The calendars have officially turned to autumn this weekend in Europe, and we’re starting to get a better sense of how clubs are looking this season in the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A.
Manchester City looked like a team in need of a challenge as they cruised past Nottingham Forest despite being down to 10 men. Bayern Munich looked more like their old selves with a big 7-0 win over Bochum. Meanwhile, Barcelona just barely scraped past Celta Vigo in a comeback thriller.
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U.S. men’s national team players in Europe haven’t had the best weekend so far either. Folarin Balogun had two penalties saved against Nice. Meanwhile, Juventus suffered a harsh loss to Sassuolo as Weston McKennie played just 60 minutes (replaced by USMNT teammate Timothy Weah). At least AC Milan won as Christian Pulisic started and played 80 minutes.
Sunday has even more fun in store — fancy a Madrid derby, anyone? (You can watch that live on ESPN+ at 2p.m. ET if you’re in the U.S.) But until then, here’s a look back at an eventful Saturday in European football.
SATURDAY REVIEW
Saturday lead: Man City go down to 10-men and beat Forest without breaking a sweat
If you didn’t know any better, you might think manager Pep Guardiola told Manchester City to go down to 10 men against Nottingham Forest on Saturday in order to give his team a challenge. Man City won 2-0 anyway.
City were in complete control at halftime having scored two wonderfully-worked goals but then less than a minute into the second half, Rodri decided it was a good idea to put both hands round the neck of Morgan Gibbs-White.
Gibbs-White made the most of it, falling dramatically to the floor, but a red card was still the right decision and City were left to battle it out for more than 40 minutes. Guardiola managed the game well with 10 men, immediately bringing on Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Aké and switching to a back five, and it helped City defend well enough that goalkeeper Éderson didn’t have to make a save until the 95th minute.
It was a day when City showed their superiority, even when they were a man down. They’ve started their title defence with six wins out of six and it looks ominous for the rest of the league.
Everything is coming so easily and even in a tough moment against Forest, they were still relatively comfortable. It will take far more than what Forest could muster with a man up to stop Man City this season. — Rob Dawson
Juventus’ unbeaten start to the season ended with a 4-2 loss at Sassuolo after Wojciech Szczesny’s goalkeeping errors contributed to their defeat in Serie A on Saturday. The defeat leaves Juventus in fourth place on 10 points from five games, two points behind leaders Inter Milan, who visit Empoli on Sunday, and second-placed AC Milan, who beat Hellas Verona 1-0. Sassuolo are 11th on six points.
AC Milan returned to winning ways when Rafael Leao scored in a 1-0 home win over Hellas Verona in Saturday’s Serie A game that was delayed by 25 minutes due to a hailstorm. Milan forward Christian Pulisic got away from his marker in the 72nd minute but his curling shot was pushed away by Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo.
In their first match since falling to Spain in the Women’s World Cup final, the Lionesses opened their 2024 Olympics qualifying campaign with a 2-1 win over Scotland. England manager Sarina Wiegman isn’t in much of a position to experiment during their inaugural UEFA Nation’s League campaign, but first-half goals from Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light made the difference.
And finally …
Wrexham’s League Two campaign could be going better.
For the third time this season since their promotion to EFL League Two, Wrexham conceded five goals in a single game — this time against Stockport County on Saturday in a 5-0 loss.
“It’s as bad a first-half as I can remember,” Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said afterward about his team conceding three times in the first half alone. “We gave the ball away so cheaply in the back third and middle third, which put us under pressure.”
Despite the leaky defense, Wrexham sit seventh on the League Two table out of 24 teams. Losing a few games by wide margins certainly beats losing more games by smaller gaps.
