The Euro Roundup: Dortmund extend lead, PSG finally slip up
By Matt Addison
All you need to know from the weekend of European football action as PSG, Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach were all left frustrated.
This weekend saw predictable wins for the likes of Juventus and Borussia Dortmund, but PSG dropped their first points of the season in Ligue 1 at the 15th time of asking, and Sevilla’s La Liga lead was very short-lived.
Barca back on top
Barcelona regained top spot in La Liga as they beat Villarreal 2-0 at Camp Nou, with Sevilla only able to draw 1-1 away at Alaves.
Gerard Pique opened the scoring for Barca before 20-year-old Carles Alena added a second goal late on.
Real Madrid were 2-0 winners as well, as they beat Valencia. An early own-goal from Daniel Wass and a late strike from Lucas Vasquez sealed the points for them as Real gained ground on the top four places.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid were held 1-1 with Girona. That result means Atletico have still not beaten the Catalan side since they were promoted to the top flight, drawing three successive times. If it wasn’t for a late Jonas Ramalho own-goal, they would have lost the game.
Getafe beat Espanyol 3-0, Celta Vigo comfortably dispatched Huesca 2-0 and Rayo Vallecano beat Eibar 1-0. Levante play Athletic Bilbao on Monday night.
Juve cruising
Juventus were comfortable victors at Fiorentina as they won 3-0 thanks to goals from Rodrigo Bentancur, Giorgio Chiellini and Cristiano Ronaldo, putting them on 40 points after just 14 games.
The game of the weekend in Italy, though, saw Roma draw 2-2 with Inter on Sunday evening. Inter led twice in the game through Keita Balde and Mauro Icardi, but Cengiz Under and then Aleksandar Kolarov pulled Roma back into the contest.
AC Milan were able to capitalize on their rivals slipping up as they beat Parma 2-1 at the San Siro; it means AC are now four points behind Inter in fourth spot.
Lazio could only draw with Chievo, Sampdoria hammered Bologna 4-1, while both Cagliari against Torino and Sassuolo against Udinese finished goalless.
Napoli head to Atalanta for the final game of the matchweek on Monday night.
PSG slip up
PSG have finally dropped points in Ligue 1 as they could only draw with Bordeaux. Both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were on the scoresheet but it was not enough as Andreas Cornelius equalized in minute 84.
Montpellier were able to close the gap to the top of the table to 14 points as they beat Monaco 2-1.
Thierry Henry was unable to follow up his first league win with his new side against Caen last week with another victory as Gaetan Laborde and Petar Skuletic turned the game around late on — Monaco had led through Youri Tielemens until the last 10 minutes.
Guingamp pulled off a goalless draw with Nice meaning they were able to get themselves a point closer to Monaco at the foot of the table.
Lyon came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Lille. It looked like they were heading for defeat when Loic Remy and Nicolas Pepe put the home side two clear and then Memphis Depay missed a penalty, but goals from Bertrand Traore and Moussa Dembele salvaged a point.
Strasbourg won 4-1 at Rennes, Toulouse drew 2-2 with Dijon, while Nimes and Saint-Etienne won 3-0 against Amiens and Nantes respectively.
Dortmund create a buffer
Borussia Dortmund are now seven points clear at the top of the Bundesliga table as they beat Freiburg 2-0 and Borussia Monchengladbach lost 2-0 at RB Leipzig.
A Marco Reus penalty and a Paco Alcacer goal saw Dortmund win their game with Jadon Sancho many pundit’s Man of the Match.
At Leipzig, two goals from Timo Werner was the difference as third place beat second.
Bayern Munich won 2-1 at Werder Bremen with Serge Gnabry scoring two, but remain nine points behind the leaders with around a third of the season gone.
Hoffenheim drew 1-1 with Schalke, Hertha Berlin won 2-0 away at Hannover, while Stuttgart recorded only their third win of the season against Augsburg.