Real Madrid’s ‘sh*t November’, Leipzig’s pigeon problem and five stories you missed this weekend

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 1 Dec 2025 11:37 GMT
• 6 min read

News

From Xabi Alonso’s mounting struggles at Real Madrid, to Aston Villa’s habit of scoring bangers via the Bundesliga’s most unusual problem, here are the biggest stories around Europe you missed this weekend.

Aston Villa’s silent surge up the Premier League

It was not so long ago that the pressure was starting to be turned up on Aston Villa manager Unai Emery. The Birmingham club went five without a win at the beginning of the season and lay 19th with just one point prior to beating Fulham 3-1 on 28 September.

A victory three days earlier against Bologna in the Europa League, though, was the catalyst that got the Villa Park side going. Beginning from that 1-0 victory over the Serie A giants, Emery’s side have put together a run of 11 wins in 13 matches and yet almost no one has noticed.

Boubacar Kamara’s strike, which gave them a 1-0 win over Wolves at the weekend, propelled them to fourth in the Premier League table, level with Chelsea. It was a grinding victory that has been typical of Emery’s men this season, with just 16 goals scored. But the spectacular nature of their winner was similarly characteristic of what they have produced this season.

Villa may not have scored many goals, but when they have hit the net, it’s often been spectacular. Nine of their 16 goals have come from outside the box. Only Bournemouth, with seven, have managed four such long-range efforts.

So why is this team, somehow both unspectacular and spectacular, scoring so many of the goals?

“The players are very comfortable shooting, and they are being clinical, but of course we need more options to try to get goals,” Emery said.

“We need to add goals in different ways.”

If Villa are to maintain their quietly stunning form, the manager is right.

Real Madrid’s ‘s**t November’

Real Madrid’s difficult November was signed off with a 1-1 draw at Granada. Kylian Mbappe salvaged the point for Los Blancos with a penalty midway through the second half, but there is little hiding for Xabi Alonso, who has overseen a wretched and concerning downturn in his team’s fortunes while rumours of backroom revolt continue.

The Bernabeu side have won just one of their last five games, an unconvincing success at Olympiacos in the Champions League. While all of these were played on the road, the standards Real Madrid hold themselves to demand more.

Sunday’s draw in Catalunya allowed Barcelona to leapfrog them at the top of the table and will ramp up the pressure further on Alonso, who faces media scrutiny over his apparently strained relationship with many star players, including Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde.

There is hope for Alonso, though. This time last year, Barcelona boss Hansi Flick branded the month a “sh*t November” after his side went on a similarly testing run. The Blaugrana, of course, bounced back to win La Liga and reach the Champions League semi-finals. Now the Real Madrid boss needs a similar response.

Lens hit the front in France

The Ligue 1 table has an unfamiliar look about it, with Lens having moved to the top of the standings on Sunday.

While PSG continue to gather widespread praise for their European exploits, injuries and fatigue have forced Luis Enrique to sacrifice domestic performance, and on Saturday, they were defeated 1-0 by Monaco.

Marseille then missed the opportunity to go top as they conceded a last-gasp goal at home to draw 2-2 with Toulouse. Santiago Hidalgo proved that the resurgence of the long throw is not merely a Premier League phenomenon by heading the equaliser right at the last.

The door was opened for Lens to go top if they could win at Angers on Sunday. Having approached the season in the belief that this would be a transitional campaign under Bruno Genesio, they have defied all expectations and climbed to the summit of the league having come away from Brittany with a 2-1 success.

Florian Thauvin, best remembered in Premier League circles for once turning up while playing for Newcastle in a tuxedo, scored both goals. His resurgence has been one of the stories of the season in France, leading to a return to national duty.

No one seriously expects Lens’ charge to continue – but then again, they were not supposed to be here in the first place.

Firework chaos halts Ajax match

All is not well at Ajax, with the Amsterdam giants sitting sixth in the Eredivisie as the halfway stage of the season approaches. A new low was hit at the weekend, though, when their clash with Groningen was suspended with the match locked at 0-0 as fans rained fireworks onto the field in a tribute to a fan who passed away last month.

The match was only five minutes old when the initial bombardment started, and while there was an attempt some 45 minutes later to restart play, this was met by the same outcome.

“Ajax considers what happened in the stadium this evening to be utterly outrageous,” the Amsterdam club said in a statement.

“We offer our apologies to everyone who has been affected in any way. The safety of spectators and players has been put at risk. That is unacceptable.

“We emphatically distance ourselves from this misconduct. Fireworks do not belong in the stadium.”

Ajax have claimed that fans were searched prior to the game, with sniffer dogs deployed, but the Eredivisie has described the events as “unacceptable” and a disciplinary investigation will be opened.

The match will be played behind closed doors on Tuesday, with a 13:30GMT kick-off.

Pitch-invading pigeons! RB Leipzig face unusual battle

Bundesliga giants RB Leipzig are faced with a very unusual problem at the Red Bull Arena: pigeons.

Although they were on their travels this weekend, there was a concern that Tuesday’s DFB Pokal match against Magdeburg could be plagued by the birds after last week’s 2-0 win over Werder Bremen saw more than a dozen land on the field.

Bild reports that the issue was caused by a certain type of seed that was laid in response to the weather conditions. Officials are hopeful that the issue will be fixed by the midweek clash, but Nina Konz of the Leipzig city pigeon aid organisation is not so certain.

“If a pigeon knows that it has found something tasty in a particular place, it will return. This also gets around in the surrounding flocks,” she warns.

With creative solutions that have ranged from falcons and acoustic deterrents failing, the expert suggests that it could take the establishment of a nearby dovecote to finally solve the issue.