Atletico Madrid go level on points with Real Madrid, Manchester City and Liverpool share points in an epic clash, and Napoli maintain their 100% record. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) suffer their first league defeats of the season. We recap results from the weekend’s action in major European football leagues.
English Premier League
Liverpool and Manchester City played out a thrilling 2-2 draw at Anfield on Sunday. It was Pep Guardiola’s men who dominated the opening 45 minutes. But Liverpool, who came out strongly in the second half, broke the deadlock through Sadio Mane in the 59th minute. Phil Foden leveled the scores after a brilliant left-footed finish.
Salah put Liverpool ahead again with a stunning goal. He skipped past a few City players and drilled the ball past Ederson. However, Kevin De Bruyne struck the equalizer in the 81st minute. The Belgian’s goal-bound attempt from the edge of the box took a deflection off Joel Matip and rolled into the net. Rodri made a vital block in the dying minutes to deny Fabinho from scoring the winner.
Timo Werner netted his first league goal of the 2021-22 season to steer Chelsea to three points against a gritty Southampton. Trevoh Chalobah scored early in the ninth minute. In the second half, Southampton won a penalty after Ben Chilwell fouled Tino Livramento inside the box. James Ward-Prowse made no mistake from the spot. However, 17 minutes later, the Southampton goalscorer received a straight red card for a reckless tackle on Jorginho. Werner and Chilwell found the net in the space of five minutes as Chelsea claimed all three points.
Manchester United failed to grab a win for a second successive week in the English Premier League. A second-half strike from Andros Townsend canceled out Anthony Martial’s 43rd-minute strike. Leicester City and Arsenal, too, dropped points. The Foxes let slip a two-goal lead against Crystal Palace, while the London outfit played out a goalless draw with Brighton.
Spanish La Liga
Atletico Madrid heaped pressure on Ronald Koeman with a 2-0 victory over FC Barcelona at home. Thomas Lemar opened the scoring in the 23rd minute. With two minutes remaining for half-time, Suarez, who set up the first goal, latched on to a wonderful pass from Lemar and made it 2-0 against his former club. It was Barcelona’s first defeat of the new Spanish La Liga season. Meanwhile, Atletico climbed to second in the points table.
Ex-Real Madrid forward Raul de Tomas was on the scoresheet as Espanyol beat Real Madrid 2-1. The Spanish La Liga leaders trailed by two goals at the hour mark. Tomas tapped home the ball from six yards in the 17th minute. Aleix Vidal doubled the lead for the hosts after the break. Karim Benzema netted a consolation goal for Real Madrid in the 71st minute.
Italian Serie A
Hirving Lozano and Amir Rrahmani inspired Napoli to their seventh successive win in the Italian Serie A. The league leaders came back from a goal down to beat Fiorentina 2-1. Despite conceding two goals in the dying minutes, AC Milan won 2-3 against Atalanta. Davide Calabria put them ahead inside 30 seconds. Also, Sandro Tonali and Rafael Leao registered their names on the scoresheet.
Two goals in the second half sealed three points for Inter Milan against Sassuolo, who led at half-time against the Italian Serie A champions. Edin Dzeko equalized in the 58th minute, while Lautaro Martinez netted the winner from a spot-kick. Manuel Locatelli fired home an 86th-minute winner against Torino to help Juventus register a third successive win in the league. They have now climbed to seventh in the standings.
German Bundesliga
Eintracht Frankfurt stunned Bayern Munich as they beat the Bavarian outfit 1-2 at Allianz Arena. Bayern took the lead through Leon Goretzka in the 29th minute. However, Eintracht Frankfurt leveled the game three minutes later. The woodwork denied Serge Gnabry, and Kevin Trapp made an excellent save to deny Robert Lewandowski. Filip Kostic grabbed the winner for Eintracht with seven minutes remaining on the clock.
Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways in German Bundesliga. The men in yellow grabbed a 2-1 victory over FC Augsburg. Both teams went into half-time with a 1-1 scoreline as Andi Zeqiri canceled out Raphael Guerreiro’s tenth-minute spot-kick. Julian Brandt struck the winning goal six minutes into the second half. Marco Reus and substitute Thorgan Hazard saw their attempts hit the woodwork.
French Ligue 1
Rennes inflicted PSG their first defeat this season. Mauricio Pochettino’s men trailed by a goal at the break. The home side made it 2-0 in the opening minute of the second half. Kylian Mbappe pulled a goal back, but it got chalked off for offside. The trio of Lionel Messi, Mbappe, and Neymar couldn’t breach the Rennes backline.
Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
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