Roundup from La Liga, Serie A and Eredivisie
In the Spanish La Liga, Real Madrid returned to the top of the table with a clinical display of football, beating Malaga 4-1 at Estadio La Rosaleda.
Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo both bagged a brace for the visitors as Real eased to a victory over a dismal Malaga side. Higuain opened the scoring in the 30th minute when he volleyed in a cross from Ronaldo.
Ronaldo then scored a goal of his own in the 45th minute when he tapped in a square ball from Mesut Ozil and just five minutes after the restart, the Portuguese made it 3-0 from the spot after he was brought down in the box.
Malage upped the ante in the second half but Madrid were too strong for their opponents on the night.
Kris Stadsgaard scored for the home side in the 65th minute but the goal could only prove to be a consolation as Higuain scored again late in the game to wrap up an easy win for the Los Blancos.
Over at Camp Nou, a Xavi inspired Barcelona saw off the league toppers, Valencia by 2-1. The Blaugaranas came from behind to dislodge Valencia off the top of the perch and move above them into second spot.
Pablo Hernandez scored for the visitors in the first half but goals from Xavi and Carlos Puyol made sure that Barcelona were not to be denied a victory for the second time running in the league.
Atletico Madrid also registered a win on Saturday as they downed Getafe 2-0 in an evenly contested derby at the Vincente Calderon.
Simao Barbosa scored from a sublime free kick to give the Roji Blancos a lead in the 38 minutes but the replays showed that the ball had gone in off the back of Codina.
The result was made sure in the 73rd minute when Diego Costa beat Codina from close range to make sure his side leap frog Getafe into sixth place in the league table.
Over in Italy, AC Milan moved to the summit of Serie A with a convincing win over Chievo. Alexandre Pato scored twice for the Milan giants against the run of play as the Rosseneri made their way to the top of
the table.
An own goal from Ibrahimovic gave Chieve some hope in the 70th minute but Robinho made sure of all three points in the 90th minutes when he dazzled his way into the box and fired sweetly past the keeper.
AS Roma moved out of the bottom three as they beat Genoa at the Stadio Olympico in Rome.
Marco Borriello opened the scoring on the night with a sweet finish on 34 minutes and Matteo Braghi doubled their advantage just after the restart.
Gergely Rudolf reduced the arrears for Genoa as the match headed into the last 10 minutes but some dogged defending by Roma denied Genoa the equalizer and Roma climbed out of the drop zone.
Over in Netherlands, Ajax Amsterdam cruised to a comfortable victory against NAC Breda at Amsterdam Arena to reclaim the top spot in Dutch Eredivisie.
Jan Vertonghen and the sensational striker, Mounir El Hamdaoui gave the Godenzonen a 2 goal lead in the first half. The inspirational Luis Suarez added the third late in the second half to make sure Ajax returned to Eredivisie summit.
Graziano Pelle scored a late goal as AZ Alkmaar earned a hard fought victory over VVV-Venlo at De Koel. The visitors missed several gilt-edged chances but claimed all three points at the death as Pelle scored from close range.
In another match, De Graafschap came from behind to draw 2-2 with FC Utrecht. Hugo Bargas and substitute Steve De Ridder scored for the home side to cancel out first half strikes from Jan Wuytens and Jacob Mulenga.
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