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England - Premier League

Battle of titans ends all square

The big match in the Premiership on Sunday saw last season’s top two share the spoils as Chelsea and Manchester United drew 1-1 at Stamford Bridge. Deco was due to start for the Blues but pulled out after getting injured during the warm-up, while Ricardo Carvalho as also forced off with injury early on. Jose Bosingwa did complete the full ninety minutes for Chelsea, who left Paulo Ferreira amongst the substitutes, while Cristiano Ronaldo continued his return to fitness with a 35-minute cameo and Nani was not called from the bench for United.

Ricardo Vaz Te made a rare appearance for Bolton Wanderers, coming on for the final ten minutes as the Trotters lost 3-1 at home to Arsenal. Luis Boa Morte came on as a 73rd minute substitute for West Ham in Gianfranco Zola’s first match in charge, a 3-1 home victory over Newcastle United. Nuno Valente was an unused substitute in Everton’s 2-2 draw with Hull City.

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Germany - Bundesliga

Bremen on fire

Werder Bremen recorded one of the most memorable results in their history when they hammered defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich 5-2 at the Alianz Arena. The visitors, who were 5-0 up with twenty minutes still left to play, were without Portuguese forward Hugo Almeida.

Wolfsburg made it three wins from their opening five matches and moved up to sixth place in the table thanks to a comfortable 3-0 home win over Hamburg, although Ricardo Costa was only fit enough for a place on the bench. Elsewhere, Armando Petit was in midfield for Cologne in their 2-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld, while Daniel Fernandes kept goal in Bochum’s 1-1 draw at Cottbus and Sergio Pinto played the full ninety minutes as Hannover were beaten 4-0 at Bayer Leverkusen.

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Italy - Serie A

Mourinho sitting pretty

Jose Mourinho’s Inter sit top of Serie A after three rounds following a 3-1 win at Torino, with Ricardo Quaresma coming on at half time for the defending champions. The Nerazurri lead second place Juventus only on goal difference, as the Bianconeri gave Tiago Mendes half an hour as they beat Cagliari 1-0.

Vitorino Antunes played the full match at left-back for Lecce as they were held 1-1 by Siena, who did not include Goncalo Brandao in the travelling squad. Manuel da Costa was not involved as Fiorentina beat Bologna 1-0 in Florence, and Atalanta were without Costinha for their 1-0 loss at Catania.

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Spain - La Liga

Manaiche given ovation

Maniche was again in the headlines when he was applauded off by the Atletico Madrid fans, after scoring in their 4-0 win over a Recreativo Huelva side missing Roberto Beto at the Vicente Calderon. Pepe returned to the Real Madrid backline for the champions 2-0 victory at Racing Santander, who brought on Jorge Goncalves for the final 12 minutes, while Miguel and Manuel Fernandes started Valencia’s 1-0 win over Osasuna.

Nelson continued his new career in Spain with his first experience of the hotly contested Seville derby on Sunday, playing at right-back for Real Betis as they and fierce rivals Sevilla played out a goalless draw at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

There was a Portuguese in either defence at the Riazor Stadium as Ze Castro’s Deportivo La Coruna and Jose Nunes’ Mallorca drew 0-0. Malaga selected three Portuguese for their trip to Almeria, with Sergio Duda starting, Eliseu coming on after 72 minutes and Helder Rosario an unused substitute.

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Others

Greece

Fernando Santos’ PAOK Saloniki moved into third in the Greek Super League with a 1-0 win at Panthrakikos Komotini, with both Sergio Conceicao and Vieirinha in the PAOK starting line-up and Manuel Lopez was in the home side. Striker Edinho came on for the final 13 minutes of AEK Athens’ 1-0 victory over Iraklis Saloniki. Luis Lourenco did not play in Panionios’ 1-1 draw with OFI Heraklion.

Fabio Felicio started but was replaced on 35 minutes of Asteras Tripolis’ 2-0 win at Thrasivoulos Fylis, while Francisco Zuela played as Skoda Xanthi won 1-0 at AE Larisa and Daniel Kenedy was in the Ergotelis Heraklion team for their 1-1 draw with Levadiakos.

Romania

Antonio Semedo was again amongst the goals for early season pacesetters Steaua Bucharest, grabbing a brace in his side’s 4-0 victory over Gaz Metan. Tiago Gomes was also in the Steaua line-up. Dinamo Bucharest are in second, although they were without Bruno Simao for their 2-0 win over Poli Iasi, who introduced Nuno Viveiros for the final twenty minutes.

CFR Cluj followed up their Champions League win over Roma by thrashing Farul Constanta 3-0 at home on Sunday. Tony, Ricardo Cadu and Dani all started for Cluj, while Farul arrived with forward Chico in the starting line-up.

Jose Peseiro’s Rapid Bucharest continued their uninspiring start to the season with a stalemate at FC Brasov. Peseiro started Ricardo Fernandes in defence and Joao Paulo Andrade in midfield, while Rui Duarte and Paulo Adriano played for Brasov. Luis Dias and Jorge Tavares both came on as substitutes for Gloria Buzau in their 1-1 draw at FC Arges. Carlos Milhazes was in defence for Poli Timisoara as they won 3-1 at home against FC Vaslui, who had Hugo Luz at the back.

Russia

Champions Zenit Saint Petersburg remain in 7th place after losing 3-1 at home to city rivals CSKA Moscow on Saturday, with Danny selected in the Zenit starting eleven. Elsewhere in Russia, Ricardo Silva was an unused substitute for Shinnik Yaroslavl as they went down 2-0 at Dynamo Moscow, for whom Cicero and Custodio were left out of the match day squad.

Scotland

Rangers still have a three-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League after their 2-1 home victory over Motherwell on Sunday, with Pedro Mendes playing the full ninety minutes in midfield. Hearts are in third, although they were still without Bruno Aguiar for their 1-0 win over Inverness, while Filipe Morais was missing as Hibernian moved up to fourth by beating Hamilton 1-0 at New Douglas Park.

Serbia

Partizan Belgrade’s 100% record in Serbia continued with their fifth win of the season, and Portuguese Almani Moreira played the full match as the champions ran out comfortable 3-0 winners at Rad Belgrade.

Switzerland

FC Basel manager Christian Gross gave several key players, including Portuguese forward Carlitos, a rest as the champions were on domestic cup duty, beating FC Shotz 1-0 on Saturday. In contrast, rock-bottom FC Luzern used their match with lower league FC Plaffeien, which they won 3-0, to give their first team players some confidence. It worked for Nelson Ferreira, who started the match and scored the third for his side with ten minutes left to play.

Turkey

Turkish champions Galatasaray record a much-needed victory on Sunday, winning 4-1 at Kocaelispor with Fernando Meira in defence. Meanwhile, Neca was among the goals for Ankaraspor as the club from the capital ran out 4-0 winners over Hacettepe on Sunday evening.

Ukraine

Metalurh Donetsk survived the absence of star midfielder Ricardo Fernandes to beat FC Lviv 2-0 on Saturday and remain top of the Ukrainian Premier League. Fernandes’ men have won seven of their eight matches so far this season and hold a two-point lead over second place Dynamo Kiev.

Star Performer

Antonio Semedo (Steaua Bucharest)

Having opened his account for new club Steaua Bucharest last week, Semedo made it three goals in two league games as his brace helped his side to a 4-0 win over Gaz Metan and top spot in the Romanian First Division.

Earlier Round-ups