Gonzalo Higuaín inspired Real Madrid as Jose Mourinho's side maintained their 10-point lead over Barcelona.
Real retain lead; Ranieri clings on; Dortmund move clear at the top
Gonzalo Higuaín inspired Real Madrid with two goals as Jose Mourinho's side maintained their 10-point lead over Barcelona in the Primera Liga.
Diego Milito salvaged a point for Inter Milan and may have kept Claudio Ranieri in a job as they ended a five-game losing streak in Serie A, while AC Milan stretched their lead at the top to three points.
Paris Saint Germain are the new leaders of Ligue 1, Borussia Dortmund are seven points clear in the Bundesliga and AZ have emerged as the latest side to top the Eredivisie.
Primera Liga
Real Madrid have now scored 54 goals in just 13 home games after another demolition over the weekend, as Mourinho's men
brushed aside Espanyol with a 5-0 win, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Sami Khedira, Kaka and Higuain the goalscorers.
Their 10th league win in a row added another telling blow to Barcelona's fading title hopes, despite the
current champions beating Sporting Gijón 3-1.
At the other end of the division, Real Zaragoza provided their fans with some hope of avoiding the drop while dragging Villarreal into the dogfight with a 2-1 win over the Yellow Submarine.
Serie A
There were reports of Claudio Ranieri being on the verge of being sacked before Inter Milan's game with Catania, and his side were 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go.
But
goals from Diego Forlan and Diego Milito earned Inter a point, while their bitter rivals AC Milan moved further ahead at the summit.
The Rossoneri were helped by another ruthless performance from in-form striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic,
who bagged a hat-trick against Palermo in a 4-0 win, while second-placed Juventus dropped points at home to Chievo with a 1-1 draw.
Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund stretched their unbeaten run to 18 games
with a 2-1 win over Mainz 05 but, more importantly, took advantage of Bayern Munich's defeat at Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen won 2-0 at home, gaining ground on Schalke 04 and
Borussia Monchengladbach who lost to Freiburg and Nurnberg respectively.
Hertha's fifth win of the season against Werder Bremen was enough to see them move out of the bottom three, while Augsberg slumped into the drop zone despite a creditable draw at Hannover 96.
Ligue 1
Jonathan Tinhan's late equaliser at Dijon on Saturday evening
handed Montpellier a point in the race for the French title.
But Paris Saint Germain, playing 24 hours later, took advantage of Montpellier's dropped points by
comprehensively beating Ajaccio at the Parc des Princes.
Any club from 10th place and lower in Ligue 1 has a realistic chance of being relegated this season and Ajaccio's defeat to PSG, coupled with a 2-1 win for Nice at Bordeaux, means they are now in the relegation zone.
Eredivisie
There is a similar tussle for the title in Holland's top division, with the top six sides separated by just five points.
AZ have leapfrogged PSV Eindhoven to take the lead of the league after a
2-1 win over Heracles, while Twente also
jumped into second placed with a remarkable 6-2 win at PSV, despite the visitors having 10 men for almost half the game.
Ajax and Feyenoord also won to keep the pressure on the top sides, but Heerenveen lost ground with a 0-0 draw at ADO Den Haag.
SPL
Celtic's 17-game winning run in the Scottish Premier League finally came to an end as
the Bhoys drew 1-1 at Aberdeen.
But they still managed to extend their lead to 21 points over second-placed Rangers as their troubled rivals fell to a
2-1 defeat against Hearts.
After Ally McCoist's side were deducted 10 points, third-placed Motherwell are now eying second spot and are just three points behind after
winning 2-0 at Dunfermline.
Best of the rest
After over three months without any competitive action, the Russian Premier League resumed on Saturday following a winter break and did not witness an away win.
Lokomotiv Moscow, Volga and Terek Grozny all recorded home victories, while Zenit held CSKA Moscow to a 2-2 draw.
The top two met in Portugal's Primeira Liga on Friday night, with Porto taking top spot thanks to a dramatic late winner against Benfica, who had a man sent off.
| Ranking |
Player |
Team |
Competition |
Rating (10) |
Key stats |
| 1 |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic |
AC Milan |
Serie A |
10 |
Scored his 2nd Serie A hat-trick, netting 3 goals within 14 minutes |
| 2 |
Gonzalo Higuaín |
Real Madrid |
La Liga |
10 |
Scored two goals, made two assists |
| 3 |
Eden Hazard |
Lille |
Ligue 1 |
10 |
Scored a brace from his six shots, completed 80 passes out of 95 attempted |
| 4 |
Giuseppe Sculli |
Genoa |
Serie A |
10 |
Scored his 3rd Serie A brace (the 2nd in this campaign) |
| 5 |
Eduardo Salvio |
Atlético de Madrid |
La Liga |
10 |
Made five shots on target, scored a goal |
| 6 |
Nenê |
Paris Saint Germain |
Ligue 1 |
10 |
Scored a goal and assisted another |
| 7 |
Pavel Pogrebnyak |
Fulhan |
Premier League |
10 |
Scored his first ever Premier League hat-trick |
| 8 |
Diego Forlán |
Internazionale |
Serie A |
9 |
Scored a goal (his 1st in Serie A since September) made an assist |
| 9 |
Andrés Iniesta |
Barcelona |
La Liga |
9 |
Scored a goal and assisted another |
| 10 |
Lukas Podolski |
FC Köln |
Bundesliga |
9 |
Attempted three shots, scored a goal |
|
