European round-up

La Liga
‘Post David Villa’ Valencia continue to lead the way in Spain as they maintain their 100% start. First half goals from Mata and Pablo were enough to give them a 2-1 win at Hercules although things did not all go well for the leaders. They received five yellow cards and then a sixth one, being the second for Navarro who had to leave the field just four minutes into the second half. His team-mates managed to hang on for the win.

Sevilla and Real Madrid are two points behind and Barcelona are amongst a pack of teams one point further back.

Sevilla were another side to pick up six yellow cards but they also had a 2-1 away win. Alfaro and Caceres scored the goals that saw off Malaga.

Real Madrid continue to win without setting the world alight. Di Maria and Ronaldo were on target in their 2-1 win at Real Sociedad. Barcelona completed a full set of 2-1 away wins with Messi and Pique finding the net at Atletico Madrid.

Serie A
Hands up anyone who bet that Cesena would be top in Italy after three games. That is exactly where they are after Bogdani gave them a 1-0 win over Lecce. They hung on for the points despite going down to ten men before half-time.

Level on points with the surprise leaders are Inter. A second half brace from Eto’o gave them a 2-1 win at Palermo after being a goal down at half-time.

Three teams are then a point behind the top two whilst Milan are even further back after they were held to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro by Catania.

Bundesliga
Mainz top the German league with a 100% record with Hoffenheim two points behind. In joint third place are Borussia Dortmund and SC Freiburg.

You may notice that I haven’t mentioned Bayern Munich or Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg yet. More of them in a minute.

Risse and Schurrie scored second half goals for Mainz to give them an impressive 2-0 win at Werder Bremen.

Hoffenheim dropped their first points of the season but will be reasonably satisfied with a 2-2 draw at Kaiserslautern.

Two from Kagawa and one from Lewandowski gave Dortmund an easy 3-1 win at Schalke whilst a last minute Rosenthal goal gave Freiburg a 1-0 win at Frankfurt.

Bayern Munich have failed to kick start their season as they were held to a goalless draw at home to Cologne.

Wolfsburg finally got their first points under McClaren as Diego and Dzeko gave them a 2-0 win at home to Hannover.

Stuttgart also picked up their first points of the season, and how! They beat a shocked Borussia Munchengladbach side 7-0.

Ligue 1
St Etienne and Toulouse are battling it out at the top in France with Rennes and Caen hot on their heels.

Payet scored twice with another from Riviere as St Etienne eased past Montpellier 3-0.

Toulouse lost top spot but will be happy after they earned a goalless draw at Monaco. Rennes also had an away goalless draw at PSG, whilst El Arabi gave Caen a 1-0 win at Lorient.

Eridivisie
Ajax lead the way in Holland from PSV and Groningen.

Ajax continued their fine start with a 2-1 win at Feyenoord. A goal in each half from De Jong and El Hamdaoui was enough for them to take the points.

PSV drew 0-0 at Roda JC, whilst Groningen closed the gap with a 2-0 home win over SC Excelsior Rotterdam.

SPL
Rangers and Celtic both have maximum points from five games and find themselves a ridiculous seven points clear of the rest already.

An own goal, two from Miller and one from Naismith gave Rangers an easy 4-0 win over Dundee United.

Celtic had a harder game, having to come back from 1-0 sown at Kilmarnock. Murphy and Stokes gave them a 2-1 win.

Portuguese Liga Sagres
Porto top the league in Portugal by a point from Guimaraes, despite having played a game less than everyone else.

Guimaraes moved up to second place with a 1-0 win over Uniao Leiria.

Porto played at Nacional last night but the result was too late to be included in this round-up.

Greek Super League
Iraklis top the league in Greece after three games with Olympiakos, PAOK, AEK Athens and Panathinaikos all in the chasing pack.

The leaders maintained their position with a 1-0 home win over Larissa.

Of the big chasing teams only Olympiakos managed to pick up three points with a 1-0 win at Panseriakos.

Turkish Spor Toto Super Lig
Bursaspor remain top in Turkey with four wins from four. Their next game was last night and the result is unknown at the time of writing.