aritz Aduriz scored in injury-time to hand Valencia a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad.

Sporting Gijon scored a last-gasp equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw with Deportivo. Javi Martinez scored a second-half winner as Athletic Bilbao edged Levante 2-1. Atletico Madrid scored three headers to secure three points as they blanked Malaga 3-0. Almeria let a two-goal lead slip to loose 3-2 to Malaga. Osasuna played out to a goalless draw. Real Madrid made hard work of a dismal Sevilla to earn a 1-0 victory.

Revenge is Sweet

Serie A: Roma inflicted a first defeat on AC Milan in eight matches defeating them 1-0. Former striker Marco Borriello, who made way for Ibrahimovic at the San Siro netted the winner to put Roma seven points behind their opponents. Cesena also won by a goal to nil in their game against Cagliari.

Juventus dropped to fourth spot following a 1-1 with Chievo while Edison Cavani sent Napoli into second spot as his thunderous late strike earned them a 1-0 win over Lecce. Lazio also went up in the standings albeit in fortunate circumstances. They let a two-goal lead slip and needed a Cristian Zapata own goal to win 3-2 against Udinese.

Bari remains without a win since September as their game with Palermo ended 1-1. Catania went back to winning ways edging out Brescia 1-0 while Parmo and Bologna ended goalless.

Super Mario

Bundesliga: Mario Gomez continued his sensational form for Bayern Munich netting a hat-trick in a eight-goal thriller as Bayern ran out 5-3 winners over Stuttgart. The striker is enjoying a rich vein of form after almost being loaned out at the start of the season and is just giving Bayern some return on their investment.

Leverkusen didn’t enjoy such luck as they played to a 2-2 draw with Freiburg. Werder Bremen’s inconsistent form continued as they lost out 2-1 to Kaiserslaughten.

Greek striker Theofanis Gekas condemed title favourites Dortmund to defeat as his goal gave Frankfurt a 1-0 win. Wolfsburg came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw at home to Hoffenheim. McClaren has been unable so far to get the best out of his team and will hope to do better in the new year. Raul notched his second Bundesliga hat-trick to lead Schalke to a 3-0 home win over Cologne. Nurnberg clipped high-flying Hannover’s wings 3-1 while Mainz climbed into second place blanking St Pauli 4-2.