European football: Five talking points

In England, the weekend was largely dominated by events in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

However, on the continent, there was a full round of matches in all of the major leagues, with the exception of the Bundesliga, which remains on a winter break until next week.

Here, Sports Mole has pored over the encounters to select five of the biggest talking points that have arisen.

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1. Ronaldo, Mexes see red For most of Real Madrid's 2-1 victory over Cordoba, Cristiano Ronaldo was uncharacteristically on the periphery of proceedings. That changed in the 84th minute, albeit for the wrong reasons. The World Player of Year, who had been lucky to see his punch on Ivan Crespo go unseen by the referee moments earlier, was handed a straight red card for kicking out at home defender Edimar. Yet, if that was stupid, AC Milan centre-back Philippe Mexes took things to an entirely new level in the closing stages of his team's 3-1 defeat away at Lazio. Having been separated from Stefano Mauri, Mexes returned for more, first aiming a headbutt at the Lazio striker, before grabbing him around the neck. It sparked a mass brawl, with punches being thrown. Unsurprisingly, Mexes was dismissed and like Ronaldo, has since apologised for his actions.

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2. Messi, Neymar shine without Suarez It was Luis Suarez's birthday on Saturday, but his Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar decided to have a party without him. The summer signing from Liverpool was dropped to the bench by head coach Luis Enrique for the trip to Elche and without him, his fellow South Americans ran riot at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero. Messi and Neymar both helped themselves to braces in a 6-0 win, while talisman Messi also weighed in with three assists. To make matters even worse for Suarez, his replacement Pedro also got his name on the scoresheet.

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3. De Boer's final De Klassieker? In the days leading up to Ajax's clash with bitter rivals Feyenoord, head coach Frank de Boer revealed that he had received plenty of phone abuse from some De Trots van Zuid fans: "This kind of stuff makes me sad. They have been stalking and phoning me for days. Even in the middle of the night. They found out, somehow, my phone numbers. I have picked the phone up a number of times and the foul language and garbage that was thrown at me, was disgusting," he said. It's that sort of treatment that has many people believing that De Boer will leave his native Netherlands in the summer, with Newcastle United a potential destination. If that is the case, he will now have taken charge of his last De Klassieker - the biggest game in Holland. It was by no means a classic, with neither side able to find the net in a 0-0 draw, which allowed PSV Eindhoven to open up a six-point lead at the top.

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4. Lyon march on Champions Paris Saint-Germain may have a seemingly bottomless pit of money, yet they remain four points adrift of Lyon following this weekend's results. The in-form Alexandre Lacazette scored his 21st goal of the season against Metz from the penalty spot, before Corentin Tolisso made sure of the outcome seven minutes from time. There was a moment of worry for the leaders, though, as Lacazette limped off with an injury that boss Hubert Fournier will be hoping is not overly serious. That was Lyon's seventh win in a row, but PSG remain in touch thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic - who else?! The big Swede scored the only goal of the game away in Saint-Etienne, which saw the Parisians draw level on points with Marseille following their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Nice.

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5. Banner dominates Defour's return

"Steven Defour: Red or Dead!" http://t.co/YYID2Y7l0Q pic.twitter.com/zYyeuJ5Vj9

— Voetbal24.be (@voetbal24be) January 25, 2015

It was always anticipated that Steven Defour would receive a frosty reception when he returned to Standard Liege with Anderlecht for the first time since his departure in 2011. The midfielder actually left for Porto, but he came back to his native Belgium this summer, much to the disgust of his former fans.

However, rather than simply jeer his appearance, a section of the crowd held up a huge banner which depicted the 26-year-old's decapitated head, with the accompanying slogan: 'Red or Dead'. The hostile atmosphere eventually got the better of Defour, who was sent off in the second half for booting the ball towards the Liege supporters.

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