Robert Lewandowski scored his 12th goal in 11 La Liga games as Barcelona put up a dominant display to claim maximum points against Athletic Bilbao to stay three points behind leaders Real Madrid.

The Poland International striker netted his side's third goal when he drove in an unstoppable drive from Ousmane Dembele's pass.

Lewandowski had previously provided the assist for the opener, lofting the ball for Dembele to head in.

Dembele who put up the player of the match performance expertly picked out Sergi Roberto to make it 2-0 and also set up a late fourth with his third assist of the one-sided affair as Ferran Torres swept in.

It was an impressive display by Barcelona but some of the shine was taken off the win as Roberto went off with a shoulder injury late on.

The win, Barcelona's second in succession, keeps them in touching distance with Real, who defeated Sevilla 3-1 on Saturday.

Real are currently top on 31 points from 11 games, while Barcelona lie in second, 3 points less with 28 points.

Following Thursday's 3-0 Premier League defeat against Fulham, Aston Villa fired manager Steven Gerrard.

Villa have only won twice in the league this season and are only one point above the relegation zone in terms of goals scored.

Aaron Danks, the club's first-team coach, will take command of the team for Sunday's home game against Brentford.

Villa chief executive Christian Purslow stated in a statement on Friday that Gerrard's goals "had not been met."

"The board has come to this decision following a full evaluation of results and performances over the calendar year," he said.

"We were clear when we appointed Steven that we set an objective of continuous improvement but that has not been achieved despite everybody's best efforts and we believe the time is right to make these changes now.

"The process of appointing a new head coach is under way and we will update supporters as soon as possible."

The statement also confirmed that Gary McAllister, Neil Critchley, Tom Culshaw, Jordan Milsom and Scott Mason have also left the club following Gerrard's departure.

Gerrard succeeded Dean Smith as Villa manager in November 2021 after leaving his role at Rangers.

But the former England and Liverpool midfielder, 42, led Villa to only 13 wins from 40 games during his 11 months in charge.

Robert Lewandowski scored the 600th and 601st goals of his career as Barcelona enjoyed a routine win over Villarreal.

Ansu Fati made it 3-0 in the 38th minute to leave Barca second in La Liga, three points behind Real Madrid.

The success was Barca's first in three matches after Lewandowski scored an injury-time equaliser in the 3-3 home draw with Inter Milan in the Champions League, before they lost the El Clasico encounter at the Bernabeu.

Lewandowski, 34, becomes only the third player since 2000 to pass the 600-goal career mark after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

His double against Villarreal at the Nou Camp took his goal tally to 16 in 14 games in all competitions since moving from Bayern Munich in a £42.6m summer transfer.

At Bayern, Lewandowski scored 344 times in 375 games and netted 103 times in 186 appearances for previous club Borussia Dortmund.

Before moving to Germany, he scored 21 times for Znicz Pruszkow and 41 goals for fellow Polish side Lech Poznan and has also scored 76 goals in 134 international matches for Poland.

Romelu Lukaku returned to team training with Inter Milan on Thursday as the Belgium striker recovers from a thigh injury that has kept him out of action since August.

Lukaku hasn’t played for Inter since picking up the injury to his left thigh during training in the days after his team’s Serie A defeat at Lazio.

However, he could be on the bench for Saturday’s fixture at Fiorentina and has a chance of featuring on Wednesday against Viktoria Plzen.

Inter will guarantee passage into the last 16 of the Champions League with a game to spare if they beat Plzen at the San Siro after getting the better of Barcelona in their last two Group C fixtures.

Simone Inzaghi’s side are five points behind group leaders Bayern Munich and currently sit seventh in Serie A, trailing league leaders Napoli by eight points.

AFP