Juventus begin defence of Serie A with win, Bayern Munich stay perfect
Carlos Tevez breaks off in celebration after scoring the only goal of the game. Juventus went on to win the game 1-0. (Getty Images)
The investment over the summer in a new striker paid off immediately for Juventus as new boy Carlos Tevez scored on his league debut to give the defending champions a 1-0 win on the road at Sampdoria.
Juve had lost both home and away to Sampdoria last season, so the result will go down as a positive one for the players and their manager Antonio Conte, who is bidding to win a third-straight Scudetto with the Bianconeri.
Tevez started alongside Mirko Vucinic up front and posed a stiff challenge for the Samp defenders all evening. The goal came courtesy of some excellent build-up play from Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba as they opened up the Sampdoria defence to play Tevez in for an easy finish.
In a double boost for Juventus, rivals AC Milan were rocked as they lost to newly promoted side Verona thanks to a Luca Toni brace. Andrea Poli opened the scoring early for Milan in the 14th minute, but Verona battled back to first level the match, and then take the lead through Toni. Milan were playing the game with close to 10 of their regulars unavailable through either suspension or injury, including the likes of Kevin-Prince Boateng, Nigel de Jong and Giampaolo Pazzini.
Bayern, Dortmund register wins
In the Bundesliga, treble winners Bayern Munich made it three wins out of three with a 2-0 win over Nurnberg in the Bavarian derby. The pair called ‘Robbery’ – Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery – was on the score-sheet, both goals coming in the final 20 minutes after a goalless first half that saw few clear cut chances.
With the win, Bayern kept up with Borussia Dortmund, who earlier on Friday had gone top of the league with a 1-0 win over Werder Bremen, thanks to a Robert Lewandowski strike. The two big boys were joined by Bayer Leverkusen, who came through a pulsating clash against Borussia Monchengladbach with a 4-2 win. All three teams along with Mainz are level on 9 points, with Dortmund currently occupying top spot thanks to a better goal difference.
Marseille go top of Ligue 1
Andre-Pierre Gignac scored a late goal to give Olympique Marseille a 1-0 win away at Valenciennes to keep intact their 100 percent start to the Ligue 1 season and propelling them to the top of the table. It was the third game in a row where the Frenchman was scoring, after having scored in the first two games as well.
Marseille took advantage of Monaco’s slip up on Friday to go top. Monaco were held to a 0-0 draw by Toulouse. Champions Paris St. Germain will look to rebound after two draws in their first two games when they travel to Nantes on Sunday.
La Liga
With Barcelona and Real Madrid playing later over the weekend, there were only two matches played in La Liga on Saturday. Valencia fell to a 3-1 defeat away at Espanyol, after scoring first through Helder Postiga. In the other game, Real Sociedad fought hard to earn a 1-1 draw at newly promoted side Elche.