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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