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Round-Up

Eurostar: Season gets Messi quickly for Mou's struggling Madrid

Join us for our weekly whistle-stop tour of the most important action from Europe’s top leagues. All aboard!

La Liga

FOUR GAMES INTO the new La Liga season and Lionel Messi (6) has already scored more goals than the entire Real Madrid team combined (5). That Messi is scoring goals at an obscene rate is hardly a surprise; the shock is the poor early-season form of Madrid who have already dropped eight points off the pace at the top of table. In the words of José Mourinho, “At the moment, I have no team.”

While Madrid fell to their second defeat of the campaign — a 1-0 defeat away to Sevilla on Saturday night — another quick-fire Messi brace was sealing all three points in a 4-1 win against Getafe, with goals from Adriano and David Villa bookending another comfortable evening for Tito Vilanova and company.

Goals from Javier Saviola, Joaquin and Francisco Portillo saw Malaga move into second place outright with a 3-1 win at home to Levante, while Mallorca needed to come from behind to preserve their unbeaten start with a 1-1 draw on the road against Osasuna.

Sunday’s real drama came where there should have been none — at the Vicente Calderon where Atletico Madrid led Rayo Vallecano 4-0 with ten minutes to play before conspiring to throw at all away. A double from substitute Andrija Delibasic and an 89th-minute strike from Leo made for a nervy final few minutes for the home support but Atleti held on to win 4-3.

Goal of the week Athletic Bilbao’s Aritz Aduriz gets the nod for this show of training ground technique, levelling his side’s trip to Espanyol at 3-3 in the 83rd minute.

YouTube Credit: TheWorldLiveNews

Serie A

MOVE OVER ARSENAL — meet Europe’s new Invincibles. Serie A champions Juventus continued their long unbeaten domestic run on Sunday, coming from behind to win 3-1 away to Genoa. Emanuele Giaccherini, Mirko Vucinic and Kwadwo Asamoah got the goals to stretch Juve’s streak to 42 league games without defeat.

It wasn’t just the Old Lady that kept their perfect start to the season on track; it took just three minutes for Napoli to maintain their 100% record with a 3-1 win at home to Parma. An Edinson Cavani penalty put Vladimir Petkovic’s men one up before Goran Pandev made it two in the 39th minute,. Marco Parolo pulled one back for Parma just before the stroke of half-time but Lorenzo Insigne, on as a second-half substitute for Cavani, wrapped up the win with Napoli’s third seconds after coming off the bench.

Lazio kept up appearances with a 3-1 win away to Chievo while the league’s other unbeaten team, Sampdoria, survived a late scare in a 3-2 win away to Pescara.

Goal of the week This is better than any goal — take a bow, Michael Agazzi. The Cagliari keeper somehow made this “mini-scorpion” save, earning his side a 1-1 draw away to Palermo on Saturday.

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Bundesliga

NEW BOYS EINTRACHT Frankfurt continue to be the Bundesliga’s success story. Armin Veh’s men made it three wins from three with a 3-2 win at home to Hamburg, rejoining Bayern Munich at the top of the pile after Jupp Heynckes men weathered a Mainz storm to win 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.

With a total of seven teams still unbeaten after three rounds of games, a nice little chasing pack has already started to form behind the leading pair. Borussia Dortumund were in stunning form, sweeping aside Bayer Leverkusen 3-0. Goals from Mats Hummels, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Robert Lewandowski extended the champions’ unbeaten run to 31 games.

At the AWD-Arena, Szabolcs Huszti snatched a dramatic late winner for Hannover in a thrilling 3-2 win against Werder Bremen — and then was promptly booked twice and sent off for excessive celebration.

Goals from Julian Draxler and Lewis Holtby gave Schalke a 2-0 win away to Greuther Furth while Hiroshi Kiyotake scored the winner as Nurnberg came out on the right side of a 3-2 thriller away to Borussia Monchengladbach.

Goal of the week It may have taken a deflection but Szabolcs Huszti’s injury-time winner takes the award for audacity. And for stupidly over-the-top celebrations.

YouTube Credit: P4ndoraGamez

Ligue 1

JORDAN AYEW WAS the hero as table-toppers Marseille made it five wins from five against AS Nancy on Sunday. Ayew’s 53rd-minute winner was enough to see Marseille home with all three points and keep them two clear of second-placed Lyon, who beat Ajaccio 2-0 at the Stade Gerland.

The win was Lyon’s fourth from five games. Dejan Lovren and Lisandro Lopez scored either side of the break to maintain their unbeaten record.

A superb Alain Traore double helped Lorient to a 2-1 win against Rennes, while in Paris, the wait for a goalscorer not named Zlatan Ibrahimovic finally came to an end as Javier Pastore opened the scoring in a 2-0 win against Toulouse. The second goal was scored by… you guessed it… Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his fifth of the season.

While Carlo Ancelotti finally seems to be getting his oil-laden ship steadied in the capital, there was more trouble for champions Montpellier who fell to their third defeat of the season, losing 3-1 away to Reims.

Goal of the week If you thought Alain Traore’s first was good, wait until you see his second.

YouTube Credit: LoveLigue1

(All tables via ESPN)

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