Despite finding the net on 18 occasions for the Dutch club this season, the striker had gone four games without a goal – his last coming against Waalwijk when he was subsequently dismissed after being shown a second yellow card for his celebration!
The Swede ended his lean spell when he opened the scoring during his side’s late 3-0 showing against bottom-club De Graafschap to preserve the club’s hopes of league glory.
It proved a productive week for City strikers on the continent as Roque Santa Cruz also found the net.
Having scored Betis’ only goal of their 1-1 draw with Racing Santander, the Paraguayan was substituted in the 77th minute - only to see his side concede their lead two minutes later. With nine games of the season remaining, Betis sit seven points atop the relegation zone.
Further up the Spanish Primera Liga, Vladimir Weiss’ Espanyol are slowly losing their grip on Champions League qualification.
Following a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of big-spending Malaga – a game which the Slovakian winger played just more than an hour of – the Spanish outfit now sit seven points adrift of the top four.
Back on the domestic front, Emmanuel Adebayor was twice denied by England defender Gary Cahill in his bid to lead Tottenham to a first league win in five.
The Togolese striker had two golden opportunities to break the deadlock against Chelsea, but the game ended goalless to leave Spurs with just one win in seven in all competitions.
Meanwhile, Wayne Bridge played 70 minutes for Sunderland who claimed an impressive 3-1 win over ten-men QPR.
Ryan McGivern was shown a straight red card with 15 minutes to go as Bristol City secured a valuable point at high-flying Middlesbrough. The Robins are now just one point above the Championship drop-zone after Alex Nimely’s Coventry downed Portsmouth 2-0 to close the gap.
As a result, Greg Cunningham’s Nottingham Forest will be grateful to have scraped a late point against Abdul Razak’s Brighton.
While the two only spent ten minutes on the pitch at the same time together - with Razak replacing once Real Madrid target Vicente in the 78th minute and Cunningham making way with two minutes left on the clock – Forest were able to steal a 90th equalizer to damage the Seagulls’ hopes of automatic promotion and move Steve Cotterill’s side four points above the bottom three.
