The new season is under way,
and - surprise, surprise - Leo Messi is topping our chart! A hat-trick in the
second leg of the Spanish Super Cup and another goal on the opening league game
of the season got him off to another great start. Can he beat the record 47 he
scored in the last campaign? Barça's opponents in the Super Cup, and
Luis Fabiano and Kanouté (twice) both scored in the first leg to give
their side what looked like a good lead. An away goal by Ibrahimovic, his last
in a Blaugrana shirt before moving to AC Milan, proved vital though in the end.
Another disappointment for
Sevilla came in the Champions League qualifier, where they were beaten 3-5 on
aggregate by Sporting Braga. Again Kanouté and Luis Fabiano were on
target, but it was just not enough. Sevilla will now join Atlético,
Getafe and Villarreal in the Europa League after the latter two won through
their qualifying games (Atlético were exempt as defending champions).
Getafe struggled through against APOEL Nicosia, but Villarreal cruised past
Dnepr, with Nilmar scoring in both legs.
Atlético themselves
had other fish to fry, and they beat Champions League winners Inter Milan 0-2
in the European Super Cup to tie up their first title of the season. Reyes and
Agüero got the goals. That meant that their opening league game against
Sporting Gijón was put back to Monday night, and they won that too by
4-0, with two from the World Cup's best player Diego Forlán, to start
the season at the top of the table. Earlier in the weekend Joaquín
(Valencia), Konko (Sevilla) and Osvaldo (Espanyol) also scored a couple each to
feature in our early rankings. There will now be a short break for
international matches, and things kick off again in a fortnight's time.
(01.09.10) |