It’s a new season, and new seasons mean new ways for British clubs to embarrass themselves in European competition.Whilst last season saw worries about the state of England’s coefficient fade away amidst Italian incompetence in the various flavours of European competition, this season could see a new dawn for British teams to rise to success on the continent.Forget about Spurs embarrassing the nation at the home of English football. And forget about the scourge of Manchester United, Dirk Kuyt, coming back to haunt them again in the Europa League.It’s all about Pep Guardiola’s revolution at Manchester City and the faint sounds of our old friends dilly-ding and dilly-dong waking Leicester City out of their post-title hangover-induced slumber to start their Champions League adventure in style.This week sees the Champions League return for a second matchday, and this week’s Euro Round-up is too busy pretending to look good en terrace with an espresso and the papers toÂbe too excited – there’s a lot of European football to round up first….
France
When Pascal Dupraz became Toulouse manager in March, he joined a club ten points from safety with ten games to go, having won just four games all season. After miraculously surviving on the final game of the season, they remained in Ligue 1 long enough to inflict a second league defeat on PSG this season. Not only did TFC’s 2-0 victory bring them three points, but it also saw them embarrass the champions by climbing above them in the league table.
Serge Aurier was sent off for a second yellow card after pulling down Ola Toivonen in the box, giving Toulouse the opportunity to score from the spot: their first shot on target of the entire game.
But PSG’s miserable night was probably best summed up by Thiago Motta. The Italian international replaced Blaise Matuidi in the 70th minute, was booked five minutes later, should have been sent off for a second yellow only a minute after that, but was mercifully allowed to remain on the pitch… where five minutes later he gave the ball straight to Jimmy Durmaz who was running clean through on goal. 2-0. Game over.
PSG weren’t the only giant having a bad night, however, as Lyon lost 1-0 to Lorient who were bottom of the table, but not anymore. Alexandre Lacazette’s absence is a huge problem for Les Gones: despite a thigh injury ruling him out over the last few weeks, Lacazette still remains France’s top scorer so far this season.
Elsewhere, Nice continued their good run to stay top of the table, closely followed by Monaco, whom they beat last midweek.
At the other end, Lille are seemingly trying to recreate last season by looking like possible relegation candidates until sacking their manager in November and ending up in a European spot by the end of the season. They currently sit bottom of the pile after Lorient’s victory.
Bordeaux, meanwhile, win the worst tweet of the weekend ‘award’. This before their disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Caen:
Germany
Bayern Munich continued their 100% start to the season as they dispatched of Hamburg thanks to a late goal from Joshua Kimmich. Hamburg can feel a little unlucky that they conceded that goal after defending well, but defeat leaves them in the relegation zone with just one point from their five games so far.
In fact, that’s a defeat that cost their manager Bruno Labbadia his job – though it does seem a little harsh to sack a man after a defeat to Munich in which your team actually defended well.
All of Germany’s Champions League entrants managed to gear up for their midweek European adventures, though it doesn’t get any easier from here. Western Germany welcomes both Spanish Clasico giants this midweek as Real Madrid travel to Dortmund and Barcelona come to Monchengladbach. Both German sides won their games this weekend, as did Bayer Leverkusen, who travel to Monaco on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, RB Leipzig continued their unbeaten start to the season with a draw at high-flying Cologne, whilst wunderkind Oliver Burke scored his first goal for the most hated team in Germany.
Schalke and Hamburg, two of Germany’s biggest old clubs make up the bottom two, though it’s still early doors.
Italy
Wins for Juventus and Napoli keep the big two clear at the top of a fledgling Serie A table. It might be too early to read too much into the table, but it is starting to look like Napoli are going to be the team to challenge Juventus this season.
There was a victory for Sinisa Mihajlovic’s Torino as Joe Hart got his first victory in Serie A, though there was no clean sheet for the England goalkeeper, however, as Francesco Totti scored his 250th Serie A goal. But surely the most special part of that goal is the kit he did it in….
Elsewhere, whilst Diego Simeone may want to return to Italy to manage in Serie A in the not too distant future, it’s his son Giovanni who is starting his Serie A career in style. El Cholo’s son found the net for Genoa this weekend, scoring his first Serie A goal in a 1-1 draw with Pescara.
Best known for losing a bet in training, El Cholito’s hair seems to have grown back nicely….
Spain
If there were any doubts about Barcelona’s ability to cope without Lionel Messi, they’ve surely been put to bed this week. A 5-0 victory over Sporting Gijon saw the Catalans score five goals in a game for the fourth time in their last seven games. Neymar bagged two, Luis Suarez got one, and so did Messi replacement Arda Turan.
But if Barcelona can live without Messi, perhaps the same can’t be said for Real Madrid and their superhuman Cristiano Ronaldo.
Madrid travelled over 1000 miles to face Las Palmas in the league – a longer journey than they’ll face on Tuesday night when they travel to Dortmund for a Champions League game. And in the end, they came home with only a point after conceding a late equalising goal to draw 2-2. But that was after withdrawing Cristiano Ronaldo at 2-1, prompting this reaction from his mother (keep your chin up):
After travelling such a long way and with another long trip just three days later, it may not seem like a strange move to take off your best player. But when that player is notoriously stroppy about being left out, it becomes a big story.
Though perhaps an even bigger story is the revival of Valencia. After finally winning a game of football in midweek – their first in five months – Valencia won two on the spin. They needed a last-minute penalty from Dani Parejo to beat Alaves in midweek but two wins on the trot for Valencia lifts them well off the bottom of the table.
This week, they had more penalty antics go in their favour as Diego Alves saved his 17th La Liga penalty, bringing him out on his own in the penalties saved charts. He’s now saved one more than Barcelona legend Andoni Zubizarreta, but more importantly, he’s saved almost half of the penalties he’s faced: