Play has resumed in Europe after the international break and, along with Liverpool in England, we still have five teams boasting flawless records in the other ‘Big 5′ leagues.
Unsurprisingly, defending champions Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain continue to lead the way in Germany and France, respectively. In Italy, Napoli have also made the perfect start to their Serie title defence but a resurgent Juventus are keeping pace with Antonio Conte’s team, while Real Madrid are four from four in Spain despite playing with 10 men for an hour on Saturday.
Of course, there were plenty of other major talking points over the weekend, so who were the big winners and losers from the latest round of action across the continent? BALLGM breaks it all down below…
Play has resumed in Europe after the international break and, along with Liverpool in England, we still have five teams boasting flawless records in the other ‘Big 5′ leagues.
Unsurprisingly, defending champions Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain continue to lead the way in Germany and France, respectively. In Italy, Napoli have also made the perfect start to their Serie title defence but a resurgent Juventus are keeping pace with Antonio Conte’s team, while Real Madrid are four from four in Spain despite playing with 10 men for an hour on Saturday.
Of course, there were plenty of other major talking points over the weekend, so who were the big winners and losers from the latest round of action across the continent? BALLGM breaks it all down below…
AC Milan threw Luka Modric a surprise 40th birthday party last week. On Sunday, he scored the only goal of the game as AC Milan beat Bologna at San Siro to make it two wins in a row after their embarrassing loss to Cremonese on the opening day of the new Serie A season.
“It was a great way to celebrate,” Modric told DAZN after becomingthe oldest midfielder to ever score a goal in Italy’s top flight. “We won, which is the most important thing, and now we have to focus on the next matches.
“It was a good move, Ale (Alexis Saelemaekers) gave me a great ball and it was easy to score, it was more his pass than my finish.
“I just hope people will not remind me of my age anymore!”
There seems little chance of that, though, as what Modric is doing at the age of 40 is truly extraordinary.
Not only is he already looking like a fantastic free transfer for a Milan side that lacked both quality and character last season, he also appears to have every chance of representing his beloved Croatia at next summer’s World Cup, having helped his country continue their 100 percent start to qualifying during the recent international break.
Maybe he really is a magician, as the Gazzetta dello Sport labelled him on Monday morning.
Barcelona obviously have several special players. La Masia remains a precious goldmine, saving the cash-strapped Catalans an absolute fortune in the transfer market.
However, it’s also abundantly clear that in Hansi Flick the Blaugrana are blessed with one of the best coaches in world football. Indeed, it’s hard to overstate just how good a job the German is doing at Barcelona.
Since taking over in the summer of 2024, he’s had a ridiculous amount of off-field nonsense to deal with, from registration rows to incessant stadium setbacks. For example, Saturday’s Liga clash with Valencia was played at the 6,000-seater arena beside their training ground because the revamped Camp Nou is still not ready to open.
Despite the constant distractions, though, the senior squad continues to go from strength to strength – and Flick is the key factor in that regard.
The former Bayern Munich boss is a bold tactician, with his high-risk high line continuing to reap rewards, but he’s also an outstanding man-manager who treats everyone equally – as the 6-0 rout of Valencia underlined.
Raphinha is one of the most influential and important players at the club but Flick had no issue benching the Brazilian for the game at the Johan Cruyff Stadium after he arrived late to training the day before the game.
The message was that nobody gets special treatment at Flick’s Barca. Everyone is treated equally and, for that reason, they’re all willing to work together towards a common goal – which is why Raphinha accepted his punishment without complaint before responding in the best possible manner by scoring twice after coming on as a second-half substitute.
So, while the construction work at Camp Nou may be behind schedule, Flick has already built a brilliant Barca team in every sense.
One would be hard pressed to find anyone that feels sorry for Paris Saint-Germain. They have one of most expensive squads in world football, with the added bonus of being in a position of being able to regularly rotate players in between big European games because PSG are so far ahead of every other team in France that it’s farcical.
However, last season’s treble-winners are “in a bit of a difficult moment”, as Luis Enrique put it, ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League opener against Atalanta.
Having already lost Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue to injury during the international break, PSG saw the other member of their first-choice forward line, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, forced off just half an hour into Sunday’s clash with Lens.
Obviously, PSG still won the game, with Bradley Barcola scoring twice to underline the Parisians’ strength in depth – and make it four wins from four in Ligue 1. However, Kang-In Lee and Lucas Beraldo also had to come off at the Parc des Princes, meaning the reigning European champions are short on numbers as they begin their title defence.
Of course, if last season’s Champions League taught us anything, it’s that the majority of games in the league phase are inconsequential. It’s possible to lose four times and still progress. Still, the scale of PSG’s fitness problems suggest that Luis Enrique’s men might yet end up paying a heavy price for their participation in last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup…
Lilian Thuram was a fantastic footballer, easily one of the finest defenders of the modern era. His sons Marcus and Khephren are pretty good, too, though – as both proved in Saturday’s sensational Derby d’Italia.
With just under a quarter of an hour remaining in a thrilling encounter in Turin, Marcus nodded home a Federico Dimarco corner to put Inter 3-2 up. However, Khephren levelled matters with a fine header of his own just minutes later before Vasilije Adzic hit a long-range winner for Juventus in the dying seconds.
Unfortunately, Inter coach Christian Chivu had to put some mischievous members of their media in their place for trying to make a controversy out of the fact that the Thurams shared a joke or two at the full-time whistle – but there was no spoiling what was a wonderful occasion for Lilian and and his two boys.
“Both Marcus and my father tell me I’m not good with my head and should score more headers, so I was glad to score with my head today!” an ecstatic Khephren told DAZN afterwards. “Marcus told me with his eyes well done, because he’s a great brother as well as a great player. He was proud of me.”
Remarkably, the Thuram brothers weren’t the only set of siblings from France to score at the weekend.
On Saturday evening, Kylian Mbappe maintained his red-hot start to the new Liga season with the opening goal in Real Madrid’s hard-fought 2-1 win at Real Sociedad.
The following day, his teenage brother Ethan came off the bench to earn Lille a 2-1 victory over Toulouse with a 98th-minute strike that sparked scenes of wild celebration at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Unsurprisingly, Kylian was among the first to congratulate his younger brother,labelling Ethan “STARBOY” in a post on Instagram.
St. Pauli finished 14th in last season’s Bundesliga. Right now, they’re fourth, having avoided defeat in their first three games for the first time ever.
“It’s gone much better than last season!” defender Eric Smith told his club’s official website after Sunday’s 2-1 win over Augsburg, alluding to the fact that St. Pauli lost their opening three fixtures of the 204-25 campaign. “It wasn’t our best performance today, but it was enough for three points.”
Interestingly, a Burnley loanee has been key to St. Pauli’s surprisingly strong start.
Andreas Hountondji hasn’t yet scored a goal for the Clarets, whom he joined from Caen last year, but he already has three for his new club.
“Scoring again was a great feeling,” the French-born Benin forward admitted after maintaining his 100 percent strike-rate in the Bundesliga. “We didn’t start well but showed great mentality to win the game.”
It will, thus, be interesting to see if both St. Pauli and Hountondji can keep their remarkable runs going at Stuttgart on Fridfay night…
Real Madrid signed two high-profile Premier League players during the summer in Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Saturday’s Liga clash with Real Sociedad wasn’t particularly enjoyable for either of them.
Huijsen, who was wanted by a number of top teams before moving to Madrid, was sent off just 32 minutes into the game at the Anoeta for a professional foul on Mikel Oyarzabal.
Alonso disputed the decision, arguing that the Spain centre-back should have been given a yellow card rather than a straight red, but acknowledged that Huijsen could have defended the situation better regardless.
As for Alexander-Arnold, the former Liverpool star’s defensive qualities have become a topic of much debate since his arrival from Anfield, so it was telling that Alonso once again went with the far more dependable Dani Carvajal at right-back for the always tricky trip to San Sebastian.
On the plus side, Alvaro Carreras turned in another solid showing at left-back, meaning the former Benfica defender that never saw a second of senior action during his time at Manchester United continues to look like Madrid’s best defensive signing of the summer.
It was actually a little tough watching Benjamin Sesko toil up front for Manchester United in Sunday’s dismal derby defeat at the Etihad. The summer signing was starved of service throughout. Rasmus Hojlund would doubtless sympathise. He’s been there before. Crucially, though, he’s not anymore.
Hojlund is in Naples now and already looking like a completely different player to the one that endured almost nothing but misery in Manchester. In fact, the Denmark international needed just 14 minutes to score his first goal for Napoli after starting in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Fiorentina.
It was an emphatic finish from a player whose confidence appeared shot at Old Trafford and, speaking to Sky Sport Italia afterwards, he admitted he was “very happy to be with this incredible team” – but he was probably just as delighted to have left a pretty poor one behind.
Scott McTominay breathed new life into his career by leaving United for Napoli; don’t be at all surprised if Hojlund does likewise.
