European Football Roundup: Cristiano Ronaldo wins on Juventus debut, Kylian Mbappe scores a brace

Defending champions Barcelona, Juventus, and PSG all recorded impressive wins..

The top European football leagues kick-started their campaigns last week, with La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 all starting a week after the Premier League. For La Liga in India, there was something new brought to the plate after it was announced by Sony that they had not acquired the broadcasting rights of the league.

But, Sony made sure to retain the rights for the Serie A, which kicked-off with Cristiano Ronaldo’s much-anticipated debut for Juventus. The Portuguese led the line for the Bianconeri, who came from behind to record a thrilling 2-3 win to kick-start their campaign. While Ronaldo didn’t score, he looked promising and saw Fernando Bernandeschi net a late minute winner.  

Serie A

AS Roma also began their campaign in compelling fashion with a narrow 1-0 win over Torino, thanks to some individual brilliance from Edin Dzeko, who scored a world-class volley to give his side all three points on the day. Napoli also started the Carlo Ancelotti era perfectly with a 1-2 win over Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.

In what was the match of the week in Serie A, it also saw some amazing goals being scored as Ciro Immobile’s mobile effort gave the home side the lead. But, Napoli came back with goals through Arkadiusz Milik and Lorenzo Insigne to record an impressive win to begin their campaign.

Results over the weekend

But the biggest upset of the week saw Inter Milan fall to a defeat to Sassuolo to begin their campaign in disastrous fashion. A goal from former Juventus striker Domenico Berardi was enough to sink the hearts of Inter, who are being touted as title contenders after their impressive signings in the summer, but with the lack of Radja Nainggolan and Sime Vrsalijko in the team, they looked pretty toothless. Two Serie A matches, including AC Milan’s first one against Genoa, were postponed because of the Genoa bridge collapse, which took the lives of at least 39 people.

All the La Liga matches were shown on Facebook Live, with the La Liga Facebook page and individual pages of the teams all broadcasting the matches. For the football itself, it was the same old case as defending champions Barcelona kicked-off their campaign in resounding fashion with a 3-0 victory over Alaves. It wasn’t the easiest of wins as the resilient Alaves did their best to keep Lionel Messi and Co. at bay, but the new Barcelona captain’s brace and one more added by Philippe Coutinho saw them fly to the top of the league.

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La Liga

Real Madrid also started life without Ronaldo in commanding fashion and despite having a record-low attendance at the Santiago Bernabeu, goals from Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale were enough for them to record a dominant win over Getafe. Sevilla also boosted their way to joint-top of the table after an inspired hat-trick from new signing Andre Silva helped them get a thumping 4-1 win over newly-promoted Rayo Vallecano.

Results over the weekend

But, the most exciting match of the week in La Liga was between Valencia and Atletico Madrid, who played out a thrilling 1-1 draw at the Estadio Mestalla. After Atletico had taken a lead thanks to a beautiful goal from Angel Correa, Valencia pegged them back and got their equalizer through star striker Rodrigo.

Ligue 1

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Paris Saint-Germain maintained their perfect record in the second gameweek of Ligue 1, after they came from behind to record a 3-1 victory over Guingamp. A brace from Kylian Mbappe and goal from Neymar was enough for the French champions to avert humiliation and retain their place at the top of the table. Their title challengers in AS Monaco were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw in their first home game of the season by Lille, while Lyon also fell to a 1-0 defeat to Reims.

Marseille were also shocked by Nimes and fell to a 3-1 loss to them, meaning that PSG already seems to have some breathing room at the top of Ligue 1.