EUROPEAN ACTION RE-COMMENCES IN STYLE
French, German and Scottish Clubs Open Season in Dramatic Fashion
By Julius Ross
Forget the hectic European summer jam-packed with transfer speculation, scandalous statements from the Cristiano Ronaldo saga and the wash up of Euro 2008, action finally translated from the sidelines and the headlines of the newspapers to the football pitch this weekend.
Both the French and Scottish leagues returned to action for their opening encounters of their respective seasons, whilst in Germany Bundesliga sides warmed up for their 2008-09 campaign with impressive victories in the German Cup.
Goal! Weekly reporter Julius Ross checks out the pick of the action on the European continent.
Champagne Football – French Ligue 1
The French Ligue 1 kicked off in dramatic fashion on Saturday night (AEST) with late drama in several key opening clashes.
Title contenders Marseille surrendered a 3-1 lead away to Rennes to draw 4-4 in a gripping conclusion in the North-West of France.
Marseille will be infuriated at their lack of composure in the final minutes, after unnecessarily dropping two vital points to kick-start their 2008-09 campaign.
Olivier Thomert opened the scoring for Rennes after a mere six minutes, but Marseille replied strongly through Bakari Kone, Hatem Ben Afra and Mamadou Niang to put the away side in a commanding position at half-time.
Rennes launched a fight back in the second half, drawing level through a second goal from Thomert and an own-goal in the 89th minute.
A minute later it appeared that Marseille had secured all three points through an Eliot Grandin strike to make it 4-3, but Rennes’ Bruno Cheyrou snatched a point in the dying seconds.
Newly promoted Grenoble produced some of its own drama in its clash against Sochaux, securing a spectacular victory through late goals by Nassim Akrour and Daniel Moreira who scored in the 87th and 88th minutes, respectively.
Bordeaux shot to the top of the Ligue 1 table courtesy of Fernando Cavenaghi’s goal 10 minutes from time, handing it a 2-1 victory over Caen.
Other fixtures were decided in less dramatic fashion, with four 1-0 victories and a 0-0 draw rounding out the opening day results.
Monaco defeated Paris St Germain thanks to a Frederic Nimani header and Valenciennes beat St Etienne through a penalty from Gael Danic.
Lorient also secured victory via the penalty spot, defeating Le Mans 1-0 with Christophe Jallet slotting home.
Nice succumbed to a lone strike from Le Harve’s Jean-Michel whilst Julien Quercia’s strike helped Auxerre to success against Nantes.
Lille and Nancy played out the only draw of the opening day, with neither side finding the break through in a tense 0-0 draw which saw Lille reduced to 10 men in the final minute.
Current league Champions Lyon began its title defence at home against Toulouse on Monday morning (AEST).
Bundesliga Clubs Serve up Sauerkraut for Lowly Sides in German Cup
In Germany, Bundesliga sides showed no mercy to their inferior opponents in the second round of the German Cup on Saturday.
A week before the Bungesliga kicks-off for the 2008-09 season, the premier division clubs showed off their goal scoring credentials and sent out warnings to their opponents in a series of merciless victories against lowly opposition.
Werder Bremen demolished fourth-division Eintracht Nordhorn 9-3 in the match of the round, with Markus Rosenberg snatching four goals and Hugo Almeida securing a hat-trick in the 12-goal encounter.
Hannover continued the destruction with a 5-0 thumping of Hallescher FC in a heated encounter.
The clash was marred briefly by violence in the stands between opposing supporters, which caused a 10 minute delay to play, but even when police had defused the potentially volatile situation off-pitch, Hannover continued their on-pitch demolition.
Borussia Moenchengladbach were far from lenient on Fitche Bielefield, humiliating the minnows 8-1, whilst Borussia Dortmund further stamped the authority of the Bungelsiga with victory over fourth-division side Rot-Weiss Essen.
Eintracht Frankfurt, Energie Cottbus and Schalke all battered their opponents by 3-0 score lines, with SC Pfullendorf, TB Berlin and Homburg suffering the damage from their respective opponents.
Rangers Kick-Start Campaign with Gutsy Victory
Rangers kicked off their 2008-09 SPL campaign with a win on the opening day of the season courtesy of Andius Velicka’s second-half tap-in against Falkirk.
But it wasn’t all easy sailing for the Glasgow club who were looking to get off to winning ways after being knocked out of Europe by underdogs FBK Kaunas midweek.
It was looking bleak for the Ibrox club in the 54th minute after they conceded a penalty to the home side, but had ‘keeper Allan McGregor to thank for turning Michael Hidgon’s shot round the post.
Velicka’s goal was enough as Rangers held on away from home to put pressure on Celtic, the current SPL Champion, in a season where the Glasgow giants will almost certainly again fight it out for the title.
Elsewhere, Hearts and Motherwell played out a 3-2 thriller, Kilmarnock secured a 1-0 victory over Hibernian and Inverness won 2-0 against Aberdeen.
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