European Football Week 5 – Weekend Summary

Football results this past weekend were once again a mixed bag of big, important wins and some surprise results. European leagues are well and truly in full swing now and the football calendar is only going to get busier as this week sees the start of European competitions. 

Match Overview

Friday was a relatively uneventful start to the weekend as there were wins for the likes of Dortmund in the Bundesliga and Celta Vigo in La Liga. The Solitary match from Turkey saw Trabzonspor pick up an away win. In England, West Brom scored in the 98th minute to equalise at home to Burnley in this clash of two former Premier League teams. 

This weekend’s early kick-off from the Premier League was the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool. The match might have finished goalless but it was not short on entertainment, quality and passion. Later in the day, Brentford hammered Leeds and Bournemouth got an away win at Nottingham.

There were two London derbies where Tottenham squeezed past Fulham 2-1 and Chelsea beat West Ham by the same scoreline. In the late match, Aston Villa put up a spirited display to draw at home with Manchester City. Not many pundits gave them a chance before the match but Steven Gerrard will surely be very happy with their performance and result. 

In France, there were convincing wins for Marseille, Lyon and Paris SG. In Italy, Juventus were held to a draw by Fiorentina, their third draw of the season already. Napoli are top of the table following their 2-0 away win at Lazio. The big match of the weekend was the Milan derby which saw AC Milan eventually triumph 3-2 over city rivals Inter.

Celtic thrashed old rivals Rangers 4-0 in the first ‘Old Firm’ derby of the season in Scotland to move five points clear at the top of the table. In Spain, there were wins for Real Madrid against Betis and Barcelona made easy work of getting past Sevilla. Atletico Madrid, however, laboured to a 1-1 draw against Real Sociedad. In Germany, Bayern Munich’s unusual recent struggles continued as they drew 1-1 against Union Berlin, a result which saw them drop to third in the table. 

There were two highly entertaining matches on offer from the Premier League on Sunday where Brighton got the better of Leicester by winning 5-2 despite a goal in the first minute from the visitors. Manchester United continued on their recent good run by getting the better of Arsenal, winning 3-1 at Old Trafford. Arsenal had a perfect record of five wins coming into this match but were undone by a clinical counter attacking performance from the Red Devils with new signing Antony scoring the first goal on his debut. 

There were important wins for Lille and Monaco in France, with the former moving up to 5th place in the table. AS Roma had a day to forget as they were humbled 4-0 by Udinese, a very disappointing result and performance for the team from the capital. There were four matches in Spain with Villareal and Valencia notching big wins. In Turkey, Besiktas won a five-goal thriller against Ankaragucu to keep their place at the top of the table. 

Monday night sees action from Serie A, one match apiece from La Liga and the Turkey Super Lig. In England, there is a passionate derby on offer from the Championship with Middlesborough up against Sunderland with both looking to secure bragging rights in the North East.

Tune in on Thursday for this week’s match preview and predictions.