La Liga and Serie A are yet to get going but the rest of Europe is now in the full swing of the football season. Here we go with our regular Tuesday round-up of what went on.
In Germany last season’s surprise champions Wolfsburg seem to have picked up exactly where they left off. A comfortable 2-0 win over likely challengers Stuttgart last week was followed up by a 3-1 win at Cologne. The home side took the lead early in the second half and held on to it for almost half an hour but Dzeko and Martins both added to an own goal to ensure a 100% start for the champions.
Other title hopefuls had mixed fortunes. Hertha Berlin went down 2-1 at Borussia Munchengladbach, Kacar netting the consolation, whilst Bayern Munich could only draw 1-1 at home to Werder Bremen. Gomez rescued a point for Bayern in the second half.
The only other team with a 100% record are Schalke, for who goals from Moritz, Westermann and Farfan gave them a 3-0 win over Bochum.
Hamburg beat Borussia Dortmund 4-1 whilst Hoffenheim went down 1-0 at Bayer Leverkusen.
The second round of games in France saw Nancy, Bordeaux and Marseille all record their second wins.
Nancy had an easy 4-0 win against Monaco whilst two goals from the much sought after Chamakh and one from Wendell gave Bordeaux a hard fought 3-2 win at Sochaux.
A first half Brandao goal gave Marseille a 1-0 win over ten man Lille who had Debuchy sent off.
PSG got back to winning ways with a 3-1 win at home to Le Mans, as did Lyon who beat Valenciennes 1-0 courtesy of a Gomis goal towards the end of the first half.
Three games into the Dutch season and not one team has a 100% record.
In the battle between two of the likely contenders PSV beat Ajax 4-3 in a thriller in Eindhoven. In a game of eight bookings, Suarez put Ajax ahead before Dzsudzsak equalised for PSV. Before half-time Suarez restored the visitors lead.
In the second half Bakkal equalised for PSV before a second from Dzsudzsak put the home side ahead for the first time. Emanuelson equalised for Ajax but Bakkal completed the scoring with his second of the game to give the points to PSV.
Last season’s runners-up FC Twente went to the top of a table with a 1-0 win at Den Haag and they were joined by NAC who won 2-1 at Groningen, Feyenoord who won 1-0 at Heracles and Utrecht who were held 1-1 at home by VVV Venlo.
Last season’s champions AZ Alkmaar reminded everyone of their credentials with a thumping 6-0 win at Waalwijk.
The first weekend in Portugal saw the remarkable event of six of the seven games played ending in draws. Braga have opened up a lead at the top after managing a 1-0 win over Academica. Even they had to wait until the 87th minute before Meyong gave them the points.
With one 1-0 win and four 1-1 draws and two 0-0 draws, the season ahead in Portugal doesn’t look like being too exciting!
No surprises in the first games of the SPL season. Celtic won 3-1 at Aberdeen with two from McGeady and one from McDonald, whilst Rangers beat Falkirk 4-1. Miller bagged a pair and McCulloch and Naismith got one each.
Kilmarnock and Hibernian both picked up victories as well, although I have a slight suspicion that it may just be Rangers and Celtic who go on to do quite well in the league this season!
It is also a case of the ‘usual suspects’ in Turkey as Fenerbahce and Galatasaray sit at the top of the table with six points from their two games. Both teams had easy home wins at the weekend winning 3-0 and 4-1 respectively.
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