This weekend saw the first rounds of "La Liga" and "Serie A", while the second matchday of the "Premier" league had already taken place. Out of the four strongest European leagues, only the "Bundesliga" is still awaiting its start, which will begin next weekend. After a football-filled weekend, Eurofootball.com presents you with the most important results and interesting facts from the strongest European leagues.
"Premier" league
The "Premier" league round kicked off on Friday, with "Manchester United" beating "Southampton" 2-0, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring two goals, securing their second win in two matches. On Saturday, three other teams also achieved the same result. One of them is the most surprising team this season, "Hull City". After defeating the champion "Leicester City" in the opening match, in the second round they beat "Swansea City" 2-0.
"Manchester City" and "Chelsea" also secured victories in the second round. While "City" easily handled "Stoke" with a 4-1 win, the "Blues" had to fight until the last moments of the match for their victory. Playing away against "Watford", they were trailing 0-1 until the 80th minute, but managed to score two goals in the last ten minutes.
"Tottenham Hotspur", who finished third last season, also secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory against "Crystal Palace". Meanwhile, the country's champions "Leicester City" and the second-placed "Arsenal" are still without wins. After losing in the first round, their match ended in a goalless draw in the second round. By the way, this was the only draw in the entire second round of the "Premier" league.
"Liverpool" players were probably the most disappointed with the results of this round, as despite their significant advantage on the field, they had to admit defeat to "Burnley" 0-2.
Here are all of the "Premier" league second round results:
"Manchester United" 2 - 0 "Southampton"
"Stoke City" 1 - 4 "Manchester City"
"Burnley" 2 - 0 "Liverpool"
"Swansea" 0 - 2 "Hull City"
"Tottenham Hotspur" 1 - 0 "Crystal Palace"
"Watford" 1 - 2 "Chelsea"
"West Bromwich Albion" 1 - 2 "Everton"
"Leicester City" 0 - 0 "Arsenal"
"Sunderland" 1 - 2 "Middlesbrough"
"West Ham United" 1 - 0 "Bournemouth"
Interesting facts after the second round of the "Premier" league:
Four teams, "Manchester City", "Manchester United", "Hull City", and "Chelsea", have not dropped any points after two rounds;
Three teams, "Sunderland", "Crystal Palace", and "Bournemouth", are still without a single point;
No team in the second round failed to score a goal;
"Crystal Palace" is the only team that has not scored a single goal yet;
Four players, Sergio Aguero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Etienne Capoue, and Diego Costa, have each scored at least once in the first two rounds of the "Premier" league - with Capoue being the only one still seeking a victory - "Watford" has just one point after two rounds, while the others have enjoyed a perfect start with two wins in two matches. Meanwhile, Costa can boast of scoring winning goals in both matches. In the first round, he scored in the 89th minute, and in the second round, in the 87th minute.
League table:
"La Liga"
At the start of the championship games on Friday, the first surprise was recorded during the first round - league debutant "Alaves" managed to snatch two points from Madrid's "Atletico" away. In a dramatic match, the Madrid team took the lead in the third minute of added time, converting an eleven-meter penalty, but two minutes later, Manu Garcia's goal in the dying seconds of the match prevented "Atletico" from celebrating their first victory.
Meanwhile, the other championship favorites had an easier time. Lionel Messi scored twice, Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick, and "Barcelona" crushed "Real Betis" 6-2. In the meantime, Gareth Bale took the lead in the "Real" ranks, with his two goals helping them defeat "Real Sociedad" 3-0.
Seville hosted the most interesting and high-scoring match, where the local "Sevilla" defeated "Espanyol" 6-4.
Here are all the results of the first round of "La Liga":
"Malaga" 1 - 1 "Osasuna"
"Deportivo" 2 - 1 "Eibar"
"Barcelona" 6 - 2 "Betis"
"Granada" 1 - 1 "Villarreal"
"Sevilla" 6 - 4 "Espanyol"
"Gijon" 2 - 1 "Athletic"
"Real Sociedad" 0 - 3 "Real"
"Atletico" 1 - 1 "Alaves"
Monday's "La Liga" matches:
21:00 "Celta" - "Leganes"
23:00 "Valencia" - "Las Palmas"
Interesting facts after the start of "La Liga":
In the 8 matches played so far, all games saw at least 2 goals scored. In total, teams scored 33 times in these 8 games (an average of 4.125 goals per match);
Out of the 16 teams that started the "La Liga", "Real Sociedad" is the only one without a goal;
Luis Suarez scored the first hat-trick of the season in "La Liga";
In addition to Suarez's three goals in the first round, three other players directly contributed to three goals - his teammate Messi (2 goals and 1 assist), and the namesakes Pablo Sarabia from "Sevilla" and Pablo Piatti from "Espanyol" (both scored a goal and provided two assists each) in the matches between "Sevilla" and "Espanyol";
In the match between Madrid "Atletico" and "Alaves", Atletico attempted 27 shots, while their opponents had only 2. Despite this, the final score of the match was 1-1.
League table:
"Serie A"
On Saturday, the country champions "Juventus" in Italy started the season with a tough 2-1 victory against "Fiorentina". The victory for the Turin team was brought by the expensive summer newcomer Gonzalo Higuain's goal. It only took the Argentine nine minutes after coming on as a substitute to score his first goal for the new team.
Last season's second-placed team in "Serie A", "Napoli", began with a 2-2 draw against "Pescara". Playing away, the "Napoli" players could have ended the match even worse, as after the first hour the score was still 0-2 in favor of "Pescara". The third-place finishers from last season, Roma, had a much more successful start, crushing "Udinese" 4-0 at home.
The season started differently for the Milan teams. "Milan", thanks to Carlos Bacca's hat-trick and Gianluigi Donnarumma's save from an eleven-meter penalty in the final moments, beat "Torino" 3-2 at home, while "Inter" lost 0-2 away against "Chievo".
The most eventful match of the first round took place between "Atalanta" and "Lazio", where the Rome team beat their opponents away 4-3.
Here are all the results of the first round of "Serie A":
"Roma" 4 - 0 "Udinese"
"Juventus" 2 - 1 "Fiorentina"
"Milan" 3 - 2 "Torino"
"Atalanta" 3 - 4 "Lazio"
"Bologna" 1 - 0 "Crotone"
"Chievo" 2 - 0 "Inter"
"Empoli" 0 - 1 "Sampdoria"
"Genoa" 3 - 1 "Cagliari"
"Palermo" 0 - 1 "Sassuolo"
"Pescara" 2 - 2 "Napoli"
Interesting facts after the start of "Serie A":
Although "Roma" started with a smashing 4-0 victory, no match ended with a goal difference greater than 2, and in 6 matches, teams celebrated victory by just one goal difference;
There were three red cards shown in the first round of "Serie A" - more than in two "Premier" league rounds and one "La Liga" round combined;
Even 8 "Serie A" teams had 18 or more shots in the first round;
Carlos Bacca became the author of the first "hat-trick" of this "Serie A" season;
Dries Mertens became the first player to come off the bench in the season and score twice.
League table:
