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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his first three goals for Barcelona in a 4-1 win at Valencia, but Inter Milan suffered a shock 2-0 home defeat by Sassuolo. Images from the football matches played on Sunday.
Aubameyang's hat-trick powers Barcelona to win
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his first three goals for Barcelona in a 4-1 win at Valencia - the third a deflection attributed to him only after the match, lifting his side to fourth place in LaLiga on Sunday.
The former Arsenal striker, who last found the net in October in the Gunners' 3-1 win over Aston Villa, now has 10 goals overall this season.
Frenkie de Jong scored the second goal for Barcelona, who looked much improved after struggling at the start of the campaign in the wake of the departure of talisman Lionel Messi.
Initially the fourth goal was attributed to Pedri, but when the referee issued his match report after the game, he switched it to Aubameyang as Pedri's strike was deflected off the striker's back on its way in.
Carlos Soler scored a consolation goal for the locals.
The win lifted Barcelona into fourth place on 42 points from 24 games, tied with Atletico who are fifth on goal difference. Real Madrid top the table with 57 points.
Barca were once again clinical up front, scoring four goals from only six shots on target. They have now netted 10 goals in their last three league games.
"We are beginning to find that efficiency that we were lacking earlier in the season," captain Sergio Busquets told reporters.
"I hope Aubameyang is that one piece that we were missing up front. He is a great player that arrived hungry because he was not getting many opportunities at his last club. It is a luxury having him in our team."
It was also a busy afternoon for the video assistant referee, who had to intervene at two key points, disallowing a first-half goal for Valencia after spotting that the ball was inches out of play at the start of the move, and later overturning a penalty for Barca due to Aubameyang being very narrowly offside.
Barca appear to be refinding their confidence in the last few weeks under manager Xavi Hernandez. They were in charge of possession from the beginning, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen was solid at the back, frustrating almost all Valencia's efforts to fight back.
Inter suffer shock home loss to Sassuolo
Inter Milan missed the chance to climb back to the top of Serie A as they suffered a shock 2-0 home defeat by Sassuolo on Sunday.
The hosts fell behind after eight minutes with Giacomo Raspadori drilling a shot through goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, before Gianluca Scamacca headed into the net when unmarked to double Sassuolo's lead.
Inter were all at sea, and could have gone into the break 3-0 down when Domenico Berardi's effort hit the crossbar.
After the break, the hosts piled on the pressure, with goalkeeper Andrea Consigli making several fine saves to keep the visitors in a commanding position.
Sassuolo should have put the game to bed with late chances, but two goals were enough as Inter remained second on 54 points, two behind leaders AC Milan. Sassuolo climbed to 11th.
"I am very angry with how we played," Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told DAZN. "We had three days since Wednesday's game (against Liverpool) and we talked about the fact Sassuolo beat Juventus and Milan away - we had to be wary.
"We tried to do everything in the second half, created so many chances and were unlucky, but the fact remains we should've had a different approach.
"We will analyse the situation. We know there are 13 games to go, we are all up there and want to keep going forward. The fact is, a team that wants to win the Scudetto cannot get the approach as wrong as we did today."
Inter came into the contest having won one of their last four in all competitions, but they were buoyed by Milan dropping points at bottom side Salernitana on Saturday.
Right from the off in the San Siro, however, they were second best against a Sassuolo side without a Serie A clean sheet since September.
While they fired off 29 shots in the match, it was Sassuolo who deserved the win, having created the much clearer chances throughout the encounter.
Inter did think they had battled back into the contest in stoppage time, but to complete a miserable evening for Inzaghi's men, Stefan de Vrij’s header was ruled out after a VAR review for an earlier handball.
Dortmund trounce Gladbach
Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus played a part in five goals as his side hammered his former club Borussia Moenchengladbach 6-0 in the Bundesliga on Sunday to stay in touch with leaders Bayern Munich.
Reus, who switched from Gladbach to Dortmund just over a decade ago for 17 million euros, scored two goals and provided three assists. But he opted not to take a penalty his side were awarded in added time, with Emre Can stepping up and converting to complete the drubbing.
The victory saw Dortmund stay six points behind Bayern after the champions beat Greuther Fuerth 4-1 at home earlier in the day.
It also soothed the pain of two humbling recent home defeats for Dortmund: Thursday's 4-2 reverse to Rangers in the Europa League and a 5-2 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga two weeks ago.
Reus, 32, opened the scoring in the 26th minute by pouncing on the rebound after Switzerland keeper Yann Sommer had parried a shot from Donyell Malen.
Reus returned the favour six minutes later, playing a one-two with Dutchman Malen, who powered a shot through the grasp of Sommer to double Dortmund's advantage.
Gladbach almost pulled a goal back in the second half when Jonas Hofmann hit the angle of the post and crossbar.
But it was Dortmund who struck next to put the result beyond doubt, Reus teeing up Marius Wolf to score in the 70th minute, two minutes after he had come off the bench.
The captain added his third assist of the game four minutes later as Youssoufa-Moukoko, another substitute, netted Dortmund's fourth.
Reus then got back among the goals by smashing the ball in after a long punt from defender Mats Hummels, before Can completed Gladbach's humiliation from the spot after Wolf was felled in the box.
