LONDON: Paris St Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid maintained their perfect starts to the season on Sunday but Juventus lost again, making it two defeats in their opening two games in Serie A for the first time in their history.

Juve’s early season woes continued when the Italian champions were outplayed and had a man sent off in a 2-1 defeat at scudetto rivals AS Roma for whom Bosnian internationals Miralem Pjanic and Edin Dzeko scored in the second half.

A week after being stunned at home by Udinese, Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri called for fans’ patience as several new recruits settle in at the club.

“I’m not worried about our zero points in the league, that’s something that can happen in football,” said Allegri. “Yes, we have to catch up, but we’ve got all the time and quality to do so. We need to remain calm, clear headed and run through what didn’t work for us.”

PSG have had no such worries, though, as the Ligue 1 champions made it four wins in four matches after Edinson Cavani netted a second-half double to help snatch a 3-0 win at Monaco which helped Laurent Blanc’s side move three points clear of the pack.

Dortmund have three wins from three as they reclaimed top spot in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich on goal difference with a 3-1 victory over Hertha Berlin while Atletico Madrid defeated Sevilla 3-0 to win their second game in a row and keep pace with Barcelona atop La Liga.

PJANIC, DZEKO SCORE

Roma raced into a 2-0 lead with 11 minutes to play thanks to Pjanic’s excellent free kick and Dzeko’s header before Paulo Dybala scored late on for Juve who finished with 10 men having had Patrice Evra sent off.

“If you had told me before the match that we would have won 2-1, I would have signed for it in blood,” Roma coach Rudi Garcia said. “We did everything we prepared to do. But this is just the start. We can’t get overly enthusiastic and expect to always play like this.”

Roma moved to four points, two behind five teams with a full six points: Chievo Verona, Torino, Inter Milan, Sassuolo and Palermo.

Chievo have had a flying start, thrashing Lazio 4-0 to make it two wins out of two and seven goals scored while Stevan Jovetic scored twice — giving him three goals in two matches — as Inter won 2-1 at promoted Carpi.

Torino won 3-1 against Fiorentina and Palermo were 1-0 winners at Udinese.

CAVANI STEALS DI MARIA’S THUNDER

Angel di Maria made his debut as a second half substitute for PSG following his 63 million-euro ($68.9 million) move from Manchester United but it was Uruguay striker Cavani who was the hero as he put the Parisians on a maximum 12 points.

Cavani was his usual wasteful self in the first half, missing a couple of chances, until he found the net in the 57th and 73rd minute before Ezequiel Lavezzi finished off the scoring seven minutes from time after being perfectly set up by Di Maria.

“I’m satisfied, overall it was a positive match,” said Blanc, whose side lead Stade de Reims by three points. “[Di Maria] is going to be a vital element. With Lavezzi, they have a lot of complicity, that’s going to help Angel acclimatise.”

St Etienne defeated Bastia 2-1 to end the Corsicans’ unbeaten start to the season while Bordeaux picked up their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Nantes.

KAGAWA SHINES

Japan international Shinji Kagawa helped set up two goals as Dortmund recorded their eighth straight win under new coach Thomas Tuchel.

Captain Mats Hummels powered home a Kagawa cross on 27 minutes before the Japanese picked out Matthias Ginter, who fed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for an easy tap-in on 51 minutes.

Salomon Kalou pulled a goal back for Hertha on 78 minutes before Adrian Ramos came off the bench to score Dortmund’s third in injury time.

“Obviously we struggled a bit as it was a bit hot today and we also paid the price for our many games recently,” Tuchel told reporters, with his team having also qualified for the Europa League group stage in midweek.

“It is always better to be alone at the top rather than share it [with Bayern] but this is just a momentary snapshot.”

Borussia Moenchengladbach, third last season and preparing for their maiden Champions League group stage appearance, lost their third straight match, 2-1 at Werder Bremen.

MARTINEZ OPENS ACCOUNT

Atletico’s Jackson Martinez scored his first goal for the club when he came off the bench and curled in a superb effort to seal a hard-fought victory at Sevilla.

Koke opened the scoring with a strike from near the penalty spot in the 35th minute, Gabi added to the lead with a deflected shot in the 78th and Martinez sealed the win with a well-placed left-footed shot from the top of the area in the 85th.

“We are improving little by little,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said. “Possibly this was one of the best matches we’ve played.”

Atletico and Barca are among the only four teams to have won both matches to start the season, along with Celta Vigo and Eibar who beat more illustrious Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao 2-0 earlier on Sunday.

Valencia are still looking for their first win of the league season after being held 1-1 at home by Deportivo la Coruna.—Agencies

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2015

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