MADRID: Real Madrid’s almost-new-signing Gareth Bale was in Malaga at the weekend but he remained out of sight while, on the pitch there, rivals Barcelona scuffled to a 1-0 win over their local club.

The champions missed injured Lionel Messi, brought on new signing Neymar only as a substitute and took the points for a second successive weekend with a 44th-minute goal from Adriano.

Madrid, who won their opening game at home to Betis last weekend, play at Granada on Monday.

In France goals from Paris Saint-Germain’s South American duo Edinson Cavani – his secondof term – and Ezequiel Lavezzi led the French champions to a 2-1 victory at promoted Nantes.

PSG, who drew their opening two games, have five points from three matches, and are four points behind arch rivals Marseille who continued their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 win at Valenciennes on Saturday.

In Germany Eintracht Frankfurt struck two second-half goals for a 2-0 win over struggling Eintracht Braunschweig to collect their first points of the season while Augsburg also moved off the mark by beating Stuttgart 2-1. Stuttgart subsequently sacked coach Bruno Labbadia.

In Italy Napoli gave new coach Rafael Benitez a flying start when they beat Bologna 3-0 in their opening Serie A game while predecessor Walter Mazzarri celebrated his first league game in charge of Internazionale with a 2-0 win over Genoa.

Napoli, last season’s runners-up, saw off Bologna with two goals from Marek Hamsik and one from new Spaniard Jose Callejon. Gonzalo Higuain also made an impressive debut after his move from Real Madrid while Pepe Reina in goal was not tested.

 

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