Lamine Yamal inspires Barcelona while Conor Gallagher opens Atletico account
By PA Sport Staff
Lamine Yamal’s first-half double helped Barcelona maintain their winning start to the LaLiga season with a 4-1 thrashing of Catalan rivals Girona.
The Spain teenager put the visitors in control and goals from Dani Olmo and Pedri after the break wrapped up a comfortable win before the closing stages saw Cristhian Stuani net a consolation for Girona and Barca’s Ferran Torres sent off.
Victory leaves Barca four points clear at the top of LaLiga with five wins from five and their attention now turns to Thursday’s Champions League opener against Monaco.
The win also saw Barca gain revenge for their two 4-2 defeats at the hands of surprise package Girona last season.
Atletico Madrid remain in second after Conor Gallagher netted his first goal for his new side in their 3-0 victory over Valencia.
The England midfielder, who joined the Spanish giants from Chelsea last month, opened the scoring in the 39th minute at Metropolitano Stadium before Antoine Griezmann and Julian Alvarez extended the hosts’ advantage after the break – the ex-Manchester City forward also with his first goal for Atleti.
Celta Vigo secured a 3-1 win over Valladolid, who went down to 10 men after Mario Martin was sent off in the 81st minute.
Athletic Bilbao were also left short-handed after Mikel Jauregizar’s 56th-minute sending-off, but prevailed 3-2 over hosts Las Palmas.
Denzel Dumfries netted a late equaliser as Serie A champions Inter Milan avoided a shock defeat at neighbours Monza.
Dany Mota had put Monza on course for an unlikely victory when he headed the hosts ahead against the run of play with nine minutes remaining at the U-Power Stadium.
Yet Inter, after meeting stubborn resistance from the hosts all evening, finally found a way through in the 88th minute and secured a 1-1 draw as Dumfries turned in a deflected cross at close range.
Napoli cruised to a third straight victory as goals from Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Romelu Lukaku and Alessandro Buongiorno – his first for Gli Azzuri – made it 4-0 at Cagliari.
ATP world number 12 Stefanos Tsitsipas was the special guest at the Marassi, where the Genoa supporter watched Koni de Winter rescue a point for the hosts in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time in their 1-1 draw with Roma.
Atalanta beat Fiorentina 3-2, Ademola Lookman with the decisive goal, while Torino and Lecce played out a goalless stalemate.
Yusuf Kabadayi’s stoppage-time strike added to second-half goals from Marius Wolf and Philip Tietz as Augsburg secured a 3-1 Bundesliga victory over St Pauli, whose 74th-minute consolation came from Carlo Boukhalfa.
Werder clung on to all three points despite going down to 10 men when Marco Friedl was issued a red card after an hour in their 2-1 victory at Mainz.
Lens clung onto fourth position in Ligue 1 after playing out a goalless draw with Lyon, and sit two points behind Monaco in third.
Fifth-placed Nantes fell to their first defeat of the new campaign after Keito Nakamura scored a stoppage-time winner in Reims’ 2-1 triumph.
Rennes secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over league-bottom Montpellier, Toulouse beat Le Havre 2-0, and Strasbourg shared the spoils with Angers in a 1-1 draw.