This Weekend in Football: Key Results Across Europe’s Top Leagues
Football fans had plenty to watch this weekend, with all of Europe’s major leagues in action, headlined by a Chelsea thriller in England, a routine Real Madrid win in Spain, and a stunning Bundesliga debut for one of Germany’s smallest clubs.
In the Premier League, Manchester City continued their perfect start to the season, moving top of the early table after a run of results that has them unbeaten through two matchdays. Chelsea also remain unbeaten, edging past Brighton & Hove Albion 4-3 in a high-scoring thriller under new head coach Xabi Alonso, while Manchester United thrashed Ipswich Town 5-2, with Bruno Fernandes among the goals. Liverpool, meanwhile, were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Nottingham Forest, extending a stuttering start to the campaign under new management, and Tottenham suffered a second straight defeat, losing 2-0 at home to Newcastle United. Elsewhere, Sunderland edged Fulham 1-0, Leeds United drew 1-1 with Brentford, and newly promoted Hull City made it back-to-back wins with a 1-0 victory over Coventry City. The round concludes on Monday night with Aston Villa, still winless, hosting champions Arsenal.
Over in Spain, Real Madrid returned to form with a comfortable 4-0 win over Malaga, following an earlier 4-1 victory over Real Sociedad in midweek. Barcelona, meanwhile, had their Sunday fixture against Athletic Club moved to Thursday, where they won 2-0 to keep pace at the top of the table, and are back in action Monday night against Rayo Vallecano. Atletico Madrid beat Sevilla 3-1 away from home, continuing a strong start to their campaign amid the ongoing transfer saga surrounding striker Julian Alvarez, while other results saw Levante beat Real Betis 5-2, Real Sociedad edge Espanyol 2-1, and Deportivo La Coruna beat Valencia 3-1.
In Italy’s Serie A, reigning champions Inter Milan made it back-to-back wins with a narrow 1-0 victory away at Cagliari, while Juventus eased past Parma 2-0 at home. Napoli lost 2-1 to newly promoted Como in a surprise result, and further fixtures involving Roma, Atalanta, Lazio and Genoa were scheduled to close out the round on Sunday and Monday.
Germany’s Bundesliga kicked off its new season this weekend, and provided one of the standout stories across all of Europe’s leagues: newly promoted Elversberg, representing a town of just 13,000 people, the smallest ever to field a top-flight German club, stunned reigning German Cup holders Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in their first-ever Bundesliga fixture. Elsewhere on the opening weekend, champions Bayern Munich made an emphatic statement with a 5-1 win over VfB Stuttgart, backing up their midweek German Supercup win over Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund themselves opened their league campaign with a 2-0 home win over promoted side Hamburg, though the victory was overshadowed by a potentially serious injury to debutant Giannis Konstantelias. Elsewhere, RB Leipzig thrashed Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0, Union Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt shared a wild 3-3 draw, and Freiburg beat Werder Bremen 4-1.
With most of the weekend’s major fixtures now complete, attention turns to the final matches of the round on Monday, including Arsenal’s trip to Aston Villa in England and Barcelona’s clash with Rayo Vallecano in Spain, as Europe’s top leagues continue building toward the September international break.
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