Over in Italy, Juventus dropped their first points of the season at Verona but Massimiliano Allegri’s resurgent AC Milan made it three wins on the bounce by beating Udinese, with Christian Pulisic the star of the show at the Bluenergy Stadium.
In France, Le Classique between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain was pushed back until Monday due to the weather and that allowed Monaco to draw level with PSG thanks in no small part to a former Barcelona star…
Below, BALLGM runs through all the big winners and losers from Europe’s top leagues…
Over in Italy, Juventus dropped their first points of the season at Verona but Massimiliano Allegri’s resurgent AC Milan made it three wins on the bounce by beating Udinese, with Christian Pulisic the star of the show at the Bluenergy Stadium.
In France, Le Classique between Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain was pushed back until Monday due to the weather and that allowed Monaco to draw level with PSG thanks in no small part to a former Barcelona star…
Below, BALLGM runs through all the big winners and losers from Europe’s top leagues…
Gianluca Mancini played his 15th Rome derby on Sunday but admitted afterwards that he still gets “butterflies” before every game.
“Those on the outside cannot understand what the derby means,” the Roma defender told DAZN. Lorenzo Pellegrini is no outsider, of course. The Italy international was born and raised in the Eternal City. The derby has always been everything to him.
However, Pellegrini was even more emotional than usual after netting the winner against Lazio as he expected to be sold during the summer before picking up a hamstring injury that ended any hope Roma had of finding a buyer for a midfielder that has often been criticised by the club’s fans.
“It’s true that I was very moved after scoring the goal,” Pellegrini, who is out of contract next summer, told DAZN. “Life is unpredictable: you don’t know what could happen next. To win the derby, that is for my people and my family. You are all my family and helped me during this difficult time.”
A group of supporters had also unfurled a banner before the game that read “Welcome back, captain!”, so even though Bryan Cristante was actually wearing the armband, it was a gesture that was very much appreciated by Pellegrini.
“I know there are those who love me in the stands, and I never doubted it. I love them too,” the 29-year-old said. “I also believe this team has so much more to give, as so many great men with character who care about Roma are here now.
“I feel proud to be one of the many captains, those responsible for passing on the passion for Roma to those who have just arrived and haven’t realised where they are. That includes Mancini, who is my brother from another mother.
“Aside from all the reasoning and words, though, there is one constant, which is that I love Roma. As long as I wear this jersey, there won’t be a moment when I will hold back.”
Monaco endured a miserable start to their Champions League campaign, losing 4-1 away to Club Brugge last Thursday. However, there was one positive: Ansu Fati coming off the bench to net his first goal for the club, which put a smile on the face of neutrals all across the world.
Remarkably, even better was to come at the Stade Louis II on Sunday, with the on-loan Barcelona attacker bagging a brace on his Ligue 1 debut as Monaco beat Metz 5-2 to move level on points with PSG at the top of the table.
“I feel very good and capable of helping the team,” Fati told the club’s official website. “I’m happy to be playing football again. You have to live in the moment and take it one day at a time. No one knows what the future holds but, whatever happens, I’m very happy tonight.”
Obviously, Fati is right: there’s no point in looking too far ahead. It’s very early days and it would be unwise to take anything for granted when it comes to such an injury-ravaged player, making giddy talk of Fati being ‘back’ feel incredibly premature.
In fairness, though, it’s hard not to be excited by the prospect of the former prodigy getting a once-promising career back on track after so many setbacks in recent seasons. As Barcelona sporting director Deco pointed out during the summer, Fati is still only 22, while there are few better clubs than Monaco when it comes to getting the best out of young talent.
Nobody wanted Fati after his dismal loan spell at Brighton in 2023-24 – least of all Barca boss Hansi Flick – but Monaco might just have pulled off a masterstroke by securing an €11 million (£9.5m/$13m) option to buy the former Spain international at the end of his loan spell in the principality.
EL Nacional claimed over the weekend that Barcelona are eyeing up Harry Kane as a possible replacement for Robert Lewandowski – which, on the face of it, appears pretty nonsensical. Why would Barca even consider replacing a 37-year-old forward with a player that turns 33 next summer?
On the other hand, Kane is showing zero signs of slowing down and is actually enjoying one of the more productive periods of his career.
After netting twice in Bayern Munich’s Champions League opener against Chelsea on Wednesday, the England international went one better at the weekend, hitting a hat-trick in a 4-1 rout of Hoffenheim at the PreZero Arena.
Consequently, Kane has a frankly ridiculous eight goals in just four Bundesliga matches so far this season and 13 in seven in all competitions, which is why some German journalists are now publicly apologising for previously arguing that Bayern had overpaid for the forward – and why the reports emanating out of Spain don’t actually feel that far-fetched!
Things have worked out pretty well for Jose Mourinho. Just over three weeks after Bruno Lage’s Benfica effectively cost the Portuguese his job at Fenerbahce, ‘The Special One’ returned to Lisbon 25 years after starting his illustrious coaching career with The Eagles.
Although it’s never been a good idea to try to predict what Mourinho might do – or say – next, it seems likely that his second spell in Lisbon will definitely last longer than his first (nine games) because he believes that Benfica – unlike Fenerbahce – are on his “level”.
“I came to coach a big club, I came to coach a giant,” he said after leading the two-time European Cup winners to a 3-0 win over AVS on Saturday night. “I’ve been with giants, Real Madrid, Inter, Manchester, Roma – not a giant in terms of winning titles, but a giant from a social point of view.
“So, I’ve been at big clubs and now I had the opportunity to come and coach a giant, and that’s what brought me here.”
Deep down, maybe even Mourinho knows that he’s lucky to have landed such a top job after flopping at Fenerbahce but it’s kind of irrelevant now.
All that matters is that he’s back at one of Europe’s prestigious clubs – and back in the Champions League, too. Truth be told, we’re already counting down the days until his upcoming return to Stamford Bridge. The pre-match press conference alone should be gold!
What a dreadful week for Diego Simeone! After being sent off for clashing with a Liverpool fan after Wednesday’s last-gasp loss at Anfield, the Atletico Madrid boss saw Alexander Sorloth dismissed in Sunday’s Liga clash with Mallorca – just 10 minutes after Simeone had sent the Norwegian on in place of a visibly disgruntled Julian Alvarez.
Remarkably, Atleti’s 10 men still managed to take the lead against the islanders thanks to another sub, Conor Gallagher, but they had to settle for a point after conceding another late goal – this time to Vedat Muriqi.
It really does feel like Simeone can’t catch a break at the moment but it’s difficult to believe him when he says that the club anticipated this level of teething problems after bringing in so many players during the summer.
“We’re trying to build a new team,” he said after the 1-1 draw with Mallorca left the Rojiblancos 12th in the Liga table with just six points from five games. “We knew this could happen, that we were going to go through this process.”
When Simeone was then asked if Atleti could still challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona for the Spanish title, he said, “Yes, there’s a game against Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday.” But they simply have to win it. Otherwise, talk of the end of an era at the Metropolitano will only intensify ahead of next weekend’s Madrid derby.
Xabi Alonso was the first to admit that Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Espanyol was “solid rather than brilliant” but he still took plenty of encouragement out of a far-from-entertaining encounter.
For starters, fit-again midfielders Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga both made their first appearances of the season after their recent injury issues (even if the latter was only introduced in the final minute of normal time).
When one considers that Rodrygo, Arda Guler and Brahim Diaz also came off the bench on Saturday, the strength of Alonso’s squad squad starts to become clear. What’s more, Alonso is doing an excellent job of winning games while experimenting with different formations.
The former midfielder effectively used an old-school 4-4-2 against Espanyol and while Gonzalo Garcia wasn’t great up front, Kylian Mbappe revelled in the role of support striker, with the Frenchman maintaining his fantastic start to the season (seven goals in six games in all competitions) with a wonderfully measured strike from distance.
“Kylian played more as a playmaker today,” Alonso said, “and he did really well. We’ve talked about what we need with and without the ball but he understands the game very well, so if you explain things to him, he does them.”
Mbappe may have won the European Golden Shoe in his first season at the Santiago Bernabeu but there’s every reason to believe that his second could be even more successful – and particularly from Madrid’s perspective.
