Barcelona turned on the style in their first home game of the season on Sunday, with Fermín López, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski each netting twice in a 6-0 thrashing of Valencia. The emphatic victory propelled Barcelona to second place in La Liga on 10 points, two points behind leaders Real Madrid. Valencia slumped to 15th position.
López opened the scoring in the 29th minute with a strike from inside the box assisted by Ferran Torres but it was after the break that Barça ran amok. Raphinha made an immediate impact off the bench in the 58th minute, converting a cross from Marcus Rashford with a right-footed volley while López doubled his tally three minutes later with a shot from long-range, before Raphinha completed his double in the 66th minute. Lewandowski, introduced in the 68th minute, wrapped up the rout with two close-range strikes to complete a perfect afternoon for the Catalan side.
In Italy Luka Modric scored his first goal for Milan to secure a 1-0 home win over Bologna, a hard-fought Serie A result tempered by an injury to the goalkeeper Mike Maignan and a red card for coach Massimiliano Allegri. A minute past the hour mark, the 40-year-old Modric marked his first goal for Milan, arriving perfectly to meet Alexis Saelemaekers’ cross and finishing with a composed first-time strike.
Paris Saint-Germain extended their perfect start to Ligue 1 with a fourth straight win by beating Lens 2-0. But the victory was overshadowed by more injuries ahead of their midweek Champions League opener.
PSG, who host Atalanta on Wednesday, were already without the forwards Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué, and finished the game with more players sidelined. The European champions were in control at Parc des Princes but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lee Kang-in and Lucas Beraldo were all forced to leave the field with injuries.
Bradley Barcola scored both goals for PSG — the first with a fine curling shot from outside the box into the top corner in the first half, and the second after the break with a low finish from distance.
“The competition that everyone in football loves is coming up,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “It is a difficult time for us because we have injured players. We have to wait and see the results for the three players who got injured today. It is about our ability to adapt and we need to respond as a team.”
Medics take care of PSG’s Lucas Beraldo who was injured against Lens. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP
Teenager Ethan Mbappé, brother of Kylian, scored his first goal in Ligue 1. His volley in injury time secured a 2-1 win for Lille against Toulouse. Lille trailed until the 90th minute when Nabil Bentaleb scored from the penalty spot. Earlier, Frank Magri had put Toulouse ahead. Both Mbappé brothers left PSG in the summer of 2024. Kylian joined Real Madrid, while Ethan signed a three-year deal with Lille.
Borussia Mönchengladbach suffered a 4-0 home loss to Werder Bremen to make it three league games without scoring a goal for their worst Bundesliga start in 34 years. Gladbach, who have one point from three games so far, must be wondering how they failed to score in the first half with more shots than their opponents, who were 2-0 up by half-time with goals from Samuel Mbangula and Jens Stage. Werder added two more after the break with Romano Schmid and Justin Njinmah to seal their first win of the season, while Gladbach made their worst goalless start since 1991 when they went the first five games without a goal. Gladbach, who have now gone 10 league games without a win including last season, are 16th, while Werder moved up to ninth on four points.
Danel Sinani scored late for St Pauli to beat Augsburg 2-1 and maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
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