Cristiano Ronaldo finally got off the mark for Juventus, but things are not so rosy for his former club. Here are our winners and losers from across the European leagues over the weekend.
Winners:
Cristiano Ronaldo
A massive weight appeared to lift off the shoulders of Cristiano Ronaldo when he scored his first goals in a Juventus shirt since making the switch to Serie A in the summer transfer window. The Portuguese superstar opened his account with the simplest tap in, but understandably celebrated it with a lot of gusto. He had already played three matches for his new club without registering a goal, but he eventually broke the duck and grabbed both goals for The Old Lady in their 2-1 win over Sassuolo.
Paris St. Germain
Very few teams can maintain their best performance levels despite losing two of their most influential players, even more so if those two players are Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. Mbappé was suspended for PSG’s match against St. Étienne. Still, manager Thomas Tuchel chose to rest Neymar following his exertions for Brazil over the international break, and with one eye on Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Liverpool.
Their absence counted for little though, as the Parisians ran out 4-0 winners.
Jadon Sancho
Jadon Sancho’s star continues to rise at Borussia Dortmund, and he proved his worth once again this weekend. The former Manchester City youngster was Dortmund’s best player as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 to temporarily go top of the Bundesliga on Friday. He set up Mario Wolf for the goal that put them 2-1 ahead, which means that the young Englishman now has three assists in four games (three league, one German Cup) this season.
Dimitri Payet
Dimitri Payet scored a goal-of-the-season contender for Olympique Marseille, who beat Guingamp 4-0 in Ligue 1. A defender’s clearance fell the way of the former West Ham United man, and he smashed a curling volley past Karl-Johan Johnsson from outside the area.
Losers:
Real Madrid
While their former player Ronaldo got his season going in Turin, Real dropped their first points of the season this weekend. To make matters worse, the defeat now means that they have fallen two points behind Barcelona, who came from behind to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 on Saturday.
Douglas Costa
Juventus’ win was marred by the unsavoury behaviour of Brazil winger Douglas Costa who was sent off for spitting at Federico Di Francesco. Costa came on for Mario Mandžukić in the 61st minute but a clash with Di Francesco in stoppage time brought out the worst in him. Within the space of about two minutes, he elbowed, head-butted and spat at his opponent – all red-card-worthy offences.
Chievo
Chievo impressively fought back from 2-0 down to secure a 2-2 draw against AS Roma. That would ordinarily be enough to have them classed as winners, but unfortunately, they are still on -1 points. The club was docked three points for accounting irregularities last week, with an additional penalty of a €200,000 fine and a suspension for President Luca Campedelli.