Footballers of the weekend: Suarez shines in Europe

Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid all won to leave the race for the La Liga title on a knife edge with three matches left in the season.

Leicester City beat Swansea City 4-0 in the Premier League to move closer to their first English top-flight title while Manchester United and Crystal Palace reached the FA Cup final.

Bayern Munich won again but will have to wait at least another week to clinch their fourth successive Bundesliga title after nearest challengers Borussia Dortmund also took three points.

Check out the top footballers of the weekend…

Suarez makes history as Barca thrash Gijon

Red-hot Luis Suarez scored four goals for the second game in a row as Barcelona stayed top of La Liga by hammering Sporting Gijon 6-0 on Saturday.

Gareth Bale made up for the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo by scoring twice as Real Madrid came back from two goals down to win 3-2 at Rayo Vallecano and Atletico Madrid kept up their challenge with a 1-0 home victory over Malaga.

Barcelona have 82 points, ahead of Atletico on goal difference, and Real Madrid are one point back in third with three games left.

Suarez moved ahead of Ronaldo as the league's top scorer on 34 goals after netting four times, including two penalties, in the space of 25 second-half minutes.

Magical Mahrez honoured for lighting up Leicester's season

Leicester City crushed Swansea City 4-0 on Sunday to move within five points of their first English top-flight title with three games left in the season.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri mused on Sunday that, if he had his wish, every one of his wonderful squad would have been honoured as Player of the Year at the Professional Footballers' Association awards night.

Yet even at the heart of a side whose trademark is its team spirit and collective ethos, the Italian coach recognised that the individual who has lit up his side most brightly is the 2016 PFA Footballer of the Year, Riyad Mahrez.

"He is fantastic, Riyad is our light. When he switches on, wow, Leicester change colour! That is the truth," Ranieri had enthused earlier in the week.

They are eight points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, who play West Bromwich Albion on Monday, after striker Leonardo Ulloa struck twice against Swansea to make light of the absence of suspended leading scorer Jamie Vardy.

Manchester City thrashed Stoke City 4-0 to move into third place ahead of Arsenal who were held to a 0-0 draw at Sunderland, a result that lifted the hosts out of the relegation zone.

Manchester United will play Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final, a repeat of the showpiece match in 1990.

Striker Anthony Martial scored three minutes into stoppage- time to earn United a 2-1 semi-final win over Everton at Wembley on Saturday and Connor Wickham's header gave Palace a 2-1 victory over Watford on Sunday.

Bayern put champagne on ice despite win at Hertha

Bayern Munich moved within one win of a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title after beating Hertha Berlin 2-0 to maintain a seven-point lead over Borussia Dortmund with three matches left.

The treble-chasing Bavarians never hit top form but struck twice in the second half through Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa to edge closer to their first silverware of the season.

The Bavarians, who take on Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals in midweek, have 81 points with three games to go and can seal the title by defeating Borussia Moenchengladbach next week.

"We need one more victory," said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola who is in his third and final season at the club before he joins Manchester City at the end of the campaign.

Dortmund eased past VfB Stuttgart 3-0 to keep their slim title hopes alive, with Bayer Leverkusen staging a scintillating three-goal comeback to beat Schalke 04 3-2 and almost make sure of a third-place finish and Champions League action.

Juve close in on Serie A title after Buffon heroics

Juventus need one point to secure the Serie A title after beating rivals Fiorentina 2-1 away on Sunday helped by Gianluigi Buffon saving a 90th minute penalty from Nikola Kalinic.

Alvaro Morata struck the 83rd-minute winner for Juve two minutes after Kalinic had equalised for the hosts with a curling effort to cancel out Mario Mandzukic's first-half opener.

Juventus moved 12 points clear at the top of Serie A afterseeing off rivals Fiorentina 2-1 and will wrap up the title on Monday if second-placed Napoli fail to win at AS Roma.

Alvaro Morata scored the winner moments after NikolaKalinic's equaliser had cancelled out Mario Mandzukic's opener, and the Croatian forward was denied a second leveller at the death when his penalty was saved by Gianluigi Buffon.

Stevan Jovetic's double helped Inter Milan to acome-from-behind victory over Udinese as Roberto Mancini's side kept their Champions League qualification hopes alive.

Juventus have 85 points after 35 matches with Napoli on 73, Roma on 68 and Inter 64.

Angel di Maria nets winner in French League Cup final

Argentine winger Angel Di Maria bagged the winner as champions Paris St Germain beat Lille 2-1 to capture the French League Cup trophy for the third year in succession, and for a record sixth time, on Saturday.

Olympique Lyon moved into second place in Ligue 1 after winning 3-2 at Toulouse as fellow Champions League hopefuls Monaco dropped to third after being held 1-1 at Stade Rennes.

Corentin Tolisso bagged an 85th-minute winner to denyrelegation strugglers Toulouse and take Lyon on to 59 points, level with Monaco but ahead of their rivals due to a superior goal difference.

Marseille extended their miserable club-record run of homegames without victory to 15 after drawing 1-1 with Nantes, staying five points above the relegation zone with three matches to play.