With Champions League action kicking off tomorrow, domestic European leagues are heating up at just the right time.
While Manchester United continued their Premier League winning streak, AC won a gutsy Milan derby over Inter in Serie A.
Real Madrid scraped by in an undefeated battle royale in LaLiga while Barcelona’s big summer appears to be paying off.
Here are the top takeaways from the top flights of European football this weekend.
Manchester United is light-years ahead of where they were five weeks ago.
Who would’ve thought we would be here after Man U’s awful start to Premiership action? Not us, not for a second.
Ten Hag’s Ajax 2.0 project is now complete and looking like a better idea than ever with the addition of Brazilian striker Antony, who scored against league-leaders Arsenal in his debut game.
Manchester United, cruising on a four-game winning streak, snapped Arsenal’s winning streak at five. Both squads are clear front-runners in this year’s Europa League.
Milan is red… For Now.
AC Milan, recently improved by the addition of USMNT defender Sergiño Dest, won an instant classic Milan derby over Inter Milan, catapulting AC to second in the Serie A table.
The game featured a brace from Portuguese striker Leao, a cheeky side-swipe from Olivier Giroud, and a fiery Inter comeback attempt.
Both teams will feature in this year’s Champions League, with AC Milan opening up against RB Salzburg on Tuesday and Inter facing Bayern on Wednesday.
Real Madrid are still the kings of Spain, but this season’s Los Clasicos will be classics.
In a battle of undefeated Spanish teams with French forwards dubbed ‘Real,’ Real Madrid staved off the pesty Real Betis.
Betis, the other team from Sevilla, also known as Balompie, suffered two losses in the first 12 minutes of action, watching Vinicius Jr score a beautiful chip right before star forward Nabil Fekir left the match with an apparent hamstring injury.
Betis has looked fiery under former Real Madrid manager Manuel Pelligrini, and the 2-1 defeat at Madrid is Balompie’s first loss of the season.
Elsewhere in España, Barcelona danced their way to their third straight LaLiga victory, good enough for second in the table. Barca did everything they could to bring this superteam together, and so far, the sell-off is paying off.
Erling Haaland is ready though City, Arsenal, and Liverpool have maturing to do.
Time for good news, bad news: Manchester City edition.
Good news! Erling Haaland has scored 10 goals in six games. Undeniably good news.
Bad news! City dropped points to Aston Villa off Haaland’s tenth goal, tying Villa 1-1. Luckily for the Light Blue, Arsenal dropped all points against Manchester United, so the tie doesn’t hurt City as bad as it could have.
City and Liverpool alike are having trouble closing teams, and Chelsea would be on that list, too, if Kai Havertz and VAR hadn’t saved them this weekend. As for Arsenal, they looked fantastic at times against Man U, but they just couldn’t finish it. The Red Devils were their first big test of the season, and even though they failed, they did so spectacularly.
Bayern Munich has weak spots.
Bayern Munich, after obliterating their first three Bundesliga opponents by a combined score of 15-1, has drawn their last two matches, 1-1 apiece.
It’s not yet time to panic, but it does show weaknesses in what appeared near impenetrable armor. Unfortunately for Bayern, they open their Champions League group stage against Inter Milan this weekend, who will be angry off a well-fought derby loss. Fortunately for Bayern, they face their old Champions League punching bag the following week – Robert Lewandowski-led Barcelona.
What top moments did we miss from another exciting weekend of action? Sound off below!
Featured Image: Pexels/Pixabay/ManchesterUnitedFC/ACMilan/CFRealMadrid/DM
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