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HOLLAND

Brazilian Alves hit a Dutch first division record seven goals for Heerenveen in their 9-0 thrashing of Heracles Almelo on Sunday.

Feyenoord moved top with a 1-0 victory at Vitesse Arnhem and Siem de Jong scored in injury time for Ajax Amsterdam to salvage a point in a 2-2 draw at Sparta Rotterdam.

Alves scored a hat-trick between the 10th and 18th minutes and added four more goals within nine minutes in the second half. Gerald Sibon scored the other two to complete the rout.

PORTUGAL

A penalty from Lucho Gonzalez gave Porto a 1-0 win over Academica and helped them stretch their lead in the Portuguese Premier League after second-placed Maritimo were held to a goalless draw by Setubal on Sunday.

Porto, the only team with a 100 percent record, top the standings with 21 points after seven matches followed by Sporting, who beat Vitoria Guimaraes 3-0 on Saturday, and Maritimo on 14 each.

The northern team, who have not lost at Academica since 1970, grabbed the three points when winger Ricardo Quaresma was fouled inside the box by Ousmane N'Doye. Argentine midfielder Gonzalez converted from the spot after 27 minutes.

Benfica striker Nuno Gomes ended his side's European and domestic four-match winless run by scoring both goals in a 2-1 victory at Uniao Leiria.

The result left the Lisbon team in fourth place, eight points off the pace Leiria took the lead in the second minute through Brazilian striker Cadu, but Benfica levelled with a glancing header from Nuno Gomes after 17 minutes.

He grabbed the winner on 64 minutes with a superb strike from just inside the box.

CROATIA

Champions and league leaders Dinamo Zagreb beat traditional rivals Hajduk Split 2-1 to secure their 10th win in 11 matches, as Croatia midfielder Luka Modric bundled the ball home and Mario Mandzukic capitalised on a goalkeeping error to seal victory.

The defeat left Hajduk 14 points off the pace with a third of the season gone and deepened the crisis at the club after pesident Branko Grgic resigned while 30,000 fans signed a petition demanding the board step down.

Rijeka stayed second, seven points behind Dinamo with a 2-0 home win over third-placed Zadar, who are a further three points adrift.

SERBIA

Partizan Belgrade were held to a 1-1 draw at Smederevo and saw their advantage at the top of the standings cut to five points after nearest rivals Vojvodina Novi Sad rallied to win 2-1 at Hajduk Kula with a an injury time decider from Sasa Drakulic.

The league's top scorer Stevan Jovetic salvaged a point for Partizan with a controversial penalty after Milorad Zecevic had fired Smederevo ahead.

Champions Red Star Belgrade are seven points off the pace with a game in hand, Argentinian striker Hernan Barcos scoring two late goals to give them a 2-0 home win over Banat Zrenjanin.

RUSSIA

Front-runners Zenit St Petersburg went down 1-0 at Lokomotiv Moscow opening the door for Spartak Moscow to go level on points with a victory at Spartak Nalchik on Monday.

Spartak have 49 points with four matches remaining while Spartak and third-placed FC Moscow, who kept their own title hopes alive with a 1-0 home defeat of Rostov, have 46 each.

Bosnia defender Emir Spahic threw the title race wide with a second-half penalty for Lokomotiv before missing a second spot kick in injury time.

POLAND

Wisla Krakow handed promoted Jagiellonia Bialystok a 5-0 drubbing to go two points clear of Legia Warsaw, who slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Lech Poznan.

Striker Pawel Brozek led the way for Wisla with a brace that took his league tally to eight goals while a Hernan Regifo effort sank Legia at fourth-placed Lech.

Champions Zaglebie Lubin saw their title hopes damaged when a 2-1 home defeat to Groclin Grodzisk left them 12 points off the pace in seventh position.

UKRAINE

Two goals by Oleksandr Gladkiy and one from Brazilian Ilsinho gave leaders Shakhtar Donetsk a 3-0 home victory against Karpaty Lviv to keep them nine points clear at the top.

Second-placed Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk won 2-1 at Chernomorets Odessa while champions Dynamo Kiev remained a further point adrift after a 2-1 success at Zorya Lugansk.

BULGARIA

CSKA Sofia remained three points clear at the top when a second minute goal by midfielder Georgi Iliev was enough to earn a 1-0 home win over bottom team Beroe Stara Zagora.

Champions Levski Sofia kept up the pressure on CSKA with a 4-2 home win against Marek Dupnitsa in which emerging talent Valeri Domovshiyski scored a hat-trick.

HUNGARY

Leaders Honved Budapest suffered a 1-0 setback at home to mid-table Kaposvar that allowed champions Debrecen to close the gap to two points with a 4-0 rout of REAC Budapest.

Lorant Olah scored Kaposvar's winner from a rebound against the run of play after the home team wasted a string of good chances.

MEXICO

America, one of Mexico's biggest clubs, fired coach Luis Fernando Tena after losing 3-1 to Toluca on Sunday.

The club said in a statement that Tena would be replaced by Argentine Daniel Brailovsky, who played for them during the 1980s.

Sunday's defeat left the powerful Mexico City club third in Group Two with 13 points from 11 games.

Santos Laguna and Atlante both kept their unbeaten records intact in other matches. Santos Laguna top Group Two with 27 points and Atlante are two behind them in second place.

Guadalajara went top of Group Three by winning 2-1 at defending champions Pachuca, with first-half goals from Sergio Santana and Alberto Medina.

BRAZIL

Brazilian championship leaders Sao Paulo suffered their second 1-0 defeat in four days on Sunday when they were beaten by relegation-threatened Corinthians. It was also the first time they had beaten local rivals Sao Paulo since 2003.

The win failed to pull Corinthians out of the relegation zone, leaving them 17th in the 20-team table with 37 points from 30 games. The bottom four go down.

Second-placed Cruzeiro failed to take advantage of Sao Paulo's slip-up when they were held 0-0 by lowly Goias.

Third-placed Santos closed the gap on Cruzeiro to one point by beating hapless Botafogo 2-1 on Saturday with an 89th minute goal from Renatinho.

Fluminense beat Flamengo 2-0 in the "Fla-Flu" derby in Rio de Janeiro after Somalia and Thiago Neves scored at the start of each half.

Reuters