Douglas Costa’s long-range strike rescued Bayern Munich in their 1-0 victory at bottom side Darmstadt on Sunday (Dec 18) to reinstate his side as Bundesliga leaders before their showdown with RB Leipzig.

Bayern host second-placed Leipzig at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday in a mouth-watering clash. Both teams are on 36 points, but the Bavarians lead on goal difference.

Costa’s ferocious dipping shot from 30 metres out on 71 minutes was the bright highlight of a lacklustre Bayern display as Darmstadt battled their illustrious opponents, running seven kilometres more as a team.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern had been temporarily usurped from top spot in Germany for 24 hours by Leipzig’s impressive 2-0 win at home to Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

However, this was a below-par display from Bayern, especially in the first half, against a limited Darmstadt team who suffered their seventh straight league defeat.

“We are relieved, they were three important points, it would have been hard to have played Leipzig without them,” said Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. “But the way we played – that wasn’t FC Bayern.”

With Jerome Boateng already out after needing a shoulder operation, Bayern’s captain Philipp Lahm withdrew just before kick-off after pulling a thigh muscle in the warm-up and was replaced at right-back by Rafinha.

With an eye on Leipzig, Ancelotti rotated with both Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich and Franck Ribery starting on the bench.

The Italian coach had demanded a performance with “maximum intensity”, but Bayern did exactly the opposite, failing to create a clear chance in the opening 25 minutes at the Boellenfalltor stadium.

Bayern lacked a creative spark and Costa made little inroads into the Darmstadt defence, until his thunderbolt of a shot settled the result.

“We didn’t play well, we weren’t fast enough, but it was important for us to win and to stay top,” said Ancelotti. “We must play better, quickly and give our best on Wednesday.”

Bayern’s hot-shot striker Robert Lewandowski was harassed by Darmstadt defenders whenever he got the ball.

Ancelotti resorted to his prefered 4-3-3 formation, even though some of Munich’s biggest wins this season have been achieved with a 4-2-3-1 line-up.

Darmstadt’s caretaker coach Ramon Berndroth admitted he “idolised Ancelotti as a youngster”, but his side showed little respect, created a few half chances and never allowed Munich’s stars time on the ball.

Franck Ribery came on for the ineffective Arturo Vidal for the final 20 minutes just before Costa’s superb winner.

Thomas Mueller pulled defenders away from the middle and with a clear view of goal, Costa unleashed a fierce shot from well outside the area which dipped inside the top left-hand corner.

Darmstadt’s best chance came when midfielder Peter Niemeyer headed straight at Neuer from a free-kick on 77 minutes.

Bayern defender Mats Hummels admitted his side must improve before the Leipzig showdown.

“The respect is huge and it’s going to be a demanding test. We will have to put in a top performance, a standard one isn’t going to be good enough against a team like that,” said the centre-back.

Later, Ingolstadt, who beat RB Leipzig 1-0 last weekend, pulled off another shock win with a 2-1 victory at 10-man Bayer Leverkusen.

US midfielder Alfredo Morales gave Ingolstadt the lead at the BayArena before Leverkusen’s Chile hardman Charles Aranguiz was sent off just after the break for his second booking.

Swiss striker Admir Mehmedi equaliser after burying Julian Brandt’s superb pass, but Israel midfielder Almog Cohen netted Ingolstadt’s winner on 73 minutes.

The result pulls Ingolstadt up to 16th, still in the bottom three, while Leverkusen are ninth.

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FIFA president Gianni Infantino has ruled out taking the 2018 World Cup from Russia in the wake of the latest findings of the McLaren report.

“FIFA is not the world police and certainly not the world doping police,” the head of world football’s governing body told German magazine Der Spiegel.

“Our disciplinary bodies will take care of anything in the McLaren report which has anything to do with football. Boycotts and bans have never solved any problems,” Infantino added as he ruled out stripping Russia of the 2018 World Cup finals.

The McLaren report, the second part of which was announced ten days ago, revealed systematic doping in Russia between 2011 and 2015 which involved more than 1,000 athletes in several sports, including football.

Infantino says FIFA are still waiting for the ‘relevant information’ from the McLaren reports which mentions 31 tampered doping samples from footballers.

The Swiss says “if measures need to be taken, they will be”, but he pointed to the work FIFA is already doing to combat doping. “Testing was not implemented by Brazil in 2014 or by South Africa in 2010 and won’t be carried out by Russia in 2018, but by FIFA,” he added.

If something goes wrong, “that will be our responsibility, our fault,” said Infantino, “but we are confident our anti-doping measures will work.”

When asked about the recent ‘Football Leaks’, reported by several publications including Der Spiegel, which alleged tax evasion by high-profile stars including Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho, Infantino said it’s a matter for individual national federations.

“It is naive to believe that FIFA can know everything from Zurich which goes on during every transfer in the world,” said Infantino. “So it makes sense to give the responsibility to the unions and federations. They should check the transfers, which take place in their own country.”

He added “when someone hasn’t paid their taxes, drives too fast or is drunk behind the wheel, then FIFA is not responsible for that.”

Infantino also said FIFA will lead a meeting of football representative bodies early next year to discuss transfers in the wake of last week’s Football Leaks revelations.

“We need to start a huge job of reflection including all parties: players, clubs, intermediaries, but also the authorities, notably the European Commission,” Infantino said in the same interview to a a group of European media, including France’s Mediapart.

“With that in mind we have, at FIFA, put in place a committee to gather all those interested parties. They will meet for the first time at the beginning of next year.”

Last week Mediapart published a report alleging that Doyen Sports, a major transfer market dealer, had ploughed funds into prostitution, kickbacks and tax evasion schemes.

“I generally believe that the majority of people, and therefore also those involved in the transfer system, are honest,” added Infantino.

“In any case, I hope that’s the case. That being said, it’s not a reason not to try, incessantly, to increase and improve the control mechanisms we have in place. But we are not an authority charged with enforcing the law … Although we must do more.”

The Football Leaks report claimed that Doyen Sports had attempted to facilitate the transfer of Frenchman Geoffrey Kondogbia to Real Madrid by offering prostitutes.

The report also accused the Kazakh-Turkish owned company of transferring at least €10.8 million (US$12 million), earnt through kickbacks, into tax havens.

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Luis Suarez celebrated his bumper new five-year Barcelona deal in style with a double as the champions defeated Espanyol 4-1 in the Catalan derby to move to within three points of La Liga leaders Real Madrid.

However, it was Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi’s skills that stole the show as Barca took advantage of Real’s duties in winning the Club World Cup earlier on Sunday to cut the gap at the top ahead of La Liga’s three-week winter break.

Iniesta teed up Suarez for an early opener before both Iniesta and Messi showed sublime touches for the second eventually finished off by Suarez.

Messi created Barca’s third as well for Jordi Alba before David Lopez pulled a goal back for Espanyol as their 10-game unbeaten run came to an end.

The five-time World Player of the Year wasn’t to be denied, though, as Messi got the goal his performance deserved a minute from time.

“Leo’s move (for the second goal) is a PlayStation move from a unique player that only he can do,” Suarez told Spanish TV Station Movistar.

Barca’s upturn in form in recent weeks has coincided with the return of veteran playmaker Iniesta from a six-week injury layoff and the Spanish international was to the fore as the hosts dominated throughout.

“We’ve enjoyed watching players in their natural habitat doing incredible, unpredictable things and making us enjoy this marvellous sport,” added Barca boss Luis Enrique.

Iniesta sparked a sweeping counter-attack on eight minutes involving all three of Barca’s star-studded frontline as he fed Suarez, who spun away from the Espanyol defence, before picking out Neymar and the Brazilian’s low cross was fired inches wide by Messi.

Barca had to wait just 10 minutes more to open the scoring as another sumptuous Iniesta pass was expertly controlled by Suarez and he bore down on goal before slotting into the far corner.

For all their dominance in possession, the champions had to wait till the start of the second period to enjoy more clear chances as Messi curled wide from the edge of the box before he teed up Suarez with a brilliant defence splitting pass.

This time the Uruguayan was denied by Diego Lopez, but at a cost as the Espanyol ‘keeper injured his knee in clashing with Suarez and had to be replaced by Roberto.

Suarez moved level with Messi as La Liga’s top scorer with 12 with Barca’s second, but once again the credit should go to Iniesta and Messi as they dribbled past a combined seven Espanyol defenders before Messi’s shot was parried by Roberto and Suarez snaffled up the rebound.

Seconds later Messi tore the Espanyol defence apart once more to leave Jordi Alba free to drill the ball into the far corner.

Espanyol did muster a reply to salvage some pride with their first shot on target as Gerard Moreno headed into Lopez’s path, who had stormed forward from centre-back to find the top corner.

However, a virtuoso display from Messi got the finale it deserved as he and Suarez exchanged a one-two before the Argentine prodded between Roberto’s legs.

Spanish La Liga results:

Leganes 1 Eibar 1
Deportivo la Coruna 2 Osasuna 0
Barcelona 4 Espanyol 1

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Hoffenhem and Borussia Dortmund fought out an entertaining 2-2 draw on Friday which saw both sides stay on the fringes of the Bundesliga title race.

Hoffenheim, who move third with the point after their fourth draw in five games, now trail Bayern Munich and Leipzig by six points having played a game more with Dortmund two points further adrift.

The draw saw the hosts remain the only unbeaten club in Europe’s top leagues aside from Real Madrid.

Their coach Julian Nagelsmann, the youngest in the Bundesliga’s history, was up against his ex-mentor Dortmund’s Thomas Tuchel and it was Hoffenheim who drew first blood on three minutes when Mark Uth netted.

Mario Goetze levelled in the 11th minute only for Sandro Wagner to put Hoffenheim back in front on 20 minutes– albeit after 27-year-old referee Benjamin Brand found he had not pushed aside Sven Bender to head in.

Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made it 2-2 with his 16th of the season three minutes after the restart after good work by French international Ousmane Dembele.

But Dortmund found their creative thrust somewhat blunted when Dembele had to go off midway through the second period through injury.

Further hampering Dortmund’s cause was a dismissal four minutes before the interval of Marco Reus for a second booking which looked harsh after a tussle with Nadiem Amiri.

Reus kicked the wall in the tunnel as he headed for an early shower.

Aubameyang lightened Dortmund’s mood when he clipped in his 100th goal for the club in 165 appearances.

Surprise package Leipzig on Saturday host fourth-placed Hertha Berlin while Bayern travel to tailenders Darmstadt.

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