7 Things You May Have Missed From Around Europe as Neymar Scores & Ansu Fati Stars
There's nothing quite like switching on the telly to watch some club football after a fortnight of international fixtures.
Yes, now the (premature, to be honest) September internationals are out of the way, this is when things start to get serious. Managers get sacked. Promoted sides start to lose their form. The title race begins.
It was a fascinating weekend on the continent, to say the least. Here are seven of the things you may have missed from this weekend's action.
Oh, Monaco
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2018/19 was, safe to say, a season to forget for Monaco fans.
The champions of France just two seasons prior, Les Monégasques inexplicably found themselves in a relegation dogfight for most of last season, which led to the sacking of Leonardo Jardim, appointing of Thierry Henry, then sacking of Henry, before re-appointing of Jardim. They survived in the end by just three points.
2019/20 was meant to be a fresh start, but this hasn't been the case. After six games in Ligue 1, Monaco currently sit second-bottom, having lost three and drawn two of their five games.
Les Monégasques played Marseille on Sunday and were 2-0 up within the first 26 minutes. But, once again, Monaco paid the price for some poor defending and lost 4-3.
They may need to act fast before they find themselves, once again, battling relegation.
Doing a Getafe?
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Granada became known for being that team who, inexplicably, always just avoided relegation during their six-year spell in La Liga between 2011 and 2017. They eventually went down, of course, but they're back in style after a two-year absence.
Their 2-0 win away at Celta Vigo (who played with nine men for most of the match) was their second away win of the season and it lifted them into the Europa League places.
In fairness, it's still early days, but Granada have been impressive so far. They completed a spectacular comeback in that 4-4 draw away at Villarreal, lost narrowly to Sevilla, before collecting back-to-back away wins at Espanyol and Celta Vigo. Not bad form at all for a newly-promoted side
Who knows, If they keep this up, they could find themselves competing for European places much like Getafe did, to everyone's surprise, last season.
Bologna Fight Back
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Bologna manager Siniša Mihajlović, unfortunately, couldn't be on the touchline for their 4-3 win over Brescia due to the Serbian undergoing a second course of chemotherapy.
His presence was felt, however. Bologna were 3-1 down and looked dead and buried by the end of the first half. Mihajlović gave his side a half-time team talk, however, and this inspired I Rossoblu to fight back, scoring three goals in the second half to earn themselves the win.
After their spectacular comeback, Bologna's squad went to the hospital and chanted Mihajlović's name in the street outside. The manager came to the window and gave his players a wave.
Bologna are now second in Serie A after three games, with two wins and one draw under their belt. An amazing start for them considering the circumstances.
Freiburg Complete Best-Ever Start
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Freiburg's 3-0 win away at Hoffenheim would've been impressive by itself, but in doing so the Breisgau-Brasilianer completed their best-ever start to a Bundesliga campaign. The season is still young, but Freiburg are now 3rd, having collected three wins from four games.
Hoffenheim, backed to compete for Europe despite losing Julian Nagelsmann to RB Leipzig in the summer, were 2-0 down to Freiburg at half-time thanks to Christian Gunter and Janik Haberer goals, before the prolific Nils Petersen scored in the 59th minute to seal a win for BuLi's surprise package.
Freiburg are a side known for overachieving and although their schedule gets significantly more difficult over the coming weeks, they've proven they can beat decent sides like Hoffenheim. There's no reason why Freiburg can't finish in a Europa League spot come the end of the season.
The Next Big Thing?
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Not many football fans would've heard of Ansu Fati before the start of the season.
They all know his name now.
Fati, 16, became Barcelona's youngest goalscorer when he scored against Osasuna prior to the international break, leading Barça fans to get overexcited about the kind of player Fati might become.
The young winger justified that excitement with a magnificent performance against Valencia on Saturday. Fati was instrumental in Barcelona's 5-2 win, bagging himself another goal as well as getting his first assist on what was his first-ever start for the Catalonians.
It's scary to think how good he might be once he reaches his potential...
Neymar Scores, Rain is Wet
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After a summer of speculation linking him with a return to Barcelona, Neymar stayed at Paris-Saint-Germain.
It was an open secret that Neymar wanted out of PSG, and some sections of the fans booed him when he scored a bicycle kick to get the winning goal in their 1-0 win over Strasbourg on Saturday.
Mauro Icardi also made his debut for PSG in the match, coming on in the 63rd minute, but failed to make an impact on the game.
Donyell Does a 'Defoe'
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Arsenal fans, look away now.
After getting his first goal for the Netherlands national team over the international break, Donyell Malen returned to club football with a bang, scoring all five of PSV's goals in their 5-0 win over Vitesse on Saturday.
His showing against Vitesse brings to mind Jermain Defoe's performance in Tottenham's 9-1 demolition of Wigan back in 2009, when the Englishman scored five of Spurs' goals.
The former Arsenal youth player is now on six goals for the season, an average of 1.2 goals per game!
