No better place to start than with the multi-million pound man Neymar, whose home debut in PSG comprised two goals and two assists in a 6-2 thrashing of Toulouse, who opened the scoring thanks to the familiar faced Max Gradel. Elsewhere in France Monaco are now three from three after beating Metz 1-0, becoming the first team to win 15 successive matches in Ligue 1.
Barcelona kicked off their La Liga campaign with a 2-0 victory over Real Betis, while Atletico Madrid could only draw at Girona after Christian Stuani’s double, yet they did have to recover from a two goal deficit with a man fewer after Antoine Griezmann’s late red. Meanwhile for Celta a Maxi Gomez double was not enough for his side as they lost 3-2 in the dying minutes to a Willian Jose penalty for Real Sociedad. Real Madrid meanwhile kicked off in style as they eased past Deportivo 3-0, where Gareth Bale bagged a goal and an assist and the home side missed a late penalty, while Sergio Ramos was shown the 24th red card of his career – a joint-record 18th in La Liga history.
AC Milan began their highly anticipated Serie A campaign with a 3-0 win over ten man Crotone, while their rivals Inter also kicked off their league season with a 3-0 victory over Fiorentina thanks to Ivan Perisic and a Mauro Icardi double. Champions Juventus also won 3-0, with Gianluigi Buffon saving a penalty awarded through the Video Assistant Referee, where Gonzalo Higuain, Mario Mandžukić and Paulo Dybala all got their goal scoring campaigns underway. Ten man Napoli and Roma also picked up wins, where the former beat Hellas Verona 3-1 and the latter overcame Atalanta 1-0, where Aleksandar Kolarov notched the only goal of the game.
Bayern Munich picked up a 3-1 win in their first Bundesliga game as they beat Leverkusen 3-1, while rivals Borussia Dortmund also picked up three points in a 3-0 victory over Wolfsburg, where both Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang found the net. In the most incredible event of the opening set of fixtures, Hamburg forward Nicolai Mueller somehow managed to rule himself out for seven months after landing awkwardly while celebrating the only goal of the game.
The match of the weekend unquestionably goes to Lyon’s 3-3 draw at home to Bordeaux, where the home side went two up before going down to ten men, yet then went 3-1 up until two last-minute goals for the away side in a thrilling contest.