Under-fire Manchester City stayed perfect in the Premier League, while Bayern Munich hit six goals against visiting Leipzig in the Bundesliga. Lamine Yamal stood out for Barcelona in a bad-tempered and spectacular 5-2 win at Real Betis on Saturday that maintained the visitors’ perfect start to La Liga before a Champions League showdown with Paris Saint-Germain. PSG also won, coming from behind with substitute Ousmane Dembele missing a penalty before later scoring in a 3-1 victory at Strasbourg in the French league.
Yamal scored arguably the day’s finest goal across all the European leagues, but was later booked after clashing with a rival player, who was sent off. He justifiably looked very pleased with himself. After the break, Yamal set up Gabriel Jesus for Barca’s third goal, only for Abde Ezzalzouli to reply for Betis two minutes later, when Yamal and Bernal clashed off the ball. Eric Garcia got Barcelona’s fourth goal shortly afterward, before Dani Olmo completed the scoring late.
The 19-year-old Ballon d’Or contender scored the opening goal when he eluded Facundo Bernal by rolling his foot over the ball just outside the penalty area, from where he sent it sailing inside the far post in the 10th minute.
The result increased the pressure on Espanyol coach Manolo Gonzalez after a fifth defeat from nine games for the club owned by American Alan Pace. They were all on the field by the time Dembele fired the spot kick wide in the 72nd. But Ukraine defender Illya Zabarnyi finally equalized five minutes later, Dembele popped up with what seemed the winner in the 85th, and Doue made sure in stoppage time.
Alex Baena scored in the 89th for Atlético Madrid to beat Espanyol 1-0 away and stretch his team’s winning run to six games across all competitions. Pedro Neto scored early and late in the second half to lead Chelsea to a 2-0 win at previously undefeated Everton in a Premier League match marred by a serious-looking head injury to Chelsea goalkeeper Emi Martinez.
