Europe's season has started with three of the five big leagues in action along with the leagues in Holland, Belgium and Scotland. The German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1, which started last weekend, played out round two. The most high profile league in Europe, the English Premiership, joined them this week as it kicked off the 2011-12 season. Spain's Primera Liga starts on August 20th and Italy's Serie A joins the fray on August 27th.
Arjblog will be bringing you a weekly round up all the action in all the big leagues along with snippets from around the continent. Football is back. Soccer hath returneth !
With the transfer window still open till the end of August, continuing Previews (England, Spain and Italy) and Meet and Greet features (The Big Five) will follow over the course of the coming fortnight. Champions' League and Europa League previews will appear after the draw for the group stages at the end of the month.
Weekend of August 13:
France
Week two of Ligue 1 played out in typical rampant fashion with all 20 teams involved.
On Saturday, Toulouse and St. Etienne won their second games on the trot to lead the table with a maximum of six points. The purple beat Dijon 2-0, at home with a Paul Machado penalty (his second of the season) following up Umut Bulut's opener while Etienne edged Nancy with a late, Sylvain Marchal strike. They are joined at the top, somewhat surprisingly, by Caen, who collected their second successive win with a 2-1 triumph at Sochaux. Romain Hamouma and Pierre Alain-Frau sealing the points before Ryad Boudebouz's late consolation.
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| Kevin Gameiro |
Bordeaux and PSG, again, were both held on their travels, managing only a 1-1 draw at both Lorient and Rennes respectively. Kevin Gameiro got the favourites from the capital started with a 73rd minute goal, only for Rennes' Jonathan Pitroipa to peg them back. Bordeaux were trailing a late Yann Jouffre goal before an injury time equaliser from Henrique salvaged a point.
Lyon (Lisandro Lopez with his second goal) was held by Ajaccio (Frederic Sammartino) at home. As was Valenciennes, at home, to Brest (0-0).
Sunday saw three more games as the remaining six teams hit the pitch.
Olympique Marseille rattled off a pair of early goals through Loic Remy and Andre Ayew (elder son of Ghanain and Marseille legend Abidi Pele) at Auxerre and looked good for a road win. However the whites responded in the second half, through Alain Traore and Roy Contout to salvage a point. Both Traore and Remy hit their second goals of the campaign.
Evian TG, keeping up the tradition of plucky promoted teams, beat Nice 1-0 at home off a Saber Khalifa goal (scimitar and claymore were on vacation) while Montpellier condemned Lille to their first home defeat and second winless game of the season, with a 1-0 win, courtesy of Olivier Giroud.
Montpellier caught the eye with their road 1-0 defeat of the current champions.
Toulouse leads the charts with six points and a difference of +4. They are yet to concede a goal. Montpellier, Caen and St. Etienne also have six points but trail, in that order, on goal difference.
Fave-watch:
PSG are 15th and Lille 13th with a point each; Marseille are ninth with a couple and Lyon are in sixth with four points.
Loic Remy, Lisandro Lopez, Alain Traore and Paul Machado are top of the scoring charts with two goals apiece.
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Germany
Round Two in Germany kicked off on Saturday with Schalke hammering Cologne 5-1 at home. A Klaas Jan-Huntelaar hat-trick sandwiched strikers from old war horse Raul and ex-Mainz sensation Lewis Holtby. Cologne had started well with an opener from national team striker and World Cup 2006 mainstay Lukas Podolski.
Hamburg 2 (Mladen Petric (PG) and Heung Min-Son) were held at home by Hertha BSC 2 (Tunay Torun and Andre Mijatovic) while Stuttgart did the same at Gladbach, where a Cacau leveller cancelled out a Filip Daems goal in a 1-1 draw.
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| Klaas Jan-Huntelaar |
Bayern Munich were extremely fortunate to nick a last gasp 1-0 win at Wolfsburg with Brazilian defender Luis Gustavo, claiming an injury time winner. Dortmund were considerably less lucky, going down at Hoffenheim to an early Sejad Salihovic goal.
Mainz and Hannover were both big winners with identical 2-1 wins on the road. Mainz downed Freiburg with goals from Marcel Risse and Maxim Chopu-Moting while Hannover sunk Nurnberg with strikes from Mohammad Abdellaoue and Konstantin Rausch. Papiss Demba Cisse, top scorer from last season, and Czech youngster Thomas Peckhart, got the consolation goals for Frei and Nurn, respectively.
Sunday saw Bayer Leverkusen stop Werder Bremen in their tracks, 1-0, during the latter's visit to the BayArena, Michal Kadlec sealing the points with a goal. Earlier Augsburg took the lead at Kaiserslautern through Sascha Molder's third strike of the campaign before Etey Shechter hit back for the home side in a 1-1 draw.
Schalke's hammering of Cologne was the most newsworthy.
Hannover and Mainz are top of the table with six points from two games with the latter in first place on goal difference.
Fave-watch:
Bayern are in eleventh with three points while Dortmund are in seventh with the same haul. Stuttgart is the highest placed big boy with four points in fourth place.
Huntelaar and surprisingly, Molders, lead the charts with three goals apiece.
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England
Saturday saw the World's most televised league get off to a rather muted start.
Liverpool, after a 58 million pound summer spending spree, were held at home in their premier league opener, 1-1 by Sunderland. After Luis Suarez got the Kop going with an opening strike, Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson levelled things with a volley, for Sunderland. Suarez missed an early penalty as well. Wigan and Norwich also drew 1-1 at JJB Park with Wesley Hoolahan (no relation to the head nurse from MASH) cancelling out Ben Watson's early penalty.
Fulham and Aston Villa played out a goalless draw at Craven Cottage, as did Newcastle and Arsenal, in a rather more spirited fixture at St. James' Park. Joey Barton and Gervinho were involved in a fracas which saw the latter get dismissed and the former receive a yellow. In a tepid game, that was as exciting as it got.
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| Steven Fletcher |
Queen's Park Rangers were hammered 4-0 by Bolton in their return to the top flight. Gary Cahill, Ivan Klasnic and Fabrice Muamba scored for the away side while Danny Gabbidon put threw his own net at Loftus Road. Employees at both the BBC and and British Airways are united in their sorrow. Wolves were another away winner, beating Blackburn 2-1 at Ewood Park. Mauro Formica opened the scoring before Stevens Ward and Fletcher turned things around.
Spurs game with Everton was postponed on account of the London riots. Manchester City will play Swansea on Monday night.
Sunday saw two more games. Stoke and Chelsea played out a typically brutish, physical game in a tepid goalless draw at the Britannia Stadium in Stoke before Manchester United took the lead through Wayne Rooney, conceded a goal off a David De Gea howler and then won the points with an Ashley Young winner, at West Bromwich Albion. Shane Long scored for WBA.
Bolton top the charts with their four goal away mauling of QPR, easily the result of the round.
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Scotland
Scotland's race between Rangers and Celtic reached its fourth milestone this weekend.
On Satuday, all 12 teams were in action as the big two both won. Celtic hammered Dundee united 5-1 at home while Rangers beat Inverness 2-0 away. Anthony Stokes, Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley, James Forrest and Sung Yeung-Ki scored for the hoops with Johnny Russel briefly levelling for United. Maurice Edu and Nikica Jelavic, from the spot got the goals for Rangers.
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| Anthony Stokes |
Hearts beat Aberdeen 3-0 (Arvydas Novikovas, John Sutton (2)) while Dunfermline and Motherwell both picked up precious 1-0 road wins at Saints' Johnstone and Mirren respectively. Andy Kirk and Tom Hately got the winners for their respective clubs.
On Sunday, in the game of the round, Kilmarnock hammered Hilbernian 4-1 with a Paul Heffernan double bookmarking goals from Paul Hanlon and James Dayton. Garry O'connor replied for Hibs.
Motherwell with ten points from four games, lead both Celtic and Rangers who are on nine points and seven respectively, but have played a game less.
Andy Kirk and Anthony Stokes both lead the scoring race with three goals.
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Holland
Saturday saw week three of Dutch Eredivisie action,
Feyenoord and Twente kept up the early pace at the top of the table with wins on Saturday. Marc Janko and Brian Ruiz gave Twente the points in a 2-0 win over AZ Alkmaar while the Rotterdam side hammered Roda 3-0 at home. Jerson Cabral scored a double either side of Leroy Fer's goal.
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| Jerson Cabral |
Vitesse (Marco Van-Ginkel, Marcel Meeuwis (OG), Giorgi Chanturia and Wilfried Bony) crushed VV Venlo 4-0 at home and a Dries Mertens goal saw PSV beat Walkwijk 1-0 at home.
All the four games on Saturday ended with one side winning and keeping a clean sheet.
Sunday witnessed another four games, as Ajax got in on the act, hammering Heerenveen 5-1 at home, with Miralem Sulejmani and Gregory Van Der Wiel among the notable goal scorers for the capital club. Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, Derk Boerrigter and Toby Alderweireld were the other scorers for Ajax while Bas Dost replied for the visitors.
Groningen thrashed ADO Den Haag 4-2 of a Tim Matavs hat-trick while Heracles edged NAC Breda 2-1. In the other game, Utrecht and De Graafschap played out a 2-2 draw with Jacob Mulenga scoring a double for the home side while 'Schap got goals from
Ajax, Feyenoord and Twente lead with perfect records after two games. Ajax has a healthy difference of +7.
Five players including Sulejmani and Cabral are tied on two goals each at the top of the scoring charts.
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Belgium
The 16 team Jupiler Pro League played its third round of games this weekend.
Saturday:
Gent, with a Jesper Jorgensen double and a Tim Smolders strike, saw off Standard Liege 3-1 at home in a great result for the smaller club which finished fifth last season. Antonio Eduardo, nicknamed Kanu, pulled a goal back for Standard.
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| Jesper Jorgensen |
Club Brugge beat Leuven 1-0 while cross town rivals Cercle Brugge went down 2-0 at Kortrijk. Beerschot and Mons also won, beating Westerlo 3-1, and Sint Trulden 4-2, respectively. Jeremy Perbet scored a hat-trick for Mons while Hernan Losada hit a double for Beerschot.
Defending Champions Genk were held at home 2-2 by Zulte-Warengem with national team striker Jelle Vossen on target for Genk.
Sunday:
Matias Suarez gave giants Anderlecht a 1-0 win at Lokeren while Mechelen beat Lierse 2-1.
Brugge lead the table with seven points from three games. Anderlecht and Mechelen are tied on six points.
Jeremy Perbet leads all scorers with four goals.
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Portugal
The Portuguese Campeonato also got things off to a start this weekend with six teams in action.
On Saturday, Benfica drew 2-2 at Gil Vicente with Javier Saviola scoring. Sporting managed only a 1-1 tie at home to Olhanense while Sporting Braga and Rio Ave played out a goalless draw.
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| Javier Saviola |
On Sunday, Porto beat Vitoria Guimares, 1-0 away, to show that the summer departure of Andres Villas Boas is but a blip on their route to domestic domination (sic). Hulk, who else scored for Porto. Vitoria Setubal beat Pacos Ferreira 2-1 at home, in the earlier game with three dismissals being handed out.
Maritimo and Beira-Mar as well as Feirense and Nacional played out goalless draws. With all of Saturday's and the first five games of the season sending in draws, Setubal and Porto head the table. Jose Mourinho's old side Uniao Leiria play Academica on Monday.
This season's scoring race is between Javier Saviola, Hulk and Radamel Falcao, assuming none move to foreign clubs before the end of August.
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English Championship
The World's most competitive second division also played its second round of matches this weekend. The 22 team league is the toughest of its kind and sits just below the Premiership. With promotion to the world's most lucrative league at stake, competition is fierce. It also features Nottingham Forest, twice winners of the European Cup and Crystal Palance, one of London's best supported clubs. Both have been former participants in the Premier League.
Saturday:
Southampton and Middlesborough recorded solid 1-0 away wins as they try to get back into the premiership. The Saints beat Barnsley off a David Connolly strike while Boro beat Leeds through a Marvin Emnes goal. Southampton are gunning for successive promotions and seem to be unscathed following the departure of winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, AOC, to Arsenal over the summer.
Nottingham Forest lost 2-0 at Milwall as goals from Darius Henderson and Liam Trotter did the damage but local rivals Derby County won 1-0 at Watford through a Steven Davies goal. Surprise package Brighton also won 1-0 away, edging Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
West Ham United, relegated last season from the top flight, beat Doncaster away with a Kevin Nolan winner, while Matthew Fryatt ensured Hull made it six away 1-0 winners this round with his only goal of the game at Ipswich.
Jonathan Parr and an Owen Garvan spot kick put Crystal Palace on the board against Burnley as they won their first game of the season after the opening weekend's reverse. Shorn of defensive standout and young right back Nathan Clyne, Palace played well with Sean Scanell in great form. Birmingham City, shorn of both Alex McLeish and their Premiership status, beat Coventry 1-0 off a Keith Fahey goal.
Reading were the biggest winners, downing Leicester City at King Power Stadium in Leicester. Noel Hunt and Hal-Robson Kanu were the scorers.
Interestingly, all 10 winners on Saturday registered clean sheets. There were no draws.
Sunday:
Blackpool beat Peterborough United 2-1 with a Kevin Phillips double. George Boyd pulled one back for United. In the remaining fixture, Cardiff City beat Bristol City 3-1 with Robert Earnshaw, Matt Hudson and Craig Conway on target for the Welsh side. Nicky Maynard replied for Bristol.
Cardiff and Southampton lead a clutch of five teams on six points from two games. Crystal Palace are tenth while Forest are 20th.
Seven players including Will Buckley and Darius Henderson are tied at the top of the goal tallies with two goals each.
As a result all 12 games produced winners with no draws.
