Europe

Is there such a thing as a disastrous 4-0 victory? There is if you’re Paris Saint-Germain and you’re beating down on Ligue 1 opponents while waiting for the Champions League group stage to begin.

PSG laid waste to Toulouse yesterday at the Parc des Princes thanks to a brace from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, a Mathieu Goncalves own goal and a towering header from Marquinhos, but the main story was the injuries suffered by star attackers Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappé.

With Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé all sidelined through injury, new signing Antoine Griezmann took center stage in Barcelona’s 5-2 victory over Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Sunday night. 

After losing their season opener last Friday against Athletic Bilbao, Barça’s nightmarish start continued when Nabil Fekir opened the scoring for Betis in the 15th minute. 

After a fifth-place finish last season led to the resignations of head coach Gennaro Gattuso and sporting director Leonardo, AC Milan’s opening fixture of the 2019-20 Serie A campaign outlined just how difficult the task of improving on that record will be for replacements Marco Giampaolo and Paolo Maldini.  

Udinese, 12th-place finishers last year, recorded a shock 1-0 victory over Milan at the Stadio Friuli on Sunday, condemning the Rossoneri to an opening day defeat for the fifth time in the past eight seasons.

Given a much more normal pathway to his footballing career, Martin Ødegaard is thriving. After establishing himself as one of the best playmakers in the Eredivisie last season while on loan at Vitesse (the former wunderkind scored eight goals and provided 11 assists in 31 appearances), the 20-year-old Norwegian is finally getting his chance in LaLiga, although he’s now on loan at Real Sociedad.

24-year-old USMNT goalkeeper Zack Steffen is two matches into his Fortuna Düsseldorf career, and so far he’s helped his club into the second round of the DFB-Pokal and collected Bundesliga Player of the Week honors after recording 10 saves in Düsseldorf’s league-opening victory over Werder Bremen on Saturday.

That’s one helluva start for a man who’s just beginning a year-long loan move from Manchester City, the club he officially joined from the Columbus Crew back in July for a transfer fee of $9.12 million. He’s already surpassed Landon Donovan’s achievements in Germany.

Before yesterday’s Ligue 1 match between defending champion PSG and Rennes at Roazhon Park, all of the talk was centered around Neymar’s complete absence from the squad. After the match, the only name being mentioned was that of 16-year-old Rennes defensive midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.

Camavinga only made his senior debut last April — going on to total seven Ligue 1 appearances last campaign — but he was instrumental in his side’s shock 2-1 upset of PSG last night.