Sports Al Dente

Erling Haaland now has 91 goals in 100 games for Manchester City.

In his 100th match for City, Haaland scored the first goal in a 2-0 victory at Chelsea on Sunday, starting City’s quest for a fifth consecutive Premier League title.

This goal marked his fifth in three season openers since joining City in 2022, showing that he is in top form after a summer without international play.

City manager Pep Guardiola noted, “I had a feeling that he feels better than last season at this stage. He feels good, and the goal was magnificent.”

Haaland scored in the 18th minute, and Mateo Kovacic added a goal from outside the area in the 84th minute, making it a tough debut for Chelsea’s new coach Enzo Maresca.

On the same day, Brentford won 2-1 against Crystal Palace after a controversial refereeing call in the first half.

At Stamford Bridge, Haaland’s goal came when he received the ball on the edge of the box, maneuvered between Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella, and lifted the ball past Robert Sanchez.

“I knew exactly what to do, I think it was a really good goal,” Haaland said.

Chelsea struggled with clinical finishing once again, despite spending heavily over the summer. Nicolas Jackson had a goal ruled out for offside just before halftime and later missed a close-range volley, leading to his substitution for 18-year-old Marc Guiu.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca defended his choice to make midfielder Enzo Fernandez the captain for the team’s first Premier League game of the season, despite Fernandez being filmed singing a racist chant during the offseason.

Maresca’s first match ended with a 2-0 loss to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge. However, many questions after the game focused on Fernandez and Raheem Sterling, who was unhappy about not being included in the matchday squad.

Fernandez took on the captain’s role in place of the injured Reece James, even though he had been criticized by Chelsea teammate Wesley Fofana. Fofana called the Argentina players’ chant “uninhibited racism” after Fernandez posted a video of the chant on social media. The French Football Federation also filed a complaint to FIFA.

Maresca said Fernandez had acknowledged his mistake and apologized to his teammates, and he believes it’s time to move forward.

“The reason why (he was captain) is because I can see that his teammates, they recognize him like a reference, like a captain,” said the Italian coach. “I don’t know about you but I did mistakes in the past, and I recognized (it). And I think as a human being if you did a mistake and you recognize (it), you are not going to be punished your whole life.”

As with other Premier League games this weekend, the match began with all players taking a knee to support the ongoing fight against racism in soccer.

Antonio Conte has a lot of work ahead of him.

Conte, who became Napoli’s fifth coach in just over a year when he was hired in June, saw his new team suffer a 3-0 defeat at Hellas Verona in his first Serie A match on Sunday.

“We melted like snow in the sun after the first goal,” Conte said. “We should apologize to the Neapolitan people, who follow us with passion. As the coach, I take full responsibility. The performance in the second half was unacceptable.

“We should be ashamed, and I have to be ashamed as the coach. Those who know me know that my heart is bleeding today, and I hope some of the players are feeling the same way, which would at least mean we are moving in the right direction.”

Dailon Livramento and Daniel Mosquera — twice — scored on their league debuts to give Verona the win in the first match of the Italian league season. Napoli also faced more trouble with key player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia going off due to injury.

Napoli has struggled since Luciano Spalletti left last summer after winning the club’s first title in over 30 years. The team finished 10th last season and hoped for better results under Conte, who previously led Juventus and Inter Milan to titles.

However, Napoli drew 0-0 with Serie B side Modena in the Italian Cup on Conte’s debut, advancing on penalties, before the disappointing performance on Sunday.

Conte’s team had some good chances early in the match against Verona with Matteo Politano, André-Frank Anguissa, and Stanislav Lobotka, and nearly took the lead in first-half stoppage time.

Verona defender Martin Frese made a poorly short back pass to goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipò, which Kvaratskhelia almost capitalized on, but Jackson Tchatchoua made a crucial last-minute tackle.

Kvaratskhelia had to leave the game right after, appearing to show signs of dizziness.

Frese made another poor back pass shortly after that forced Montipò to make an acrobatic clearance.

Verona came out with a new energy after halftime, and Grigoris Kastanos narrowly missed scoring with its first real chance of the match. Verona took the lead when Livramento managed to finish a cross from Darko Lazović by tapping the ball into the bottom right corner.

Anguissa hit the crossbar in the 61st minute, but Verona doubled its lead when it won the ball in midfield. Ondrej Duda passed it to substitute Mosquera, who scored past Alex Meret in the 75th minute.

Mosquera had been on the field for less than two minutes. The Colombian forward scored again in stoppage time after being left completely unmarked by the Napoli defense.

Verona was one of only two teams to win in the opening round. The other team was Lazio, which came back from an early goal to defeat newly promoted Venezia 3-1.

In Sardinia, both Roma and Cagliari hit the woodwork and had other chances but ended up drawing 0-0. Bologna also drew 1-1 at home against Udinese.

On Saturday, there were four draws, including for defending champion Inter Milan and AC Milan.

Juventus will host Como on Monday, and Atalanta will visit Lecce.

Rennes achieved a strong 3-0 win over big-spending Lyon in the French league on Sunday.

Benjamin Bourigeaud scored first in the 19th minute with a free kick that was deflected. A little over a minute later, Amine Gouiri increased Rennes’ lead following a quick counterattack.

Henrik Meister, a Danish striker who joined Rennes this summer, completed the win with a goal in stoppage time to cap off a dominant display.

Lyon, which had a tough season last year, has struggled again this season despite heavy spending in the transfer market. Forward Georges Mikautadze, bought for 18.5 million euros ($20 million) after a strong Euro 2024 performance with Georgia, missed a penalty on Sunday.

Lyon central defender Moussa Niakhaté, signed for 32 million euros ($35 million) from Nottingham Forest, was responsible for two of the three goals Lyon conceded.

In other matches, Auxerre marked its return to Ligue 1 with a 2-1 win over Nice at Stade de l’Abbé Deschamps. Nice took the lead with a header from Mohamed-Ali Cho, but Auxerre equalized before halftime with a goal from Rayan Raveloson. Lasso Coulibaly scored the winning goal in stoppage time.

Lens won 1-0 against promoted side Angers, with Wesley Saïd scoring in the first half, marking a successful start for new coach Will Still.

Toulouse and Nantes ended their match in a 0-0 draw, while Montpellier and Strasbourg also drew 1-1.

Defending champion Real Madrid could only manage a 1-1 draw at Mallorca in Kylian Mbappé’s first Spanish league match on Sunday.

In his second game with Madrid after his midweek debut, Mbappé did not score. He had previously scored in Madrid’s 2-0 victory over Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday.

Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti used the same lineup that won against Atalanta, with Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior, and Mbappé leading the attack.

“They change position from time to time,” Ancelotti said about Vinicius and Mbappé. “Sometimes Mbappé plays more centrally and sometimes one of the two has to take this flank, without a specific plan. It depends on how they feel about it.”

Rodrygo scored for Madrid 13 minutes into the match, but Mallorca equalized with a goal from Vedat Muriqi in the 53rd minute.

“We got off to a good start, taking the lead and then had a chance to score a second goal,” Ancelotti said. “We didn’t find balance in the second half. We could have lost because there was no balance at the back.

It wasn’t a good game. We need to defend better. We’re a very attacking team, but defensive balance is a crucial factor.”

Madrid defender Ferland Mendy was sent off late in the second half for a foul on Muriqi.

“I don’t want to make excuses for anything, but we just need to do better and with a better attitude,” Ancelotti said. “We can learn a lot from this match. It’s clear where our problems might come from.”

Rafael Nadal, who is from Mallorca, was among the spectators at the Son Moix Stadium.

Mallorca’s players gave a guard of honor to the Super Cup winners, applauding the Madrid team as they entered the field before the game.

After ten years as Switzerland’s top goalkeeper, Yann Sommer announced his retirement from the national team on Monday at the age of 35. He will now focus on his career with Inter Milan.

The Swiss soccer federation’s announcement means Gregor Kobel from Borussia Dortmund will likely become the new first-choice goalkeeper.

Sommer played in three World Cups and three European Championships with Switzerland after making his debut in 2012.

His last game was a penalty shootout loss to England following a 1-1 draw in the Euro 2024 quarterfinals last month in Germany.

One of Sommer’s greatest achievements for the national team was saving Kylian Mbappé’s penalty, which helped Switzerland win a shootout against France after a 3-3 draw in the round of 16 at Euro 2020.

Sommer contributed to Inter winning Serie A in his first season in Italy and has also won league titles in Germany with Bayern Munich and four times in Switzerland with Basel.

Gregor Kobel, who is 26, has made five appearances for Switzerland, including one at the 2022 World Cup, where he played in a 3-2 win over Serbia in Qatar while Sommer was out with a severe cold.

Switzerland’s next matches are on September 5 and 8 against Denmark and Euro 2024 champion Spain in the top group of the UEFA Nations League.