With Diego Costa and Cristioano Ronaldo both missing the weekend’s games though injury, the opportunity arose for Luis Suarez to extend his lead at the top of the ESM Golden Shoe standings.

However, the Liverpool striker failed to hit the target in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over West Ham on Sunday, meaning he remains two points clear of Ronaldo and eight clear of Costa.

The big mover in this week’s top ten was last season’s Golden Shoe winner, Lionel Messi, who scored twice from the spot in Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Real Betis. That brace brought the Argentinian striker level with Costa in third spot. With six league matches remaining, one cannot discount Messi emulating last year’s success.

Elsewhere, Red Bull Salzburg Jonatan Soriano was again on target, scoring in his side’s 3-1 away win at Grodig, while Porto’s Jackson Martinez returns to the top ten after scoring twice in Porto’s 3-1 win over Academia.

With just a few weeks of the season remaining the race to become Europe’s leading scorer looks set to go right to the wire.

POS PLAYER TEAM GOALS FACTOR PTS

1. Luis Suarez (Liverpool) 29 x 2 = 58
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 28 x 2 = 56
3. Diego Costa (Atlético Madrid) 25 x 2 = 50
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 25 x 2 = 50
5. Jonatan Soriano (Red Bull Salzburg) 27 x 1,5 = 40,5
6. Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool) 20 x 2 = 40
7. Alfred Finnbogason (Heerenveen) 26 x 1,5 = 39
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) 25 x 1,5 = 37,5
9. ‘Alan’ Douglas Borges De Carvalho (Red Bull Salzburg) 24 x 1,5 = 36
Ciro Immobile (Torino) 18 x 2 = 36
Jackson Martinez (Porto) 18 x 2 = 36
Carlos Tevez (Juventus) 18 x 2 = 36
Yaya Touré (Manchester City) 18 x 2 = 36
14. Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) 17 x 2 = 34
Robert Lewandowksi (Borussia Dortmund) 17 x 2 = 34
Mario Mandzukic (Bayern Munich) 17 x 2 = 34
Alexis Sánchez (Barcelona) 17 x 2 = 34
18. Graziano Pellè (Feyenoord) 22 x 1,5 = 33
19. Josip Drmic (Nürnberg) 16 x 2 = 32
Adrian Ramos (Hertha Berlin) 16 x 2 = 32
Luca Toni (Verona) 16 x 2 = 32
22. Omer Damari (Hapoel Tel Aviv) 21 x 1,5 = 31,5
23. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) 15 x 2 = 30
Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad) 15 x 2 = 30
Jay Rodriguez (Southampton) 15 x 2 = 30
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 15 x 2 = 30
27. Marcin Robak (MKS Pogon Szczecin) 19 x 1,5 = 28,5
28. Carlos Arturo Bacca (Sevilla) 14 x 2 = 28
Van’Derley’ Dias Marinho (Maritimo) 14 x 2 = 28
‘Roberto Firmino’ Barbosa de Oliveira (Hoffenheim) 14 x 2 = 28
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) 14 x 2 = 28
Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli) 14 x 2 = 28
Stefan Kiessling (Bayer Leverkusen) 14 x 2 = 28
Rodrigo Palacio (Internazionale) 14 x 2 = 28
‘Pedro’ Rodríguez Ledesma (Barcelona) 14 x 2 = 28
‘Raffael’ Caetano de Araújo (Borussia Mönchengladbach) 14 x 2 = 28
Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina) 14 x 2 = 28
38. Michy Batshuayi (Standard Liege) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Duje Cop (Dinamo Zagreb) 18 x 1,5 = 27
Nerijus Valskis (FK Suduva) 27 x 1 = 27
Eran Zahavi (Maccabi Tel Aviv) 18 x 1,5 = 27
42. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) 13 x 2 = 26
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) 13 x 2 = 26
Mario Balotelli (Milan) 13 x 2 = 26
Mattia Destro (Roma) 13 x 2 = 26
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) 13 x 2 = 26
Alberto Gilardino (Genoa) 13 x 2 = 26
Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) 13 x 2 = 26
‘Javi Guerra’ Rodríguez (Real Valladolid) 13 x 2 = 26
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) 13 x 2 = 26
Fredy Montero (Sporting) 13 x 2 = 26
Loïc Remy (Newcastle United) 13 x 2 = 26
Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) 13 x 2 = 26
54. Hamdi Harbaoui (SK Lokeren) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
Aron Jóhannsson (AZ Alkmaar) 17 x 1,5 = 25,5
56. Youssef El-Arabi (Getafe) 12 x 2 = 24
Leon Benko (HNK Rijeka) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo) 12 x 2 = 24
José Maria Callejón (Napoli) 12 x 2 = 24
Alessio Cerci (Torino) 12 x 2 = 24
Thomas Dalgaard (Viborg) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Marko Devic (Metalist Kharkiv/Rubin Kazan) 16 x 1,5 = 24
‘Sergio García’ de la Fuente (Espanyol) 12 x 2 = 24
Joe Gormley (Cliftonville) 24 x 1 = 24
Andrej Kramaric (Dinamo Zagreb/NK Rijeka) 16 x 1,5 = 24
Pierre-Michel Lasogga (Hamburger) 12 x 2 = 24
Rodrigo José ‘Lima’ dos Santos (Benfica) 12 x 2 = 24
Clecildo ‘Rafael Martins’ (Vitoria Setúbal) 12 x 2 = 24
Anthony Modeste (Hoffenheim) 12 x 2 = 24
Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich) 12 x 2 = 24
Sergio Betanin ‘Paulinho’ (Livorno) 12 x 2 = 24
Ivan Rakitic (Sevilla FC) 12 x 2 = 24
Gastón Sangoy (Apollon Limassol) 16 x 1,5 = 24
David Villa (Atlético Madrid) 12 x 2 = 24
Standings last updated 07/04/2014

Rules

Only the leading five countries – Spain, Italy, Germany, England and Portugal – in the UEFA rankings have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between clubs from those countries and those of other nations.A player cannot play first in a summer league (e.g. Norway) and then in a winter league (e.g. Spain) and combine the points totals for each season.