Another weekend of action in top European leagues has come and gone and in this edition of standout performers of the weekend, we look at the heroes who cut.

Stars of the weekend

English Premier League: Bryan Mbeumo of Brentford

Brentford has been dominated By Newcastle United in their last three home meetings, losing all, but The Bees are unbeaten in seven Premier League home games so far, winning six.

On Saturday, some runs proved stronger than the other and it was Thomas Frank's charge that proved the better side, outscoring Newcastle in a thriller with the help of an outstanding Bryan Mbeumo.

The Cameroonian opened the scoring in the Gtech Community stadium with a brilliant effort into the top corner. He played his part well until the latter stages of the contest.

With Brentford holding onto a slender one‐goal lead, Mbeumo expertly set up Kevin Schade to extend the host's advantage on the stroke of the 90th minute, to finally kill off any hope of a Newcastle comeback.

Mbeumo, one of the few players to have a hand in two goals during the Premier League weekend, takes his goal involvement in the competition this season to eleven, making him Brentford’s most productive player so far.

Spanish La Liga: Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid

Following their disappointing loss to Athletic Club in San Mames during the week, Real Madrid couldn't be any more eager to return to winning ways with Barcelona dropping points at Betis earlier on Saturday.

Away to Girona is a tricky test for anyone in the Spanish top-flight, but maybe Los Blancos is an exclusion as they perfectly dominated the league runner-up in both fixtures last season, winning by an aggregate of 7-0.

Although they have not been as consistent as can be so far, and knowing they went three without a win in this fixture before finally having their way last season, Carlo Ancelotti knows the stakes ahead of kickoff.

In the absence of Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham was again their man to look up to for inspiration. The Englishman had scored in each of his previous four league games, equaling his best run in the competition since his debut at the start of last campaign.

The current La Liga player of the season did not disappoint, pulling the strings across every area of the pitch until he opened the scoring six minutes after the hour mark.

Bellingham spreads the ball out to Brahim Diaz, who drove to the byline before dragging his cutback across goal. The Girona defense managed to clear but not convincingly, and Bellingham was first to the ball out, firing his shot hard and low to find the back of the net.

With the goal, Bellingham achieved goal in five consecutive league games for the first in his career. The goal gave Madrid the advantage at the interval.

Ten minutes after the restart, Bellingham set up Arda Guler to double the visitor's advantage and in the process took his goal involvement in the last five league games to eight, five goals, and three assists.

The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder, who has struggled with overload recently was withdrawn on the hour mark as Real Madrid went on to add one more goal through Kylian Mbappé to seal a 3-0 win and move two points within of Barcelona with a game in hand.

The effectiveness of Bellingham in just an hour on the pitch, coupled with the form he is on, led to him leapfrogging Antoine Griezmann to our nomination as La Liga player of the weekend.

Italian Serie A: Sebastiano Esposito of Empoli

Empoli continues to find joy on the road, where they've not only picked 63 percent of their Serie A points this season but also played their last two Coppa games, booking the ticket to the quarter-finals.

On Sunday, they looked for their first win in four when they traveled away to Hellas Verona, who has also been very underwhelming this season and has six defeats in seven games ahead of kickoff.

However, there were concerns for the visitors before the resumption of hostilities as it is a fixture they've not won in six in the league, losing three, including each of the last two.

However, 20 minutes into the contest, it was clear who would rule the tie this time as Sebastiano Esposito’s brace had already given the visitors a two-goal lead.

The 22-year-old Inter loanee opened the scoring in the 13th minute, firing his shot high into the center of the goal to make it 1-0. Six minutes later, Esposito made 2-0 with a shot into the bottom corner after being teed up by Tino Anjorin.

Empoli went on to win the game 4-1 and move ninth on the log. The inspiring display from Esposito not only secured maximum points for Empoli but also earned him a nomination as our player of the weekend in the Italian top flight.

German Bundesliga: Jonas Wind of Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg headed into a fixture of the weekend looking to extend their winning run to five across all competitions, equaling their best run from January to February 2021.

They welcome High-flying Mainz 04, a team on a run of four unbeaten conceding just a goal while winning each of their previous three, to the Volkswagen Arena, in a fixture they had no win last season.

It was a tough encounter, which saw the visitors threaten to repeat their feat of last season when they won 3-1 in the same venue back in May. They did lead twice in the first half and took a 2-1 lead to the half-time break.

However, Jonas Wind, who had scored four goals in his last three home games against Mainz was introduced at the interval, and it proved a great decision by Ralph Hasenhuttl.

Wolfsburg found a leveler before the hour mark but the visitors restored their one-goal lead with a spirited Paul Nebel, who completed his brace in the process, as well as only his third Bundesliga goal of the season.

However, there was more twist in the latter stages of the game, and all for the good of the host, who got themselves back on level terms six minutes from time through Jonas Wind, who fired into the top corner from the edge of the penalty box.

The Danish striker in the process scored his fifth goal against Mainz, and became the all-time leading goalscorer in this fixture, overtaking the trio of Jurgen Klopp for Mainz, and Edin Dźeko and Martin Petrov for Wolfsburg.

It got better for the 25-year-old as he headed home from close range in the first minute of added time to secure all three points for the host, taking them up to fifth in the Bundesliga standing, six points behind second-place Frankfurt.

Jonas Wind, one of the three substitutes to score a Bundesliga brace in the weekend takes his goal tally for Wolfsburg to 30 since joining from Copenhagen in the summer of 2022.

He topples the likes of Jamal Musiala of Bayern Munich, Nick Woltemade of Stuttgart, and Paul Nebel of Mainz to our nomination as Bundesliga Player of the Weekend for Gameweek 13.

French Ligue 1 : Donovan Leon of Auxerre

On a Friday night in Auxerre, PSG Paris Saint-German learned the secret to how Auxerre has become so unbreakable in recent games as all their efforts to breakthrough only got the best out of Donovan Leon.

The French Guianese showstopper continued his impressive form between the sticks, finishing the match with his fourth league clean sheet of the season as well as becoming the first Auxerre goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in this fixture since Olivier Sorin in March 2011.

In a rather one-sided affair in Estadio de l'Abbe-Deschamps, the visitors created numerous chances, including four big ones, and generated an expected goal of 2.51 from 11 shots on target out of the 24 attempted, but nothing was getting past Leon.

In the process of making eleven saves, he becomes the goalkeeper with the second most saves in a single game in Europe's top five leagues this season, behind Mads Hermansen of Leicester City, who had 14 saves against Arsenal back in September.

In addition to how spectacular his performance was, the 32-year-old made nine of the saves from attempts inside the box, seven of which were also diving saves.

Donovan Leon becomes the first goalkeeper to prevent the Ligue 1 defending champions from scoring in a league game this season, and the first since Radoslaw Majecki of Monaco back in March.

Our nomination as Ligue 1 player of the weekend is having an unbelievable season with the newly promoted side, and this adds to his best ones, having already assisted two of their goals so far.

Ultimate Player of the weekend

Auxerre goalkeeper Donovan Leon, who put in an almost unreal performance against PSG is our ultimate player of the weekend in the top five leagues