The European football season is well underway after Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga played their first round of matches – joining the English Premier League which kicked off last week. And it didn’t take long for the big clubs to kick into action, particularly in Germany where Bayer Leverkusen’s Karim Bellaribi took just nine seconds to score the quickest goal in Bundesliga history in a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund.
Champions Bayern Munich also enjoyed a winning start with a 2-1 result over Wolfsburg, while in Spain Barcelona sent an early message to Real and Atletico Madrid with a 3-0 win over Elche. The Madrid sides both play their first matches tonight.
In England, it was Tottenham flexing their muscle over the weekend with an impressive 4-0 win over QPR to go top on goal difference after two matches although Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Leicester also provided an ominous warning to their title rivals with new striker Diego Costa scoring his second goal in as many games.
While all eyes will be on tonight’s epic clash between Manchester City and Liverpool at Etihad Stadium, there was a hiccup for Arsenal who needed two late goals to steal a 2-2 draw at Everton, while Manchester United reminded everyone just how far they have fallen since winning the title two seasons ago with a limp 1-1 draw at Sunderland to have them sitting 13th.
It was another incident-fuelled day in Formula 1 as Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo made it two wins in a row and three in six races at the Belgian Grand Prix. Once again it was the battle between Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton that dominated headlines with the pair colliding on lap two in an incident that eventually forced Hamilton to retire. Although Rosberg eventually finished second to extend his Championship lead, he won’t be in the good books at Mercedes amid accusations he hit his teammate deliberately. It will be interesting to see if any action is taken by the team.
The first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs saw Hunter Mahan win his first PGA event in more than two years and the biggest of his career with a final round 65 enough to finish two shots clear of Jason Day and Stuart Appleby. On a day where six different players held the lead at various stages, Mahan holed three straight birdies on the stretch home to take a commanding lead to the 18th and even a bogey at the death couldn’t slow him down.
And with plenty of big names stepping out for their first round US Open matches tonight, it was the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol taking the opportunity to claim his second ATP title at the Winston-Salem Open with a tight three set win over Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. More notable though was Petra Kvitova’s win in the WTA event in Connecticut. Having won Wimbledon for the second time just a few months back, Kvitova is clearly on top of her game and will be out to challenge the likes of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova at Flushing Meadow this week.
