By OkayGoal
Paris Saint-Germain 1-2 Monaco
Monaco shocked the whole of France in the early Ligue 1 season, beating PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes to go nine points from nine and confirm themselves as the most serious early challengers in the division.
Luis Enrique’s side have been plagued by defensive inconsistency since the opening weekend, conceding four goals across their two draws with Rennes and Lille while twice requiring stoppage-time goals to avoid defeat.
This time there was no rescue. Marquinhos gave PSG the lead in the 31st minute, arriving at the back post from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s delivery to head home, but Monaco’s quality throughout the evening was top class and they took all three points in Paris for the first time since March.
PSG are without a win from their opening three league fixtures, a damaging start for a side chasing a sixth consecutive Ligue 1 title.
Monaco, managed by Filipe Luis and with former PSG target Lukas Hradecky commanding in goal, are top of the table and have now beaten their rivals home and away in the calendar year.
VfB Stuttgart 4-1 Cologne
Stuttgart bounced back from the humiliation of their 5-1 opening-day loss to Bayern Munich by hammering Cologne 4-1 at the MHPArena, denying the visitors a first Bundesliga win in Stuttgart since 2015 in the process.
Bilal El Khannouss broke the deadlock in the 40th minute, his driven effort taking a deflection off Gideon Mensah on its way into the corner, and Stuttgart never looked back.
Cologne, who had impressed with a 3-2 comeback win over Hoffenheim on the opening weekend, found nothing of that form on the road and were taken apart by a home side clearly stung by the scale of their Bayern defeat.
Deniz Undav was influential throughout as Stuttgart’s creative engine, and the result shoots them up the table after what looked like a troubling start to the campaign.
Genoa 1-4 Como
Cesc Fabregas’s Como are the early story of the Serie A season after a victory at the Luigi Ferraris sent them to the top of the division.
Genoa took the lead in the 19th minute through Milutin Osmajic, the former Preston North End striker scoring with his first touch of real consequence in Serie A, calmly converting Lorenzo Colombo’s pull-back ahead of Trevoh Chalobah.
Justin Bijlow had already produced a fingertip save from Yan Couto before the opener, and a repeat of last season’s struggles appeared to be in the offing for a Genoa side who had conceded three without scoring across their first two fixtures.
Como were level within six minutes. Martin Baturina drilled home from the edge of the area in the 25th minute, and Assane Diao added a second in the 30th. Nico Paz swept in a third before the interval to put the visitors firmly in control.
The second half was a more measured affair but Como maintained their dominance, and Diao completed his brace in the 78th minute to seal the rout.