European round-up – Barcelona and Real bag wins and five goals apiece

Three teams remain on maximum points after three games. Athletic Bilbao are one and I’ll give ten pounds to anyone who can guess who the other two are. No I won’t, actually. Yes, Barcelona and Real Madrid continue to battle it out as they both won and scored five goals in the process.

Bilbao beat Villarreal 3-2 with goals from Javi Martinez and a pair from Llorente, to leave Villarreal without a win and sitting fourth from bottom of the table.

Barcelona left Atletico Madrid sitting even lower in the table than Villarreal with just one point after they hammered them 5-2 at the Camp Nou. Messi bagged a brace, with Daniel, Keita and, of course, Ibrahimovic, getting one each.

Real Madrid inflicted more misery on pointless new boys Xerez by beating them 5-0 at the Bernabeu. It was only 1-0 after seventy-five minutes after Cristiano Ronaldo had scored early on, but late goals from Ronaldo again, Guti, Benzema and Ruud van Nistelrooy made it a miserable day for the visitors.

Sampdoria and Juventus have both won their first four games to leave them at the top in Italy. Sampdoria hammered Siena 4-1 courtesy of goals from Palombo, Mannini and a pair from Padalino, whilst Juventus had a comfortable 2-0 home win against Livorno. Iaquinta and Marchisio were on target.

Just two points back from those two and remaining unbeaten are champions Inter who had a Milito double to thank for a 2-1 victory after being behind at half-time.

Milan kept the critics off their back a little with a 1-0 win over Bologna whilst Atalanta remain at the bottom without a point after they lost 4-1 at Bari.

There are no 100% records left in Germany but Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen have opened up a three point gap at the top. Despite that, neither of them managed to pick up three points this weekend. Hamburg got a decent 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt courtesy of an early Ze Roberto goal, whilst Leverkusen were held 0-0 at home by Werder Bremen.

Bayern Munich closed the gap a little with a 2-1 win over Nurnberg.

Some people were predicting a big season for Hertha Berlin but their 4-0 defeat at home to SC Freiburg leaves them sitting at the foot of the table.

PSV and FC Twente have moved a point clear of the rest in Holland. PSV won the top of the table clash with Feyenoord with two goals from Koevermans and one from Bakkal giving them an impressive 3-1 away win.

A Stoch double gave Twente a 2-0 win at Heerenveen, whilst Ajax moved into third place with a 4-0 win at VVV Venlo. Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez scored all four goals.

At the wrong end of the table RKC Waalwijk still have no points at all after seven straight defeats. A 3-1 defeat at Vitesse added to their growing misery.

Bordeaux are two points clear of Lyon and Marseille at the top of the French league. The leaders had a 2-0 win at Boulogne whilst Lyon could only draw 1-1 at PSG.

Marseille kept up the pressure with a 4-2 win against Montpellier.

There is no stopping Braga in Portugal. A 1-0 win over title favourites Porto keeps them clear at the top with five wins out of five.

Benfica are just two points back after they won 2-1 at Uniao Leiria.

Celtic have opened up a two point lead over Rangers after Rangers could only manage a 0-0 draw at Kilmarnock. Manager Walter Smith wasn’t too disappointed with a point after midfielder Pedro Mendes managed to get himself two yellow cards and be in the shower before half-time.

Celtic only just managed to take advantage of Rangers’ slip as they beat Hearts 2-1 at home with an injury time winner from Glenn Loovens.

Panathinaikos remain at the top in Greece after they beat Aris Salonika 2-1. AEK failed to fully recover from their heavy defeat at Everton as they were held 1-1 by Giannina.

Fenerbahce beat Istanbul BB 1-0 at home to remain at the top in Turkey.