Two second-half goals from Sergi Roberto rescued a 3-2 home win for Barcelona against the bottom side Almería in La Liga on Wednesday.
Barcelona dominated the first half but squandered the vast majority of their 15 chances – five of them on target. Raphinha did put the hosts in front in the 33rd minute, netting a rebound from close range, after Luís Maximiano had saved Ronald Araújo’s header from a corner.
The visitors equalised shortly before half-time when Leo Baptistão scored with a chipped finish, awarded after a VAR check for offside. Roberto restored their lead on the hour, nodding home a corner, but Almería, who are winless in the league, levelled again 11 minutes later as Edgar González pounced on Iñaki Peña’s error.
With time running out, Roberto struck again to earn victory, nutmegging Maximiano from close range to move Barça above Atlético Madrid into third place. Elsewhere, Villarreal climbed away from danger with a 3-2 home win over struggling Celta, while Unai Gómez struck in stoppage time to earn Athletic Bilbao victory over Las Palmas.
Bayer Leverkusen go into the Bundesliga’s winter break in top spot after Patrik Schick’s first-half hat-trick set up a 4-0 victory against Bochum. Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten side took half an hour to make the breakthrough from Schick’s penalty, but the Czech striker quickly added a second from Jérémie Frimpong’s low cross.
Schick struck again just before half-time, heading home Álex Grimaldo’s corner. Leverkusen added a fourth goal through the substitute Victor Boniface in the 69th minute, and stay four points clear of Bayern Munich, who have a game in hand, after Harry Kane earned the Bavarians a hard-fought 2-1 win at Wolfsburg.
Jamal Musiala fired Thomas Tuchel’s side into the lead after a pinpoint cross from Thomas Müller in the 33rd minute. Kane made it two before half-time, firing into the top corner for his 21st league goal of the season. Maximilian Arnold pulled one back for the hosts, and forced a late save from Manuel Neuer as Bayern held on.
Stuttgart kept up their push for a Champions League place with an impressive 3-0 home victory against Augsburg, with Denis Undav and Serhou Guirassy on target. Union Berlin boosted their survival hopes with a 2-0 home win against Cologne, thanks to goals from Benedict Hollerbach and David Datro Fonana in either half.
Eintracht Frankfurt produced a late turnaround to beat 10-man Mönchengladbach 2-1. Max Wöber put Gladbach ahead before being sent off with two minutes to go, and Eintracht struck through Buta and Robin Koch in stoppage time. Heidenheim also scored two late goals to beat Freiburg 3-2 and move into the top half of the table.
Internazionale have crashed out of the Coppa Italia at the last-16 stage after losing 2-1 at home to Bologna in extra time. The Serie A leaders wasted a host of chances, with Lautaro Martínez seeing his penalty saved by Federico Ravaglia as the game stayed goalless after 90 minutes at San Siro.
Carlos Augusto opened the scoring for Inter two minutes into extra time with a header but Bologna fought back. Sam Beukema levelled from a corner before Dan Ndoye raced on to Joshua Zirkzee’s pass with four minutes left on the clock to book their spot in the quarter-finals.
In Ligue 1, Kylian Mbappé scored twice as leaders Paris Saint-Germain beat Metz 3-1 at home to maintain their five-point lead over Nice.
The first half ended goalless with PSG fortunate not to concede an own goal when Danilo Pereira’s header rebounded off the post. Vitinha opened the scoring early in the second half before Mbappé struck a superb second from the edge of the box on his 25th birthday. The forward got his second goal late on after a defensive error.
Nice continued their push for a top-three finish with a 2-0 win over seventh-placed Lens. Substitute Terem Moffi scored a quickfire penalty and header late on to end Lens’ 11-game unbeaten run. Third-placed Monaco came from a goal down to beat Toulouse 2-1 despite Aleksandr Golovin’s red card.
Patrick Vieira’s Strasbourg ended Lille’s 10-game unbeaten streak with a 2-1 home win, Junior Mwanga scoring the decisive goal. Brest climbed to fourth after Kamory Doumbia notched all four goals in the first half of their 4-0 rout of Lorient. Marseille are in sixth place after Jordan Veretout’s header earned a point at Montpellier.
Lyon moved out of the bottom three with a 1-0 win over Nantes. Alexandre Lacazette scored the winner from Rayan Cherki’s through ball, and the hosts held on after Dejan Lovren was dismissed. Rennes fought back to win 3-1 at bottom club Clermont, while Keito Nakamura fired Will Still’s Reims side to victory over Le Havre.