Barcelona take home a point

SAN SEBASTIAN, December 14

Barcelona’s six-game winning streak in all competitions came to a halt today with a 2-2 draw at Real Sociedad which could see the leaders knocked off the top of La Liga by Real Madrid by the end of the weekend ahead of Wednesday’s ‘Clasico’.

The draw leaves Barca still leading with 35 points from 16 games but Real Madrid, on 34, can take their place at the top if they win at Valencia on Sunday.

Mikel Oyarzabal gave Sociedad the lead in the 12th minute from the penalty but Antoine Griezmann levelled for Barca in the 38th minute, scoring against the club where he began his career. Suarez put the Catalans ahead in the 49th minute, passing a lay-off from Lionel Messi into an empty net. However, Sociedad levelled shortly through Alexander Isak after the hour mark.

Reds continue to fly high

Liverpool: Liverpool moved 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League after beating Watford 2-0 today thanks to Mohamed Salah’s brace, while second-placed Leicester City were held 1-1 at home by lowly Norwich City, ending the Foxes’ eight-match winning run. Chelsea’s poor run of domestic form continued with a shock 1-0 home defeat to struggling Bournemouth.

3 for Coutinho, 6 for Bayern

Munich: Bayern Munich’s Philippe Coutinho scored a hat-trick and Robert Lewandowski added two more goals as the champions demolished Werder Bremen 6-1 today to impressively bounce back from two straight league defeats.

The Bavarians climbed to fourth place on 27 points with this victory. — Reuters

Ozil comments on Uighurs, Arsenal distances itself

Shanghai: Arsenal tried today to distance itself from the comments of its star midfielder Mesut Ozil after he posted messages on Twitter and Instagram critical of China’s policies toward its Muslim Uighur minority. “The content he expressed is entirely Ozil’s personal opinion,” the official account of Arsenal Football Club said in a post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. Ozil’s posts called Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution” and criticised both China’s crackdown and the silence of Muslims in response. “(In China) Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet,” Ozil, who is a Muslim, said in his posts. Reuters