Daily News Channel
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his fourth goal in as many La Liga outings as Spanish champions Barcelona matched their best start to season since 1997-98 with a 4-1 trouncing of Racing Santander, but the summer signing also suffered an injury blow.
Argentina star Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona thrashed Atletico Madrid 5-2 in the Camp Nou to maintain their perfect start to the Spanish league season. Messi celebrated his lucrative contract extension at Barca, sealed on Friday, with a superb display against a flagging Atletico who have made a poor start to the season.
Defending champions Shakhtar Donetsk opened the group stages of UEFA’s new-look Europa League with a comfortable 4-1 win away to Belgian club Bruges on Thursday night. The Ukrainian side, who won the final edition of the UEFA Cup last season after being knocked out of the Champions League group stage, went 3-0 ahead in the first 35 minutes to clinch their first win at the Jan Breydel Stadium in four attempts
Everton manager David Moyes was left unimpressed by UEFA’s trial of goalline assistants despite his side’s resounding 4-0 Europa League win over AEK Athens at Goodison Park.
Celebratory gunfire erupted across the capital Sunday when Iraq’s soccer team won the Asian Cup, in a 1-0 shutout against three-time champions Saudi Arabia.
German leaders Hamburg suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat by Rapid Vienna in their Europa League group-stage opener on Thursday, while Roma’s poor season continued with a 2-0 loss away to Basel. It was a miserable night in Austria for Hamburg, who conceded two goals at the end of the first half against a Rapid side struggling in sixth place in their domestic league.
Last season’s losing finalists Manchester United opened their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win away to Besiktas, while Wolfsburg beat CSKA Moscow 3-1 in Tuesday night’s other Group B clash. United made the daunting trip to Istanbul without England defender Rio Ferdinand, who is believed to have a groin problem following his comeback last weekend, and started with only one striker in Wayne Rooney
Juventus moved three points clear at the top of Italy’s Serie A with a 2-0 victory at Lazio on Saturday, while AC Milan’s poor start to the season continued with a 0-0 draw at Livorno. Turin giants Juve registered a third successive victory to be on a perfect nine points, while Lazio dropped their first points to be fourth on goal difference behind Sampdoria and Genoa, who play on Sunday.
Manchester United have warned French side Le Havre they will take action against them unless they stop repeating claims that the English Premier League champions offered financial inducements to Paul Pogba’s family in order to lure the teenager to Old Trafford. United have grown angry at the sustained assault by Le Havre, which came in the wake of a transfer ban imposed on Chelsea last week for a similar infringement of the rules.
A controversial penalty from Frank Lampard and a second half strike from prolific substitute Jermain Defoe helped England to a 2-1 friendly victory over Slovenia at Wembley on Saturday. Both sides had chances to go ahead before England striker Wayne Rooney went down dramatically in the penalty area on the half hour mark