European round-up: Late Schweinsteiger winner gets Bayern up and running

Time for our first European round-up of the season. Things are yet to kick off in Italy, Greece or Spain, but most other places have now got under way.

Bundesliga

The German season kicked off with wins for Hoffenheim, Kaiserslautern, St Pauli, Leverkusen, Mainz, Bayern Munich, Hamburg and Hannover.

Bayern Munich left it until the last minute to beat Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg. Mueller had given the home side an early lead but the prolific Dzeko equalised in the second half. It looked as though that would be enough to give McClaren an excellent point in his first game but Bastian Schweinsteiger ruined that for him.

The biggest winners and losers on the first day came at Hoffenheim where the home side beat Werder Bremen 4-1. Frings had given the visitors an early lead from the penalty spot, but goals from Ba, Peniel Mlapa, Ibisevic and Salihovic before half-time made it a great start for Hoffenheim.

Eridivisie

PSV Eindhoven are the only team in Holland who have won all three of their opening matches. They continued their great start with a comfortable 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar. A double from Berg and a late goal from Afellay were enough for them to win this one.

Ajax are clear in second place, unbeaten, and two points behind the leaders, after an El Hamdaoui brace and one from Suarez gave them a 3-0 win over Roda JC.

At the bottom, Willem II are yet to pick up a point and never looked likely to in the 3-0 defeat at FC Utrecht. They were 2-0 down inside half an hour and things are looking a little bleak for them.

Ligue 1

Toulouse are the only team left in France with a 100% record after three games following their 2-1 win over Arles. Goals in each half from Braaten and Didot were enough to see off the visitors who scored a consolation through Djadjedje.

Conversely, that defeat left Arles in trouble, sitting at the bottom with no points from their three outings.

In second place, Caen have seven points but in what could be a remarkably tight league, the next best is five points from three games, shared by four teams.

Portuguese Liga Sagres

Porto and Nacional have both won their first two games whilst Benfica are amongst three teams yet to pick up a point.

Porto had an easy 3-0 win over Beira Mar courtesy of goals from Belluschi and a pair from Garcia, whilst Nacional added to Benfica’s worries with a 2-1 win. This was a lively game with a total of thirteen yellow cards being shown!

SPL

There is a major shock in Scotland as two of the three teams with a 100% record from the opening two games are Rangers and Celtic!

Rangers won 3-0 at Hibernian with a Kenny Miller hat-trick. Both teams were reduced to ten men just before half-time when McBride and Lafferty were giving their marching orders.

Celtic beat St Mirren 4-0. The goals came from Ledley, Maloney, Forrest and Ki Sung-Yeung.

The other team at the top is Aberdeen who won 1-0 at St Johnstone.

Turkish Spor Toto Super Lig

Two games gone in Turkey and Bursaspor, Kayserispor and Trabzonspor all have six points. Down at the other end, Galatasaray are yet to get off the mark and that surely won’t be allowed to continue for long without changes being made.

The current leaders Bursaspor heaped the misery on for Galatasaray with a 2-0 win their own back yard, whilst Trabzonspor also had a great 3-2 win over the other giants of Fenerbahce.