Napoli extended their Serie A winning streak to nine games when first-half goals from Victor Osimhen and Eljif Elmas secured a 2-1 comeback victory at second-placed Atalanta, stretching the victors’ lead to eight points, at least until Milan’s late game against Spezia.
Luciano Spalletti’s men played without their exciting young winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was out due to acute lower back pain that he felt in training on Friday.
The home side’s Ademola Lookman opened the scoring after 19 minutes with a penalty after handball by Osimhen. Napoli’s 23-year-old Nigerian international made amends four minutes later when he headed home Piotr Zielinski’s cross.
In the 35th, Elmas put the visitors in front after taking a pass from Osimhen inside the box, with his effort flying into the net via a slight deflection off Atalanta’s Hans Hateboers.
The hosts started the second half aggressively, chasing an equaliser. Joakim Maehle’s shot after 55 minutes was saved superbly by Meret and Lookman hit the rebound against the bar. That was as close as Atalanta came.
Bayern Munich’s Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored twice in two minutes to lead the champions to a nervy 3-2 victory at Hertha Berlin as they went top in the Bundesliga, with the previous leaders, Union Berlin, playing at Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. The 33-year-old Cameroon forward is in scintillating form less than three weeks before the World Cup, having netted for the seventh consecutive game in all competitions and the fourth straight in the league.
Jamal Musiala gave the visitors an early lead, rifling in after 12 minutes. In a frenzied end to the first half Choupo-Moting slotted in their second goal in the 38th before pouncing on a bad clearance to knock in another a minute later to make it 3-0.
Borussia Dortmund fans hold banners in protest to the World Cup in Qatar. Photograph: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
But Hertha, whose fans unfurled a banner reading “Boycott Qatar 2022” over the Gulf state’s human rights record, still had time to score twice before the break. Dodi Lukebakio volleyed in at the far post in the 40th and Davie Selke converted a 45th-minute penalty to cut the deficit. The pace dropped off after the break with Bayern doing enough to protect their slim lead.
The World Cup hopeful Youssoufa Moukoko scored twice as Borussia Dortmund cruised past local rivals VfL Bochum 3-0 to take over third spot. The 17-year-old Moukoko could not have delivered a better pitch ahead of Germany coach Hansi Flick’s squad announcement next week, confirming his outstanding form when he rifled in from 18 metres to give Dortmund the lead in the eighth minute.
Moukoko, who became the youngest player to reach 10 career goals in the Bundesliga, added another on the stroke of halftime, after Gio Reyna had made it 2-0. He audaciously lobbed the ball over out-of-position keeper Manuel Riemann for his sixth league goal of the season.
There was more good news for Dortmund early in the second half when captain Marco Reus made his comeback from injury, just in time for the World Cup squad announcement.
Borussia Dortmund fans had a banner showing German television’s test card and the message: “Switch off Qatar”.
Union Berlin scored a stoppage-time winner through Danilho Doekhi to snatch a dramatic 2-1 comeback win over visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach to go back to the top of the Bundesliga, one point ahead of Bayern Munich.
Kevin Behrens’s powerful header levelled the score in the 79th minute for Union, avoiding a second consecutive loss for the club, who have surprisingly led the title race for more than a month, before Doekhi’s last-gasp winner.
Gladbach’s Nico Elvedi headed in for the lead in the 33rd minute from a Lars Stindl corner, with the visitors controlling possession in the first half. The hosts pushed forward after the break and earned the equaliser when Behrens beat keeper Tobias Sippel 11 minutes from the end.
Union then put the ball in the net again but Christopher Trimmel’s 87th-minute header was overruled by the VAR before Doekhi got the winner in the eighth minute of injury time with the last move of the game.
In La Liga, Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw by Girona at the Bernabéu but the reigning champions maintained their unbeaten streakand hold a one-point lead over Barcelona.
After a goalless first half, Madrid opened the scoring through Vinícius Jr in the 70th minute but their lead was cancelled out by a Cristhian Stuani penalty 10 minutes later.
Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos is shown a red card by the referee in the 1-1 draw with Girona. Photograph: Jose Breton/AP
Madrid’s afternoon only got worse when midfielder Toni Kroos was sent off in added time after receiving a second yellow card. Girona, who are 16th in the standings, came away with a precious point as their players sank to the ground in relief. Elsewhere in La Liga, sixth-placed Osasuna continued their fine start to the season with a 2-0 home win over Valladolid.
Atalanta regained second place in Serie A with goals from defender Hans Hateboer and Ademola Lookman giving them a 2-0 away win over Empoli on Sunday. The visitors took the lead after 32 minutes when Hateboer reacted instinctively and knocked a loose ball into the net from inside the box.
Empoli had a chance to equalise shortly after, but Tyronne Ebuehi’s shot after 34 minutes was blocked by Rafael Toloi with a well-timed slide. Atalanta were awarded a penalty shortly before the end of the first half when Mattia Destro handled the ball, but keeper Guglielmo Vicario saved Teun Koopmeiners’s kick with his legs.
Atalanta’s Duvan Zapata celebrates with fans after the 2-0 win at Empoli. Photograph: Jennifer Lorenzini/Reuters
Lookman nevertheless doubled the lead in the 59th minute with a well-placed shot inside the box that went past both defenders and keeper and into the lower left corner. Elsewhere in Serie A, Fiorentina won 2-1 away at Spezia and Cremonese played out a goalless draw with Udinese.
Breel Embolo and Aleksandr Golovin scored in the second half as Monaco beat bottom side Angers 2-0 at home in Ligue 1 to move up one spot to sixth in the standings. Elsewhere in France, Auxerre beat Ajaccio 1-0, Nantes and Clermont Foot drew 1-1, Rennes moved up to third with a 3-0 home win over Montpellier while fourth-placed Lorient were beaten 2-1 at home by Nice. Brest and Reims played out a goalless draw.
Napoli’s seemingly unstoppable winning streak continued when Victor Osimhen’s late strike secured a 1-0 win at Roma in Serie A, giving them 11 straight victories in all competitions.
In front of a raucous crowd at the Stadio Olimpico, both sides were evenly matched in a largely uneventful first half. Napoli thought they had a penalty in the 38th minute when Roma goalkeeper Rui Patrício challenged Tanguy Ndombele but the decision was rescinded after a VAR check.
Napoli were in control by the hour mark and had several chances, with Roma struggling to get the ball out of their own half. Osimhen secured the win for Napoli 10 minutes from time when he half-volleyed in a brilliant rasping shot from an acute angle, after getting the better of his marker Chris Smalling.
Napoli have a three-point lead at the top with 29 after 11 games, three ahead of Milan in second. Roma are fifth with 22 points.
Mattia Zaccagni and Felipe Anderson scored to give Lazio a comfortable 2-0 win at Atalanta, moving up to third as a result. Zaccagni converted in the 10th minute, poking in a Pedro cross.
Anderson made it 2-0 seven minutes after half-time, firing a low shot into the bottom-left corner. The visitors continued to control the game and Atalanta had Luis Muriel sent off in the 90th minute for a second booking.
The Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said: “It’s a fair defeat. It’s true that Lazio had an extraordinary first half and we were unable to limit their passing, while the early goal put them in the best possible situation. Only after the second goal did we see something positive.
“It’s a loss we deserved and we will learn from this experience. We hoped that Lazio would drop their tempo and we got close after the second goal but it was too late,” Gasperini added. “We had not yet met a team that was so good on a technical level and with a high press; they always got to the ball first, and perhaps we had not yet faced a team of this level.”
In Spain, Ousmane Dembélé scored and provided assists for Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres as Barcelona defeated Athletic Bilbao 4-0 in La Liga.
Barça remain second in the table on 28 points, three behind leaders Real Madrid and five clear of third-placed Atlético Madrid. The hosts scored three times in 10 minutes in the first half, starting with Dembélé’s towering header from close range in the 12th minute.
The France forward then put Roberto through with some brilliant one touch build-up play in the 18th minute, with the Spanish full back’s strike bouncing in off a defender past a helpless Unai Simón.
Ousmane Dembélé (centre) scored one goal and set up three in Barcelona’s 4-0 win against Athletic Bilbao. Photograph: Quique García/EPA
Four minutes later, Dembélé ran down the right channel before crossing to Lewandowski who swivelled and finished with a powerful shot. Barça took their foot off the gas after the break but there was still time for Dembélé to deliver another assist less than 20 minutes before the end, playing the ball in from the left touchline for Torres to score.
Two second-half goals from Antoine Griezmann, one scored directly from a corner kick, gave Atlético Madrid a 2-1 win at Real Betis, extending their unbeaten run to five games. Griezmann opened the scoring in the 54th minute directly from a corner.
Fifteen minutes later, substitute Matheus Cunha passed to Griezmann whose right-footed shot found the bottom right corner. Betis replied with a Nabil Fekir free-kick in the 84th minute but the visitors held firm.
In Germany, relegation-threatened VfL Bochum scored once in either half to stun Union Berlin 2-1, leaving the Bundesliga leaders with only a one-point gap at the top and moving off the bottom of the table.
Union, with the league’s best backline before the game, suffered only their second loss of the season. Philipp Hofmann’s glancing header two minutes before the break put Bochum with the hosts’ high press proving a major problem for Urs Fischer’s team.
Union’s Milos Pantovic whipped a shot just wide on the hour mark but it was Bochum, who had also hit the woodwork early in the second half, who scored again. This time they struck on the break with Gerrit Holtmann completing the lightning-quick passing move, tapping in from a Christopher Antwi-Adjei assist. Union remain in top spot on 23 points, one ahead of champions Bayern Munich. Freiburg are third on 21.
Schalke 04, who sacked coach Frank Kramer on Wednesday, dropped to bottom place following their 2-1 defeat at Hertha Berlin courtesy of Wilfried Kanga’s 88th-minute winner.
Napoli snatched back the Serie A lead with a 4-1 win at Cremonese on Sunday, helped by two goals in added time.
Atalanta had briefly taken the league lead after a 2-2 draw at Udinese earlier on Sunday but Napoli put themselves back on top with a two-point cushion after their resounding win in Cremona.
Napoli opened the scoring with a penalty in the 26th minute after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was clumsily tackled inside the box by Matteo Bianchetti. The striker Matteo Politano had no problem with his shot into the lower left side of the goal.
Cremonese equalised two minutes into the second half when Cyriel Dessers got to a through ball into the box and hammered it in the net.
Giovanni Simeone put Napoli ahead again when he jumped to reach a cross from Mario Rui and headed into the net in the 76th minute. Three minutes into stoppage time, Kvaratskhelia passed to an unmarked Hirving Lozano who scored from close range. Mathías Olivera finished off the match with a headed goal in the 95th minute.
Napoli, after seven wins and two draws in their nine matches, now have 23 points, two ahead of Atalanta.
Earlier in Udine, a late goal by the defender Nehuen Perez helped Udinese to come back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 home draw against Atalanta as the hosts continued their best start to a top-flight campaign in their history.
The Atalanta forward Luis Muriel sent an early warning to the hosts when he struck a shot in the 16th minute which was denied by Udinese goalkeeper Marco Silvestri. The striker Ademola Lookman put the visitors ahead 20 minutes later after he was brilliantly set up by Muriel who sent a precise low pass into the six-yard box which the 24-year-old smashed into the roof of the net.
Barcelona’s Spanish midfielder Pedri celebrates scoring against Celta Vigo Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Atalanta doubled their advantage 11 minutes into the second half when they were awarded a penalty for Destiny Udogie’s risky tackle on Muriel. The Colombian calmly pushed the ball in with the tip of his boot for his 50th league goal with Atalanta, and his 12th against Udinese.
Udinese tried to bounce back and the midfielder Tolgay Arslan had a good chance when he received a delightful pass from Udogie but the substitute’s strike went just past the near post.
The hosts eventually halved the lead when Gerard Deulofeu made it 2-1 with a superb free-kick in the 67th minute, after his teammate Isaac Success was fouled by the Atalanta defender Caleb Okoli. Udinese added another goal 11 minutes later through a brilliant header by Perez to draw level.
“We did a lot more than them, Silvestri didn’t make a save,” the Udinese coach Andrea Sottil told DAZN. “I’m very happy with the boys, they played a great match. We deserved the draw, too bad for the last chance.”
Udinese, who finished 12th last season, are unbeaten in their past eight games. Atalanta remain unbeaten this season, winning six and drawing three.
“We have to be happy with this result,” the Atalanta manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, said after his 300th competitive match in charge of the team in all competitions. “There was personality and great technique, we deservedly took the lead. It’s a match that made us grow.”
In the Bundesliga, Union Berlin’s Paul Jaeckel scored a 76th-minute winner to give his team a 1-0 victory at VfB Stuttgart and send them two points clear at the top.
Union Berlin’s Paul Jaeckel enjoys the day after his goal gave them a 1-0 win against VfB Stuttgart Photograph: Andreas Gebert/Reuters
Jaeckel was left with too much space in the box, allowing him to head in off the post and lift surprise leaders Union to 20 points, two ahead of second-placed Freiburg. Stuttgart finished the game with 10 men after Serhou Guirassy was dismissed in the 82nd minute.
For much of the game the hosts, however, had not looked like the only team in the league without a win this season. They had the better chances in the first half, with Guirassy’s glancing header in the 34th minute being their best.
Union remained composed at the back and patient, grabbing their chance through Jaeckel although Stuttgart did hit the post through Kostantinos Mavropanos three minutes later.
Freiburg needed a 78th-minute goal from Kevin Schade to rescue a 2-2 draw at Hertha Berlin earlier on Sunday. The champions, Bayern Munich, are third on 16 following the 2-2 draw on Saturday at fourth-placed Borussia Dortmund.
In La Liga, Barcelona returned to the top with a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo. Pedri scored in the 17th minute and Xavi’s side held on for the next 80 minutes – there were seven minutes of stoppage time – to reclaim top spot from Real Madrid, themselves winners by the only goal of their game on Saturday, against Getafe.
In France, Lille beat Lens by a single goal in the derby du nord on Sunday evening. Jonathan David was the hero for the hosts with his penalty just before half-time. The win moved them up to seventh while Lens remain fourth.
Atalanta are not getting ahead of themselves, but eight games into the new Serie A season, nobody has got ahead of them yet either. Six wins and two draws place them joint top of the table, level on points with Napoli. The Bergamo club have not trailed in any match so far.
“First place in the table is like the pink jersey in the Giro d’Italia,” said their manager, Gian Piero Gasperini last month, referencing the garment passed after each stage of Italy’s iconic cycling race to the leading rider overall. “You don’t know if you’re going to win the whole thing, but it’s not like a lot of people get to wear it, either.”
People have got used to seeing Atalanta jostling for position among the leading pack since Gasperini took over as manager six years ago. He steered them to third place and their first ever Champions League qualification in 2018-19, then landed them in the exact same spot in both of the next two seasons. Never in the club’s history, though, have they made as fast a start as this one. Ironically, the club’s best-ever manager is getting his best results yet after abandoning the tactics he believes in.
Gasperini’s previous successes were built on a courageous brand of football, daring his players to press high, play the ball short and engage in one-on-one duels all over the pitch. Atalanta scored 98 Serie A goals in 2019-20 and 90 the season after. “If you want to win you need to score goals,” he said last month. “There is no other possibility.”
After slipping to eighth last season, however, and scoring only 65 times, he was forced to reconsider his approach. Gasperini had been frustrated at the club’s failure to strengthen the attack last summer, bemoaning a lapse into complacency. In his opinion, positive results had caused too many people to miss the gaps left in a squad that sold club captain Papu Gómez at the start of the year. Josip Ilicic, who scored 21 times in 2019-20, including a famous four-goal haul away to Valencia in the Champions League last 16, had effectively been lost as well, starting only a handful of games as he dealt with personal issues.
Gasperini thought about stepping down, accepting this as the end of a cycle. It was the affection of the fans, he says, that persuaded him to stay, but he could not keep doing the same things and expecting a different result. He chose the path of pragmatism, developing a more cautious tactical approach designed to help his team concede fewer goals since they were no longer capable of scoring as prolifically as they used to.
Where once they pressed relentlessly high, this season’s Atalanta often sit in a low block, clogging up the space and waiting for opponents to creep forward and leave gaps behind. Atalanta are playing fewer passes per game than they ever have under Gasperini and almost a fifth of those that they do play are long balls. In each of the past four seasons, it was more like one in 10.
Even as the manager continues to insist that this is not his preferred way to play, his team keeps getting results. Atalanta had already drawn with the champions Milan and won away to José Mourinho’s Roma. On Sunday they extended their unbeaten start with a 1-0 victory over Fiorentina.
In Gasperini’s pre-game analysis, matches against these opponents “have always been fundamental in qualifying for Europe”. Last season, the Viola beat Atalanta three times – winning both league matches and knocking them out of the Coppa Italia. Here, Atalanta would be well worth their victory. Like a boa constrictor they suffocated their opponents and then devoured them, winning it with a goal from Ademola Lookman. You could be forgiven for wondering whether Fiorentina’s defenders had indeed passed out for the way they simply failed to mark the winger as he poked home Luis Muriel’s cross in the 59th minute.
The visitors’ defending was woeful at times, and only an extremely poor finish from Joakim Mæhle saved them from further harm after he was allowed to run through on goal uncontested. Even so, this was a show of strength from an Atalanta team who were missing first-teamers in just about every area of the pitch – from Juan Musso in goal to José Luis Palomino in defence, Davide Zappacosta at wing-back and Duván Zapata up front.
This was another occasion to marvel at the consistent productivity of Atalanta’s youth system. The 21-year-old academy graduate Caleb Okoli, back in Bergamo after loan spells with Spal and Cremonese, did a stand-out job of neutralising Fiorentina’s centre-forward Christian Kouamé, while his 18-year-old defensive partner Giorgio Scalvini was almost as impressive alongside him. Their understanding helped Atalanta to maintain the tightest defence in Serie A, with just three goals conceded in eight games.
It was a blend of old and new that proved decisive at the other end, Muriel dribbling past two players before squaring the ball to Lookman for the goal. Gasperini had encouraged his forwards to spread wide, pulling the Fiorentina defence apart, and it was the Colombian who danced most effectively through the spaces in between.
Caleb Okoli slides in to tackle Fiorentina’s Christian Kouamé. Photograph: Paolo Magni/EPA
Lookman is settling nicely. This was his second goal since joining from Leicester in the summer – and in his own head it feels more like three, after his deflected shot against Monza was recorded as a Marlon Santos own goal. “I was a bit disappointed they took one away from me,” he said on Sunday, “But what matters today are the three points.” His latest strike was only a tap-in, but it demonstrated that Lookman is taking on Gasperini’s instruction, drifting in from the flank to arrive in the box at just the right moment – a move we have seen from so many other wide players in the manager’s systems before.
Atalanta never replaced the individual talents of Gómez or Ilicic, whose contract was terminated by mutual agreement last month, but their depth is noteworthy. The manager was able to call Mario Pasalic, a player with 42 caps for Croatia, as well as Mæhle, Denmark’s joint-top scorer with five goals in World Cup qualifying, off the bench at the start of the second half.
On the pitch, Atalanta are exceeding all expectations. Off it, there is work to be done. Fiorentina’s general manager Joe Barone has demanded action after his club’s owner, Rocco Commisso, was subjected to territorial discrimination by home supporters before kick-off. Born in Sicily and the south of Italy respectively, both men grew up in the United States. “Today we witnessed a shameful episode, not from one individual but a whole stand,” said Barone in a statement. “We fought against racism in America and today here in Italy we were subjected to an unacceptable situation. We are disgusted and we expect severe measures.”
Barone has raised the matter with the league, Italian Olympic Committee, and the government. The issue of territorial discrimination is neither new to Italian football nor exclusive to Bergamo, but he would like to see this moment become a starting point for change.
