Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Round-up: David Villa helps Barça stay unbeaten

 

Saad Noor
Monday 01 October 2012 11:44 BST
Comments
Substitute David Villa, back after a broken leg, struck Barça’s winner
Substitute David Villa, back after a broken leg, struck Barça’s winner

Barcelona went four points clear at the top of La Liga and remained unbeaten after coming from behind to edge out 10-man Seville 3-2 with two late goals.

The Catalans trailed 2-0 after 48 minutes away at the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium on Saturday as Alvaro Negredo added to Piotr Trochowski's 26th-minute opener. Cesc Fabregas made it 2-1 with a left-footed strike on 53 minutes, but was then seemingly head-butted by Gary Medel, who was sent off.

Fabregas equalised on 89 minutes and substitute David Villa – only recently back from a broken leg – hit the winner in stoppage time to make it six from six for the Catalans.

Malaga rose to second with a 4-0 defeat of 10-man Real Betis, after goalkeeper Casto Espinosa was sent off for fouling Eliseu Pereira in the area. Joaquin hit the resulting penalty before Javier Saviola netted a second, with an Antonio Amaya own-goal and an Isco strike rounding off the rout.

Juventus beat Roma 4-1 in Turin, stretching their Serie A unbeaten run to 45 games. Andrea Pirlo scored with a trademark free-kick before an Arturo Vidal spot-kick, Alessandro Matri and Giovinco put the hosts out of sight

Steve McClaren's FC Twente fell to their first defeat of the season at Ajax as Christian Eriksen's long-range strike midway through the second half gave the Dutch champions a 1-0 win over the league leaders. Vitesse Arnhem, in second place, continued their impressive start to the season by seeing off Utrecht thanks to two goals in four minutes from Marco van Ginkel and Bonno Wilfried.

In France, Marseilles' perfect six-match start to the Ligue 1 season came to an emphatic end with a 4-1 loss at Valenciennes. Gaël Danic and Anthony Le Tallec put the home side 2-0 up after 35 minutes, Foued Kadir made it 3-0 and Le Tallec netted his second before a Jordan Ayew consolation.

Gameiro scored a first-half double as Paris St-Germain ran out 2-0 winners against Sochaux to move them within three points of Marseilles. Next Sunday's top-of-the-table clash is in Marseilles.

Bayern Munich made it six wins out of six in the Bundesliga with goals from Luiz Gustavo and Mario Mandzuki in the last 10 minutes to pull off a 2-0 victory over mid-table Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in