And another Soccer season gets under way

Shatov broke the deadlock on 16 minutes in Zenit's 1-0 win away at Standard de Liège in Belgium in the Champions League qualifying round. FC Zenit leads the Russian Premier League with a maximum 12 points from 4 games, three ahead of a pack consisting of FC Dinamo Moskva, CSKA Moskva and Spartak Moskva. Zenit beat Ufa 1-0, with a penalty from Hulk.

Champions League Qualifying rounds First Leg

Matches played on August 19 and 20. Second legs to be played on August 26 and 27.

Salzburg 2 Malmö 1; Besiktas 0 Arsenal 0; Napoli 1 Athletic 1; Steaua 1 Ludogorets 0; Kobenhavn 2 Leverkusen 3; Lille 0 FC Porto 1; Standard de Liège 0 Zenit 1; Slovan Bratislava 1 BATE 1; Maribor 1 Celtic 1; Aab 1 APOEL 1

Chempionat Rossii - Russian Premier League (After 4 matches)

 FC Zenit leads the Russian Premier League with a maximum 12 points from 4 games, three ahead of a pack consisting of FC Dinamo Moskva, CSKA Moskva and Spartak Moskva. Zenit beat Ufa 1-0, with a penalty from Hulk. Dinamo won 2-1 away at Arsenal, in Tula, recently promoted but struggling with one point from the first four games, albeit with plenty of time to recover; CSKA lost at home 1-0 to Spartak, through a Khombarov penalty.

Premier League (England) (After 1 match)

Wins for the following teams on the opening day of the premiership, Chelsea getting the best result (3-1 at Burnley): Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Swansea City, Aston Villa, Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur). Manchester United began their season in the worst possible way under Louis van Gaal, losing at home to Swansea City by 2-1.

 FA Community Shield Arsenal 3 Manchester City 0

Goals from Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey in the first half, followed by the third, a rocket from 25 metres, after the break from Olivier Giroud started a promising season for Arsene Wenger's Gunners and raises questions as to the preparation of Manuel Pelligrini's Manchester City.

La Liga (Spain)

Matches start on August 23

Bundesliga (Germany)

Matches start August 22/23

Ligue 1 (France) (After 2 matches)

Two totalists in France with two wins out of two games, FC Girondins de Bordeaux and AS Saint-Étienne, followed by Paris Saint-Germain, OGC Nice, FC Nantes, FC Lorient and LOSC Lille,all with 4 points (one win and a draw). Bordeaux beat Monaco 4-1 and Saint-Étienne beat Reims 3-1. Monaco has zero points from two games and may be ruing the day when they hired the unknown Portuguese coach Leonardo Jardim, unheard of in France until this season.

Serie A (Italy)

Matches start August 30

Primeira Liga (Portugal) (After 1 match)

Wins for SC Braga, Vitória SC, Belenenses, FC Porto, Benfica, Rio Ava and Moreirense in the Portuguese Peimeira Liga, the best result being the 3-0 drubbing of Boavista (from the city of Oporto) recently promoted after being wrongly demoted, a scandal in Portuguese soccer.

Premer Liga (Ukraine) After 4 matches

FC Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk lead the Ukrainian Premer Liga with a maximum 12 points out of the first four games, with FC Dynamo Kyiv just behind on 10.

 

Shakhtar beat local rival FC Olimpic Donetsk 5-0 away in the local Derby, while Dnipro went to Zaporizhya to beat Metalurh 1-0. Dinamo went to Mariupol to beat Illychivets 4-1, with a hat-trick from Kravets.

In Romania, after 4 games, FC Steaua Bucureşti leads with the maximum 12 points, followed by FC Petrolul Ploieşti on 10 and FC Astra Giurgiu on 9. Steaua beat Pandurii 6-0; Petrolul drew 0-0 at home with Rapid Bucureşti and Astra beat Iaşi 2-1.

In Armenia, FC Pyunik and FC Shirak top the table with 6 points from the first two games. Pyunik won 2-0 away at Alashkert, while Shirak beat Mika 1-0.

In the Azerbaijan Premier League (Topaz Premyer Liqası), Sumqayit FK leads with 6 points out of 6 after 2 games (1-0 away at Xäzär Länkära) while Inter Baki PIK is second on 4 points (1-0 defeat at Neftçi).

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

([email protected])

 

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Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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