DFB POKAL (HIGHLIGHTS)

The traditional curtain raiser to the German season saw relatively few upsets as just two 1. Bundesliga outfits were eliminated; new arrivals Greuther Furth went down 5-4 on penalties to Babelsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, no longer with Adi Hutter at the helm, lost 2-0 to Mannheim. Mainz and Koln did, however, have to hold their nerve to come through penalty shootouts against Elversberg and Carl Zeiss Jena respectively. Club record scorers Fabian Klos (one goal) and Andrej Kramaric (2 goals) were on target in victories for Bielefeld and Hoffenheim, while Erling Haaland hit the ground running with a hat-trick in Dortmund’s win at Wiesbaden. Bayern’s game against Bremer was postponed due to Covid-19 protocols.

LIGUE 1 (HIGHLIGHTS)

New boys Clermont are the shock early pacesetters after an unexpected 2-0 away victory over Bordeaux; they are joined by Angers on top after their win in Strasbourg. A revamped Marseille line-up came back from 2-0 down at Montpellier to win 3-2 thanks to a Payet double. PSG, missing a few big names (including Messi?), were less than impressive against Troyes, but were still able to call on the likes of new arrival Hakimi and Mauro Icardi to overturn an early one goal deficit. The rest of the matches ended up draws, some more thrillingly (Metz 3-3 Lille) than others (Nice 0-0 Reims), as three of last season’s top four dropped points.