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Manchester City won big on another busy weekend of European soccer action as they emerged from Anfield with an impressive victory over defending champions Liverpool that could make all the difference in this season's Premier League title race.

Elsewhere, Juventus continue their Serie A title defense recovery while Le Classique between Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain did not fail to live up to its billing in Ligue 1. In Germany, Borussia Dortmund fell further behind the Bundesliga's UEFA Champions League qualification places.

Here are this weekend's major winners and losers from across Europe.

Winner: City

Pep Guardiola's men struck a major blow in the Premier League title race on Sunday with a 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool at Anfield that opens up a 10-point gap between the two with a game in hand for the leaders. Ilkay Gundogan scored twice as Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden helped to blow Jurgen Klopp's men away with three goals in the final 17 minutes after Mohamed Salah had equalized midway through the second half. The German himself admitted post-match that City are "running away with it" and it is impossible to disagree with him with 14 consecutive wins across all competitions.

Loser: Liverpool

The Reds came apart toward the end against City and have now lost four of their last seven Premier League games with three of those coming at home. Liverpool have now dropped to fourth in the table and are within reach of bitter rivals Everton and Aston Villa as both sides have two games in hand over the defending titleholders. There is even a five-point gap between Liverpool and rivals Manchester United in second.

Winner: Juventus

With four wins from five Serie A outings, Juve continue to pick up speed as the gap between them and leaders AC Milan shortens. Andrea Pirlo's men beat AS Roma 2-1 on Saturday to go above Paulo Fonseca's men and Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring after just 13 minutes. With one game in hand against SSC Napoli, the defending champions could cut the deficit between themselves and the summit to just four points with the Partenopei coming up later this week and both Milan and Inter still to come before the end of the season.

Loser: Napoli

Gennaro Gattuso's men are in a precarious position right now because of their recent stumbles and a 2-1 home defeat to Spezia and a 3-1 loss away at Hellas Verona was followed up by a 2-1 defeat to Genoa CFC. These results make the Juve clash majorly important. The former Italy international is fighting to save his job and Atalanta BC away after the Turin giants at home is not exactly an easy run of games for Gli Azzurri and their tactician.

Winner: PSG

Mauricio Pochettino's men travelled to Stade Velodrome for the 100th edition of France's headline domestic fixture, Le Classique, against bitter rivals Marseille off the back of a 3-0 win over Nimes Olympique. OM, meanwhile, were reeling from a disastrous week that saw Andre Villas-Boas removed as coach. As expected, PSG ran out reasonably comfortable winners with Kylian Mbappe and Mauro Icardi scoring as Dimitri Payet saw red and the three points keeps an exciting Ligue 1 title race going.

Loser: Marseille

As recently as the start of 2021, OM looked capable of qualifying for the Champions League, but a woeful spell of form has sparked an implosion that has now seen Villas-Boas removed as coach and fan unrest reach unseen levels. Six Ligue 1 games without a win and four defeats means that European qualification is no longer guaranteed while owner Frank McCourt continues to deny that a potential sale is in the offing.

Winner: Leipzig

With Bayern Munich at the FIFA Club World Cup and likely to be tired when they return to Bundesliga duty, this week is a great chance for the chasing pack to close the gap on Hansi Flick's men and apply some pressure -- notably RB Leipzig. Julian Nagelsmann's side eased past Schalke 04 with a 3-0 away win and could close the gap from seven points to four if they win at home to Augsburg this Friday.

Losers: Dortmund

While Leipzig remain in the hunt, Dortmund continue to collapse with Edin Terzic unable to stop the rot that had set in under Lucien Favre. Three losses from five in the Bundesliga with just one win in that span. Time has seen BVB go from being faltering title contenders to the very limits of European qualification with other teams in better form ahead of them such as VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt.

Winner: Sevilla

Julen Lopetegui's men picked up their fourth consecutive win with a 3-0 success against Getafe CF and moved up to fourth and to within a point of Barcelona and Real Madrid on 43 in La Liga. Given both teams' tendencies to drop points this season, Sevilla's consistency could see them move up into second behind Atletico Madrid before too long.

Loser: Villarreal

Unai Emery's men could have been up there with Sevilla but four consecutive draws have allowed a gap to open up between the Champions League and Europa League places with Villarreal now in the latter and six points adrift of Lopetegui's upwardly mobile outfit.