European Football Weekend Review - 24th Septemer 2024
Premier League - Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal
A last gasp John Stones equaliser denied Arsenal a vital win over title rivals Man City, and a first league win at the Etihad since 2010.
The narrative of the game was set when Leandro Trossard received a 2nd booking just before halftime, meaning the Gunners were forced to defend for their lives a man down for the entirety of the 2nd half.
Erling Haaland put City 1 up after 9 minutes, staying onside to latch onto Savinho’s inch perfect pass to drill the ball beyond David Raya to score his 100th goal in blue. The lead would last for just 13 minutes, Riccardo Calafiori powerful left footed curling effort nestled beautifully into the top corner to level the game.
Pep Guardiola’s side had failed to heed the warning about the danger centre back Gabriel posed at set pieces, the Brazilian in first half injury time powered home a Bukayo Saka corner from close range to flip the game on its head.
Battling for the last 45+ minutes with just 10 men, Arsenal defended heroically and relied on David Raya to hold onto their lead, the Spaniard made 9 saves in all. In the end City’s persistence paid off through Stones saving a point for his team.
Tempers boiled over at the full time whistle with players squaring off with each other in a bad tempered end to the day; The result proving there will most likely be little between the sides once again this season.
Other Results
West Ham United 0-3 Chelsea
Aston Villa 3-1Wolverhampton Wanderers
Fulham 3-1 Newcastle United
Leicester City 1-1 Everton
Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth
Southampton 1-1 Ipswich Town
Tottenham Hotspur 3-1Brentford
Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Nottingham Forest
Player of the weekend - Luis Diaz
Diaz was instrumental in Liverpool continuing their recovery from their first league defeat last weekend, scoring twice in a 3-0 home win over Bournemouth. It wasn’t just his goals, the Colombian completed 30 of his 32 attempted passes and was a constant menace to the Cherries defence.Â
League Table
La Liga - Villarreal 1-5 Barcelona
The scoreline fails to tell the story of this contest, Barcelona were excellent, but on another occasion Villarreal could have made the Catalans sweat a bit more. In the end the quality of the attack at Hansi Flick’s disposal proved too much.
Despite losing their opening Champions League match to Monaco midweek, Barca are now unbeaten in their first 6 La Liga games, their win on Sunday maintaining their 4 point gap over rivals Real Madrid.
Robert Lewandowski scored twice in the first half to put the visitors into the ascendancy, Ayoze Perez pulled 1 back to continue his superb start since signing for the Yellow Submarine from Real Betis.
Pablo Torre’s deflected effort restored Barca’s 2 goal lead that wrongfooted Diego Conde. Wearing the captain's armband, Raphinha got in on the act, grabbing a brace to complete the rout.
It wasn’t all positive for Barcelona, Marc Andre Ter Stegan had to be stretchered off with a serious knee injury that could rule him out for the majority of the season.
Getafe travel to Montjuic on Wednesday night, before Flick takes his side to Osasuna on Saturday.
Having lost their unbeaten record, Villarreal will hope to bounce back against another Catalan side in Espanyol on Thursday before hosting Las Palmas on Monday night.
Other Results
Alaves 2-1 Sevilla
Real Valladolid 0-0 Real Sociedad
Osasuna 2-1 Las Palmas
Valencia 2-0 Girona
Real Madrid 4-1Espanyol
Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Atletico Madrid
Getafe 1-1 Leganes
Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Celta Vigo
Real Betis 1-2 Real Mallorca
Player of the weekend
Top scorer for Athletic Bilbao last season, Guruzeta had failed to find the net in his opening 6 La Liga matches, but scored twice away at Celta Vigo to break his duck for the season, both goals tidy finishes from inside the box to show signs that last season was no mere fluke.Â
League Table
Bundesliga - VFB Stuttgart 5-1 Borussia Dortmund
Serhou Guirassey had a harrowing return to Stuttgart with his new side, suffering a demolishing and witnessing his old strike partner Denis Undav upstage him.
Dortmund had gone into the fixture yet to suffer a defeat, but were sent crashing back to earth with this result.
Runners up last season, Sebastien Hoeness’s charges tore into their opponents, exposing their weaknesses at the back ruthlessly; Die Roten had 17 shots to Dortmunds 7, and could and possibly should have scored more.
Ermedin Demirovic, Enzo Milliot, and El Bilal Toure also got their names on the scoresheet; Guirassey did score his first league goal for BVB, but ultimately it meant nothing in this contest.
In their 4-2 win the previous weekend Nuri Sahin could potentially see what lay ahead with Dortmund's defence conceding up poor goals against Heidenheim.
This is an early test for Sahin in the early days of his reign at Signal Iduna Park, Bochum, on Friday night, will travel hoping to inflict a further blow with confidence low and a scalp in their sights.
Stuttgart head to the Volkswagen Arena to take on a Wolfsburg side who have struggled so far, winning just once in the league; a win would extend their unbeaten run to 4 in the Bundesliga.
Other Results
Bayer Leverkusen 4-3 Wolfsburg
St Pauli 0-0 RB Leipzig
1. FC Heidenheim 0-3 SC Freiburg
1. FC Union Berlin 2-1 Hoffenheim
Bochum 2-2 Holstein Kiel
Werder Bremen 0-5 Bayern Munich
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 Mönchengladbach
FC Augsburg 2-3 Mainz
Player of the weekend - Enzo Millot
The Frenchman was superb in Stuttgart’s 5-1 win, notching twice and assisting Toure for the 4th goal. He also had a 92% passing completion rate, and never lost a dribbling duel, winning 8 out of 8 attempts.Â
League Table
Serie A - Inter Milan 1-2 AC Milan
Matteo Gabbia ended Rossoneri heartbreak against city rivals Inter, his 89th minute winning goal halting their 6 game winless run in all fixtures.
Coming into the fixture Paulo Fonseca was under intense pressure after Milan’s slow start to the campaign, the midweek to Liverpool at home in the Champions League did little to quell the anger among supporters, but victory on Sunday night will go a long way to helping him get the fans to warm to the former Lille manager.
Starman Christian Pulisic opened the scoring for Milan in the 10th minute, powering his way into the box, the American had the composure to finish the opportunity he had created for himself; he became the first player from the US to score in the derby.
Inter struck back 17 minutes later thanks to Federico Di Marco, the full back’s powerful left footed strike slammed into the bottom corner from inside the area to help Simone Inzaghi’s side to level proceedings.
Though far from a classic the 2nd half was an entertaining affair with both sides having chances to take the lead. Milan thought they had been awarded a penalty, only for VAR to overturn the decision as the ball had clearly hit Lautaro Martinez’s shoulder, not his arm.
In the end the boyhood Milan fan completed a dream night for himself, as Gabbia powered his header beyond Yann Sommer to secure a vital win for Milan and Fonseca.
Other Results
Fiorentina 2-1 Lazio
Monza 1-2Bologna
Roma 3-0 Udinese
Venezia 2-0 Genoa
Juventus 0-0 Napoli
Lecce 2-2 Parma
Cagliari 0-2Empoli
Verona 2-3 Torino
Atalanta P-P Como
Player of the weekend - Albert Gudmundsson
New Fiorentina striker Gudmundsson, signed from Genoa in the summer, scored 2 second half penalties to help his new side defeat Lazio 2-1. Having come on in the 2nd half, he inspired La Viola with his contributions; as well as the goals he completed 80% of his passes, won 1 of the penalties, and won all of his duels on the ground.Â
League Table
Ligue 1 - Lyon 2-3 Marseille
Marseille finished the weekend on top spot in Ligue 1, defeating Lyon 3-2 away at the Groupama Stadium in a sensational game where 3 goals were scored in the final 15 minutes.
The drama started early in the game when Marseille captain Leonardo Balerdi picked up 2 yellow cards inside 6 minutes to leave Roberto De Zerbi’s side down to 10 men for most of the encounter.
OL looked to make the advantage count, coming close to opening the scoring when first Gift Orban struck the woodwork, and then moments later forced Geronimo Rulli into a smart stop. Marseille, despite being a man down, had chances with both Valentin Rongier and Elye Wahi being denied by goalkeeper Lucas Perri and Colentin Tolisso respectively.
Lyon were awarded a penalty for a handball by Rongier in first half stoppage time, Alexandre Lacazette could only watch in horror as his kick was saved by Rulli.
Duje Caleta-Car opened the scoring for OL on 53 minutes, headering home a Clinton Mata cross. Marseille equalised 16 minutes later through Pol Lirola, the Spaniard lifting the ball over Perri after he was set up by Luis Henrique.
Ulisses Garcia put Marseille into the lead with 8 minutes of normal time remaining, his looping shot bouncing up and into the top corner. Rayan Cherki thought he had secured a point for OL with his deft finish from close range, only for 2 minutes later Jonathan Rowe, on loan from Norwich to curl home a superb goal outside the area to win the game for De Zerbi’s men.
Other Results
Monaco 3-1 Le Havre
Angers 1-1 Nantes
Brest 2-0 Toulouse
Montpellier 3-2 Auxerre
Lille 3-3 Strasbourg
Rennes 1-1 RC Lens
Reims 1-1 Paris Saint-Germain
Nice 8-0 St Etienne
Player of the weekend
Zhegrova scored twice in Lille’s 3-3 draw at home to Strasbourg, further underlining his status as one of Les Dogues key players; His influence was further felt in the game as the Kosovon completed 92% of his passes, was successful with 3 of his 5 dribbles, not to mention scoring 2 goals with only 2 shots.
League Table