La Liga

SPANISH CHAMPIONS BARCELONA cruised to a 5-0 win over Elche on Sunday in their La Liga opener with Raphinha and Fermin Lopez scoring twice each and Anthony Gordon setting up two goals on his debut.

After watching Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid defeat Espanyol 2-1 on Saturday with a late winner, Barca’s display warned the Portuguese coach that the Catalans will not relinquish the title easily.

Karim Adeyemi also found the net on his debut as Barca made light work of a vulnerable Elche side at the Martinez Valero stadium.

Hansi Flick started with several regular starters on the bench as they continue to get up to speed following the World Cup.

Teenage winger Lamine Yamal, a key part of the triumphant Spain squad, did start on the right but was far from his best, although it did not matter given Barca’s otherwise sparkling display.

“This is a difficult place to go and they’re a team that like to have the ball, but we did very well,” Raphinha told Movistar.

Brazil international Raphinha lined up as the team’s number nine, after Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres left the club, and shone.

Barcelona are still looking for a striker after Atletico Madrid rejected their bid to sign Julian Alvarez.

“I’ll leave that to the president,” said Raphinha, when asked if Barca needed to sign a number nine. “I am comfortable (anywhere) on the pitch.”

Raphinha was cut down in the box by Victor Chust and stroked home the resulting penalty after 14 minutes to get Flick’s team on their way.

Eric Garcia was sharp at the back to ward off a threatening Elche attack, while Barca’s Gavi caught the eye in midfield — admittedly more for his pink haircut, to celebrate Spain’s triumph, than for his performance.

Rapid winger Adeyemi, playing on the left, started shakily but grew into the game and doubled Barca’s lead before the break after Raphinha unselfishly set him up.

In the second half, former Newcastle United winger Gordon, on as a substitute, teed up Raphinha for his second and then supplied Lopez for Barca’s fourth in an electric and impressive cameo.

Youngster Xavi Espart played in Lopez, who endured a difficult summer after missing Spain’s World Cup triumph through injury, for his second to seal Barcelona’s comfortable triumph.

Flick’s high-line defence showed the occasional sign of its usual frailty but goalkeeper Joan Garcia did well when called on to keep a clean sheet.

“We were playing against a great team and you pay for your errors,” said Elche defender Chust.

“It was a tough day but I’ll take from it that the team didn’t stop running.”

Serie A

Former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim made a winning start to life in Serie A as his AC Milan side opened their campaign with a 2-1 victory at Torino on Sunday, after Juventus got underway with an unconvincing win.

The Rossoneri turned to Amorim after finishing fifth last season, and the Portuguese has been provided with an overhauled squad as the giants look to challenge their city rivals and defending champions, Inter Milan.

Amorim had to wait until the hour mark for his side to capitalise on their dominance in Piedmont.

The breakthrough came shortly after the hour thanks to teenage debutant Alphadjo Cisse’s deft opener, which completely removed the shackles from Milan.

Adrien Rabiot doubled the lead minutes later when he ghosted onto Samuel Chukwueze’s back-post cross.

Marquee summer signing Goncalo Ramos, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain for 74 million euros ($86 million), failed to find the net but caused the Torino defence no end of trouble.

The gloss was somewhat taken off the result in the dying moments of stoppage time as Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan was beaten by a looping volley from Che Adams.

“The most important thing is to win,” Amorim told DAZN.

“We talk about ways of playing, but there is one goal in football, winning.”

Atalanta, also with a new man at the helm in the shape of former Chelsea and Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri, kicked off their season with a 2-1 win at home to Sassuolo.

The 2024 Europa League winners took an early lead courtesy of a Giacomo Raspadori piledriver, before Cas Odenthal hit back from close range for the visitors on 55 minutes.

But Nikola Krstovic took advantage of sloppy defending 10 minutes later to ensure Atalanta would earn all three points.

Earlier, Juventus secured a 1-0 away win against newly promoted Frosinone, but failed to impress in their campaign-opener.

Juve, who finished a disappointing sixth last season, secured all three points thanks to Gleison Bremer’s 22nd-minute header.

Luciano Spalletti’s side then dominated proceedings but failed to put the game beyond doubt.

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, had an issue with cramp and had to be substituted late on as a precaution, according to Spalletti, which nearly cost Juve dearly, as Frosinone pressed hard in stoppage time and hit the crossbar.

The Bianconeri, however, secured the result they needed, following in the footsteps of reigning champions Inter Milan, who thrashed another newly-promoted side, Monza, 4–1 on Saturday in the season opener.

“I would have preferred the team to show it has an identity, and it did that,” Spalletti said. “At certain moments we’re a bit light, we’re not good at bringing that determination. But it can happen, especially at the start. We’ll work on it.”

Lecce made a strong start to the season against the third promoted side, Venezia, on Sunday as they defeated their hosts 2-0 courtesy of second-half goals from Olaf Gorter and Tiago Gabriel.

Ligue 1

Spain’s World Cup winner Ferran Torres scored twice to claim a draw for Paris Saint-Germain as they started the defence of their French Ligue 1 title with a 2-2 draw at Rennes.

Torres came off the bench for his Ligue 1 debut and opened his account for his new club weeks on from scoring the winning goal for La Roja in the World Cup final.

Rennes led at the break after Sebastian Szymanski and Esteban Lepaul scored at Roazhon Park before Torres’ clinical interventions thanks to assists from fellow World Cup winner Fabian Ruiz.

“The game was difficult, we knew it would be,” Torres told Ligue 1+.

“I just put my hand up then with Fabian’s quality, you just have to run and he puts the ball in the right place,” he added.

Luis Enrique named two of his big summer signings in 26-year-old Torres and France winger Maghnes Akliouche on the bench for a game moved from the French capital due to the poor state of the Parc des Princes pitch.

Ex-Rennes attackers Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue were joined in the Champions League winners’ forward line by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia a week on from losing 1-0 in the French Champions’ Trophy to Lens.

Rennes boss Franck Haise gave a league debut to Adrien Thomasson, who joined the Bretons from the coach’s former club Lens over the summer.

Well-travelled Thomasson set up the opener by feeding Szymanski who fired home with a low effort from outside the box after 21 minutes after a pin-point header from Lepaul in the build-up.

Rennes doubled their lead seven minutes before the break despite PSG showing plenty of intent and even having a Doue effort chalked off for offside.

Haise’s side’s second came on the counter attack with a break from winger Moussa Al Tamari and a delicate back-heel from the Egypt wideman helping to set up Lepaul.

PSG were wasteful in attack, failing to hit the target with efforts from Dembele and Kvaratskhelia forcing their Spanish boss to bring Torres on for the second half.

With half an hour left, Akliouche and Ruiz were also brought to the fray and 10 minutes later PSG cut the deficit as Torres made the most of a pass from his compatriot to nutmeg Rennes goalkeeper Brice Samba.

Torres and Ruiz combined again with eight minutes to go as the midfielder crossed for the forward to head past Samba.

PSG were on top after Torres’ contributions but they were unable to find a third.

Earlier, Olivier Giroud scored the opening goal as Lille gave Davide Ancelotti a winning start as coach with a 2-0 victory at Angers.

Former France striker Giroud, who turns 40 next month, broke the deadlock in the 11th minute with an excellent low drive from long range after collecting Nabil Bentaleb’s pass.

Tiago Santos volleyed in a loose ball to double the advantage just after the half-hour mark at the end of an excellent Lille move.

Davide Ancelotti, son of coaching great Carlo Ancelotti, took over at Lille in June following the departure of Bruno Genesio who is now at Marseille.

Lille finished third in the French top flight last season to qualify for the Champions League league phase.

“It wasn’t perfect, but we wanted to start strongly today,” Giroud told Ligue 1+.

“We could have killed the game off earlier,” he added.

Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester City and, despite not being involved in the matchday squad, the 18-year-old Moroccan said his potential goodbyes to travelling fans after the game.

“We don’t know what will happen,” Giroud said.

“If it happens then we will want to celebrate the win for him,” the ex-Arsenal striker added.

Ex-England defender Eric Dier scored the winner as Monaco edged new boys Le Havre 1-0 in Normandy.