Wins for Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich; Barca beat Huesca, but Luis Suarez scores a 90th-minute winner as Atletico Madrid defeated Alaves 2-1 to go top of La Liga; Cristiano Ronaldo scores twice as Juventus win, but AC Milan are back on top of Serie A.
Jadon Sancho scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season as Borussia Dortmund returned from the winter break with a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg.
Sancho only made sure of the result on a counter-attack in injury time, shrugging off defender Paulo Otvios challenge before firing inside the right post when he just had the goalkeeper to beat.
It was the England forward’s first goal in his 12th league appearance this season, a marked decline from last season when he had 17.
Sancho got his sixth assist of this season though when he sent in the corner for Manuel Akanjis breakthrough in the 66th minute, but it had been a frustrating game for Dortmund despite star striker Erling Haaland’s return from a month out with a muscle injury.
Bayern Munich survived a scare from lowly Mainz before returning to the top of the Bundesliga with a 5-2 win in the late game.
The defending champions were stunned to be 2-0 down at the break, though perhaps it was no surprise as it marked the eighth consecutive game in which Bayern conceded first.
Jonathan Burkardt shrugged off Jerome Boateng’s meek challenge before opening the scoring in the 32nd minute and Alexander Hack headed in Daniel Brosinskis free-kick after Boateng had fouled Burkardt.
Mainz captain Danny Latza hit the post after the break, and then Bayern struck back.
Lewandowski set up Joshua Kimmich in the 50th, six minutes before Kimmich laid the ball off for Leroy Sane to equalize.
Robin Quaison rattled the crossbar for Mainz before Bayern was celebrating again when Alphonso Davies forced an own goal from Leandro Barreiro.
VAR provided the visitors some respite after finding Davies was marginally offside, but there nothing wrong with Niklas Sles goal for Bayern in the 70th. Lewandowski added a penalty six minutes later, then scored his 19th goal of the season to wrap it up.
La Liga: Barca win, Suarez strikes late for Atletico
Barcelona edged La Liga’s basement club Huesca 1-0 on Sunday courtesy of a Frenkie de Jong goal made by Lionel Messi in the Argentine’s 500th league appearance for the club.
Dutch midfielder De Jong arrived at the far post to meet a Messi cross and score on the volley in the 27th minute to give the visitors a deserved lead after a rampant start.
But Ronald Koeman’s side failed to take their many other chances and in the end were made to sweat for all three points.
Huesca could have levelled in the second half when the ball trickled across Barca’s area and striker Rafa Mir directed a backheel at goal but the shot lacked power and keeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made the save despite seeing the ball late.
The win took Barca above Sevilla and into fifth place in the standings on 28 points, 10 behind leaders Atletico Madrid.
Luis Suarez scored a 90th-minute winner as Atletico Madrid defeated Alaves 2-1 to retake the Spanish league lead.
Suarez scored from close range completing a cross by Joao Felix after Atletico had conceded an equalizer in the 84th minute.
Suarez had helped Atletico take the lead with a 41st-minute assist to Marcos Llorente, who cleared three defenders outside the area before firing a low shot that deflected off a defender before finding the net.
Alaves lost defender Victor Laguardia with a straight red card determined by video review for a hard foul on Thomas Lemar. The hosts equalized when Atletico defender Felipe found his own net while trying to clear a cross inside the area.
The win gave Atletico a two-point lead over second-place Real Madrid.
Iker Muniain scored a 25th-minute winner as Athletic Bilbao defeated struggling Elche 1-0 at home.
The win left Athletic in ninth place, while Elche stayed 17th, just outside the relegation zone.
Serie A: Ronaldo helps Juve to win, Milan back on top
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and created another goal as Juventus got back to winning ways in Serie A with a 4-1 victory over Udinese in Turin on Sunday, moving the champions up to fifth.
Ronaldo opened the scoring with a trademark drive, after latching on to Aaron Ramsey’s pass, in the 31st minute, before threading a perfect through ball into the path of Federico Chiesa to score Juve’s second goal four minutes into the second half.
The VAR had a busy evening in Turin. First, the referee was asked to consult the pitch-side monitor before ruling out what Udinese thought was the opener for a handball early on, before Aaron Ramsey suffered the same fate when he was penalised for handball, after a second look.
Ronaldo’s second goal put the result beyond any doubt as he took his goal tally to 14 league goals for the season – two more than anyone else in Serie A – in the 70th minute, with Marvin Zeegelaar scoring an injury-time consolation for Udinese.
There was still time for Paulo Dybala to score another goal for Juventus as Andrea Pirlo’s side moved 10 points behind leaders AC Milan, with a game in hand, while Udinese drop to 13th and are without a win in their last four games.
A goal in each half earned 10-man AC Milan a 2-0 victory at Benevento in Serie A which propelled them back to the top of the standings on Sunday.
City rivals Inter Milan had thrashed Crotone 6-2 to go top earlier on Sunday but Milan soon found themselves in front in Campania thanks to Franck Kessie’s 15th-minute penalty.
Milan’s task was made more difficult after Sandro Tonali was sent off in the 33rd minute following a VAR review. The referee had initially shown the midfielder a yellow card for a dangerous tackle but changed it to red after consulting the pitch-side monitor.
Rafael Leao made it 2-0 four minutes into the second half, while the hosts missed a penalty. Milan remain unbeaten and have 37 points from 15 games, one point ahead of Inter, while Benevento stay 10th.
Lautaro Martinez netted a hat-trick to help Inter Milan beat relegation-threatened Crotone 6-2. Martinez could have had four if his second attempt had not gone down as an own goal by Crotone defender Luca Marrone.
Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi also scored in a strong second-half performance from the Nerazzurri. Duvan Zapata scored twice as Atalanta beat Sassuolo 5-1 to close in on its opponent in the battle for the top four.
Sassuolo slipped to fifth, two points behind fourth-place Napoli after Gennaro Gattuso’s side won 4-1 at Cagliari despite playing 18 minutes with 10 men after Piotr Zielinski was sent off following two yellow cards.
Edin Dzeko scored the only goal as Roma beat Sampdoria 1-0 to remain third, six points behind Inter.
At the other end of the table, Torino moved off bottom spot and out of the relegation zone with a 3-0 win at Parma.
Spezia slipped into the bottom three after losing 1-0 at home to Hellas Verona. Genoa, the other team in the relegation zone, managed to draw 1-1 against Lazio. Fiorentina drew 0-0 against Bologna.
