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Euro soccer: Monaco thrash Marseille to go top; Bayern end winless streak

November 27, 2016 17:21 IST

Players of AS Monaco celebrate a goal during the Ligue 1 match against Marseille on Sunday

IMAGE: Players of AS Monaco celebrate a goal during the Ligue 1 match against Marseille on Saturday. Photograph: AS Monaco/Twitter

Monaco's firepower was far too hot to handle for Olympique de Marseille as the Principality side moved top of the French Ligue 1 standings with a 4-0 home win on Saturday.

Gabriel Boschilia, Guido Carrillo and Valere Germain (2) struck for Monaco who have 32 points from 14 matches and average more than three goals per game - more than any other team from the five big leagues in Europe.

They lead second-placed Nice on goal difference, before their neighbours play their game in hand at home against Bastia on Sunday.

Champions Paris St Germain, who are three points off the pace in third, will be without the injured Angel Di Maria and Javier Pastore for a tricky trip to fifth-placed Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday.

Marseille, who are 11th on 17 points, got off to a solid start but again proved toothless in attack and they have scored only two goals in their last five league games.

Monaco went ahead in the 23rd minute when winger Boschilia curled a free kick into the top corner.

Six minutes later, Bernardo Silva dribbled past Romain Alessandrini on the right flank and whipped a fine cross into the path of Germain who headed home the second.

The striker netted again six minutes before the interval, curling a shot past Yohann Pele and effectively confirming a comfortable Monaco victory.

Second-half substitute Carrillo made it 4-0 one minute into stoppage time, heading home Monaco's 43rd league goal of the season after Pele tipped Germain's lob into the path of the Argentine striker.

The win capped a fine week for Leonardo Jardim's team, who qualified top of Champions League Group E with a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.

Bayern edge past Leverkusen

Bayern Munich players celebrate a goal against Bayer Leverkusen during their Bundesliga match on Sunday

IMAGE: Bayern Munich players celebrate a goal against Bayer Leverkusen during their Bundesliga match on Saturday. Photograph: Bundesliga/Twitter

Bayern Munich ended a three-match winless run when they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 on Saturday, although the Bundesliga champions still had to cling on at the end.

Borussia Dortmund, who beat Bayern Munich one week ago, ended an eventful week by losing 2-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt while Hoffenheim remained unbeaten after drawing 1-1 at Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Werder Bremen twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at bottom club Hamburg SV, who remained winless after 12 games, in the relegation dogfight.

Champions Bayern's win kept them three points behind RB Leipzig, who lead with 30 points from 12 games after their 4-1 win at Freiburg on Friday.

Frankfurt are third on 24 points followed by Cologne and Hoffenheim on 22 and Dortmund, last season's runners-up, back in sixth on 21.

Thiago Alcantara headed Bayern in front on the half hour after poor Leverkusen defending but the visitors levelled five minutes later when Hakan Calhanoglu played a one-two with Julian Brandt to slice open the defence and fire past Manuel Neuer.

Bayern regained the lead when Mats Hummels headed in Joshua Kimmich's cross but they had to endure an agonising finale before claiming their first win since they beat PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League more than three weeks ago.

Javi Martinez had to make a desperate lunging clearance to prevent Kevin Volland scoring, then Kevin Kampl curled a shot narrowly wide before a Calhanoglu free kick was saved by Neuer with the last kick of the game.

Szabolcs Huszti gave Frankfurt the lead against Dortmund 16 seconds into the second half when he slotted home from Timothy Chandler's cross.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang headed Dortmund level in the 77th minute, only for substitute Haris Seferovic to grab the winner for the hosts from the next attack.

Dortmund were agonisingly close to an equaliser when Ousmane Dembele curled a shot against the crossbar in stoppage time.

Hoffenheim's unbeaten record was in danger when they fell behind to Mahmoud Dahoud's goal after 25 minutes at Glabach but Nadiem Amiri equalised with a shot from the edge of the area eight minutes after the re-start.

Hamburg, the only ever-present team in the Bundesliga's 53-year history, took a third minute lead through Michael Gregoritsch, only for Fin Barlets to equalise 10 minutes later.

Nicolai Mueller and Lewis Holtby combined to set up Gregoritsch for his second in the 28th minute but Serge Gnabry equalised with an individual effort on the stroke of halftime.

Hamburg stayed rooted to the bottom with four points with Bremen two places above them in the relegation playoff spot on eight.

Source: REUTERS
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