Top 10 Performances from Around the World for Weekend of Feb. 20-22
Another tremendous weekend of football action has come and gone, offering further insight into how each of the major leagues will turn out this season.
We've scoured the globe to pick out our top 10 performances of the weekend, judging on such criteria as scoreline, quality of play, opponents and importance of points, amongst other factors.
While we usually see a huge variance in where our 10 teams come from, and we've similarly looked on multiple continents this week for contenders, one of those quirks of the game means that all 10 of our sides come from just four leagues this weekend: the Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga.
10. Burnley
1 of 10
We start off with Burnley, the relegation fodder playing away to the league's top side, Chelsea—and the ruiners of a thousand accumulators this weekend.
It was supposed to be a guaranteed three points for the championship-chasing side, nothing but a long journey home for the team looking to be heading to the Championship—but all that changed in the final 12 minutes after Chelsea were reduced to 10 men and Burnley found a late equaliser.
The 1-1 draw moves Burnley up to 18th, still in the drop zone but now only by goal difference.
9. Caen
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In France, important wins for Lyon and PSG might hog the headlines as the title race hots up, but our eyes are drawn further down the table.
Caen's recent impressive streak of three wins in four games put them in a good frame of mind before their key game near the relegation zone against Lens, and a 4-1 home win means that four wins in five leave them five points above the drop zone suddenly, having looked in real trouble a month ago.
Lens remain in the bottom three, while Caen are up to 14th.
8. Swansea City
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Swansea City had to come from behind to take the points against Manchester United, but showed great resolve and technical ability to produce a stirring display and take a deserved three points.
Ki Sung-Yueng made sure Swansea didn't have to dwell on being behind by equalising within 100 seconds or so, before Jonjo Shelvey's second-half deflected screamer won the match.
The Swans don't seem to have too much more to play for in the league, but big games such as this one show that they are not willing to let their season fade away already. This win puts them up to ninth.
7. Real Sociedad
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To Spain and La Liga now, where one of the most entertaining games of the weekend saw Real Sociedad edge a seven-goal thriller in a 4-3 win over Champions League hopefuls Sevilla.
La Real have been blighted by an inability to score many goals and pick up three points over the past few months—so it will have been a relief to manager David Moyes to see both those issues disappear for one weekend at least.
A back-and-forth game saw them surrender an early lead to trail 3-2 with less than 10 minutes to play, before a stirring late comeback left the points staying at Anoeta.
6. Borussia Dortmund
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Borussia Dortmund's recent back-to-back wins had lifted them out of the relegation zone, but all their hard work could so easily have been undone when they faced bottom-two side Stuttgart away from home at the weekend.
BVB were resolute in their approach and impressive in their offensive play at times, though, eventually picking up a 3-2 victory for their third successive win—and moved up to 12th in the table as a result.
Stuttgart are left bottom, five points from complete safety but even four from the relegation playoff place.
5. Atletico Madrid
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Atletico Madrid got back to winning ways after the disappointment of last weekend, beating Almeria 3-0 in a comfortable home match.
The deadly front duo of Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic combined once more to give Atleti a clinical edge to go with their immense work rate and increasingly comfortable play on the ball, with all three goals coming in a lightning opening half-hour.
A late red card to left-back Guilherme Siqueira didn't take any gloss off the win which leaves them in third, three points behind Barcelona.
4. Liverpool
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Back to the Premier League now and the race for the top four really closed up this weekend, with Swansea's win over Manchester United coming the day before Tottenham dropped points at home to West Ham United. Liverpool travelled to Southampton on Sunday too—and took the points with a resolute 2-0 win which owed equal parts to fortune and ruthlessness.
Southampton were unfortunate not to win at least one penalty in a game where there were four genuine shouts for spot-kicks between the two ends, but aside from that, in open play the Reds defended extremely well, closed down the spaces Southampton like to play in and made their own chances count.
Philippe Coutinho scored a goal-of-the-month contender early on, before Raheem Sterling wrapped things up in the second half. Liverpool are up to sixth, one point behind Saints, two behind fourth-place Manchester United and three behind Arsenal in third.
3. Malaga
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Back to La Liga and the most surprising result of the weekend came at Camp Nou, where Barcelona, with 11 straight wins, took on an out-of-form Malaga.
And lost.
Malaga scored against the run of play after a shocking Dani Alves backpass was seized upon and scored by Juanmi, and in truth the Andalucian side were the more dangerous on the counter-attack, compared to Barça's dominance in possession but lack of speed or cutting edge in attack.
Despite an increase in chances late on in the game, Malaga defended extremely well throughout, with Marcos Angeleri a particularly impressive performer, and probably deserved their three points—just a second win in 10 in all competitions, which keeps them in seventh.
2. Bayern Munich
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Bayern Munich have topped our Monday rankings with regularity this season thanks to a host of dominant and goal-laden performances in the Bundesliga, but they just miss out this weekend.
Another thumping win, this time a 6-0 victory away to Paderborn, started with a first-half Robert Lewandowski brace. The relegation strugglers then kept the champions elect at bay until the hour mark...but a red card for Florian Hartherz signalled the end of the resistance, with Arjen Robben adding his own brace alongside strikes from Franck Ribery and Mitchell Weiser.
A third straight win for Bayern leaves them eight points clear at the top still.
1. Manchester City
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Top of our rankings this weekend are Manchester City, for their excellent display at home to Newcastle United and a very easy 5-0 win.
Having seen Chelsea drop points earlier in the day they could have been forgiven for having some nerves as the chance to close the gap at the top of the Premier League was presented to them—but a penalty inside a minute settled those, as Sergio Aguero swept home. He, David Silva and Samir Nasri were irrepressible in their movement and combination play, while Edin Dzeko led the line with power and precision, scoring the best goal of the game.
A quick-fire brace from Silva for four and five could have seen Newcastle swept away entirely, but City took their foot off the pedal then and rested some key men. Even so, the likes of Wilfried Bony could have opened the chasm between the teams wider had he taken a chance or two on his debut.
City stay second, closing the gap to five points at the top.
