From Bayern Munich’s sign of superiority over their title rivals to a potentially season-ending display from Diego Costa – here are the weekend’s winners and losers
WINNERS
Bayern Munich
What looked like a terrible season for Bayern Munich has just turned into a potentially title-winning one. And it happened in the most emphatic way possible. After being behind Borussia Dortmund for most of the season, Niko Kovac’s men reached the rivals and then unleashed their performance of the season on the perfect day, putting five past Dortmund and going one point clear at the top of the table. The ideal weekend.
Watford
The magic of the FA Cup at its best. Watford booked a place in the final after an unbelievable game of football, going 2-0 down against Wolverhampton and turning things around magically.
Gerard Deulofeu scored a candidate for goal of the season to start the comeback, completed by a 94th minute Troy Deeney equaliser. In added time came Deulofeu’s goal that means a final in Wembley against Manchester City.
Roma
The race for a top four finish in Serie A is lit, and this weekend only one team managed not to drop points, despite facing one of the toughest away matches of the lot. Thanks to a Daniele De Rossi scrappy yet crucial goal, Roma got all three points at Sampdoria, as Lazio, AC Milan, Inter and Atalanta were all unable to win. A positive weekend, finally, for the Giallorossi.
Rayo Vallecano
There is hope. The perfect weekend for Rayo, as they beat Valencia at home emphatically, with Villarreal and Valladolid losing their games. The lesser known of the Madrid clubs is now three points off from safety and can look at the decisive run of the season with a renewed hope.
LOSERS
Borussia Dortmund
Months and months of dominance at the top of the Bundesliga blown away in one game. Of course, Dortmund had been struggling for some time now, but the nail in the coffin came in the worst moment, against Bayern. Not all is lost – with six games left, Dortmund can still win the title.
Diego Costa
The last opportunity to reopen the title race in La Liga thrown away by leaving his team to ten men. Diego Costa is known for not exactly being a calm man, but offending the referee’s mother is hardly ever a good idea, and it turned out to be an awful one as Atletico Madrid had to play most of the game against Barcelona down to ten men. Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi did the rest, completing a horrible evening for Diego Simeone and his men.
Arsenal
It’s April and Arsenal have to put up with another heavy defeat, the fight between Mesut Ozil and Unai Emery, and a continued struggle to get a top four finish. It’s difficult to see an improvement compared to the recent years under Arsene Wenger, and the defeat at Everton is yet another example of this, as the Gunners are unable to be the same home or away.
The Europa League clash against Napoli will be the main test now – failing this would be another setback and the ultimate sign that the post Wenger era is yet to really kick off in a positive way.
Marseille
What a wasted opportunity for Rudi Garcia’s men to get well back in the race for a Champions League spot. Marseille lost 2-0 at Bordeaux, as Lyon also lost, and St. Etienne and Lille dropped points drawing their games. A top four finish is utopia now for Marseille.
