A summary of the football action over Europe on Saturday

Scottich Clydesdale Premier League

Joe Ledley scored the only goal as 10-man Celtic maintained their four-point lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League with victory over Inverness.

The Wales midfielder converted a James Forrest cross after 16 minutes from close range to extend the Hoops' domestic winning run to 17 games.

Celtic defender Daniel Majstorovic was controversially shown a straight red card by referee Steven McLean on the hour mark before Caley defender Steve Williams was sent off in the 77th minute for picking up a second yellow card for a foul on Georgios Samaras.

The Hoops' win meant Rangers remained at arm's length despite their 4-1 win at bottom club Dunfermline.

Makeshift striker Lee McCulloch grabbed his first goal of the season after David Healy cancelled out Andy Kirk's shock opener.

Sone Aluko and Salim Kerkar added a goal apiece in the second half.

Dunfermline's defeat allowed Hibernian to move a point clear of them with a goalless draw at home to Aberdeen.

A pair of own goals from St Johnstone and an incredible three goals in the final seven minutes gave Dundee United a stunning 5-1 Tayside derby win.

Saints fell behind just before half-time when Steven Anderson bundled into his own net following a dreadful blunder by goalkeeper Peter Enckelman.

A second own goal on the hour mark, from Callum Davidson, doubled United's lead before Anderson made amends for his unfortunate strike by pulling a goal back.

However, headers from Johnny Russell and Jon Daly ensured the Tannadice side would finish worthy victors.

Enckelman produced another howler in injury-time as his attempted clearance struck team-mate Dave Mackay to allow substitute Milos Lacny to roll a fifth into the unguarded net.

Suso Santana's injury-time equaliser earned Hearts a 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock after Paul Heffernan had bundled home 10 minutes from time.

Both sides finished the game with 10 men after Dieter van Tornhout and Jamie Hammill were both given their marching orders in the second half.

Third-placed Motherwell had to be content with a goalless draw at St Mirren.

Turkish Super Lig

Galatasaray moved six points clear at the top of the Super Lig table following a 1-0 home win over Kayserispor.

Felipe Melo scored the game's only goal on 32 minutes to put the pressure on second-placed Fenerbahce, who travel to struggling Karabukspor.

Fifth-placed Genclerbirligi tripped up 2-1 at home to Mersin Idmanyurdu.

Wissem Ben Yahia opened the scoring on 54 minutes before Marcio Nobre's 90th-minute strike proved crucial when Randall Azofeifa responded with a penalty in the first minute of injury time.

Greek Superleague

PAOK climbed a place to reach third in the Greek Superleague after a 2-0 win at OFI Crete on Saturday night.

Both goals came from Apostolos Giannou in the first half, as he opened the scoring after 24 minutes and doubled the lead after 38 minutes.

Panionios and Giannina, both in the bottom half of the table, drew 0-0 in Saturday night's other match in the Greek top flight.

Swiss Super League

Lucerne failed to take full advantage of Super League leaders Basle's inactivity as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Thun.

With Basle's game at Lausanne postponed because of the weather, Lucerne could have cut the gap at the top to five points but they fell behind in the 72nd minute thanks to Marco Schneuwly's strike.

Substitute Nico Siegrist entered the action in the 75th minute and he grabbed the equaliser barely a minute later.

Dutch Eredivisie

Maarten Martens struck twice in three second-half minutes as AZ Alkmaar beat Excelsior 2-0 to go three points clear at the top of the Eredivisie table.

After AZ dominated the first half, Martens gave his side a deserved lead 13 minutes after the break.

The Belgium international then added a second soon after to confirm a win that took AZ to the top, for 24 hours at least, with second-placed PSV Eindhoven hosting De Graafschap on Sunday.

Ajax will still hope to have a say in the title battle, although they remain well off the pace in sixth place, eight points behind AZ, despite a 2-0 win at NAC Breda.

Dmitri Bulykin put Ajax ahead in the 68th minute and substitute Nicolas Lodeiro wrapped up the points with a minute remaining.

Further down the table, Roda JC beat NEC Nijmegen 1-0 with a 56th-minute goal from Sanharib Malki, to climb one place to eighth.

Roda climbed above FC Groningen who slumped to a 2-0 defeat away to VVV-Venlo.

Yanic Wildschut and Uche Nwofor scored in the opening half-hour as VVV, bottom at the start of the day, climbed two places to reach 16th in the table, leaving De Graafschap at the foot of the league.

Belgian Jupiler League

Genk's miserable title defence continued as they suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to mid-table rivals Lokeren.

Benjamin De Ceulaer scored the only goal on 11 minutes to inflict a third defeat in Genk's past four league games.

That leaves the champions 16 points adrift of leaders Anderlecht but more importantly outside the champion play-off places.

Cercle Brugge replaced them in the top six with a 1-0 win against KV Mechelen. Substitute Amido Balde scored the winning goal on 71 minutes.

KV Kortrijk spurned a two-goal lead but stayed fifth with a 2-2 draw against 10-man Mons.

The hosts looked in complete control as Ernest Webnje Nfor (3) and Ervin Zukanovic (42) scored in a first half that also saw Mons' Benjamin Nicaise sent off on 30 minutes.

But the visitors battled back impressively thanks to Tim Matthys (57) and a 64th-minute Baptiste Martin own goal.

Bottom club St Truidense suffered a fifth consecutive defeat as they went down 3-2 at Beerschot.

The strugglers had led when Giuseppe Rossini netted on 30 minutes but the game turned against them shortly after half-time when Beerschot scored three times in 17 minutes.

Roy Dayan (50, 62) struck either side of a Tomislav Mikulic (55) effort and when Koen Daerden saw red on 67 minutes the visitors' hopes were extinguished.

Beerschot did pull a goal back through Gregory Christ on 79 minutes but a leveller proved beyond them.

Despite the defeat they remained four points adrift of second-bottom Westerlo, who lost 3-1 at home to Leuven.

Silva Reynaldo (44) had cancelled out the opener from Silva Reynaldo (34) but Leuven won with second-half goals from Wim Raymaekers (61) and Jordan Remacle (76).

Milos Maric scored twice to inspire Lierse to a 2-1 win over Zulte-Waregem. Maric won it with an 88th-minute penalty after Davy De Fauw (71) cancelled out his 62nd-minute opener.

French Ligue 1

Montpellier were the new leaders of Ligue 1 on Saturday evening after three second-half goals brought them a deserved victory over lowly Ajaccio.

With Paris St Germain not in action until Sunday, Montpellier had the opportunity to leapfrog the capital aristocrats and seized it.

Their goals came from Younes Belhanda, who opened the scoring with a 53rd-minute penalty, Remy Cabella, who doubled the lead 11 minutes later, and top scorer Olivier Giroud, who netted in the 67th minute.

Montpellier have now won seven competitive matches in succession without conceding, and they head PSG on goal difference. PSG play Nice on Saturday.

Lyon are now a distant 10 points behind the top two, with their title hopes increasingly faint following a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Caen, who completed a league double over Les Gones.

Goals from Romain Hamouma and Livio Nabab in either half secured the upset win despite Lisandro Lopez's late penalty for Lyon.

Caen won the reverse fixture 1-0 in September but had won just twice in the league since, however Saturday's success sees them climb three points clear of the bottom three.

Rennes nudged up a place to fifth, as Mevlut Erding's goal subjected his former club Sochaux to a 1-0 defeat.

The Turkish striker, a product of Sochaux's youth academy, headed home in the 15th minute to keep Rennes in touch with the European hopefuls and leave Ligue 1's bottom club winless in nine matches.

Brest drew 1-1 at home against Dijon, snatching a late equaliser with 10 men against the strugglers.

The visitors had the better of a goalless first half but had to wait until the 75th minute to take the lead through Gael Kakuta.

Brest then had Issam Jemaa sent off with a minute remaining but still managed to salvage a point when Santiago Gentiletti headed home in stoppage time.

Auxerre missed the chance to move out of the Ligue 1 relegation zone as they conceded an injury-time equaliser to draw 1-1 at home to 10-man Lorient.

Innocent Emeghara levelled for the visitors at the death to cancel out Willy Boly's 18th-minute opener.

Lorient had been a man down since midway through the first half when goalkeeper Fabien Audard was sent off for handling the ball outside his penalty area as Ben Sahar raced through on goal.

Mamadou Samassa scrambled home a deserved winner for Valenciennes in time added on at the end of a match to clinch a 1-0 win against Nancy.

Portuguese Liga

Rodrigo Moreno scored twice as Benfica stretched their lead at the top of the Liga to eight points with a 4-1 win over Nacional.

Ezequiel Garay scored the opener in the ninth minute and Oscar Cardozo doubled the lead after 21 minutes, before Claudemir pulled one back from the spot eight minutes later.

Moreno then re-established the two-goal lead six minutes before the break, before rounding off the scoring just past the hour mark.

Porto will have the chance to reduce the gap to five points when they face Uniao Leiria on Sunday.

In the day's other game Selim Benachour netted after 21 minutes and Danilo Dias added a second on the hour as Maritimo beat Sporting Lisbon 2-0 to pull level on points with their opponents.

English nPower Championship

Southampton took advantage of West Ham's postponement to close the gap at the top of the npower Championship to just a point with a 2-0 win at home to Burnley.

Goals from Adam Lallana and Billy Sharp in the first 33 minutes were enough for victory and with the leaders' game at Peterborough falling victim to the weather they reduced the deficit to just a point.

Cardiff missed the chance to go third as they lost 2-1 at Leicester.

Paul Gallagher converted a 41st-minute penalty for the Foxes and then scored a free-kick 30 minutes later, which proved pivotal after Peter Whittingham pulled one back from the spot.

Blackpool then squandered the opportunity to move into third as they drew 1-1 with Portsmouth in the teatime game.

Ian Holloway's side had come from a goal down to win their past three league encounters, but could not find the winner on this occasion after Stephen Crainey's second-half free-kick cancelled out Erik Huseklepp's opener for the visitors.

The Seasiders dominated possession for long periods, but Huseklepp - who scored an injury-time winner when the two sides met at Fratton Park in September - spurned a series of opportunities to put the result beyond doubt after the interval.

Hull comfortably despatched strugglers Bristol City having taken an early 2-0 lead through Jack Hobbs and Robert Koren before Matt Fryatt rounded off the scoring on the hour.

Reading moved up to seventh with a 2-0 home win over bottom side Coventry with Jimmy Kebe and Jason Roberts, scoring in his second successive match since signing last month, getting the first-half goals.

Leeds suffered a second defeat in three matches as Alan Navarro scored a 90th-minute winner for Brighton.

Craig Mackail-Smith had put the visitors ahead in the 77th minute only for Luciano Becchio to equalise barely two minutes later.

Struggling Nottingham Forest ended a run of three successive defeats with a 1-1 draw at home to Watford.

Garath McCleary put the hosts ahead in the 19th minute but Troy Deeney's equaliser just before half-time earned a share of the points.

Millwall's home game against Derby finished goalless while Ipswich's encounter against Middlesbrough was abandoned after 37 minutes because of a frozen pitch with the score goalless.

Barnsley vs Birmingham and Crystal Palace vs Doncaster were called off because of the cold conditions before kick-off.

English nPower League One

Second-placed Sheffield Wednesday missed the chance to make up ground on League One leaders Charlton as they lost 2-1 at Exeter on a day when only three matches beat the freezing temperatures.

Jermaine Johnson gave the Owls the lead on 65 but within three minutes Billy Jones had equalised direct from a free-kick before another set-piece by David Noble secured a come-from-behind win with six minutes remaining.

Wednesday's city rivals Sheffield United moved up to third, within a point and with two matches in hand, after a comfortable win over Wycombe.

Will Hoskins, Ched Evans and Kevin McDonald all scored in the final 24 minutes.

The only other match in the division to survive the big freeze - Hartlepool at home to Bournemouth - finished goalless.

English nPower League Two

Cheltenham went top of npower League Two on Saturday as only three games beat the big freeze.

The Robins drew 1-1 with struggling Hereford to hit the summit, though the stalemate means Crawley, with two matches in hand, still have the advantage in the promotion race.

Delroy Facey's header put the hosts ahead in the 12th minute and although Kaid Mohamed equalised just after the break Cheltenham had to settle for a point.

Torquay moved ahead of opponents Shrewsbury into fourth with Taiwo Atieno's 68th-minute header the only goal of the game.

Bristol Rovers won the mid-table battle over Morecambe with a third successive victory under Mark McGhee.

Lee Brown put the hosts ahead just before the hour from a cross by Scott McGleish, who then converted a penalty.

Jordan Burrows missed from the spot for the Shrimps but Kevin Ellison fired in the rebound two minutes from time.