Euro leagues round-up weekend review: 6-8 October

It’s been another busy weekend of European football, so here’s a recap of all the results, stories and talking points from La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and beyond.

La Liga

So much happened in La Liga this weekend, but we’re going to start with Sunday night’s clash at Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes, in which Barça came from two down to pinch a point.

Granada raced into a 2-0 lead after just half an hour, Bryan Zaragoza scoring both, the first coming with just 16 seconds on the clock, before he sat down Marc-André ter Stegen and poked home a second.

The former is the earliest goal Barcelona have conceded since the turn of the millennium.

Lamine Yamal halved the deficit in first half stoppage time, becoming La Liga’s youngest-ever scorer, before Sergi Roberto got the Blaugrana back on level terms with just five minutes to play.

Then, deep into injury time, João Félix bundled home, what he thought, was a last-gasp winner, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Braça ended the game with an xG figure of 3.72, to el Graná's 0.80, but the points were shared.

These dropped points leave Barcelona third, three points behind Real Madrid, after los Blancos enjoyed an impressive, imperious victory on Saturday, smashing Osasuna 4-0.

Jude Bellingham grabbed all the headlines once again, scoring twice, becoming the first Real Madrid player to score seven goal in his first eight La Liga appearances since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

El Clásico on 28 October looms large.

The club in-between the traditional big two right now are Girona, currently sat second, following their 1-0 victory at Cádiz early on Saturday, with Aleix García the only scorer.

Blanquivermells’ six-match winning streak had come to an end a week earlier, swatted aside by Real Madrid, but Míchel’s men reaffirmed the fact that they are serious contenders for European qualification.

Atlético Madrid complete the top four, following their last-gasp 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad, in which Antoine Griezmann bagged an 89th minute winner against his former club.

Los Colchoneros have now won four in a row, and face Celta Vigo, Alavés and Las Palmas next, so Diego Simeone’s side are certainly still in this title race.

The same cannot be said of Sevilla, despite the fact they came from 2-0 down to snatch a point against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday night, courtesy of Youssef En-Nesyri’s towering header in stoppage time.

Timed at 95:48, this is the latest outcome-changing goal los Nervionenses have scored since records began.

However, this was not enough to keep José Luis Mendilibar in a job because, on Sunday, the man who led Sevilla to Europa League glory was sacked; who will be in the dugout when they host Arsenal in 15 days time?

Lastly, Almería have a new manager, appointing former Athletic and Eibar head coach Gaizka Garitano on Monday.

La Unión were smashed 3-0 at San Mamés on Friday night so remain rock bottom, one of 12 club’s in UEFA’s top-11 ranked leagues still yet to pick up a victory.

Serie A

Over in Serie A, we have new leaders, with A.C. Milan reclaiming the summit by beating Genoa on Saturday night, with Christian Pulisic the late match-winner at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

However, all the headlines were reserved for Olivier Giroud, who ended the night in goal, after compatriot Mike Maignan was sent off, making a smart save that preserved I Rossoneri’s clean sheet.

Milan also seven of their first eight Serie A matches en route to the title in 2021/22, so have now achieved this twice in three seasons, despite only doing so twice in the previous 65 campaigns.

Stefano Pioli’s side were only able to go top after city-rivals Internazionale Milano faltered earlier in the day.

Inter led Bologna by two goals after just 13 minutes at San Siro, Francesco Acerbi and Lautaro Martínez on target, but threw away the points as it finished 2-2.

After starting the season with five wins out of five, most expected Simone Inzaghi’s side to retain the Scudetto at a canter, although the fact I Nerazzurri have only won one of their last three certainly changes that.

Also on Saturday, Juventus swatted aside Torino in the derby della Mole, thereby climbing up to third.

La Vecchia Signora are now unbeaten in 17 Turin derbies, the longest streak in the fixture’s history, while Massimiliano Allegri has now won 13 matches against Torino, the most of any Juve manager ever.

Rounding out the Champions League places are Fiorentina, following their surprise 3-1 away win over Napoli, a result that saw Vincenzo Italiano’s team leapfrog the champions in the standings.

This means I Viola have 17 points on the board after eight games, only bettering that record twice in the three-point-for-a-win era, most-recently doing so in 2015/16.

A team not doing so well are Roma, currently down in tenth, although Sunday’s demolition of Cagliari did make it back-to-back wins for José Mourinho’s team.

Romelu Lukaku continues to be on fire, taking his tally to seven goals for I Giallorossi in Sardinia, currently averaging a goal every 87 minutes across all competitions.

The side Roma hammered Cagliari meantime remain rock bottom, with just two points to their name, which makes this Gli Isolani’s worst start to a Serie A season ever.

Bundesliga

The game of the weekend in the Bundesliga, as is so often the case, came from Westfalenstadion, where Borussia Dortmund came from 2-1 down to beat Union Berlin 4-2.

Die Schwarzgelben’s unbeaten start to the season continues, with Edin Terzić's side having won four in a row, although Dortmund are down in fourth, two points below the leaders.

For Union Berlin, they’ve now lost seven on the spin in all competitions, last enduring a run like this as a Regionalliga Nord club in 2004/05, with one fan describing this as ‘the best crisis we’ve ever had’.

The current Bundesliga leaders are of course.... Bayer Leverkusen, who took their tally to 19 points after seven matches by swatting aside local rivals Köln on Sunday.

Xabi Alonso’s team have still only dropped points once this season, drawing at Allianz Arena last month, so continue to be the early pace-setters.

Die Werkself are undefeated after ten matches, in all competitions, for the first time since 1994.

One must scroll down to third to find Bayern Munich, despite the fact Thomas Tuchel’s team swatted aside Freiburg, with the only surprise being the fact Harry Kane did not score.

The other team currently above the champions are VfB Stuttgart, who made it six wins out of seven by beating VfL Wolfsburg 3-1 on Saturday.

This is remarkable given that die Schwaben finished third bottom last season, only surviving by overcoming HSV in the relegationsspiele.

Serhou Guirassy bagged a hat-trick at the weekend, meaning he’s scored a ridiculous 13 goals already; no player in Bundesliga history had ever managed more than 11 after seven matches before.

This saw Stuttgart win five successive top-flight matches by a two-goal margin for the very first time, so Sebastian Hoeneß's side will travel to Berlin after the international break full of confidence.

Elsewhere, RB Leipzig were held to a surprise goalless draw at Red Bull Arena by VfL Bochum, losing ground in the title race, while Hoffenheim’s impressive start to the campaign continued.

Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team beat Werder Bremen 3-2, Marius Bülter with a stoppage time winner, meaning die Kraichgauer have won their first four away games of the Bundesliga season for the first time ever.

Ligue 1

Paris Saint-Germain bounced back from their mauling on Tyneside by recording an impressive 3-1 victory over Stade Rennais.

Vitinha breaking the deadlock with this absolute stunner at Roazhon Park, as les Rouge-et-Bleu moved up to third.

Earlier on Sunday, fierce rivals Olympique de Marseille enjoyed their first victory under Gennaro Gattuso, hammering Le Havre 3-0, ending les Phocéens’ four-match winless run in the league

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the star of the show, scoring and providing an assist at Stade Vélodrome, with this audacious effort his first in Ligue 1 since netting for Saint-Étienne against Ajaccio on 24 April 2013.

The current Ligue 1 leaders are Monaco, following their 3-1 victory at Stade Reims on Saturday night, in which USMNT striker Folarin Balogun apologetically scored against the club at which he made his name.

Just one point behind are fierce rivals Nice, who beat Metz 1-0, so could les Aiglons, who finished all the way down in ninth last season, actually challenge for a Champions League spot?

The spoils were shared in Sunday’s Derby du Nord, as Lens and Lille drew 1-1, while Olympique Lyonnais are no longer bottom of the table, although their wait for a first win of the season continues.

OL conceded just 12 minutes from time at home to Lorient, so les Gones have a mere three points to their name, ahead of facing the only side currently below them, Clermont Foot, in their next fixture.

Speaking of Clermont, they were 4-2 down away to Montpellier when the match was abandoned after goalkeeper Mory Diaw was struck by the flare; there will surely be serious repercussions for this.

Anything else? Ajax in the Eredivisie relegation zone

In our look ahead to the weekend on Friday, we spotlighted Ajax vs AZ Alkmaar as a game with upset potentially and so it came to pass.

AZ left Johan Cruyff Arena 2-1 winners, a defeat that plunged Ajax into the relegation play-off spot.

The 36-times champions have lost back-to-back Eredivisie home games for the first time since 2001, also suffering three consecutive defeats for the first time since 1999.

They’ve now failed to win any of their 11 matches against PSV, Feyenoord, AZ or Twente since the start of last season, and the crisis in Amsterdam is showing no signs of subsiding.