IT'S was another exciting weekend of European action.
Neymar-less Paris Saint-Germain kicked off the weekend's action with a 3-0 victory over last season's title challengers Nice on Friday night.
While, Real Madrid were beaten by a La Liga debutant for the first time in 27 years as Girona claimed a Catalan victory just days after the region declared itself independent from Spain. Over in Italy, it was Juventus who won the weekend's biggest clash as under-fire Gonzalo Higuain popped up with two well-worked goals to down AC Milan at the San Siro. And Benevento made it 11 defeats from 11 with a 5-1 reverse at home to Lazio. Ciro Immobile's strike making it a whopping 15 league goals for the season so far — which is more than anyone in Europe's top five leagues.
La Liga title race already over?
Real Madrid slipped eights points behind Barcelona following their shock loss at Girona, while Cristiano Ronaldo continues to struggle in front of goal with just ONE in La Liga so far. Their problems are not just in attack, though as Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroosremarkably giving the ball away a total of 40 times at the Estadi Montilivi. It's difficult to explain exactly what is going wrong at the Bernabeu, with Marco Asensioalso struggling for form. Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid are enduring a torrid start to the campaign despite being undefeated. Five wins and five draws and just the two league goals for Antoine Griezmann has seen them fall eight points behind Barcelona. It looks as though the Catalan side's biggest challengers might, remarkably, be Valenciathis season who are quietly plodding along in second place.
Hig's Zlat trick
Higuain's profligacy in front of goal — coupled the incredible scoring feats of Paulo Dybala — have led to intense criticism. But in arguably Juventus' toughest game of the season so far, he answered those critics with a match-winning double to beat Milan 2-0. And, in doing so, he joined an exclusive club with just one very important member. Higuain became only the second player to score 100 league goals in two of Europe's top five leagues: 107 with Real Madrid in La Liga and now 101 in Italy (71 for Napoli and 30 for Juventus).
The only other person to do that?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 122 in Italy (23 for Juventus, 57 for Inter Milan and 42 for Milan) and 113 for PSG in Ligue 1.
Ayew keeps Hammers ahead of Zaza
Much of Valencia's early success this season is down to the goal scoring prowess of Simone Zaza. The Italian has scored nine times — including a hat-trick during a 5-0 win over Malaga. And Zaza, who left West Ham after scoring no goals in 11 games, even beat Lionel Messi to win the September player of the month award in La Liga. His ninth of the campaign came in the early kick-off on Saturday, which finished moments before Slaven Bilic's men travelled to Crystal Palace still stuck on eight goals Premier League for the season.
Javier Hernandez's opener brought the Hammers level with their former striker, before Andre Ayew edged them in front with their tenth of the campaign.
West Ham lead for now — but it promises to be a closely fought contest.
From The Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment