Final

Iñaki Dufour

Madrid, Aug 25 (EFE).- A tortuous start, with one agonising point out of six played, aggravated by the defeat against promoted Parma, has put Milan on alert, in contrast to the speed that Paris Saint Germain has taken, with two wins in two games, with ten goals scored and with an unstoppable performance last Friday against Montpellier (6-0), at the start of the European leagues, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool all in.

Amid the controversy surrounding Rafael Leao’s gesture to a fan, the Rossoneri are fourteenth in the standings, with their only point coming in the 95th minute of the first matchday and with the setback suffered at Parma, who defeated them with a quick goal from Dennis Man, two minutes in, and another later, after Pulisic’s 1-1, from Matteo Cancellieri in the 77th minute.

A cause for concern for Milan, even though they are only three points off the top spot, awaiting the duel for the lead on Monday between Juventus and Hellas Verona, winners on the first matchday.

At least until the end of that match, Inter are top of the table. The current champions, who drew on the first day, reacted with a 2-0 win against Lecce. Roma, with Paulo Dybala in the starting line-up, lost 1-2 against Empoli. And Antonio Conte breathed a sigh of relief with Napoli, with a 3-0 win over Bologna.

Manchester City are already setting the pace at the top of the Premier League. Thanks to their win and goals from Erling Haaland (one in the 2-0 win in the first game against Chelsea and three in the 4-1 win in the second against Ipswich Town), Pep Guardiola’s team are leading the group of four teams in the English competition after the first two games.

Arsenal and Liverpool are on a par with them, having beaten them last season. The Gunners won 2-0 at the demanding Villa Park. Leandro Trossard’s goal and a save from David Raya were decisive in their victory, which was as valuable as it was hard-fought. The Reds also beat Brentford 2-0. Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah were the scorers in the victorious run of Arne Slot’s new project.

Fourth in the table is Brighton, no longer so surprising, capable of joining the best again in the first steps of the season. Their 2-1 victory against Manchester United confirmed this, with the collective goal culminating with a header by Joao Pedro in the 95th minute.

Chelsea have four points, having beaten Wolverhampton 2-6, with Madueke’s decisive hat-trick in the second half, between the 49th and 63rd minutes, with Cole Palmer as an indispensable partner. It was the return of Joao Felix, sold by Atlético de Madrid to the London club, on the field from the 68th minute and scoring in the 80th with a good finish. Tottenham also have four points, having beaten Everton 4-0 and sunk them, last in the table.

French champions PSG are already the leaders of Ligue 1, the benchmark and sole favourites of the French competition in recent times. Not even the departure of Kylian Mbappé has relegated them from that obvious position. They do not miss the phenomenon signed by Real Madrid, at least for the moment, because the collective performance has made up for it with solvency.

The team is progressing and is giving in to the idea of ​​Luis Enrique Martínez, without so much dependence on his former figure, with varied resources on the pitch that overwhelmed Montpellier: Bradley Barcola, a cyclone on the left wing (the position in which Kylian Mbappé played) aged 21; Joao Neves, an imposing 19-year-old centre-half, signed this summer from Benfica for 60 million; and Marco Asensio, more experienced and a goalscorer.

The three of them solved everything in the first half, with goals from Barcola, who scored the 1-0 in the third minute and repeated the goal in the 53rd minute, and Asensio, who got the 2-0 in the 24th minute. But there is much more to PSG: goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, with a magnificent save; Achraf Hakimi, also a goalscorer; Vitinha and Warren Zaire Emery, two midfielders enviable for any other club, and Ousmane Dembele. At the moment, with only two games played, only Lille, Monaco and Lens can match their pace. Marseille have only drawn.

The German Bundesliga, meanwhile, completed the first day with hard-fought victories for Bayern Munich, at the start of the Vincent Kompany era with a goal in the 82nd minute from Serge Gnabry in Wolfsburg (2-3), and for Bayer Leverkusen, led by Xabi Alonso, who won 2-3 against Borussia Moenchengladbach, with a goal from Florian Wirtz in the 101st minute after the rebound of a penalty that he himself had missed. Borussia Dortmund also won 2-0 against Eintracht Frankfurt. The leader is Freiburg, with its 3-1 against Stuttgart. EFE

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FC Barcelona claimed their second win of the 2024-2025 LaLiga EA Sports season after beating Athletic Club 2-1 on Saturday in their first match at the Estadi Lluys Companys, where they left a good impression against an opponent who continues to be denied as a visitor by the Blaugranas. Hansi Flick had a good official debut with Barça. After the setback in the Joan Gamper Trophy against AS Monaco, on this occasion his team was at a good level and enjoyed the best chances against the Copa del Rey champions, who tried to hold on supported by the desire of Nico Williams, booed without much noise by the ‘culer’ fans, and the actions of Alex Padilla, but who ended up giving in to the third league goal from a Robert Lewandowski who seems to recover his best scoring form. The final 2-1 did not come until the 75th minute, although the home team perhaps deserved it earlier. Almost always, under the baton of Pedri, the new starting eleven compared to Mestalla, and the work of Raphinha, they gave the impression of controlling the game, especially in the second 45 minutes when Ernesto Valverde’s men were much more dominated and had a much harder time deploying towards Marc-André ter Stegen’s area. And the game also started with the Blaugrana dominating against an orderly Athletic Club that knew how to hold their rival well from the start, as well as threatening as much as possible with Nico Williams. There were not too many chances on either side and it was Barça who struck first with the goal of the other ‘pearl’ on the pitch, Lamine Yamal. The winger drew up his classic left-footed play on the edge of Padilla’s area until he found the space to strike. Íñigo Lekue put his head in and made it impossible for his goalkeeper. Nico Williams was close to responding to his friend’s goal, but the 1-0 did not change the scenario too much, although Flick’s team had more chances to run on the counterattack because Athletic tried to take a step forward. Thus, Lewandowski warned with a powerful cross shot, but the woodwork denied him the goal for the first time. And when the final stretch was reached, Pau Cubarsí, in a possible excess of impetus, brought down Alex Berenguer and the VAR warned Gil Manzano, who did not hesitate to decree the penalty that Oihan Sancet converted into 1-1. LEWANDOWSKI RIGHT Neither Flick nor Valverde changed anything during the break. But FC Barcelona came out determined and dominant, with Pedri taking charge and now turning his game to the left because Yamal had lost some ‘punch’. Lekue suffered on that side and the main problems for the visitors came from that side. Lewandowski hit the woodwork again after a good header that did not wake up Athletic Club, with Nico Williams also less effervescent against the physical power of Jules Koundé. Even so, almost all the danger of the ‘Lions’ came when the winger got the ball, although he lacked finding a teammate, with his brother Iñaki not participating much. The Blaugrana team continued to insist on feeding their Polish scorer, who was relishing the goal when he hit a cross from the left, but who did not count on a great action of reflexes and agility from Padilla, who prevented the 2-1. However, he could not do so when the match entered its final stretch, in another cross from the left, this one from the omnipresent Pedri. The goalkeeper got his hand out and the ball fell once again to Lewandowski, who this time made no mistake to score his third league goal of the season and secure victory because Athletic lacked arguments for a draw and extended their away win against the ‘culers’ to 24 years. LINEUPS. –RESULT: FC BARCELONA, 2 – ATHLETIC CLUB, 1 (1-1, at half-time). –LINE-UPS. FC BARCELONA: Ter Stegen; Koundé, Cubarsí, Iñigo Martínez, Balde (Martín, min.91); Pedri, Bernal (Eric García, min.83), Raphinha; Yamal (Víctor, min.91), Lewandowski and Ferrán Torres (Fermín, min.63). ATHLETIC CLUB: Padilla; Lekue, Yeray, Vivian, Yuri; Vesga (Jaureguizar, min.63), Prados (Herrera, min.78); Berenguer (Ares, min.72), Sancet (Unai Gómez, min.62), Nico Williams; and Iñaki Williams (Guruzeta, min.78). –GOALS. 1-0, minute 24. Yamal. 1-1, minute 42. Sancet, penalty 2-1, minute 75. Lewandowski. –REFEREE: Gil Manzano (C.Extremeño). He admonished Cubarsí (min.41), Bernal (min.48), Lewandowski (min.85) and Fermín (min.96), for FC Barcelona, ​​and Yeray (min.38), Berenguer (min.56), Lekue (min.87), Herrera (min.96) and Jaureguizar (min.96), for Athletic Club. –STADIUM: Lluís Companys.