The Brazilian ace turned in a brilliant display as Barcelona beat Werder Bremen 3-1 to clinch the top spot in the Champions League, Group C.
Per Mertesacker is confident new goalkeeper Petr Cech will enhance Arsenal's defence and the centre back said he has already developed an understanding with the Czech international.
Armenia midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored twice as Borussia Dortmund thrashed Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0 on Saturday to launch their season with a bang on coach Thomas Tuchel's Bundesliga debut with the club.
Check out the top footballers of the weekend...
RB Leipzig continued their remarkable first season in the Bundesliga when they brushed aside Mainz 05 3-1, their fifth win in a row, to go level on points with leaders Bayern Munich on Sunday.
Borussia Dortmund's Marco Reus scored twice in a 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen on Saturday to put them within five points of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich while Borussia Moenchengladbach continued their sensational winning run with a 4-1 demolition of Hertha Berlin.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic bagging four goals, while Juventus and Bayern Munich preserved their leads and FA Cup holders Arsenal were dumped out of the competition.
AS Roma's Daniele De Rossi celebrated his 500th appearance for the club with a goal in their 3-1 win over Empoli at the Olympic Stadium as they moved up to second place in Serie A on Saturday.
Bayer Leverkusen beat a second-string Bayern Munich 2-0 on Saturday to move up to third in the Bundesliga and get back on course for an automatic Champions League spot with three matches left in the season.
VfL Wolfsburg ended Arminia Bielefeld's sensational German Cup run, crushing the third division club 4-0 on Wednesday to book a spot in their first Cup final in 20 years where they will face Borussia Dortmund.
Holders Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 5-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw to move into the German Cup semi-final and stay on course for a treble of titles on Wednesday.
"I want to reach the highest level possible as a player and I think the most important thing is that at the end of the season we can be happy and maybe have some titles," playmaker De Bruyne told the City website (www.mcfc.co.uk).
Runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich showed no signs of letting up as they brushed aside Werder Bremen 4-0 in a bad-tempered match on Saturday.
Thomas Mueller scored twice as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich came from a goal down to beat Hanover 3-1 on Saturday and stretch their advantage at the top to 11 points after VfL Wolfsburg slumped to a 1-0 loss at Augsburg.
Holders Bayern Munich struck either side of the break to beat second division Eintracht Braunschweig 2-0 on Wednesday and advance to the German Cup quarter-finals.
As Leicester City celebrates its unexpected title triumph, Bikash Mohapatra/Rediff.com lists similar success stories across Europe's top leagues.
Bayern Munich put upstarts RB Leipzig firmly in their place by sweeping to an emphatic 3-0 home win, with all the goals coming in the first half, in a disappointingly one-sided top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash on Wednesday.
Spanish forward Joselu struck deep into stoppage time as Hanover 96 rallied from two goals down to draw 2-2 at bottom club Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Arjen Robben scored a 90th minute winner in their 2-1 victory at Mainz 05 on Friday to send Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich into the winter break with a commanding 14-point lead.
An 85th-minute equaliser by Naldo gave VfL Wolfsburg a 2-2 draw at Borussia Dortmund, maintaining their hold on second place and leaving the hosts in the Bundesliga relegation zone.
Cristiano Ronaldo finally became the highest scorer in Real Madrid's history while Bayern Munich set a record for the greatest number of successive wins at the start of a season in the Bundesliga this weekend.
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Bayern Munich scraped past Hertha Berlin 1-0 courtesy of an Arjen Robben goal to stretch their lead at the top of the table to 10 points and extend their unbeaten Bundesliga run to 16 games over two seasons.
Former German international goalkeeper Tim Wiese is all beefed up now and set for a career in professional wrestling after making an appearance in the ring at a WWE event on Saturday in Frankfurt.
Bayern Munich's Thomas Mueller scored a hat-trick as the undefeated champions crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 to open up a seven-point lead at the top.
Borussia Dortmund bounced back after slumping to their fourth straight Bundesliga defeat against Hanover 96 at the weekend, cruising past second tier St Pauli 3-0 on Tuesday to reach the German Cup third round.
Moritz Stoppelkamp scored an extraordinary goal from deep inside his own half, a Bundesliga record 83 metres, to cap a 2-0 win for upstarts Paderborn over Hanover 96 on Saturday, helping the promoted side go to of the table.
January transfer window failed to materialise as Europe's top clubs largely kept their powder dry.
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola is counting on Frenchman Franck Ribery's anger to power them past Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final second leg on Tuesday despite the winger's recent slump in form.
Kevin-Prince Boateng scored his first goal for Schalke 04 on Saturday to earn his team a 1-0 win at Mainz 05 and champions Bayern Munich beat Hanover 96 2-0.
Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich suffered their first league defeat in 18 months when they slumped to a 1-0 loss at Augsburg on Saturday as Sascha Moelder's first-half strike ended their record 53-game unbeaten league run.
Runaway leaders Bayern Munich appeared to barely break sweat in a 4-0 win at Hanover 96 to chalk up their 14th Bundesliga win in a row on Sunday, leaving them a huge 19 points clear at the top.
Schalke 04 striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar could not have dreamt of a better comeback after five months out when he scored the opening goal in his side's 3-0 victory at Hamburg SV on Sunday.
VfL Wolfsburg have completed the signing of talented winger Kevin de Bruyne from Chelsea with the Belgian agreeing to a five-year contract, the Bundesliga club said on Saturday.
Bayern Munich humiliated former Bundesliga powerhouses Werder Bremen 7-0 on Saturday, Franck Ribery scoring twice and setting up another as the champions kept up their seemingly unstoppable march towards another title.
Arjen Robben scored two first-half goals to give Bundesliga leaders and titleholders Bayern Munich a predictable 2-0 win at home to bottom club Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday.
Substitute Mario Goetze led Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on a second-half four-goal rampage after midtable Mainz 05 had the temerity to take a halftime lead at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund struggled to a 1-1 draw at Nuremberg on Saturday that ended their perfect start to the season of five straight league wins.
Bayern Munich eased past Nuremberg 2-0 on Saturday with Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben on target to maintain a perfect start to the season and join a cluster of teams with nine points at the top of the table.
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