Top 10 Performances from Around the World for Weekend of Feb. 27-Mar. 1
Another weekend of tremendous action has come and gone in the world of football, with several big matches having taken place among all the domestic competitions we follow.
While there were lots of notable scorelines involving some big teams—Chelsea won the League Cup, Villarreal held Real Madrid to a draw, Fiorentina beat Inter Milan 1-0, among others—our top 10 focuses on a different range of sides this time out.
We have some hugely impressive results for smaller sides mixing with bigger, better or more important wins for the top clubs than those already mentioned, all of which deserve recognition, too.
Taking in such competitions as the Bundesliga, where Borussia Dortmund won their derby match, and the Eredivisie, where Ajax kept the title race flickering, here are the teams selected in our 10.
10. Celtic
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We don't usually feature Scottish games on account of the domestic scene being somewhat poor and lacking competition for the most part, but a first-versus-second clash was worthy of note.
Celtic came out on top against Aberdeen with a romping 4-0 victory, with Leigh Griffiths and new signing Gary Mackay-Steven among those on the scoresheet.
It leaves Celtic six points clear at the top with a game in hand and extended their winning streak in the league to eight games.
9. Rayo Vallecano
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While Valencia, Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao all deserve nods of appreciation for their weekend efforts, Rayo Vallecano are the only Spanish Liga side to make our top 10 after a barnstorming first half against Levante.
Alberto Bueno took centre stage as he rattled in four goals in just 15 first-period minutes—scoring on 23, 32, 33 and 38 minutes to increase his seasonal goal tally by 50 per cent. It helped his team come from behind and secure a 4-2 win over their relegation rivals.
Levante stayed in the drop zone in 18th, while Rayo shot up to 11th.
8. Torino
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Over to Italy and just one side in Serie A, too, this week, with Torino's impressive 1-0 win at home to Napoli making it 12 league games undefeated for Giampiero Ventura's team.
Poland international Kamil Glik scored the only goal of the game in the second half to push his side into eighth place, with Napoli remaining in third.
Fiorentina and Lazio were other considerations from Italy's top flight for our 10, but neither quite made the cut.
7. Caen
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Over to France now, where two surprise results at the weekend saw table-toppers slip up; Lille beat Lyon 2-1 and PSG only drew at Monaco, making it another week when none of the top five in Ligue 1 took all three points.
The biggest upset, though, was Marseille losing to Caen—with the victorious side producing an incredible second-half fightback to come from two goals down and win 3-2.
Caen are in the bottom half but have been on a great run of late, and they showed character, spirit and belief as they hit two in quick succession through Nicolas Seube and Emiliano Sala to draw level with 20 minutes to play before Nicolas Benezet hit a late winner to stun Marcelo Bielsa's team.
6. Ajax
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Only one match really mattered in the Eredivisie this weekend, with leaders PSV looking to extend their huge lead at the top playing at home to second-placed reigning champions Ajax.
It was the away team who took the points, emerging victorious by 3-1 after another display of their power and pace on the counter-attack. Ricardo Kishna, Lasse Schone and Anwar El Ghazi did the damage to close the gap and keep the title race just about alive, but there is still much to do if Ajax are to retain their crown.
As well as a perfect finish themselves, Ajax need PSV to slip up considerably after this defeat—the gap is still 11 points.
5. Crystal Palace
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Crystal Palace kick off our top five, as the Premier League team opened the weekend with a convincing and dominant win over West Ham United on Saturday.
The Eagles won 3-1 away from home and arguably only didn't run out even more comfortable winners because they went down to 10 men and had to be content to sit back and defend for the last 20 minutes. Before that, they were quicker, got players forward to support the attack and looked dangerous from set pieces throughout, tearing the Hammers apart at times.
Glenn Murray had an eventful match, as he forced an own goal, scored one himself and was then sent off.
4. Porto
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While Benfica keep on winning to remain clear at the top in the Primeira Liga, the battle for second place was on as Porto hosted Sporting Lisbon on Sunday.
The home side emerged victorious with a 3-0 win thanks to a hat-trick from on-loan Barcelona man Cristian Tello, who had only scored twice all season before this game.
It opens up an eight-point buffer between Porto and Sunday's rivals, leaving the Dragoes free to concentrate on chasing down Benfica over the rest of the campaign.
3. Wolfsburg
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Back to Germany and another goal feast in a Wolfsburg game, as the league's second-placed side powered to a 5-3 victory away to Werder Bremen on Sunday. There have now been 23 goals in the last four league matches Die Wolfe have been involved in.
A crazy opening half-hour saw five goals go in, with Werder edging the scoreline, 3-2, at that point, before 2015's goalscoring machine, Bas Dost, kept up appearances by rattling in another brace—that's now 13 goals in eight games for him so far this year.
Daniel Caligiuri wrapped up the win with his second goal to keep Wolfsburg 10 points ahead of third and eight points behind leaders Bayern.
2. Borussia Dortmund
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The best result and performance of the Bundesliga weekend, though, has to go to Borussia Dortmund, who won their fourth league match on the spin courtesy of a deserved and superb 3-0 Revierderby victory over Schalke.
Having dominated much of the match and been by far the more progressive side, BVB finally rattled in their goals late on to take the points, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus all firing inside the last 12 minutes.
Dortmund are now up to 10th, well away from the drop zone, while S04 fell outside the Champions League places to fifth.
1. Liverpool
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The performance of the weekend goes to Premier League side Liverpool, who repeated history to defeat Manchester City, the reigning champions, at Anfield courtesy of a late Philippe Coutinho goal.
The Reds were superb from front to back and kept Manchester City chasing in the second half despite having two days fewer rest than City. After a first half in which they were just about better in, Liverpool took total control after the break and battered City for most of the second 45 minutes, with Coutinho's goal—similar to Jordan Henderson's first-half stunner—a deserved reward for their invention and drive. Adam Lallana also had two goals ruled out for offside.
The result puts Liverpool on the verge of the Champions League places in fifth, with City still second but failing to close the gap on Chelsea, who were busy preparing to lift the Capital One Cup on the same day.
