Barcelona made it nine wins from nine in La Liga, Lazio humiliated Juventus in Turin, Bayern Munich hit Leipzig for six and Ousmane Dembele rescued Paris Saint-Germain off the bench — a weekend that blew Serie A wide open and left five teams level at the top of Ligue 1.
La Liga: Barcelona perfect, Madrid answer, Clasico looms
The story of the Spanish season keeps getting louder. Barcelona's 5-2 win at Real Betis on Saturday — our full report from Seville has the record in detail — was their ninth straight league win to open the season, equalling the mark Real Madrid set in 1968-69. Lamine Yamal curled in a stunning opener on 10 minutes, Valentin Gomez headed Betis level, Rodri restored the lead before the break and, after Gabriel Jesus and Morocco winger Abde Ezzalzouli traded goals in two frantic minutes, a red card for Facundo Bernal ended the contest. Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo completed a win that leaves Hansi Flick's side on 27 points, with 39 league goals scored.
The chasers did their jobs, but from a distance. Atletico Madrid stayed second on 22 points thanks to Alex Baena's 89th-minute winner at Espanyol, and on Sunday Real Madrid beat Sevilla 4-1 at the Bernabeu, as Reuters reported: Arda Guler's top-corner opener, a Kylian Mbappe brace — the second a Panenka penalty — and a late thunderbolt from Ivory Coast winger Yan Diomande, with Manu Bueno replying for Sevilla. Madrid are third on 21 points, six behind Barcelona. Real Sociedad matched that 5-2 scoreline at bottom club Malaga, Mikel Oyarzabal scoring twice after Takefusa Kubo and Orri Oskarsson had struck early. So what does it mean? Everything now funnels into next Sunday: Barcelona host Madrid in El Clasico, where a home win would set a new all-time record of ten straight wins to start a season — and, in all likelihood, settle the title race's direction before November.
Bundesliga: Bayern hit six, Schick makes history
Bayern Munich produced the weekend's most ruthless display in Germany, thrashing RB Leipzig 6-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday. Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick, Harry Kane marked his 100th Bundesliga appearance with a goal, and Michael Olise was also on target, with Andrija Maksimovic's late strike no consolation for Leipzig. Borussia Dortmund's goalless draw at Union Berlin earlier in the day meant Bayern finished the weekend top on 14 points, ahead of Dortmund on goal difference.
Sunday brought the record. Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to beat Freiburg 2-1 at the BayArena — Derry Scherhant put the visitors ahead, Algeria international Ibrahim Maza equalised five minutes later, and Patrik Schick tapped in Maza's cutback on 76 minutes to become the first Leverkusen player ever to score in each of the first six matches of a season. It was Freiburg's first defeat in any competition this term. Both clubs sit on 13 points, one behind Bayern, and the table now sets up a genuine summit meeting: Freiburg host Bayern next weekend. Hamburg, 1-0 winners over Stuttgart, made it three straight victories, while Eintracht Frankfurt edged Cologne by the same score. The so-what here is simple — the Bundesliga finally has a pack, not a procession, but Bayern's six-goal warning says the pack will have to run very fast.
Serie A: Lazio rout Juventus as Napoli sink to a new low
Italy delivered the weekend's biggest shock and its biggest statement. The statement came in Turin on Sunday night, where Lazio beat Juventus 3-0 — their first league win away to Juve since 2017. Danish pair Oliver Provstgaard, glancing in Mattia Zaccagni's cross on 37 minutes, and Gustav Isaksen, bending in a second on 66, did the early damage before Nigeria midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru ran from inside his own half to slot home the third a minute from time. Lazio join Inter at the top on 19 points; Juventus, jeered off, slip to eighth.
Inter had set the pace on Saturday, coming from behind to win 3-1 at Bologna through Marcus Thuram, Carlos Augusto and Ange-Yoan Bonny after Tommaso Pobega's early opener. The shock came in Venice, where bottom club Venezia beat Napoli 1-0 in new coach Davide Nicola's first game — Nigeria striker Akor Adams scored the winner on 49 minutes, and Kevin De Bruyne then saw a penalty saved by Filip Stankovic. It was Venezia's first win and first points of the season, and their first victory over Napoli since 1942; Napoli, champions in crisis, are ninth on 10 points. AC Milan survived Sunday's other thriller, beating Atalanta 3-2 at San Siro after leading 3-0 through Goncalo Ramos, Adrien Rabiot and Mario Gila, while Como's 3-1 win at Fiorentina lifted them fifth and left Fiorentina second from bottom. So what does it mean? Serie A has no runaway leader and no safe giant — two clubs share top spot, the champions are mid-table, and Juventus have a crisis to answer.
Ligue 1: Dembele saves PSG, five teams level at the top
France saved its drama for the final fifteen minutes. PSG trailed at Strasbourg from Giovanni Reyna's 17th-minute goal on Saturday, and when substitute Ousmane Dembele put a 72nd-minute penalty wide, an upset looked certain. Instead Dembele crossed for Illia Zabarnyi to equalise, scored the second himself with five minutes left and helped set up Desire Doue's stoppage-time third in a 3-1 comeback win for a heavily rotated side — the full set of Matchday 7 results is on PSG's official site. Luis Enrique, resting starters between European wins over Manchester City and Tuesday's meeting with Barcelona, joked that 25 minutes of an assist and a goal was quite enough from his star.
Sunday kept the chaos coming. Marseille won 5-2 at Angers with an all-African scoresheet doing the damage — Algeria pair Himad Abdelli and Amine Gouiri, Mali's Nouhoum Kamissoko and Morocco's Amine Harit all scored, alongside Igor Paixao, with captain Timothy Weah providing two assists. Paris FC beat Rennes 4-3 in a seven-goal thriller settled by Lassine Sinayoko's 97th-minute penalty — his second goal of the game — despite Esteban Lepaul scoring a hat-trick of penalties for Rennes. Ten-man Lyon then beat Nice 2-1, Pavel Sulc and Tanner Tessmann scoring in three first-half minutes after Ivory Coast forward Elye Wahi had put Nice ahead, while Lorient's Noah Cadiou penalty gave Monaco their first defeat of the season. The result is extraordinary: Lyon, PSG, Paris FC, Lille and Monaco are all level on 14 points, with Lyon top on goal difference — and Lyon travel to PSG next weekend.
Beyond the Final Whistle verdict: Four leagues, four different races — but one shared lesson. Barcelona's perfect nine and Bayern's six-goal rout are what champions look like in October; Lazio's win in Turin and Venezia's humbling of Napoli are proof that in Italy reputation now counts for nothing; and a five-way tie in France is the most open title picture in Europe. The African thread ran through all of it, from Diomande and Maza to Adams, Dele-Bashiru and Marseille's scorers. Which of these four races will be closest in May — and can Barcelona really make it ten from ten in El Clasico? Tell us in the comments.
