Aston Villa increased the pressure on Tottenham manager Antonio Conte with victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. An error by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in his first game back since the World Cup allowed Emiliano Buendia to score before Douglas Luiz doubled the lead. A lacklustre Spurs, who fell out of the Premier League top four on Saturday, have now won only two of their past seven matches.
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FC Barcelona’s end to 2022 was soured by referee Mateu Lahoz who awarded a quite bizarre penalty to Espanyol late on which handed them an equaliser. The 1-1 draw means Real Madrid end the year top of the table. The Blaugrana went into the match under pressure following Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Real Valladolid the night before, and knew they needed a victory to reclaim top spot.
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Marcus Rashford scored one and created another as Manchester United overcame illness issues to beat Nottingham Forest and move to within a point of the top four. Rashford converted a superb opener after 19 minutes when he was picked out by Christian Eriksen in a pre-planned corner routine, allowing the striker to exploit Forest’s failure to track his run by sweeping a first-time shot past Wayne Hennessey.
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ionel Messi finally achieved his World Cup dream as Argentina won their third crown on penalties following one of the greatest finals in the tournament’s history at Lusail Stadium. Argentina won the shootout 4-2 after a spectacular game which developed into the much-anticipated confrontation between Messi and Mbappe, the Frenchman scoring a hat-trick but still ended up on the losing side.
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Croatia showed their class once more by clinching their third top-three finish at the World Cup with a play-off victory over history-makers Morocco. In a frantic opening, Josko Gvardiol gave Croatia the lead with a superb diving header but Achraf Dari levelled just two minutes later before Mislav Orsic curled in a sumptuous second for Croatia.
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