Premier League
In the Premier League, national champions Manchester City won over Burnley FC. It was a sour night for both Vincent Kompany and Kevin De Bruyne; the former could not lead his team to victory and the latter dropped out again with a hamstring injury. The first goal fell early in the match. Erling Haaland had not yet touched a ball when he got the ball in front of him in minute 4. The 0-1 was in. Haaland would score another, and with another goal from Rodri, the Cityzens eventually won 0-3.
The Norwegian Haaland broke almost all records last year, in his English debut year. His 36 goals made him the top scorer in the Premier League, in all competitions combined he managed to hit the nets 56 times. With that, he won the league title, the FA Cup and the Champions League with his club. So it looks like he will keep up that pace this year too.
Community Shield winner Arsenal won 2-1 against Nottingham Forest. Arsenal do face a bitter aftertaste, as Jurriën Timber will have to be sidelined for months. The Dutch international injured his knee.
Ligue 1
In France, it was Nice and Lille OSC who took on each other first. There too, it did not take long for the first goal to fall: as early as the 18th minute, Gaëtan Laborde of OGC Nice was on target. The assist went to Terem Moffi. After drawing a lot of yellow cards and allowing 9 substitutions to go through, the referee was allowed to whistle another goal in the 94th minute. Angel Gomes placed his cross on the head of Bafodé Diakité, who headed the 1-1 against the net.
Paris Saint-Germain could not win against FC Lorient. At the Paris Parc des Princes, they played without stars Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. Marco Verratti was also absent. FC Lorient, last year’s number 10, could thus hold their own against a mediocre PSG.
La Liga
In the Spanish league, Almeria and Rayo were allowed to kick off the season. Before the first half-hour was even well over, Almeria were already looking at a double deficit. Twice a penalty was expertly converted. Although the hosts did dominate possession in the second half, they were unable to cash in a goal.
There is a lot of fuss after FC Barcelona’s match against Getafe. Especially coach Xavi Hernandez is not happy with the performance of referee César Soto Grado. Barcelona played a 0-0 draw against Getafe, and according to Hernandez, the referee did not act hard enough against the behaviour of the Getafe players. In total, as many as 10 yellow and three red cards fell, and the ball was stationary more than it rolled, yet Getafe’s misbehaviour went unpunished. When coach Xavi voiced his opinion about it to the referees, he himself was ejected from the pitch.
Real Madrid had more success, winning 0-2 against Athletic Bilbao. They did so with goalkeeper Lunin in place of Thibaut Courtois. The latter injured his knee, so a solution had to be found for this and other matches. In the following matches, we could see goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal. He became the most expensive goalkeeper of all time in 2018 when he went to Chelsea for 80 million, and now goes on a one-year lease in Spain.
