Soccer

Victory at Girona helps Barcelona maintain 100 per cent record

Luis Suarez celebrates his 100th league game with another goal for Catalan giants

Luis Suarez scores Barcelona’s third goal against Girona in the 3-0 victory at the Estadi Montilivi. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

Sun Sep 24 2017 - 19:45

Barcelona opened up a four-point gap at the top of La Liga, maintaining their 100 percent start as they cruised to a 3-0 victory at Catalan rivals Girona on Saturday.

An own goal either side of the break and a Luis Suarez strike in his 100th league appearance for the club after 69 minutes were enough for Ernesto Valverde's team to secure the points in the first-ever league meeting between the sides.

Having seen Atletico Madrid defeat Sevilla 2-0 to move into second place and a Dani Ceballos double help an unconvincing Real Madrid to sneak past bottom-of-the-table Alaves 2-1 earlier on, Barca made light work of their opponents, even if two of their goals were fortunate.

In Italy, Sampdoria, deprived of an early penalty when the referee changed his mind after consulting the VAR, scored twice in the final 20 minutes to comprehensively defeat a dismal AC Milan 2-0 in Serie A on Sunday.

READ MORE

Danilo D'Ambrosio headed an 87th-minute goal as Inter Milan snatched a 1-0 win over Genoa, who lost their heads and had two players sent off, while Ciro Immobile continued his prolific run with another brace in Lazio's 3-0 win at struggling Verona.

Inter have won five of their six games and are third with 16 points, two behind Juventus and Napoli who both have a maximum 18 points after winning on Saturday.

Paris Saint-Germain drew a blank for the first time this season as they surprisingly surrendered their 100 per cent start with a goalless draw at Montpellier. Unai Emery's side had scored 21 times in their first six Ligue 1 fixtures and also put five past Celtic in the Champions League, but their high-powered attack misfired at the Stade de la Mosson.

That will inevitably draw more attention to the absence of world-record signing Neymar, who was left out of the squad with what was reportedly a minor foot injury.

PSG are still top with 19 points, one ahead of Monaco.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick and Maximilian Philipp struck twice as Borussia Dortmund demolished Borussia Moenchengladbach 6-1 on Saturday to stay top of the Bundesliga with their fifth win in six matches. Dortmund have 16 points, three more than third-placed Bayern Munich, who wasted a two-goal lead on Friday to draw 2-2 against VfL Wolfsburg.

LATEST STORIES