Football Round-up | Real Madrid thrash Barcelona 3-1; Manchester United kick off their campaign with an electrifying win
Real Madrid defeated arch-rivals Barcelona 3-1 at Camp Nou in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a vital goal for the visitors. Meanwhile, in the English Premier League, Romelu Lukaku scored a brace as Manchester United thrashed West Ham United 4-0 at Old Trafford.
Real Madrid won the first El Clasico of the season thrashing rivals Barcelona 3-1 away from home to take a two-goal advantage going into the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup. Real coach Zinedine Zidane started with Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench while Barca coach
The opening minutes of the first half were evenly contested with both the teams finding it hard to find a breakthrough. The visitors got the closest to breaking the deadlock in the 36th minute with Gareth Bale firing a shot straight onto the Barcelona goal. However, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen was up to the task and kept out Bale's close-range effort.
Real's constant attacking finally led to the first goal of the match when Gerad Pique netted Marcelo's cross into his own net in the 49th minute. Zidane brought in Cristiano Ronaldo for Karim Benzema in the 58th minute of the match in a bid to extend the lead for the Los Blancos.
On the other hand, Barcelona had an easy chance to equalise with the ball dropping at Sergio Busquets' feet but the Barca defender fired it over the goal post from six yards out. However, the home team soon levelled the game with Lionel Messi scoring from a penalty after Keylor Navas was adjudged of bringing down Luis Suarez in the penalty area in the 76th minute.
However, Ronaldo stunned the home crowd by curling the ball into the top corner of the goal to help Real Madrid take the lead once again before he was sent off a minute later. Asensio sealed the game for the Blancos when he fired the ball past Ter-Stegen in the 89th minute.
Manchester United 4-0 West Ham United
Romelu Lukaku scored once again for an English Premier League on his debut and this time he did it twice to guide Manchester United to a 4-0 win over West Ham United. Jose Mourinho's recent signings in Nemanja Matic and Romelu Lukaku helped the Red Devils get off to a flyer. United dominated the proceedings from the outset and Marcus Rashford slipped a great ball in for Lukaku who opened the scoring for the home side in the 33rd minute.
Matic controlled the play in the midfield throughout the match before Lukaku made it 2-0, this time through a brilliant assist from Henrikh Mkhitaryan's free kick. Anthony Martial then came off the bench and made a straight impact on the game scoring an 87th-minute goal before setting up Paul Pogba for a goal in the dying minutes of the match to complete a goal-scoring frenzy in the opening match for the Red Devils. With the comprehensive win, Manchester United rocketed to the top of the EPL standings at the end of week 1.
Newcastle United 0-2 Tottenham Hotspurs
Last year's runners up Tottenham Hotspur started their campaign with a 2-0 victory at St James' Park. The two teams played an evenly contested first half before Newcastle skipper Jonjo Shelvey was sent off for deliberately stepping on Delle Alli's foot right after the resumption of the game in the second half.
The Magpies had to pay for the mistake committed by their captain as Alli shot the ball past Joe Hart from a pinpoint cross by Christian Eriksen in the 62nd minute of the game. Eriksen paved the way for the second goal for Tottenham as well when Ben Davies fired home in the 70th minute from a pass by the Danish player.
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