ATLETICO MADRID CONTINUED their dismal form with a 1-0 defeat by Real Mallorca, leaving them sixth in La Liga and searching for answers.
Kosovan powerhouse Vedat Muriqi’s 16th minute strike was enough to inflict a fourth league defeat of the season on Diego Simeone’s visitors, who are 13 points behind leaders Barcelona.
Atletico, knocked out of the Champions League, are winless in five games and at their lowest ebb since Simeone arrived in December 2011.
Meanwhile Real Sociedad moved third with a 2-1 win at struggling Sevilla, who had two men sent off in the first half.
Elsewhere Quique Setien earned his first win as Villarreal manager with a narrow 1-0 triumph at Espanyol, while Almeria beat Getafe by the same score.
In Serie A, Jose Mourinho slammed the “unprofessional attitude” of one of his players, whom he refused to name, after Roma let slip a lead late in a 1-1 draw away to Sassuolo.
Tammy Abraham’s first league goal in two months gave Roma the lead with 10 minutes to play, but Andrea Pinamonti’s equaliser denied Jose Mourinho’s team victory.
“He betrayed the effort of all the others,” Mourinho told DAZN of the mystery player.
Inter Milan climbed into the top four in Serie A with a 6-1 thrashing of Bologna, while Atalanta slumped to a third defeat in four games at Lecce.
Seeking a fourth league win in a row, Bologna took the lead at the San Siro through Charalampos Lykogiannis’ deflected shot on 22 minutes.
But Simone Inzaghi’s side responded with goals from Edin Dzeko, Federico Dimarco and Lautaro Martinez before half-time.
Dimarco struck again early in the second half, Hakan Calhanoglu added a fifth from the penalty spot and Robin Gosens completed the rout.
Inter jumped up three places from seventh after Atalanta’s loss and Roma’s 1-1 draw away to Sassuolo.
They are level on points with third-placed Lazio and 11 behind unbeaten leaders Napoli. Inter go to Atalanta on Sunday in their last match before the break for the World Cup.
Juventus could go above Inter on Thursday with a win at bottom side Verona.
Torino won 2-0 at home to strugglers Sampdoria. Substitute Luka Jovic’s late goal earned Fiorentina a 2-1 victory over Salernitana.
Finally, unheralded high-flyers Union Berlin nipped past Freiburg into second in the Bundesliga as Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen continued their upwardly mobile trajectory since the 2010 World Cup winner’s arrival as manager last month.
Union relinquished a lead they had held since September at the weekend after a lopsided loss to Leverkusen, with Bayern Munich resuming their customary place at the head of the Bundesliga table. But a 2-2 draw with Augsburg coupled with Freiburg’s 3-1 loss at RB Leipzig saw them back into second on goal difference ahead of their last run out before the World Cup hiatus next weekend – against Freiburg.
In the evening’s early kick-off Alonso’s Leverkusen followed up their weekend demolition of Union with a come-from-behind 2-1 win in the Rhine derby at Cologne.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt beat Hoffenheim 4-2 and Schalke edged Mainz 1-0.
With this weekend’s programme of matches the last of 2022 it is Bayern Munich, who routed Werder Bremen 6-1 on Tuesday, who will go into the new year as league leaders with an unassailable four-point lead before their closing match of the year against Schalke on Saturday.
– © AFP 2022 with reporting by Gavin Cooney
