African Players In Europe: Jordan Ayew Off Target For Palace

The European leagues in Spain, where Zouhair Feddal helped Real Betis in their quest for a European qualification place, and Italy resumed after the festive break and there was cup action in England and France.

Here is a look at some of the key performances from Africans playing in Europe:

ENGLAND
JORDAN AYEW (Crystal Palace)
The Ghana striker was unable to stop his Premier League side crashing to a shock 1-0 FA Cup third-round defeat against second-tier Derby on Sunday. Ayew has scored five times this season to establish himself as Palace's main central striker, but he was held without a goal as the Eagles bowed out at their Selhurst Park home. Chris Martin scored Derby's first-half winner and, adding insult to injury for Palace, they had captain Luka Milivojevic sent off after kicking out at Tom Huddlestone

FRANCE
ERIC MAXIM CHOUPO-MOTING (PSG)
The 30-year-old Cameroon forward made the most of a rare start for PSG, who rested a host of big stars, as he scored in the 6-0 French Cup round of 64 rout of sixth-tier amateurs Linas-Montlhery. The former Schalke and Stoke player was on target for the last of the goals, three minutes from time.

SPAIN
ZOUHAIR FEDDAL (Real Betis)
Feddal earned Real Betis a hard-earned point against Alaves on Sunday as his second-half equaliser secured them a 1-1 draw in La Liga. The Moroccan rose high to head in Nabil Fekir's cross 10 minutes after halftime for his first goal of the season, which cancelled out Aleix Vidal's early strike for Alaves. A point at Mendizorroza means Betis are seven points adrift of the European places and have now gone three games without a victory.

ITALY
AMADOU DIAWARA (Roma)
Guinean Diawara came up short in midfield as AS Roma's Champions League push was stalled with a 2-0 home defeat to Torino. Coach Paulo Fonseca blamed a problem in midfield as the Romans' unbeaten five-match run in the league ended. "There were difficulties in the first phase of build-up, with Amadou Diawara and Jordan Veretout," explained Fonseca. It made for a disappointing afternoon for Diawara who said: "We were not good enough at moving around enough to create space to work in."