European Football Weekend Review - 17th September 2024
As the international break came to a close, Europe's top football leagues returned with a weekend of thrilling action. From fierce local derbies to high-scoring encounters, teams across the continent fought for early momentum in their respective title races. In the Premier League, Arsenal edged a cagey North London Derby, while Barcelona and Dortmund enjoyed goal-filled victories in La Liga and the Bundesliga. Here’s a roundup of the key matches from the weekend's football.
Premier League - Tottenham Hotspur 0 - 1 ArsenalÂ
The game with the most goals historically in Premier League history failed to live up to its reputation, Arsenal rolling back the clock to the George Graham years to win the game 1-0.Â
Tottenham had been inconsistent with their start to the season winning, drawing, and losing 1 in each of their opening 3 games. The Gunners had a setback before the international break drawing with Brighton.Â
Spurs outshot and outpassed their North London rivals, but bar a looping Dominic Solankeheader and a speculative effort from distance by Dejan Kulusevski, they failed to cause David Raya too many problems. Â
In the end an old weakness came back to haunt Ange Postecoglu’s side when Gabriel Jesus was left unmarked to power his header home from a Bukayo Saka corner; Arsenal successfully targeting goalkeeper Vicario’s weakness from set pieces.Â
It sounds crazy but a win was vital for Mikel Arteta’s charges having dropped points 2 weeks ago in the battle to wrestle the title away from Manchester City; Erling Haaland and co are unbeaten and have scored 11 in 4 games.Â
Spurs face Coventry away midweek in the league cup, before hosting Brentford next Saturday. Small rumblings of discontent are being felt and further setbacks could pile the pressure on Postecoglou.Â
Other Results
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Newcastle United
Southampton 0-3 Manchester United
Brighton and Hove Albion 0-0 Ipswich Town
Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester City
Fulham 1-1 West Ham United
Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Manchester City 2-1 Brentford
Aston Villa 3-2 Everton
Bournemouth 0-1 Chelsea
Player of the weekend
In a bid to avoid giving this award to Erling Haaland every weekend, I’ll go for Matz Sels performance in Nottingham Forest’s surprise 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield. The Belgian made 5 saves in the game, including a smart save from an Alexis MacAllister header; the win sees Forest gatecrash the top 10.
League Table
La Liga - Girona 1 - 4 Barcelona
Barcelona swatted aside the challenge of Catalan neighbors Girona, winning 4-1 at the Estadi Municipal de Montilivi on Sunday afternoon.Â
Lamine Yamal continues to shine for the Blaugrana, the teenage sensation and current shining light of this Barcelona team scored twice to take his tally for the season to 3 goals and 4 assists in La Liga in just 5 games.Â
Dani Olmo scored a superb goal to make it 3, but that joy was soured with the former RB Leipzig player picking up an injury that could keep him out for up to 4-5 weeks.Â
Barca added a 4th with Pedri getting his name on the scoresheet, Cristian Stuani grabbed a consolation goal for Girona.Â
Ferran Torres received his marching orders after mistiming his tackle on Yaser Asprilla, clearly stamping on the Colombians foot with only minutes remaining of the contest.Â
Hansi Flick’s side remain unbeaten and stay top of the league, 4 points above the two Madrid giants; Barca face Monaco on Thursday in their opening Champions League game before facing Villarreal on Sunday.Â
Girona’s bubble appears to have burst after their excellent form last season, though admittedly their 2 defeats have come at the hand of 2 of the sides in the top 3; they travel to PSG in a historic European tie for the club before they travelling to face Valencia on Sunday.Â
Other results
Las Palmas 2-3 Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid 3-0 Valencia
Real Mallorca 1-2 Villarreal
Espanyol 3-2 Alaves
Sevilla 1-0 Getafe
Real Sociedad 0-2 Real Madrid
Real Betis 2-0 Leganes
Player of the weekend
Javier Puado helped Espanyol to claim a 2nd win of the season, the striker scoring all of his side’s 3 goals in a 3-2 victory over Alaves. Puado had a 100% success rate, managing to convert all of his 3 attempts on goal. He hit the net 17 times last season as he helped his side gain promotion back to La Liga at the first time of asking, Saturday’s treble was his first goals of the season.
League Table
Bundesliga - Borussia Dortmund 4 - 2 FC HeidenheimÂ
Heading into this encounter Heidenheim sat top of the Bundesliga and faced their first real test of the season traveling to the Signal Iduna Park to face Dortmund.Â
It proved to be an entertaining encounter with 6 goals scored but ultimately the home team came out on top, triumphing 4-2 thanks to a brace from Karim Adeyemi, and a strike from Donyell Malen and a stoppage time penalty from Emre Can.Â
The game was played at lightning speed but ultimately Dortmund's superiority in keeping possession and making their chances count made the difference in the end.Â
24 shots were had throughout the game, 9 blocks were made, and Dortmund had 26 touches in the opposition box compared to Heidenheim’s 22; most certainly not a game for fans of defensive play.Â
Serhou Guirassy, though he didn’t find the net, showed glimpses of what he can bring to Die Schwarzgelben, providing pace and power up top; he was the most fouled player in the game.Â
A near Marvin Pieringer header and a Maximilian Bruenig penalty kept the away side in the game, but proved to be only consolation goals.Â
On Tuesday night Dortmund kick off their Champions League campaign away to Club Brugge, Heidenheim’s next match is at home to Freiburg on Saturday afternoon.Â
Other results
FC Augsburg 3-1 St Pauli
Mainz 1-2 Werder Bremen
Hoffenheim 1-4 Bayer Leverkusen
Mönchengladbach 1-3 Stuttgart
RB Leipzig 0-0 1. FC Union Berlin
SC Freiburg 2-1 Bochum
Wolfsburg 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Holstein Kiel 1-6 Bayern Munich
Player of the weekend
Harry Kane hit a hatrick for Bayern and Victor Boniface scored twice, but Chukwubuike Adamu’s double for Freiburg in their 2-1 home win over Bochum made him stand out. The Austrian has already trebled his tally for last season and has started the campaign in excellent form; with his compatriot Michael Gregoritsch out injured, Adamu is taking his opportunity to claim the strikers spot at the Europa-Park Stadion.
League Table
Serie A - Atalanta 3 - 2 FiorentinaÂ
After flirting with the exit door at Atalanta throughout the summer, Ademola Lookman returned in some style to help Gian Piero Gasperini’s side secure a 3-2 win over Fiorentina.Â
The former Everton and Fulham forward got on the scoresheet and assisted Mateo Retegui’s goal, the build up a treat for the eyes.Â
With only 1 win in their first 3 games, it was a much needed victory for Atalanta heading into Thursday's Champions League clash with Arsenal.
Lucas Quarta and Moises Kean had put Fiorentina in the lead twice, only for Retegui and Charles De Ketelaere to level for Atalanta on each occasion; Lookman rounded off the first half scoring, his goal proving to be the winner.Â
Easily one of the games of the weekend around Europe, Serie A debutant David De Gea, though not necessarily at fault for any of the goals he conceded, will hope for quieter weekends going forward.Â
La Viola, under the new management of Raffaele Palladino with this defeat, have still yet to win in the league this season. Sunday's early encounter with Lazio at home takes on massive significance with the pressure mounting on him already.Â
Other Results
Parma 2-3 Udinese
Lazio 2-1 Verona
Genoa 1-1 Roma
Torino 0-0 Lecce
Cagliari 0-4 Napoli
Monza 1-1 Inter Milan
Como 2-2 Bologna
Empoli 0-0 Juventus
AC Milan 4-0 Venezia
Player of the weekend
Florian Thauvin has been instrumental in Udinese finishing the weekend top of the pile in Italy, he netted twice in his teams 3-2 come from behind win over Parma. Thauvin was a nuisance to the Gialloblu throughout his 85 minutes on the pitch, with Roma up next in the Capital on Sunday, can he add to Danielle De Rossi’s current woes?
League Table
Ligue 1 - Nantes v ReimsÂ
Nantes suffered their first defeat of the season as Reims came from behind to claim a 2-1 victory.Â
Douglas Augusto opened the scoring, deftly finishing beyond Yehvann Diouf after Moises Simon had set up the Brazilian midfielder.Â
The lead was short lived as Marshall Munetsi levelled proceedings just 6 minutes later.Â
The home side, favouring a more direct route - Nantes have had the lowest average possession in Ligue 1 with 39.2% - had the majority of chances, having had 18 shots to Reims 11, but failed to add to the scoreline.Â
In the end Keito Nakamura stole the points for the away side, passing the ball into the bottom corner after excellent build up; the win sees Reims go level on points with Nantes on 7 points and take them into the European places for now.Â
Nantes will hope to bounce back against struggling Angers on Sunday. Reims have the unenviable task of welcoming champions PSG to the Stade Auguste Delaune on Saturday night; the Les Rouges et Blancs have not beaten the Parisians since September 2019 in any competitions.Â
Other Results
Strasbourg 1-1 Angers
Toulouse 2-0 Le Havre
RC Lens 0-0 Lyon
Marseille 2-0 Nice
Auxerre 0-3 Monaco
Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Brest
St Etienne 1-0 Lille
Player of the weekend
Danish centre back Rasmus Nicolaisen was in imperious form in Toulouse’s 2-0 win over a Le Havre who came into the fixture unbeaten in their opening 3 games. Defensively he made 3 interceptions and 7 recoveries on the way to helping his side claim a 2nd clean sheet of the season. Nicolaisen assisted the first goal, playing an accurate ball over the Le Havre defence to set up Shavy Babicka to cooly lob the ball over goalkeeper Arthur Desmas.
League Table
