A look around Europe at the continent's top leagues. Lots of goals in West London, a couple of derbies elsewhere in England. Some trepidation at the top in Germany, a surprise team at the top in Spain, an unlikely one at the top in Italy and a top of the table clash in France between the league's most titled team and its new financial giant.
We're off !
France:
Lorient and Sochaux were big winners on Saturday as the remaining five games ended in draws. After Costa Rican striker, Joel Campbell, on loan from Arsenal, and Yoann Jouffre had given Lorient the points against visiting Valenciennes, Sochaux scored an empthatic 3-0 victory over high flying Toulouse. Modibo Maiga with a double and Cedric Bakambu gave Sochaux the points at home to inflict a first loss for Toulouse in five games while moving the home side into the top half of the table for the first time.
Bordeaux overcame the loss of Marc Planus, to an early red card, to draw 2-2 with visiting Montpellier, another underrated high flyer, who joined Lyon and Toulouse on 17 points. 'Pellier also saw Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa dismissed late for a second yellow but came back from 2-0 down to snatch a point with goals from Younes Belhanda and Hilton, in the very last minute of regular time. Girondins had gone two goals up after strikes from Cheick Diabate and Mickael Ciani.
Caen and Nice drew 1-1 as did Ajaccio at Dijon. Nancy were held to a point at home by promoted Evian, 1-1, in a result that was mirrored at Saint Etienne by visiting Auxerre. Veteran Pierre Alain Frau scored for Caen before a late goal from Eric Mouloungui evened affairs on the South Coast. Former Chelsea youth striker Ben Sahar got the opener for Auxerre before Josua Guilavogui netted the equaliser for St. Etienne.
Sunday saw Lille continue getting getting their campaign back on track with a solid 2-0 win over visiting Rennes as Florent Balmont and Moussa Sow gave Lille the points. Fellow title challengers Marseillie, were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Brest with Andre Ayew's strike nothing more than an equaliser for a point to Romain Poyet's opener.
The highlight of the weekend was the late game on Sunday between the two teams tied at the top of standings as mega-rich PSG hosted super successful Lyon. In a game that heralds the changing of the guard and marks the home side as genuine title favourites to match their anointment off of it, PSG won a comfortable game 2-0. Javier Pastore scored the opener, his fourth of the season and defensive utility man Christophe Jallet scored the second. Lyon were kept off the baord as league leading striker Bafetimibi Gomis was kept quiet.
Despite not scoring this weekend, Gomis and Auxerre's Alain Traore still lead the scoring charts with six goals each.
Germany:
Bayern have finally been halted, if not overcome, as such. After an opening day defeat at Gladbach, the Bavarians finally dropped points in a competitive game for the first time this season, after a goalless stalemate at Hoffenheim on Saturday. They remain top of the table with their goal difference too big for anyone to match at this stage of the campaign. Nurnberg and Mainz also drew, although their 3-3 draw was far more thrilling with Markus Feulner, Thomas Pekhart and and Robert Mak all notching a goal and an assist each for Nurnberg while Niko Bungert, Max Choupo-Moting and Andreas Ivanschitz replied for visiting Mainz.
Borussia Dortmund finally got their campaign on track with a typically high octane 4-0 demolition of visiting Augsburg. Although the victory was against limited promoted opposition, the result will be a confidence building tonic to a team that promised so much but has so far been unable to hit top gear this season. Polish winger Robert Lewandowski notched a hat trick while Mario Gotze scored the third goal in the rout that sees the champions move into the top six, just six points behind Bayern.
Bayer Leverkusen also won, beating Wolfsburg 3-1 at home with Gonzalo Castro, Erin Derdiyok and Stefan Keissling all getting on the score sheet. Swiss striker Derdiyok's goal is another contender for goal of the season as he scored with an acrobatic scissor-kick, while Mario Mandzukic replied for Wolfsburg. Johan Flum scored the winner for Freiburg in their 1-0 defeat of visiting Gladbach, who lose for only the second time this season but miss the chance to go even on points with Bayern. Hertha Berlin also won big, seeing off Cologne 3-0 at home - Pierre Lasogga with a double and Raffael with the third.
On Sunday, Werder Bremen stumbled badly as they failed to capitalise on Bayern's draw. At Hannover, who are chasing the Champions League spots themselves, they succumbed to a Mohammad Abdellaoue hat trick to lose 3-2. Marko Arnautovic and Claudio Pizarro scored for Bremen while the former got dismissed for a straight red in the last 15 minutes. Schalke were much more competent on their travels, edging Hamburg 2-1 through a double from Dutch striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Mladen Petric scored for the home side in between the Dutchman's strikes. Bayern are still in first with 19 points with Bremen and Gladbach on 16 and Hannover and Schalke on 15.
Mario Gomez leads Huntelaar in the scoring charts eight goals to seven.
England:
In the early game on Saturday, Liverpool won the derby with a slightly contentious win over Everton. Jack Rodwell's harsh dismissal seemd to hand Liverpool the advantage in a game that had struggled to come to life till then. Andy Caroll scored his first of the season wih Luis Suarez netting the second. Suarez for all his joyous footballing skills is building on his reputation both in Holland and in the World Cup of being full of unsportsmanlike conduct. However, it remains to be seen if it spoils the goodwill otherwise shown to Liverpool by neutrals and referees alike.
Newcastle continued their impressive form with a 2-1 win at Wolves. Demba Ba scored again with Jonas Gutierrez scoring the second before Steven Fletcher's second goal in successive games made the game a one goal contest with two minutes on the clock. The top two both won again with United scratching a nervous 2-0 win over promoted Norwich (Danny Welbeck and Anderson) while City crushed bottom feeders Blackburn at Ewood Park, 4-0 with goals all round for Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli, Samir Nasri and defender Stefan Savic. Although tied on points at the top, United lead on goal difference.
Aston Villa continued their unbeaten start with a 2-0 win over Wigan at home. Gabby Agbonlahor and Darren Bent were the usual suspects again while Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion played out a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light on Wearside. James Morrison and Shane Long had given visiting WBA the lead before Danish striker Niklas Bendtner and Ahmed Al Muhammadi replied for the Mackems. All four goals came in the first half hour. Wigan, Sunderland, WBA and Wolves have won just three games in their last 20 combined.
Fulham finally won their first game of the season in emphatic fashion with a crushing 6-0 defeat of visiting QPR. Andy Johnson scored a hat trick while Clint Dempsey, Bobby Zamora and Danny Murphy all got on the scoresheet as well. QPR's encouraging premier league campaign has been halted in cruel fashion. Fellow west london rivals Chelsea were also successful winning 5-1 on their travels at Bolton. A week after being left on the bench, Frank Lampard scored a hat-trick and Daniel Sturridge, a double, to help Chelsea stay in touch with the top two. Vindication for one of West London's finest ?
Promoted Swansea City did far better, registering a 2-0 win over visiting Stoke at Liberty Stadium. Scott Sinclair, from a penalty and Danny Graham scored the goals. In the final game of the weekend, Rafael Van Der Vaart controlled a cross off his left upper arm before rifling in the opening goal against local rivals Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Although Aaron Ramsey tied things up just after half time, Kyle Walker's opportunistic strike with 20 minutes to go gave Spurs a cherished win in the North London Derby. 20 years after Paul Gascoigne's rocket in the FA Cup semi-final, the balance of power has shifted in North London, again.
Behind the heavies from Manchester, Chelsea are third, three points behind on 16 while, Newcastle are fourth with 15 points. Liverpool are in fifth with 13 and Spurs, sixth with 12.
Wayne Rooney still leads Sergio Aguero in the scoring race, nine goals to eight.
Spain:
Saturday saw a flurry of draws as the middle of the table lived up to its pre-seasaon billing of being a quagmire. Of the ten teams on view, Valencia got an early goal from talented younsgter Sergio Canales to see off promoted Granada. Raul Garcia scored a double for Osasuna in between Tomas Hemed's opening and closing strikes for Mallorca, as the Balearic Islanders escaped with an away point despite losing forward Emilio Nsue and his dreadlocked hair to an early bath, in a 2-2 draw.
Another Garcia, Luis, and former West Ham player Pablo Berrera, twice gave Zaragoza the lead at Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine showed they were made of sterner stuff, twice pegging back the visitors to force a 2-2 draw. Santander hosted Vallecano to a 1-1 draw as elder statesman Raul Tamudo's strike for Rayo was evened out by Adrian just before the hour mark. Both Zaragoza's Luis Garcia and Osasuna's Raul Garcia have three goals for the season.
In the late game on Saturday, Getafe nearly scored an impressive win at Malaga, despite leading till the two minutes before the end of regular time. Pedro Leon and Venezuelan striker Nicu Fedor twice put he visitors up before Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Enzo Maresca evened things out by the 89th minute. In the third minute of injury time, Julio Baptista gave Malaga a win they did not deserve by stroking home the winner. Mehdi Lacen had been dismissed earlier for Getafe, shortly after they went 2-1 up. Fedor now has four for the season.
On Sunday, before the big two took the field, Bilbao scored another impressive win, slaying Sociedad 2-1 with a double from Fernando Llorente. In the top of the table clash, unusually, between Real Betis and visiting third placed Levante, the home side were undone at Balompie by a strike from Juanlu. Betis fall off the summit as Levante move up at their expense.
Sevilla were held to a goalless draw at Atletico Madrid, in a result that does neither team any good. Barcelona returned to the top of the table with a summary 1-0 win at Sporting Gijon. Brazilian left back Adriano Correia scored what turned out to be the winner in the 12th minute. They lead the league now on goal difference. Real Madrid got two goals from Gonzalo Higuain in the late game as they beat Espanyol at Montjuic. Real return to the top as well, sitting in third with 13 points, one behind Barcelona and Levante, who have 14 each.
Lionel Messi, despite a rare scoreless night, leads the league with eight goals. Ronaldo is in second with seven.
Italy:
On Saturday, Roma's transformation is continuing as the team that started the season with a stutter is now building steam at the right end of the table. Pablo Osvaldo, Fabio Simplicio and Catalan striker Bojan scored the goals to give the Capitolene club a 3-1 win over visiting Atalanta, who got their only strike from German Denis, his fourth of the season. Atalanta were previously unbeaten, having collected 10 points from four games, so this is an impressive result that takes Roma into the European spots. Luis Enrique's patience and work with the side is beginning to bear fruit. Credit the ownership to persist with him after a challenging start to the season.
In the big game, also on Saturday, Napoli stormed to the top of the table for a night at least with a sumptuous 3-0 win at Inter. Italy's best team delivered a masterclass in offense on the road as they took Inter apart with clinical precision. Admittedly, goals from Hugo Campagnaro, Christian Maggio and Marek Hamsik came after Inter went a man down, with Joel Obi's dismissal for a second yellow card just before half time, however the game had only one team in it. An excellent result for Napoli and a great result for the league. Across Europe Manchester City will have received news of this result with trepidation and fear. A trip to Napoli still awaits them in the Champion's League. The problem for Inter, with new coach Claudio Ranieri, is that he is an over achieving caretaker at best, who can rarely make a team challenge consistently. A short stint where he took Roma to the lead ahead of Inter in 2009-10 apart, his teams are good, but rarely win.
Cagliari and Lazio were impressive away winners on Sunday as Lecce and Fiorentina were defeated, 2-0 and 2-1 respectively. While Hernanes and Miroslav Klose gave Lazio the points against the Viola, who opened the scoring through Alessio Cerci; Thiago Ribeiro and Davide Biondini scored for the Sardinian club, who move into the top five with their third win in their five games.
Palermo won a stormy match over promoted Siena 2-0. With the Sicilian club leading 1-0 going into the final minutes, captain Luca Rossettini was harshly adjudged to have brought down Fabrizio Miccoli in the box. He was sent off for a second yellow as Abel Hernadez scored a cheeky penalty to seal the win. Earlier, Federico Balzaretti had been sent off for Palermo who played the last 40 minutes with ten men. Juve youth team product Sebastian Giovinco continued his stellar form with two goals for Parma in their 3-1 win over Genoa at home. He has three goals so far this season while Genoa got a late consolation from the spot as Rodrigo Palacio scored his fourth of the season. Udinese were the biggest winners however, seeing off Bologna 2-0 at home to take over at the the summit. Mehdi Benatia and Antonio Di Natale scored in the win. Elsewhere Novara and Catania drew 3-3 while Cesena and Chievo finished scoreless.
The late Sunday game saw the Italian Classico as giants Juventus and Milan squared off in Turin. In a fairly even game, Juventus got two late goals from Claudio Marchisio who scored either side of Kevin Prince Boateng's dismissal in the 89th minute to win 2-0. Juve return to the summit with Udinese tied with the latter on 11 points and a differece of +6. Milan's are still in second gear and drop to 15th with their second loss of the campaign. A long season awaits. Juventus are living up to their pre-season billing by many, including this blogger, for a good season.
Atalanta's Denis and Genoa's Palacio are tied at the top of the scoring table with four goals each.
Holland:
On Saturday, Utrecht scored a crushing 3-0 win over Waalwijk while Roda shrugged off their humiliation at PSV last week with a thrilling 4-3 win over visiting NAC. Vitesse and Heerenveen drew 1-1 while Heracles had earlier scored a crucial 2-0 win over Graafschap on Friday. Wesley's younger brother Rodney Sneijder, Johan Martensson and Zambian striker Jacob Mulenga scored the goals in Utrecht's win while Wilfried Bony scored his fifth goal of the season for Vitesse. Sanharib Malki scored a double for Roda.
The wins see both Utrecht and Heracles move into mid-table while Graafschap have now lost four on the trot to drop into the bottom three. Roda sit in 12th having won three and lost five of their eight games this season, including two of their last three and three of their last five. Very Fibonacci.
The leading three had contrasting results on Sunday. Twente could only draw 2-2 with bottom club Excelsior as Luuk De Jong had to score a last minute leveller. Ajax fell 1-0 at Groningen with national team defender Gregory Vander Wiel dismissed and Leandro Bacuna scoring the winning goal from the spot for the home side. As a result Ajax fall off the top spot into fourth while Groningen move into the top half of the table with their third straight win.
PSV, gained valuable ground on the leaders with a 2-0 win at NEC with Tim Matavz and Zakaria Labyad scoring the winning goals late in the game. In the early match on Sunday, AZ continued their good league form with a 3-1 win at VV Venlo. They move four points clear at the top of the table with 21 points. PSV are now in second with 17 while Twente, also on 17 are in third on goal difference.
PSV's Dries Mertens still leads the scoring with 11 goals with a pair of Twente players, Luuk De Jong and Mark Janko, in second with seven goals each.
Russia:
Spartak Nalchik were the surprise away winners, 1-0 at Terek Grozny on Saturday with Magomed Mitrishev sealing victory after 18 minutes. Rostov beat Sovetov 1-0 at home, while Dinamo saw off Krasnodar 2-1 in Moscow with a double from Andriy Voronin. Volga and Amkar drew 0-0 in the remaining action on Saturday.
Sunday saw the heavy machinery roll into action. First Rubin beat Tomsk 2-0 before Zenit drew 2-2 at Spartak and then CSKA were held goalless at Kuban Krasnodar. In the late game moneybags Anzhi were defeated at home by visiting Lokomotiv, 1-0 who won through a goal from Felipe Caicedo. Spartak wing legend Andrei Tikhonov made his final appearance on Sunday and retires at the age of 40.
Zenit scored through Danny and Alexander Kerzhakov after Alexander Anyukov had put Spartak up 1-0 with an own goal. Spartak had to get a goal from Welliton late in the game to salvage a point at home. In Kazan, Rubin won through a double from Salvatore Bocchetti.
While Zenit still leads the league with 53 points and CSKA are second with 51, Dinamo are now just a point behind their city rivals on 51 points. Lokomotiv, Spartak Moscow, Kuban Krasnodar, Rubin and Anzhi round out the top eight, which splits into its own league in the second half off the campaign.
Spartak Nalchik were the surprise away winners, 1-0 at Terek Grozny on Saturday with Magomed Mitrishev sealing victory after 18 minutes. Rostov beat Sovetov 1-0 at home, while Dinamo saw off Krasnodar 2-1 in Moscow with a double from Andriy Voronin. Volga and Amkar drew 0-0 in the remaining action on Saturday.
Sunday saw the heavy machinery roll into action. First Rubin beat Tomsk 2-0 before Zenit drew 2-2 at Spartak and then CSKA were held goalless at Kuban Krasnodar. In the late game moneybags Anzhi were defeated at home by visiting Lokomotiv, 1-0 who won through a goal from Felipe Caicedo. Spartak wing legend Andrei Tikhonov made his final appearance on Sunday and retires at the age of 40.
Zenit scored through Danny and Alexander Kerzhakov after Alexander Anyukov had put Spartak up 1-0 with an own goal. Spartak had to get a goal from Welliton late in the game to salvage a point at home. In Kazan, Rubin won through a double from Salvatore Bocchetti.
While Zenit still leads the league with 53 points and CSKA are second with 51, Dinamo are now just a point behind their city rivals on 51 points. Lokomotiv, Spartak Moscow, Kuban Krasnodar, Rubin and Anzhi round out the top eight, which splits into its own league in the second half off the campaign.
Belgium, Scotland and Portugal are going to be covered in a separate feature called the North Atlantic League. Watch the blog for it's appearance later this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment