The weekend in the top five leagues wasn't an all-round impressive, even so with some leagues having major fixtures slated for Monday night. Nonetheless, some did carve out memorable events

 

 

 

 

 

The most prophesied of them all, the English Premier League was ever gracious with its offerings. A shocker kicked off the game week on Friday night as relegation-threatened Southampton secured a point away to Brighton, who moved to second as a result. And then the goals started to flow in.

Arsenal hit West Ham United for five. Manchester United, Brentford and Bournemouth scored four each. Chelsea hit three while Liverpool heap more misery on Manchester City with a 2-0 win in Anfield.

In Spain, Barcelona got beaten on the anniversary while Real Madrid, Atletico, and Athletic Club all capitalized on the slip. Although the Catalan giants maintain their position on the summit, they'll give it up should Real Madrid win their outstanding game against Valencia.

Napoli stretched their lead in Serie A in the meantime thanks to Scott Mctominay's lone strike in Torino, as the game between Fiorentina and Inter is still not concluded while Atalanta plays later on Monday. Lazio meanwhile lost at Parma and Juventus was held by an Ante Rebic late strike in Lecce.

In Germany, Bayern Munich lost more than two points as Harry Kane also picked up a muscle injury in their Der Klassiker draw with Dortmund. Frankfurt closed the gap at the top with an impressive win while it is getting worse for Leipzing, as a 5-1 home loss to Wolfsburg sees their winless run reach six, allowing defending champions Bayer Leverkusen to leapfrog them to third.

PSG dropped points in France but with no consequences, as they were even able to stretch their lead after Olympic Marseille came from a goal down to beat second-place Monaco. Lyon earned a massive win over OGC Nice.

Here are the players that stood out in each of these leagues, from the incredible Kevin Schade to the legendary Alexandre Lacazette and the other surprises that captured the eyes.

Players of the Weekend

English Premier League: Kevin Schade of Brentford

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Frank made a shocking decision to start the German ahead of Fabio Carvalho and it wasn't positively welcomed by the fans, who would have known better to trust their manager in the future.

Schade, who had just four goal involvements in his 31 Premier League appearances ahead of kickoff, had three goals to his name across all competitions since signing for The Bees in the winter of 2023, whilst he had made 46 appearances.

He started his day with a 25th-minute assist for Yoane Wissa to draw his side level, four minutes after they had gone behind to a Facundo Bounanotte strike.

Schade gave the host the lead for the first time in the game four minutes later. The German international was well-placed to fire home with a one-time finish, following a deflected low cross from Bryan Mbeumo.

It was the first time that the 24-year-old had been involved in two league goals in a single Brentford game, and his day was only starting to get better.

He scored his second of the day deep into added time in the first half from a Mikkel Damsgaard assist. Schade beat the visitors' offside trap and cleverly dragged a left-footed shot through the body of the goalkeeper to make it 3-1.

Schade completed his hat-trick one minute before the hour mark, firing a low shot beyond the goalkeeper after being played through by Nathan Collins, becoming only the fourth German to score a Premier League hat-trick and the first since Andre Schurrle in 2014.

Schade also became only the second Brentford player to score a Premier League hat-trick after Ivan Toney, who did twice during his time at the club.

 

 

 

 

 

The former Freiburg teenager becomes the first-ever Brentford player to be directly involved in four goals in a single Premier League game, while the numbers also equaled his total in 31 previous appearances in the competition.

On a weekend where Justin Kluivert became the first-ever player to score a hat-trick of penalties in a single Premier League game, and Bukayo Saka had a hand in four of Arsenal's five goals at West Ham United, it was always going to take something special to beat those and Schade provided it.

The top star of the Premier League in game week 13, his performance saw Thomas Frank's charge move up to eighth on the log, three points behind fourth-place Brighton, and joint second goals scored so far.

Spanish La Liga: Oihan Sancet of Athletic Club 

 

 

 

Ernesto Valverde's charge headed into the game on a run of eight unbeaten but fell behind early against a Rayo Vallecano side, who had only lost one home game when scoring first this season, against Barcelona in round three.

Being a fixture the visitors have dominated in recent years and given their current form, they made reason enough for optimism after Randy Nteka fired home for his first goal of the season less than 14 minutes into proceedings in the Vallecas.

The visitors huffed and puffed to get back into the game all to no avail until the introduction of Oihan Sancet before the hour mark, which ultimately changed things for them, and helped seal a comeback win.

Our pick as the La Liga player of the weekend restored parity less than ten minutes after coming on to take the place of Gorka Guruzeta on the pitch. Sanchez volleyed home a Nico Williams' cross aimed for the back-post, making it 1-1.

The 24-year-old completed the comeback 12 minutes from time, firing a one-time strike into the back of the net from outside of the box, following a pass from Oscar de Marcos.

Sancet, whose vital contributions secured a vital win for Bilbao, helping them climb places up the table to fourth, was the top scorer in the Spanish top-flight during the weekend, despite playing less than 35 minutes.

 

 

 

 

The Spanish midfielder has now scored eight goals this season, only in the 2022-23 campaign, where he had ten, has he had more for the club. Interestingly, Sancet scored his two goals from a combined expected goal of 0.5. Incredible.

Italian Serie A: Tijjani Reijnders of AC Milan

The Dutch midfielder starred with a brace in an impressive team display by the Rossonerri to blow away Empoli in San Siro on Saturday evening.

Milan had dominated and has been unbeaten in this fixture since Empoli returned to the top flight in 2021, winning five of their six meetings while keeping four clean sheets in that run.

 

 

 

Reijnders, who is having a much improved productive second season at Milan having recently surpassed four goals tally across all competitions for the club last season with his fifth of this season in a 3-1 away win at Real Madrid, starred on the evening with a couple of goals.

The former AZ Alkmaar man, who had not registered a goal involvement in Serie A until November continued his fine form by scoring just before half-time to double Milan's advantage after Alvaro Morata had given them a relatively early lead in the 14th minute.

After sustaining possession around the visitors' penalty area, Christian Pulisic's deflected cross from the right fell to Reijnders on the edge of the box and he hammered home a powerful shot for his tenth goal for the club.

His evening got even better nine minutes after the hour mark as he completed his first-ever Serie A brace, traveling the distance from the center circle to the edge of the penalty area, where he fired a low shot beyond the reach of the goalkeeper, and into the bottom corner for 3-0

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Reijnders is one of the two players to bag a Serie A brace during the weekend but the only one to have scored both from open play. He takes his deserved place in our nomination, edging out Bologna's Dan Ndoye.

German Bundesliga: Lucas Holer of Freiburg

Being the kind of player he is, Lucas Holer will be as surprised at his nomination as the Bundesliga player of the weekend as he must have been at the performance he pulled off during the weekend for Freiburg as they crushed Borussia Mönchengladbach.

 

 

 

The 30-year-old had only been directly involved in four Bundesliga goals all year, hence, scoring a brace and one assist in a game for a Freiburg side, that had only scored three and won one in their last six games across all competitions would have been far from his thought at kickoff.

Holer, who had never been directly involved in three goals in a single Bundesliga game, opened the scoring in the latter stages of the first half, firing his shot into the bottom corner following a fast break.

The lead was doubled four minutes after the restart and Holer this time turned provider, setting up Ritsu Doan with his second assist of the season, giving the host a breathing space.

The German midfielder completed his brace three minutes after the hour mark, restoring Freiburg's two-goal cushion two minutes after Gladbach had pulled one back through Tim Kleindienst.

He finished the weekend as one of the two players in the German top-flight to contribute to three goals, joining St.Pauli's Johannes Eggestein, who assisted two and scored one in a 3-1 win over Holstein Kiel on Friday night.

 

 

 

 

He however nicks his compatriot to the prize, taking his goal contributions in the Bundesliga this season to four, while also taking his total goals scored in Freiburg shirt to 40.

French Ligue 1: Alexandre Lacazette of Olympic Lyon 

Although the long-term future remains up in the air, Olympic Lyon continues to do their bit on the pitch by earning a third win in four games after the annihilation of OGC Nice in the Groupama stadium on Sunday evening.

 

 

 

Meetings with Nice is one that always gives Les Gones a lot of headaches having been starved of back-to-back wins in the fixture from 2019 to 2020. However, Pierre Sage's charge had a conformable ride on Sunday, thanks to an Alexander Lacazette hat-trick.

The Lyon legend has endured and consistent campaign up to this stage, with only two Ligue 1 goals, which have come in eleven appearances before kickoff during the weekend — one also came in his previous league game, meaning the former Arsenal striker scored once in his first ten league games of the season.

The 33-year-old would finish the game with three goals, more than he had in the competition this season, before referee, Mr. Bastien Dechepy sounded his whistle to get things underway in the game.

It took him less than four minutes to get the party started against OG Nice, getting on the end of a Clinton Mata's cross to fire home from close range. It was his ninth goal against Nice, having scored seven times in the fixture before joining Arsenal and added one more since returning.

Lacazette scored his second four minutes before the half-time break from a Said Benrahma assist, restoring the host's lead after Sofiane Diop had fired them level midway through the half.

He completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 69th minute, beating Marcin Bulka for the third time after teenage defender Yael Nandjou was penalized for a foul on Rayan Cherki.

Lacazette was withdrawn after completing his hat-trick, which takes his total goals for Lyon to 190, 61 of which have come in his second spell.

 

 

 

The French striker has now achieved eight goals and two assists for Lyon this season, with five goals and one assist coming in his last four appearances, signaling a total return to form.

Lacazette beat Arnaud Kalimuendo-Muinga to Lthe igue 1 Player of the Weekend nomination. His countryman also scored a hat-trick in Rennes' 5-0 win over Saint-Etienne but scored two of them from the spot.

Ultimate Player of the weekend

Kevin Schade, without question, is the ultimate player of the weekend in the top five leagues. It was a historical weekend for the Brentford striker.

A hat-trick of goals and one assist, four-goal contributions from a player who had as many in his previous 31 matches in the same competition is monstrous.

 

 

 

It was a rare spectacle, one that both the player and Brentford will hope has come to stay, even so as the Bees set for some vital games in the coming days, before the turn of the year.