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From England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, we scouted the matches that took place across Europe’s big five leagues with a handy pair of binoculars to see who shone the brightest from the weekend’s action.
Here are the weekend’s top 10 heroes – the individuals who provided the best highlights from all of the games.
Fabio Borini
Times have been tough for Sundand. They lay at the bottom of the table before the weekend began with just one point to their name and a feisty Tyne-Wear derby lay in wait on Sunday.
In such a situation, the game was heading for a draw after the two teams had cancelled each other out at 1-1. That’s when Fabio Borini, on loan from Liverpool, stepped in and scored a superb late goal from distance that thundered past Magpies keeper Tim Krul with just about five minutes to go to give the Black Cats the victory and more importantly their first win of the season.
And it could not have come in a bigger match!
“We all hope so”, said Borini when asked if this win would mark a turnaround in their season.
David Villa
David Villa bagged a brace as Atletico Madrid crushed Real Betis 5-0
The Spanish striker ended a seven-game scoring drought by netting a brace and setting up one for teammate Diego Costa as Atletico Madrid kept up pace with leaders Barcelona with a 5-0 hammering of Real Betis.
Villa showed that he’s not lost any of his silken skills as he found the back of the net twice in quick succession with a couple of beautifully taken goals effectively sealing the game. He then laid on Costa with a neat assist who scored his 13th goal in as many games.
Atletico coach Diego Simeone had this to say about his striker’s performance – “It is normal for a player of his standing to need to score. We need the best version of Villa and today we saw a glimpse of that.”
Neymar marked his El Clasico debut with a goal
Neymar da Silva Santos Junior had a wonderful ‘El Clasico’ debut as he scored the opener which put Barcelona in the driving seat. The ball may have taken a deflection off of Madrid defender Raphael Varane, but credit cannot be taken away from the Brazilian who had made a fine run to pick up Andres Iniesta’s well-weighted pass.
Taking that first goal into consideration, it meant three goals and one assist for Neymar at the Camp Nou this season. The Brazilian is beginning to have more of an influence with every passing game after a slow start and was the most dangerous player on the pitch for Barca. The goal apart, he had an effort on goal saved superbly by Diego Lopez and on another instance was thwarted by a fine challenge from Varane to prevent him adding to his tally.
And as he was withdrawn with seven minutes left, the Camp Nou erupted with chants of “Neymar…Neymar”; their newest hero had truly arrived.
David Marshall
David Marshall pulled off a series of saves to keep Norwich City at bay
Cardiff City’s custodian had a monstrous game on Saturday to ensure that the Bluebirds’ came away from their game against Norwich City with a point.
Marshall made a number of stunning stops to deny the Canaries as they bombarded the Cardiff goal, the best of which was a double reflex save to stop Jonny Howson first and then Gary Hooper from scoring.
The only time the ball did go past him was when Leroy Fer passed the ball into the net instead of to Marshall as Cardiff had expected when they put the ball out of play for an injury on the pitch.
Esteban Cambiasso
Esteban Cambiasso scored his 50th goal for Inter Milan
The 33-year-old Argentine had a man-of-the-match performance for Inter as they beat Verona 4-2 as he played an important hand in the first two goals and then scored the third which happened to be his 50th goal for the club.
The win ended a run of three matches without a win for the Nerazzuri and helped them leapfrog Verona into fourth place, four points off defending champions Juventus who are third with 22 points.
Cambiasso said after the match that he believes the team has found an identity under new manager Walter Mazzari – “I think the team has found its identity and we try to play our game”.
Luis Suarez scored a superb hat-trick against West Brom
If not for a lengthy suspension towards the end of last year’s campaign, Luis Suarez may well have finished as the top scorer in the Barclays Premier League. He was also in contention for the Player of the Year award before that ill-timed bite on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.
His return to action after the ban has been nothing short of sensational. He has become the master of hat-tricks and scored another as Liverpool put West Brom to the sword in a 4-1 romp that featured some exquisite goals from the Uruguayan. It took his tally to seven goals in six games.
Nutmegs, great close control dribbling and a powerful header from the edge of the box marked out Suarez’s display and his partnership with Daniel Sturridge added ever more weight to the argument that Liverpool might just have the best strike tandem in the league.
“Luis. Magician,” tweeted John W. Henry, in awe of Suarez’s performance.
Tim Howard
Everton keeper Tim Howard was outstanding between the posts
David Marshall wasn’t the only keeper to leave his hand-print on a game in the English Premier League. Tim Howard did what very few people have done so far – stop a vicious penalty heading for the top corner from Aston Villa front-man Christian Benteke.
The 34-year-old American keeper made an outstanding dive to his right to stop Benteke’s effort from going in and stopped Benteke again from open play. He also denied Andreas Weimann and Gabriel Agbonlahor goal-scoring chances and helped his side keep a clean sheet as they netted two goals of their own to emerge 2-0 winners from a tough game at Villa Park.
He also underlined his status as the USA’s no.1 keeper and made it that much tougher for his opposite number, Aston Villa’s Brad Guzan, to depose him in the national team.
USA coach Juergen Klinsmann has so far opted to go with Howard.
Nuri Sahin
Nuri Sahin wheels off in celebration after scoring Dortmund’s second goal against Schalke
The Turkish midfielder capped off a brilliant week with a superb midfield display in the Ruhr valley derby in which Borussia Dortmund emerged 3-1 winners over Schalke in Gelsenkirchen.
Last year, Schalked achieved the double over Dortmund, but there was to be no repeat of that as Sahin scored one and set up one in what was a very impressive performance from Juergen Klopp’s men who maintained the pressure on defending champs and league leaders Bayern Munich with the win.
Sahin, who has started every game for Dortmund so far this season, scored a magnificent long range goal and followed up his impressive display in the midweek Champions League game against Arsenal with another man-of-the-match effort.
Expensive strikers
What do Fernando Torres, Edinson Cavani, Neymar and Radamel Falcao all have in common?
1. They all cost £50m or more
2. They all found the back of the net over the weekend
Torres has come into some good form of late – he scored a brace midweek in the Champions League and put in an energetic display against Manchester City constantly causing problems with his pace and movement. He scored the all-important game winner taking advantage of City’s defensive lapses at the back.
Edinson Cavani scored a clinical double to help PSG earn a point from a disastrous defensive display at Saint Etienne. Colombian Falcao was even more impressive in Monaco’s 2-1 win over Lyon – he had four shots in total in the game, of which three were on target and one found the net.
And I have already mentioned Neymar!
Jose Mourinho
Why you may ask?
For going crazy after Torres’ winner and joining the fans for a jolly ol’ celebration!
Just Jose being Jose.
