Another week of relentless action across Europe.
Bayern continue to remain ahead of the pack in Germany, United fall back into the pack in England and PSG are knocked off the top by a former table topper. Spain and Italy however continue to see a mix of the expected and unexpected at the top of their respective tables. Find out more here.
France:
While Lyon, PSG and Toulouse sit atop the standings tied on 17 points, Auxerre and Caen were the big winners on week eight in the French Ligue 1.
While Auxerre were expected to struggle, they have done nothing of the sort and sit healthy in midtable with just one loss in their eight games. Their latest win was their second of the season and was a crushing 4-1 home win over Europa League candidates Sochaux. A Dennis Oliech hat-trick coming after leading scorer Alain Traore had levelled Modibo Maiga's early strike for the visitors. Caen were similarly successful with a massive 4-2 win at promoted Evian. Caen saw goals from four different players while Cedric Barbosa scored a double for the home team.
PSG notched another big win, their second in a row with a Javier Pastore double and a Kevin Gameiro opener seeing them through at Montpellier. Although the southern club had impressed in leading the league through much of the season so far, the result was their second reverse of the campaign, and are off the summit a point behind the leading trio.
Lyon beat Bordeaux 3-1 at home to surge into the league lead with Michel Bastos netting after a Befitimbi Gomis double. Anthony Modeste scored a late consolation penalty. Lyon and PSG both have identical records with the same number of goals scored and conceded (14-7). Third place Toulouse got there with another composed win, 1-0 over Nancy. In other matches, Stade Rennes and St. Etienne drew 1-1, as did Brest at home to Ajaccio, both games on Sunday.
The 1-1 result was also popular on Saturday with Nice and Dijon as well as Lille and Lorient ending all square with that scoreline. Joe Cole scored the opener for Lille. Finally Valenciennes held Marseille to a 1-1 draw as well with Souleymane Diawara's opener cancelled out by Jose Saez's late goal. Montpellier and Rennes are in fourth and fifth while Nancy, Ajaccio and Brest are the bottom three. Gomis joins Traore at the top of the scoring charts with six goals each.
*Week seven of the season was played out with all 20 teams taking the field on Tuesday and Wednesday. Full details of the league can be found here.
Germany:
Round seven of the Bundesliga kicked off with another early game on Friday night. Stuttgart losing at home to Hamburg as the visitors picked up their first win of the campaign but remain bottom.
Schalke crushed Freiburg 4-2 with Papiss Demba Cisse and Erik Jendrisek scoring goals that bookended strikes by Jefferson Farfan, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Lewis Holtby and Raul. Dortmund warmed up for their game with Marseille in midweek with a good 2-1 win at Mainz while Wolfsburg beat Kaiserslautern 1-0 at home. Gladbach also won 1-0, edging Nurnberg to maintain their strong start to the season.
On Sunday, Cologne beat Hoffenheim convincingly 2-0 while Werder Bremen beat nine man Hertha 2-1 after a Claudio Pizarro double. In the late games on Saturday Augsburg and Hannover could only manage a 0-0 draw but Bayern kept up their momentum with another big win, lighting up Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 at home. Thomas Mueller, Dan Van Buyten and Arjen Robben all scored as the Bavarian giants won for the sixth game in a row without conceding a goal.
It appears that Bayern are on a mission to reclaim the giant shield that they consider their personal property. They remain on top with 18 points, two ahead of Bremen and Gladbach who both have 16. Hamburg, Freiburg and Augsburg are in the bottom three.
England:
Manchester United were caught at the top of the table by rivals Manchester City, after the former stumbled to a 1-1 draw at Stoke. City meanwhile got past a well organised but limited Everton 2-0. Both North London teams won with Spurs beating Wigan 2-1 at the JJB and Arsenal hammering their one time nemesis Bolton 3-0 at Ashburton Grove. Liverpool returned to the winner's circle after two consecutive losses with a 2-1 home win over Wolves but didn't return to the top four on account of Newcastle's continuing good start. The Magpies beat Blackburn 3-1 to remain fourth. Chelsea were also big winners crushing promoted Swansea at home, 4-1.
Fulham and West Bromwich Albion drew 0-0. Fulham are yet to win a game this season and have drawn four of their six games. WBA remain in the bottom three. QPR and Villa drew 1-1 on Sunday with Richard Dunne's own goal erasing the visitor's lead through A Barry Bannan penalty. Demba Ba was the big star of week six as he scored a hat trick for Newcastle while Canadian David Hoillet scored again for Rovers. Fernando Torres scored again but then got sent of in Chelsea's win. Brazilian midfielder Ramires scored a double, while relegating a frustrated Frank Lampard to the bench and attacking talisman Drogba weighed in with a late strike.
For Arsenal, captain Robin Van Persie scored a double before Alex Song added a late third, while substitutes Mario Balotelli and James Milner came off the bench for City's win over a stubborn Everton. Spurs got goals from Rafael Van Der Vaart and Gareth Bale before Mohamed Diame pulled one back for Wigan. Liverpool got an own goal from Roger Johnson before Luis Suarez put them 2-0 up. Stephen Fletcher got one back for Wolves at Anfield. Van Persie has now scored a century of goals for Arsenal. 100 goals in just 175 starts over eight injury plagued seasons is one of the best returns ever in the Premier League.
Stoke took a share of the spoils with new striker Peter Crouch scoring after Nani had put the visitors up 1-0. In Monday's game, Norwich impressed again, beating Sunderland 2-1 at home. Leon Barnett and Steve Morison gave Norwich a 2-0 lead that was only eroded by a late goal from Mackems midfielder Kieran Richardson.
Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero still lead the scoring race with nine and eight goals respectively.
Full league details here.
Spain:
Real Betis finally lost this season with their Monday night defeat at Getafe 1-0. Although they surrender their perfect record they remain atop the standings with 12 points from five games, ahead of both Real and Barcelona, and highly rated Valencia. Although a Castro scored again it was Diego for Getafe and not Ruben for Betis.
Speaking of Valencia, the team that gave Barcelona a right scare midweek in their 2-2 draw, finally lost their first game of the season as well, going down 1-0 at Sevilla with Freddy Kanoute scoring the winning goal. It was a tempestuous match with the Sanchez Pizjuan outfit losing two players and Valencia having one sent off. Valencia now drop to seventh while Sevilla move into the top four, and remain unbeaten.
Barcelona and Real Madrid, after a couple of weeks of unexpected, and some would say well timed, struggle, moved back into top gear, hammering Atletico Madrid 5-0 and Rayo Vallecano 6-2 respectively, at home. Lionel Messi scored a hat trick for the Catalan giants while Ronaldo matched him with one for Real. Amidst all the mayhem it is worth noting there was a goal for young French defender Raphael Varane and a double for Rayo striker Michu.
In other results, Levante audaciously moved into the top three with their third straight win of the season, and remain unbeaten after five games, beating Espanyol 3-1. Mallorca edged Sociedad 2-1, Villarreal travelled to Bilbao for a 1-1 draw, while Granada and Osasuna played out a 1-1 draw on the south coast. Games between Zaragoza and Malaga, Santander and Gijon finished goalless.
Messi leads Ronaldo in scoring eight goals to seven.
*Week five played out in midweek with a full set of ten games played over Tuesday and Wednesday. Full league details can be found here.
Italy:
In week 4, Roma finally won their first game of the season, sparing new manager Luis Enrique further headaches and preventing him from potentially joining former Inter boss Gianpiero Gasperini on the sidelines. But more on the latter later. Monday saw Roma pick up heir first three point haul, beating Parma at the Ennio Tardini 1-0 through a goal from former Espanyol marksman Pablo Osvaldo.
Siena and Chievo were also winners, with both registering solid home wins to move up the table. While Siena hammered Lecce 3-0, Chievo edged so far impressive Genoa 2-1. Inter also got their season back on track after their horrid start to the season saw them lose their manager and fail to win their first three games. This round, they beat Bologna 3-1 away. Milan also won, beating Cesena 1-0 at the San Siro with a goal from old warhorse Clarence Seedorf.
There were three goalless draws with Napoli being held by Fiorentina, Udinese running aground at Cagliari and Lazio holding Palermo to a draw at the Stadio Olimpico. Juventus were also held to a draw, stumbling to a 1-1 draw at Catania. Despite the draws Udinese remain second and Juve first, a point ahead of surprise Chievo and Palermo, who have seven each.
Atalanta continued to move into the black after their third win of the season and unbeaten record sees them rise out of the bottom three and negative point tally with four points. Their latest positive result was 2-1 win over promoted Novara and it it weren't for the points deduction they would be top of the league.
Rodrigo Palacio, who netted for Genoa again, with his fourth goal in four games, leads the scoring charts.
*Week 3 was played out over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday over the past week. Full league details can be found here.
Scotland:
Predictably Rangers and Celtic both won on the weekend. Rather more surprisingly only one of the six games ended in a draw as Hibs and Dundee played out an entertaining 3-3 draw at Easter Road, with Jon Daly getting a double for the visiting team. The remaining five games were all clean sheet wins with the blue half of Glasgow leading the way with a summary 4-0 hammering of Dunfermline that had a distinct American feel to it. USA International Carlos Bocanegra and Maurice Edu got things going before Scottish striker Steven Naismith added a double to complete the scoring at East End Park.
Celtic beat Inverness 2-0 at Celtic Park with Joe Ledley and James Forrest scoring the goals. In other games, Motherwell got back on the winning trail with a 1-0 win over Aberdeen, St Mirren crushed Kille 3-0 and on Sunday St. Johnstone beat Hearts 2-0 with Cillian Sheridan scoring a double.
Rangers are now seven clear of Celtic at the top with 25 points although the Hoops have played a game less. Motherwell is in third. Steven Naismith leads the scoring with eight goals so far.
Complete league details are here.
Holland:
PSV produced the tectonic result of the seventh round wth a 7-1 hammering of Roda at home.
Dries Mertens scored four while Ola Toivonen, Tim Matavz and Kevin Strootman added goals to complete the rout. However despite the massive win, PSV remain in fourth, four points off the lead. The teams in second and third drew 1-1 in Amsterdam as Luuk De Jong scored a late goal to deny Miralem Sulejmani's early marker from winning the points. Twente remain second with 16 points and Ajax in third with 14 but are the only unbeaten team in the league.
The surprise leaders, well by a degree anyway, are AZ Alkmaar who won for the fifth game in a row and their sixth win in seven games. After an impressive opening day humbling of PSV, AZ have built an impressive foundation for their title hopes. With 18 points from the seven games, they are two clear at the top. Their latest victims were fifth placed Feyenoord whom they slew with goals from Rasmus Elm and Brett Holman after Otman Bakkal had put the visitors from Rotterdam in the lead.
In other games Vitesse won again, 2-0 at bottom club Excelsior with Wilfried Bony scoring a double. Waalwijk beat NEC, De Graafschap lost at home to Groningen 3-2 while NAC edged Utrecht 1-0 at home. ADO Den Haag beat VV Venlo 2-0 while Heracles and Heerenveen, one time Champions League club, drew 1-1.
Belgian Mertens streaks clear at the top of the standings with 11 goals from seven games.
Full details are here.
Belgium:
Full league details here.
Spain:
Real Betis finally lost this season with their Monday night defeat at Getafe 1-0. Although they surrender their perfect record they remain atop the standings with 12 points from five games, ahead of both Real and Barcelona, and highly rated Valencia. Although a Castro scored again it was Diego for Getafe and not Ruben for Betis.
Speaking of Valencia, the team that gave Barcelona a right scare midweek in their 2-2 draw, finally lost their first game of the season as well, going down 1-0 at Sevilla with Freddy Kanoute scoring the winning goal. It was a tempestuous match with the Sanchez Pizjuan outfit losing two players and Valencia having one sent off. Valencia now drop to seventh while Sevilla move into the top four, and remain unbeaten.
Barcelona and Real Madrid, after a couple of weeks of unexpected, and some would say well timed, struggle, moved back into top gear, hammering Atletico Madrid 5-0 and Rayo Vallecano 6-2 respectively, at home. Lionel Messi scored a hat trick for the Catalan giants while Ronaldo matched him with one for Real. Amidst all the mayhem it is worth noting there was a goal for young French defender Raphael Varane and a double for Rayo striker Michu.
In other results, Levante audaciously moved into the top three with their third straight win of the season, and remain unbeaten after five games, beating Espanyol 3-1. Mallorca edged Sociedad 2-1, Villarreal travelled to Bilbao for a 1-1 draw, while Granada and Osasuna played out a 1-1 draw on the south coast. Games between Zaragoza and Malaga, Santander and Gijon finished goalless.
Messi leads Ronaldo in scoring eight goals to seven.
*Week five played out in midweek with a full set of ten games played over Tuesday and Wednesday. Full league details can be found here.
Italy:
In week 4, Roma finally won their first game of the season, sparing new manager Luis Enrique further headaches and preventing him from potentially joining former Inter boss Gianpiero Gasperini on the sidelines. But more on the latter later. Monday saw Roma pick up heir first three point haul, beating Parma at the Ennio Tardini 1-0 through a goal from former Espanyol marksman Pablo Osvaldo.
Siena and Chievo were also winners, with both registering solid home wins to move up the table. While Siena hammered Lecce 3-0, Chievo edged so far impressive Genoa 2-1. Inter also got their season back on track after their horrid start to the season saw them lose their manager and fail to win their first three games. This round, they beat Bologna 3-1 away. Milan also won, beating Cesena 1-0 at the San Siro with a goal from old warhorse Clarence Seedorf.
There were three goalless draws with Napoli being held by Fiorentina, Udinese running aground at Cagliari and Lazio holding Palermo to a draw at the Stadio Olimpico. Juventus were also held to a draw, stumbling to a 1-1 draw at Catania. Despite the draws Udinese remain second and Juve first, a point ahead of surprise Chievo and Palermo, who have seven each.
Atalanta continued to move into the black after their third win of the season and unbeaten record sees them rise out of the bottom three and negative point tally with four points. Their latest positive result was 2-1 win over promoted Novara and it it weren't for the points deduction they would be top of the league.
Rodrigo Palacio, who netted for Genoa again, with his fourth goal in four games, leads the scoring charts.
*Week 3 was played out over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday over the past week. Full league details can be found here.
Scotland:
Predictably Rangers and Celtic both won on the weekend. Rather more surprisingly only one of the six games ended in a draw as Hibs and Dundee played out an entertaining 3-3 draw at Easter Road, with Jon Daly getting a double for the visiting team. The remaining five games were all clean sheet wins with the blue half of Glasgow leading the way with a summary 4-0 hammering of Dunfermline that had a distinct American feel to it. USA International Carlos Bocanegra and Maurice Edu got things going before Scottish striker Steven Naismith added a double to complete the scoring at East End Park.
Celtic beat Inverness 2-0 at Celtic Park with Joe Ledley and James Forrest scoring the goals. In other games, Motherwell got back on the winning trail with a 1-0 win over Aberdeen, St Mirren crushed Kille 3-0 and on Sunday St. Johnstone beat Hearts 2-0 with Cillian Sheridan scoring a double.
Rangers are now seven clear of Celtic at the top with 25 points although the Hoops have played a game less. Motherwell is in third. Steven Naismith leads the scoring with eight goals so far.
Complete league details are here.
Holland:
PSV produced the tectonic result of the seventh round wth a 7-1 hammering of Roda at home.
Dries Mertens scored four while Ola Toivonen, Tim Matavz and Kevin Strootman added goals to complete the rout. However despite the massive win, PSV remain in fourth, four points off the lead. The teams in second and third drew 1-1 in Amsterdam as Luuk De Jong scored a late goal to deny Miralem Sulejmani's early marker from winning the points. Twente remain second with 16 points and Ajax in third with 14 but are the only unbeaten team in the league.
The surprise leaders, well by a degree anyway, are AZ Alkmaar who won for the fifth game in a row and their sixth win in seven games. After an impressive opening day humbling of PSV, AZ have built an impressive foundation for their title hopes. With 18 points from the seven games, they are two clear at the top. Their latest victims were fifth placed Feyenoord whom they slew with goals from Rasmus Elm and Brett Holman after Otman Bakkal had put the visitors from Rotterdam in the lead.
In other games Vitesse won again, 2-0 at bottom club Excelsior with Wilfried Bony scoring a double. Waalwijk beat NEC, De Graafschap lost at home to Groningen 3-2 while NAC edged Utrecht 1-0 at home. ADO Den Haag beat VV Venlo 2-0 while Heracles and Heerenveen, one time Champions League club, drew 1-1.
Belgian Mertens streaks clear at the top of the standings with 11 goals from seven games.
Full details are here.
Belgium:
Club Brugge and Anderlecht both extended their winning streaks with their third straight wins to continue their stay at the top of the Jupiler Pro League.
Brugge stayed in first, ahead of fellow heavyweights in second with a come from behind 2-1 win over Mons at home. Leading striker Jeremy Perbet put the visitors in the lead before Bjorn Vleminckx and Vadis Ofoe scored to nab the points for Brugge. Anderlecht had a more entertaining 3-2 win over Beerschot at home with Guilllaume Gillet scoring a double for the home side. Brugge have 18 points and are unbeaten in first place. Anderlecht have 17.
Gent scored a thrilling 4-3 win at bottom club Sint-Truiden with Iranian striker Reza Ghoochannejhad scoring a double for the losing home side. With the scores levelled at three goals apiece, Gent profited from the dismissal of Bram Castro to notch the winning penalty through Bernd Thijs. Defending Champions Genk could only manage a 1-1 draw at midtable Leuven while Standard Liege were held goalless by visiting Cercle Brugge, who drop to fourth but have only lost once in eight games.
In other matches, Zulte beat Kortijk 1-0, Lokeren triumphed 2-0 at Mechelen while Lierse and Westerlo played out a 0-0 draw. Gent move up to third with Genk now in fifth. Standard are now in seventh. Perbet still leads the league in scoring with nine goals ahead of Rudy and Reza who have five goals each. Genk travel to Leverkusen on Wednesday in the Champions' League.
League details are here.
Portugal:
Week six started on Friday and ened this past Monday with all 16 teams in action.
The big match of course was the opening game on Friday night between giants Porto and Benfica at the Dragao. In the event Benfica more than held its own coming back from a goal down twice to force a 2-2 draw. Young Brazilian striker Kleber opened the scoring before as always Oscar Cardozo netted for the Eagles, just after half time. Four minutes later Argentine defender Nicolas Otemendi put the treble winners back in front, only for another Nicolas, Gaitan to being the teams level again, less then ten minutes before the end.
On Saturday Braga beat Nacional 2-0 with Nuno Gomes and Paulo Vinicius scoring for the home side. Porto remains tied with Benfica and Braga at the top of the standing with 14 points apiece. However, Porto have a difference of +9, Benfica are on +8 and Braga are in third with +7. Rather more impressively, Braga have only conceded two goals in six games. The third giant, but one that has been struggling of late, Sporting moved upto sixth with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Setubal, also on Saturday. The Lisbon celebrated the win but Holland supplied the points with Stijn Schaars opening the scoring before Ricky Van Wolfswinkel added a brace. All the scoring happened in the first 15 minutes.
In other games, Beira-Mar and Rio Ave remained goalless, Vicente edged Pacos 2-1, Olhanense edged Uniao Leiria while Maritimo did the same to Guimares with leading scorer Papa Diawara scoring a brace as well. On Monday Academica hammered Feirense 4-0 and remain in the top six with their fourth win in six games. Adren Silva notched a pair of goals for the home team. Maritimo, Academica and Sporting round out the top six while Rio Ave and Leiria are now in some trouble in the bottom two spots. Diawara and Cardozo remain locked on top fo the scoring charts with five goals each.
*An interesting point to be noted is that in Portugal, all season the same format will be followed with a single game on Friday and Monday, with the rest playing on Saturday and Sunday. Clever scheduling to boost audiences both on and off the field.
Full details can be found here.
Russia:
Week 25 proved to be conclusive as Zenit and CSKA once again broke clear of the pack. After the former had hammered Tomsk 4-0 on Saturday, CSKA promptly followed up with a 3-1 win over Volga. Both the winners played at home. Viktor Faizulin put Zenit on their way before Roman Shirokov added a second. Alexander Kerzhakov rounded out the scoring with a well take double to maintain Zenit's advantage at the top of the table.
CSKA got goals from Seydou Doumbia, Alan Dzagoev and a late penalty from Sergey Ignasevich to keep pace but remain two points behind. More tellingly, they are now three points ahead of city rivals Dinamo in third after the latter slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Sovetov on Sunday. Later the same day, Spartak also won, 4-2 at Krasnodar with a double from Evgeny Shipitsin not enough to halt the tide as Spartak got goals from four different scorers. Krasnodar's city rivals Kuban continued their good form with a 1-0 win over Spartak at Nalchik. Rostov also won 1-0 at Amkar while Lokomotiv and Rubin Kazan drew 1-1.
Sovetov moved out of the bottom two with a 1-0 home win over the fourth Moscow club, Dinamo. On Monday Terek Grozny and Anzha drew 2-2 in the Southern Republic derby.
Doumbia and Kerzhakov now have 15 points at the top of the scoring charts.
Full details are here.
---
From next week the format of this feature will change while the Russian League will separate into individual dispatches.
Stay tuned.
League details are here.
Portugal:
Week six started on Friday and ened this past Monday with all 16 teams in action.
The big match of course was the opening game on Friday night between giants Porto and Benfica at the Dragao. In the event Benfica more than held its own coming back from a goal down twice to force a 2-2 draw. Young Brazilian striker Kleber opened the scoring before as always Oscar Cardozo netted for the Eagles, just after half time. Four minutes later Argentine defender Nicolas Otemendi put the treble winners back in front, only for another Nicolas, Gaitan to being the teams level again, less then ten minutes before the end.
On Saturday Braga beat Nacional 2-0 with Nuno Gomes and Paulo Vinicius scoring for the home side. Porto remains tied with Benfica and Braga at the top of the standing with 14 points apiece. However, Porto have a difference of +9, Benfica are on +8 and Braga are in third with +7. Rather more impressively, Braga have only conceded two goals in six games. The third giant, but one that has been struggling of late, Sporting moved upto sixth with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Setubal, also on Saturday. The Lisbon celebrated the win but Holland supplied the points with Stijn Schaars opening the scoring before Ricky Van Wolfswinkel added a brace. All the scoring happened in the first 15 minutes.
In other games, Beira-Mar and Rio Ave remained goalless, Vicente edged Pacos 2-1, Olhanense edged Uniao Leiria while Maritimo did the same to Guimares with leading scorer Papa Diawara scoring a brace as well. On Monday Academica hammered Feirense 4-0 and remain in the top six with their fourth win in six games. Adren Silva notched a pair of goals for the home team. Maritimo, Academica and Sporting round out the top six while Rio Ave and Leiria are now in some trouble in the bottom two spots. Diawara and Cardozo remain locked on top fo the scoring charts with five goals each.
*An interesting point to be noted is that in Portugal, all season the same format will be followed with a single game on Friday and Monday, with the rest playing on Saturday and Sunday. Clever scheduling to boost audiences both on and off the field.
Full details can be found here.
Russia:
Week 25 proved to be conclusive as Zenit and CSKA once again broke clear of the pack. After the former had hammered Tomsk 4-0 on Saturday, CSKA promptly followed up with a 3-1 win over Volga. Both the winners played at home. Viktor Faizulin put Zenit on their way before Roman Shirokov added a second. Alexander Kerzhakov rounded out the scoring with a well take double to maintain Zenit's advantage at the top of the table.
CSKA got goals from Seydou Doumbia, Alan Dzagoev and a late penalty from Sergey Ignasevich to keep pace but remain two points behind. More tellingly, they are now three points ahead of city rivals Dinamo in third after the latter slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Sovetov on Sunday. Later the same day, Spartak also won, 4-2 at Krasnodar with a double from Evgeny Shipitsin not enough to halt the tide as Spartak got goals from four different scorers. Krasnodar's city rivals Kuban continued their good form with a 1-0 win over Spartak at Nalchik. Rostov also won 1-0 at Amkar while Lokomotiv and Rubin Kazan drew 1-1.
Sovetov moved out of the bottom two with a 1-0 home win over the fourth Moscow club, Dinamo. On Monday Terek Grozny and Anzha drew 2-2 in the Southern Republic derby.
Doumbia and Kerzhakov now have 15 points at the top of the scoring charts.
Full details are here.
---
From next week the format of this feature will change while the Russian League will separate into individual dispatches.
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment