Athletic Bilbao have announced that the buy-out clause in Aymeric Laporte's contract has been paid, with the defender now seemingly on the verge of joining Manchester City.

Here’s a handy game-by-game guide to the 2018 leagues and championships.

Dundalk 6 St Patrick’s Athletic 0: Oriel Park might be resigned to saying goodbye to the league title this season but a rampant Dundalk showed they are going to make Cork City take it from them after a six-goal thumping of St Patrick’s Athletic last night.

Shamrock Rovers 1 St Patrick’s Ath 1: Chris Fagan’s second-half equaliser last night lifted St Patrick’s Athletic off the bottom of the Premier Division as indiscipline once again plagued Shamrock Rovers.

Barcelona have named Ernesto Valverde as their new head coach.

A Filipe Luis goal kept Atletico Madrid's winning run going as they beat Real Sociedad 1-0.

A good portion of the Cork City squad which will arrive at the Aviva tomorrow for the FAI Cup final will have finished in the runner-up position in the league for the third year in a row.

Limerick FC 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 4: St Patrick’s Athletic boss Liam Buckley lauded his side after they came from behind to retain the EA Sports Cup at a sold-out Markets Fields in Limerick on Saturday.

St Patrick’s Athletic 3 Cobh Ramblers 2

Real Madrid got their campaign in LaLiga off to the ideal start as two goals from Gareth Bale steered them to a 3-0 win away to Real Sociedad.

Longford Town 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Barcelona have received a boost with confirmation that the leg problem which forced Lionel Messi to leave Sunday’s match with Athletic Bilbao early is nothing serious.

There was a lot of excitement around both Real Sociedad, and the city of San Sebastian, when David Moyes took over the Basque club last November. 12 months on, an unhappy parting of the ways appears inevitable.

Galway United 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 0 (St Patrick’s Athletic won 4-3 on penalties): St Patrick’s Athletic manager Liam Buckley hailed goalkeeper Conor O’Malley as a star of the future after the Mayo native saved two penalties in the shoot-out to hand the Super Saints the EA Sports Cup in Eamonn Deacy Park on Saturday night.

St. Patrick’s Athletic 3 Galway United 1

Skonto Riga 2 St Patrick’s Athletic 1: Liam Buckley was looking on the upside last night despite his St Patrick’s Athletic side losing their Europa League first leg tie away to Skonto Riga.

Barcelona’s Copa Del Rey final win may have been Xavi’s last game at the Nou Camp but after the game it was Lionel Messi’s wonder goal which was at the forefront of the captain’s mind.

St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Dundalk 2: Daryl Horgan netted twice to ensure Dundalk maintained their unbeaten start to the season as they confidently overcame 10-man St Patrick’s Athletic last night.

Four of the top five go head to head in the SSE Airtricity League tonight with leaders Dundalk away to fifth-placed St Patrick’s Athletic and second taking on third as Cork City host Shamrock Rovers at Turner’s Cross.

Cork City 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 1 - St Patrick’s Athletic win 5-3 on penalties: Late substitute Chris Forrester, who was only introduced for the penalty shoot-out, converted the winning penalty as St Pat’s edged Cork City to qualify for the semi-finals of the EA Sports Cup at Turners Cross last night.

St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Cork City 0: Cork City maintained their unbeaten start to the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division campaign when drawing 0-0 with 10-man St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park last night.

Oldham appear not to have ruled out signing convicted rapist Ched Evans.

Former Oldham midfielder Rick Holden does not see how convicted rapist Ched Evans “can survive” if he returns to football with his old club.

Oldham have denied they have offered convicted rapist Ched Evans the chance to train with the club.

Liam Buckley, boss of newly dethroned Airtricity League champions St Patrick’s Athletic, sent texts to the winning and losing managers after last Friday night’s decider in Oriel Park saw Dundalk get the better of title rivals Cork City on the final night.

Paris St-Germain shrugged off the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to inflict a first defeat on Barcelona under their new coach Luis Enrique, with a thrilling 3-2 victory at the Parc des Princes last night.

Cork City 1 Shamrock Rovers 0

Atletico Madrid shocked maybe even themselves by breaking the big two’s grip on the La Liga title for the first time since 2004, but still the 2014/15 La Liga season will likely be another shoot-out between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Legia Warsaw 5 (Legia Warsaw win 6-1 on agg)

St Patrick’s Athletic will be rewarded with a possible Champions League tie against Celtic if they can see off Legia Warsaw next week.

Legia Warsaw 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

St Patrick’s Athletic 3 Bray Wanderers 2

It's been reported that Manchester United are close to signing Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera.

St Patrick’s Athletic 6 Drogheda United 0

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insists his son Anton will get no preferential treatment when the two come face to face at Anfield on tomorrow.

Christmas festivities are much the same the world over these days, but not in Spain.

In La Liga’s latest example of club chiefs writing cheques their teams can’t cash, Barcelona announced last Monday that its socios would vote in the new year on whether to spend 300m “remodelling” their current stadium or at least 600m on a new ground elsewhere in the city.

European round-up