Soccer Monday: Inter wins Milan derby, Liverpool comes back (again!) and UCL returns
Kick off your week with all the action from this past weekend
League action returned this past weekend following the international break.
As usual, it was a wild few days highlighted by Liverpool, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Juventus. And that’s just a sampling of teams.
Here are the major storylines and what to look forward to this week:
3. Inter take Milan derby
The Italian city of Milan is a lot of things. It is known for its fashion, finance and football. In fact, it was the European capital of soccer on Saturday thanks to the Milan derby.
Marcus Thuram helped Inter Milan rout rivals AC Milan 5-1 at the San Siro on Saturday to maintain their perfect start to the season.
Thuram’s father Lilian, who captured the World Cup with France in 1998, was as a defender at Parma and Juventus. The younger Thuram scored a superb goal to double Inter’s lead shortly before halftime. Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored twice — Inter’s first and third goal — amid a torrential rain.
In other games on Saturday, Napoli scored two late goals to salvage a 2-2 draw at Genoa, while Juventus reached second place after downing Lazio 3-1. On Sunday, Roma thumped Empoli 7-0 and Leece, who are in fourth-place, played Monza to a 1-1 draw.
2. Liverpool comes back — again!
Liverpool have made a habit of fighting back to win Premier League games this season. The Reds did it against Bournemouth, against Newcastle and they got it done against Wolves in a 3-1 win.
“It's not ideal,” as Sky Sport pointed out, and manager Jurgen Klopp “will not want to see his side play like they did in the opening 45 very often — but it is a galvanizing way to win.”
The victory — one of four come-from-behind wins in six Premier League games played Saturday — pushed Liverpool into third place. Manchester United, meanwhile, plunged to 13th following Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton.
Manchester City also scored three unanswered goals on Saturday for a 3-1 win of their own. Second-half goals from Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland helped the defending champions stay in first place.
1. Champions League returns Tuesday
This season’s Champions League officially took shape on Aug. 31 when UEFA held the draw to determine the competition’s eight groups.
Teams were divided into four pots based on their UEFA club coefficients. One team from each of the pots was then drawn into the eight groups. Teams from the same country could not be drawn in the same group.
The group stage kicks off Tuesday with a trio of big games: AC Milan host Newcastle, Borussia Dortmund travel to Paris Saint-Germain and Lazio play Atletico Madrid in Rome.
It remains to be seen how the results from this past weekend will impact the teams in mid-week. You can check out the complete slate of matches here. Happy viewing!
In other news: U.S. Soccer said on Friday it plans to relocate their national headquarters and training center to Atlanta. Arthur Blank, owner of Atlanta United FC, has pledged $50 million to help finance the project. US Soccer, whose present offices are in Chicago, will move to the new complex, although no date has been set. … Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi did not dress for Saturday’s game at Atlanta United. Atlanta is among five MLS stadiums with artificial turf surfaces. Messi and defender Jordi Alba did not dress for Atlanta United’s 5-2 win. Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said the decision to hold out Messi was “because he has muscular fatigue and it was prudent to leave him.” … Neymar made his Saudi Pro League debut for Al Hilal on Friday, coming off the bench in the final 26 minutes of his new club's 6-1 demolition of Al Riyadh. The 31-year-old, came on in the 64th minute for fellow Brazilian Michael. He set up Malcom to score Al Hilal’s fourth in the 83rd minute.