Gareth Bale's Triple Threat and the Greatest World Football Moments of Weekend
It's been another weekend of dizzying highs and bitter lows on planet football. Martin Jol now finds himself in need of gainful employment after Fulham's 3-0 loss to West Ham, via the BBC, while Liverpool are smarting from an unexpected loss.
Meanwhile, Gareth Bale managed to defy his critics with a magnificent performance in La Liga, while the Guardian quoted the chip on Andre Villas-Boas' shoulder as it hit out at the Portuguese manager's detractors when Tottenham put on an entertaining display.
Read on for the best moments of the weekend.
Gareth Bale Scored a Perfect Hat-Trick in Madrid
1 of 8To paraphrase an old adage, when the Ronaldo is away, the Bale will play.
Cristiano was absent from Real Madrid's meeting with Valladolid on Saturday, ceding centre stage to the world's most expensive player, Gareth Bale. The Welshman was in price-tag-justifying form at the Bernebeu, managing a perfect hat-trick (left foot, right foot and header) within a 56-minute period.
Skeptics were silenced as the Spanish press fawned over him, with AS referring to him as the "Príncipe de Gales" ("The Prince of Wales").
Bale has taken just 13 games to score a perfect hat-trick, a feat that took Ronaldo 62 attempts. Furthermore, according to the Guardian's Sid Lowe, he is only the second British player ever to net a Spanish Primera hat-trick, following Gary Lineker in 1987.
Real Madrid have now closed the gap at the top of the league to three points after their Catalan rivals slipped up in the Basque region...
Barcelona Slipped Up in Bilbao
2 of 8Los Blancos weren't the only Spanish side missing a critical offensive weapon this weekend, as Leo Messi is in Argentina having his hamstring injury tended to.
Barcelona went to the new San Mames Stadium on a 26-match unbeaten league run, having only dropped two points this season. However, Athletic Bilbao pulled off a surprise home victory thanks a 71st-minute effort from their Messi equivalent, Iker Muniain.
This is the Blaugrana's second successive defeat without Messi following the Champions League loss to Ajax midweek. They have only won a single game without the Argentinean, who is expected to be out until January.
Sandro Scored a Beauty as Spurs Held Manchester United
3 of 8Tottenham defied all expectation on Sunday. Not only did they play in a style that was vaguely watchable, but they scored! Two goals!
Kyle Walker opened the account when the Manchester Utd wall decided to jump over his daisy-cutter free kick, only for Wayne Rooney to equalise 14 minutes later. Spurs took the lead again in the second half thanks to a beautiful long-range effort from Sandro. He hadn't scored in exactly one year, so clearly the Brazilian was saving up for something special.
Utd levelled in the 57th-minute via Wayne Rooney penalty in a result that kept both sides from knocking on the door of the Premier League's top five.
Steven Gerrard's Free Kick Wasn't Enough to Prevent a Liverpool Loss to Hull
4 of 8Liverpool started their day at the KC Stadium on a sour note, with Brendan Rodgers announcing to TV cameras that Daniel Sturridge will be out with an ankle injury for "six to eight weeks" (via BBC). On the other hand, they will be comforted by the fact that Hull had never beaten them.
But things didn't go to plan for the Reds.
Hull fans were busy protesting against their proposed name change in the 20th minute when Jake Livermore's deflected shot opened the scoring, which was cancelled out by a rather tidy free-kick from Steven Gerrard seven minutes later.
But a rough day for Liverpool got worse as David Meyler put the Tigers ahead again, only for Martin Skrtel to send another deflection into Simon Mignolet's net.
Clearly, Kolo Toure wasn't happy about the situation.
Manchester City's Formidable Home Form Continued
5 of 8Manchester City were able to stay ahead of Liverpool in third place thanks to a 3-0 win over Swansea at Eastlands on Sunday.
Although Samir Nasri's goal was impressive, the pick of the litter was Alvaro Negredo's brilliantly taken free-kick on eight minutes. It was the Spaniard's 12th goal in 19 appearances for the Citizens (are you watching, Roberto Soldado?).
City have now won all seven of their home games, scoring 29 goals in the process—more than double the tally anyone else has managed on home turf. But, like Guinness, Manuel Pellegrini's side do not travel well: 21 of their 24 league points have come at home.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Netted a Cheeky Panenka Penalty
6 of 8Paris Saint-Germain played on Sunday, which means Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a noteworthy goal.
The Ligue 1 leaders dismissed Lyon 4-0 in Paris, with the mighty Swede contributing two spot kicks. The first came in the 41st minute as Zlatan sent the keeper the wrong way with a cheeky Panenka-style conversion.
The man who doesn't need a Ballon d'Or to know he is the Greatest Human in the World is now the league's top scorer with 11 goals, while PSG are now unbeaten in 36 games in all competitions.
Juventus Opened Up a Lead in Serie A with a Last-Gasp Victory
7 of 8A last-minute equaliser from Kevin Strootman prevented Roma from their first league defeat of the season at Atalanta, but Juventus were able to go three points clear of them at the top of Serie A with their own last-gasp goal in Turin.
Fernando Llorente waited until injury time to make the difference against Udinese, marking the Old Lady's sixth straight league win. The Serie A title race now looks set to be tight beyond the winter break.
And Finally...Some Non-League Magic
8 of 8He may not be quite as old as Ryan Giggs, but 38-year-old journeyman midfielder Glenn Little is still plying his trade in the Isthmian league with his 11th club, Wealdstone.
The former Reading and Bolton player surely scored the best goal of his 19-year career in his side's 4-1 win over Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday, taking the ball from deep inside his own half, fending off several challenges and finishing the move with a chip that Matt Le Tissier would be proud of.
