Winners and Losers: Liverpool impress as Messi's MLS title hopes dashed
As usual, Flashscore has put together a summary of the main winners and losers for you.
Winner: Liverpool
Premier League leaders Liverpool had an almost perfect weekend. The team coached by Arne Slot beat Aston Villa 2-0 and saw their two main rivals stumble. Manchester City lost to Brighton and Arsenal drew in the London derby against Chelsea.
The results saw Liverpool extend their lead at the top ahead of the international break. The Reds have 28 points to the Citizens' 23 and the Gunners' 19.
What's more, Liverpool's incredible defensive consistency stands out. They have only conceded six goals in 11 Premier League games - four fewer than Nottingham Forest (second-best defence) - and have kept a clean sheet in six matches.
Winner: Vinicius Junior
On the weekend when the Ballon d'Or votes were revealed, Vinicius Junior demonstrated once again that he is the best player in the world. The Real Madrid forward destroyed Osasuna with a hat-trick and helped his team close the gap on Barcelona in LaLiga.
The Brazilian earned a 10 from Flashscore for his influential performance. The show began with a run down the right, a skilful dribble past Alejandro Catena and a powerful strike to open the scoring.
Vini's second came after a throw-in from goalkeeper Andriy Lunin: the winger beat the defence, dribbled past the goalkeeper and tapped into the empty net. The third was the simplest, as he received Brahim Diaz's pass and just stroked the ball home.
This was Vinicius Junior's second hat-trick in the last four games and the fourth of his entire career. The most recent was in the 5-2 win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. The Whites' number seven has now scored nine goals in his last six games.
Winner: Ruben Amorim
Manchester United's new coach, Ruben Amorim, said goodbye to Sporting on Sunday with a 4-2 win over Braga. With the result, the coach leaves the club with a 100% record in Liga Portugal 2024/25. There have been 11 wins in 11 rounds.
Sporting lead the league with 33 points, six more than Porto and eight more than Benfica. In addition, their Champions League campaign has been excellent, with a win over Manchester City and a place in the top eight so far.
Ruben Amorim goes to the Premier League with six titles to his name: two Portuguese Leagues (2020/21 and 2023/24), three League Cups (2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22) and a Super Cup (2021).
Winner: Serie A
For the first time on this week's list, the winner is not a team, a player or a coach, but a league. This season's Serie A is featuring an incredible battle for the top. After matchday 12, the top six teams are separated by just two points.
The leader is still Napoli, with 26 points. Next up are Atalanta, Fiorentina, Inter Milan and Lazio, with 25. Rounding off the top six is Juventus, with 24. Of the top six, three have won the last five Italian championships. This shows that Serie A today is the most balanced of the major European leagues.
Winner: Flamengo
Brazil's biggest fans enjoyed a special Sunday with the Copa do Brasil title. Flamengo, who had already won the first leg of the final 3-1, beat Atletico-MG again at their opponents' home and sealed their fifth title in the national knockout competition.
As well as overtaking the competition's all-time champion, Cruzeiro (6), Fla secured their place in the group stage of Libertadores 2025. As a result, the Rio de Janeiro club can try to become the Brazilian team with the most continental trophies.
Loser: Lionel Messi
The dream of an MLS title in 2024 ended for Lionel Messi on Saturday night. The Argentine star saw his Inter Miami side beaten by Atlanta United in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final series. Messi even scored, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 3-2 defeat.
Messi and Luis Suarez's side were heavy favourites to win their first MLS title after a regular season in which they finished top and broke the league's all-time points record.
Messi has another year left on his contract with Inter Miami. The star had enjoyed a great regular season in the MLS, with 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 games.
Loser: Manchester City and Pep Guardiola
Yes, Manchester City and Pep Guardiola are losers after the weekend. Against Brighton, the reigning English champions were pegged back in the second half and suffered their fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions. This hasn't happened to the Citizens since 2006.
For Guardiola, the sequence is also almost unprecedented and very uncomfortable. The coach had only lost four games in a row once before in his career, when he coached Bayern Munich in 2015.
The run of defeats has knocked City out of the League Cup, knocked them out of the Champions League top eight and left Liverpool five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Loser: Eder Militao
In the first half of the match against Osasuna at the Santiago Bernabeu, Eder Militao fell screaming onto the pitch and made it clear that it was a serious injury. Hours later, his club confirmed that he had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will undergo surgery.
The pain is all the greater as Militao recently suffered an injury to his left knee in August 2023 and was out for seven months.
Loser: Barcelona
Barcelona - one of the great teams in European football this season - played possibly their worst game in the current edition of LaLiga on Sunday. Hansi Flick's side were beaten 1-0 by Real Sociedad and didn't even get a shot on target during the 90 minutes.
The result was even worse for two reasons. The first was that Barcelona hadn't lost in San Sebastian since 2016. The other is their lead over Real Madrid, which now stands at six points with their rivals having a game in hand.
