10 Heroes from the weekend across Europe's top football leagues

From England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, we scouted the matches that took place across Europe’s big five leagues with a handy pair of binoculars to see who shone the brightest from the weekend’s action.

Here are the weekend’s top 10 heroes – the individuals who provided the best highlights from all of the games.

Fabio Borini

Fabio Borini celebrates scoring the winner for Sunderland against Newcastle United

Times have been tough for Sundand. They lay at the bottom of the table before the weekend began with just one point to their name and a feisty Tyne-Wear derby lay in wait on Sunday.

In such a situation, the game was heading for a draw after the two teams had cancelled each other out at 1-1. That’s when Fabio Borini, on loan from Liverpool, stepped in and scored a superb late goal from distance that thundered past Magpies keeper Tim Krul with just about five minutes to go to give the Black Cats the victory and more importantly their first win of the season.

And it could not have come in a bigger match!

“We all hope so”, said Borini when asked if this win would mark a turnaround in their season.

David Villa

David Villa bagged a brace as Atletico Madrid crushed Real Betis 5-0

The Spanish striker ended a seven-game scoring drought by netting a brace and setting up one for teammate Diego Costa as Atletico Madrid kept up pace with leaders Barcelona with a 5-0 hammering of Real Betis.

Villa showed that he’s not lost any of his silken skills as he found the back of the net twice in quick succession with a couple of beautifully taken goals effectively sealing the game. He then laid on Costa with a neat assist who scored his 13th goal in as many games.

Atletico coach Diego Simeone had this to say about his striker’s performance – “It is normal for a player of his standing to need to score. We need the best version of Villa and today we saw a glimpse of that.”