Cavani scores penalty as PSG go top in France

Striker Edinson Cavani came off the bench to score a controversial penalty as Paris St Germain went top of the Ligue 1 table thanks to a 2-0 home win over Toulouse on Saturday.

The Uruguayan, who scored the winner at Valenciennes on Wednesday, sealed the victory 11 minutes from time with his fourth goal of the season after centre back Marquinhos had put the French champions ahead four minutes before the break.

PSG started the game with a revamped team as Ezequiel Lavezzi, Cavani and Blaise Matuidi were all rested ahead of their Champions League Group C home clash against Benfica on Wednesday.

Four days after labouring at Valenciennes, they again struggled to create chances despite dominating the possession until Marquinhos broke the deadlock by tapping home the ball from close range.

Cavani, who replaced Zlatan Ibrahimovic midway through the second half, converted a penalty the referee had awarded for a foul on him although Toulouse centre back Uros Spajic had clearly gone for the ball as he slid in to tackle.

PSG climbed to top on 18 points from eight games, one ahead of Monaco, who visit midtable Stade Reims on Sunday, and third-placed Olympique Marseille, who won at 2-0 Lorient in the day's early game thanks to goals from Mathieu Valbuena and Andre Ayew.

Real lose to Atletico, go five points behind leaders

 Atletico Madrid Saturday kept pace with Barcelona
atop the Spanish Liga with a 1-0 derby win at neighbours Real, on a
goal from Brazilian striker Diego Costa.
It was Atletico's first league defeat of Real since 1999 and
confirmed their best ever start to a season, with seven wins out of
seven.
Earlier, Barca had scored their own seventh win, 2-0 at lowly
Almeria.
Atletico were determined to repeat their May cup final triumph
against Real in the Estadio Bernabeu, and made an aggressive start.
The only goal came in the 12th minute, when Costa calmly beat Real
keeper Diego Lopez after being played through by man-of-the-match
Koke.
Tiago came close to increasing Atletico's lead, with Real looking
uninspired and short on ideas.
Real dominated the second half, with Atletico content to soak up
the pressure and play on the break. Costa should have made it 2-0 but
was foiled by Lopez, then Koke hit the Real crossbar with an elegant
shot.
Real brought on record signing Gareth Bale but still could not
break down a resolute Atletico defence.
The whites are now five points behind Atletico and Barcelona.
Barca had few problems in Almeria, despite Lionel Messi limping
off with a pulled right hamstring shortly after scoring the first
goal.
It is a similar injury to the one that plagued him throughout last
spring.
He had broken the deadlock in the 21st minute with yet another of
his left-foot drives, after taking a clever short pass from Pedro. It
was Messi's eight goal and leaves him one ahead of Atletico's Diego
Costa in the scorers' chart.
Adriano made it 2-0 from close range after a precise move down the
left between Xavi and Cesc Fabregas. Barca then lifted their foot off
the pedal and took it easy until the end.
"I was pleased to score today, at just the moment when the game
was becoming dangerous for us," said Adriano.
"Let's hope that Messi's injury is nothing and that he can be with
us in the next few games, because he is a really important player for
us. With him, we are a different team."
Meanwhile, Barca coach Gerardo Martino said about Messi: "He has a
pulled muscle in his right leg but we will not know exactly what it
is until we do more tests.
"We are trying to control matches for 90 minutes. We were less
imprecise in the second half and Adriano's goal helped us to take
control."
Later Saturday, Real Sociedad and Sevilla played out an
interesting 1-1 draw.
Youngster Jairo gave Sevilla the lead in the 18th minute after
being set up by Ivan Rakitic, only for Antoine Griezmann to equalize
for the hosts in the 66th minute after good work down the right by
Carlos Vela.
The draw left Sociedad ninth and Sevilla 12th.
Earlier on, Valencia moved up to sixth with a 1-0 home defeat of
bottom team Rayo Vallecano.
In-form Brazilian striker Jonas scored the only goal in the 38th
minute, taking advantage of a serious blunder by Rayo defender Saul
Niguez.
Valencia are now sixth, level on 12 points with fifth-placed
Athletic Bilbao. Rayo, in contrast, are bottom with just three

Messi helps Barca set club record, then limps off

 Champions Barcelona made it seven wins out of seven in La Liga, setting a club record start to a campaign, with a 2-0 victory at promoted Almeria on Saturday.

World Player of the Year Lionel Messi struck the opener after 21 minutes with a wonderful solo effort but was forced to leave the pitch soon after with a hamstring problem in his right thigh.

Brazil full back Adriano added a second goal in the 56th minute to help move Barca on to 21 points, three ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid who visit third-placed Real Madrid in the capital city derby later on Saturday.

New coach Gerardo Martino played down his own influence on his record-breaking team.

"All I have done is profit from what these guys have achieved," Martino told a news conference.

"They have been breaking records for years. Mine is merely circumstantial."

Valencia continued to recover from their poor start to the season with a 1-0 home win over basement side Rayo Vallecano.

Brazilian striker Jonas pounced on an error in the Rayo defence to net the only goal after 37 minutes, earning Miroslav Djukic's team a third consecutive victory that put them sixth with 12 points.

Real Sociedad are ninth with seven points after a 1-1 draw at home to Sevilla.

Antoine Griezmann levelled for Socieded in the 66th minute to cancel out a great finish from Jairo in the 18th.

The Basques have now gone six games in La Liga and the Champions League without a win.

Martino rang the changes for Barca once again, leaving Neymar and Xavi on the bench, perhaps with an eye on next week's trip to Celtic in the Champions League.

Almeria gave little away at first, apart from a long-range Andres Iniesta volley that was turned over the bar, until Messi picked up the ball from a short corner on the right and ran across the edge of the area.

The Argentine played a one-two with Pedro and curled a left-foot shot in off the far post.

Messi then picked up his hamstring problem and was replaced by Xavi in the 29th minute.

The club said they would carry out tests on Sunday to determine the extent of the injury, though the forward did not seem unduly concerned as he remained in the dugout to watch the rest of the game.

"Lionel has a little muscle problem in his right leg, something he did while scoring his goal," Martino added. "Until they do the tests we won't know anything more."

After a shaky spell just before halftime, Barca doubled their lead when Cesc Fabregas squared for Adriano to slide in and divert the ball into the corner to continue the home team's winless start to the season.

Flying Dortmund, dull Bayern stay neck and neck

Borussia Dortmund steam-rollered hapless Freiburg 5-0 while Bayern Munich plodded past VfL Wolfsburg 1-0 as the two unbeaten arch-rivals remained level on points at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday.

The two wins could not have been more different, with Dortmund creating countless chances against outclassed Freiburg and Bayern struggling to get into gear against well-organised but toothless opponents.

Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski each scored twice for Dortmund and Jakub Blaszczykowski completed the rout while win-less Freiburg had Fallou Diagne sent off before halftime.

Bayern, who only came to life after Xherdan Shaqiri came on as a second-half substitute, took the three points thanks to Thomas Mueller's first league goal of the season but coach Pep Guardiola was far from satisfied.

"We won the match but we have to improve some things," he told the club's website (www.fcbayern.telecom.de).

Both teams have 19 points from seven games with Dortmund, who have scored 21 goals to Bayern's 14, ahead on goal difference.

Hamburg SV, with former Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk making his first appearance in the hot seat, twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Marcell Jansen grabbed a point for the visitors with four minutes to play.

Bayer Leverkusen's 2-0 win over Hanover 96 kept them one point behind the leaders in third spot while Hertha Berlin came from behind to beat Mainz 05 3-1 and Hoffenheim rallied from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Schalke 04.

Dortmund, who scored six goals in their previous home game against Hamburg, were so dominant that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could easily have had a hat-trick against Freiburg.

Last season's Bundesliga and Champions League runners-up created at least half a dozen chances before Reus snapped up a rebound to put them ahead in the 35th minute.

THEATRICAL FALL

Dortmund increased their lead on the stroke of halftime when Lewandowski was pushed by Diagne, fell theatrically backwards and was awarded a penalty while the Senegalese defender was sent off.

Reus converted the penalty and the rest was a foregone conclusion.

Lewandowski opened his account just before the hour with a brilliantly-taken goal. He controlled Reus's long pass on his chest with his back to goal, held off two defenders and dinked the ball into the net.

The Pole then turned in Jonas Hofmann's cross and compatriot Blaszczykowski completed the scoring with 11 minutes to go.

Bayern's uninspired win was in complete contrast, the only goal coming when Shaqiri sliced open the Wolfsburg defence with a diagonal pass to Franck Ribery and the Frenchman's low cross was turned in at the far post by Mueller.

First-half goals from Simon Rolfes and Sidney Sam were enough for Leverkusen to down Hanover while Sami Allagui scored twice for promoted Hertha in their 3-1 win over Mainz.

Schalke failed to build on an excellent start at Hoffenheim where Kevin-Prince Boateng sidefooted the visitors ahead and Joel Matip headed a second in the 13th minute.

Anthony Modeste pulled one back from close-range but Marco Hoeger burst through the Hoffenheim defence to restore Schalke's two-goal advantage five minutes before the break.

A Roberto Firmino penalty and David Abraham free kick gave Hoffenheim their second 3-3 home draw of the season while Firmino also hit the bar near the end.

Hamburg, who have the league's worst defensive record, fell behind to a Johannes Flum goal for Eintracht in the 31st minute before Pierre-Michel Lasogga headed them level in first-half stoppage time.

Marco Russ put Eintracht back in front nine minutes after the restart but Jansen curled in the last-gasp equaliser to haul Hamburg out of the bottom three.

Man City's Pellegrini vows to keep calm despite defeat

 Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to panic after his side lost 3-2 at Aston Villa on Saturday as their wait for a first away win in the Premier League this season goes on.

The Chilean coach refused to let his stuttering side's form on the road worry him despite a run of only three victories from their last 11 away league games dating back to last season.

City have picked up only one point from three of those games this term after defeat to Cardiff City and a draw at Stoke City and have slipped to fifth spot, five points off leaders Arsenal.

"It's important to keep calm. In general I was very happy with the way my team played today and we deserved a different score," he said. "We played very well and deserved to win."

They started well against Villa and dominated the first half but missed lots of chances before Yaya Toure opened the scoring with his fourth goal in their six league games this season.

Pellegrini's side would come to rue their profligacy in front of goal as they twice squandered the lead.

Villa's Karim El Ahmadi equalised early in the second half before Edin Dzeko restored City's lead. The hosts then scored twice in three minutes to turn the game on its head with Leandro Bacuna's magnificent free-kick and Andreas Weimann's winner.

"We played very well and deserved to win," a frustrated Pellegrini told Sky Sports. "We deserved another score in the match, but in five minutes we did two things that threw away everything good we had done in the rest of the match.

"The way we lost this game was incredible. We led twice, and we had control of the game."

Villa manager Paul Lambert praised the way his side overcame a crippling injury list to claim a third league win of the season that takes them up to ninth place with nine points.

"I thought we were outstanding. The injury list is pretty horrendous. We've lost two lads (forwards Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor) who have scored a lot of goals for us and we've lost (Ashley) Westwood who has been fantastic.

"We're up against one of the best teams in the country. Not just for the Barclays Premier League but for Champions League football so that says a lot about the magnitude of the result.

"I know from experience reputation will never win you the game. Their two lads (Toure and Brazilian Fernandinho) played well but El Ahmadi, (Yacouba Sylla) and (Fabian) Delph were absolutely brilliant."

Pandev's quickfire double puts Napoli top

Goran Pandev scored two goals in 11 first-half minutes to lift Napoli to the top of Serie A with a 2-0 victory at Genoa on Saturday.

Rafael Benitez's unbeaten side, who started with strikers Gonzalo Higuain and Marek Hamsik on the bench ahead of Tuesday's Champions League trip to Arsenal, have 16 points from six games.

Napoli lead by one point from AS Roma who host Bologna on Sunday.

Macedonian forward Pandev fluffed one chance on the break before breaking through in the 14th minute. He pounced on an errant pass from Genoa midfielder Juraj Kucka and skipped past Alessandro Gamberini to calmly shoot his team in front.

With Genoa rocking, Pandev then played a neat one-two with Lorenzo Insigne before finishing well with his right foot from a tight angle.

Pandev's match-winning display came after he was played behind the centre forward, the position he had been asking Benitez to put him.

"I said to him that he has no excuses, he was playing in the centre and he had to score goals, and he did," said the coach.

Benitez was criticised in midweek when he rotated his team and they could only muster a 1-1 home draw in the league against lowly Sassuolo.

"We really wanted three points after the horrible night on Wednesday but those nights can happen to anyone," said Pandev. "Tonight we played really well and deserved the win.

Genoa, who are 15th in the table, put Napoli under a lot of pressure in the second half and the visitors looked a lot less secure especially as injured defender Raul Albiol had made way for Paolo Cannavaro at halftime.

Higuain replaced new signing Duvan Zapata, who had a disappointing debut, with an hour gone and the former Real Madrid frontman had a chance to make it 3-0 in injury time but blazed his shot over the bar.

Struggling AC Milan host third from bottom Sampdoria in Saturday's late game, hoping to grab their second win of the season.

Southampton fourth after strikers end barren runs

A palpable wave of relief pulsed through St Mary's on Saturday after Southampton beat a gritty Crystal Palace side 2-0 and the home team's two talismanic strikers ended barren spells in front of goal.

Record signing Dani Osvaldo scored his first for the south coast club when he sent a left-foot shot beyond keeper Julian Speroni in the 47th minute.

The Italy international then won a free kick 90 seconds later for Rickie Lambert to grab his first Premier League goal since the opening day of the season.

Lambert struck his effort perfectly from 20 metres, lofting the ball over the wall and in off the post.

"I was desperate to get on the scoresheet sooner rather than later," the England centre forward told reporters. "I am over the moon.

"We knew if we kept going, kept passing around the box, we would get chances and those chances would go in."

Lambert paid tribute to Osvaldo, a 12.8 million pounds ($20.64 million) buy from AS Roma in August.

"Dani did fantastically for his goal and it has given him the confidence he needs," said the England striker.

It was the first time Southampton had scored two goals in a league game this season and it lifted the team to fourth place in the table.

"To be fourth ... it's very nice, very nice ... let's try to stay there," said Lambert.

"It's a hard league. I won't be too fussed if I don't score 15 like last season so long as the lads do their stuff."