An English kid, a Dutch relic and an improbable surge start from the Canaries feature in FIFA.com’slatest stats review, along with a prolific penalty-winner in Turin and profligacy in Eindhoven.
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years since they last sat at La Liga’s summit, Las Palmas are back on top. After a shock 4-2 win at Valencia on the opening day, the Canary Islanders thrashed Granada 5-1 on Sunday. It left Las Palmas having netted nine goals in their opening two Spanish top-tier games for the first time in their history, and boasting a better goal difference than even Barcelona and Real Madrid, both of whom also have maximum points. The last time they led the table in the third matchday in 1978, a side decorated by Argentinians Miguel Angel Brindisi and Carlos Morete finished sixth.
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is shots is what PSV registered at home to Groningen on Saturday – all to no avail. The 0-0 draw broke the Eindhoven heavyweights’ ten-match winning run in all competitions. The result enabled Feyenoord to go two points clear at the top. Although Excelsior’s Stanley Elbers became the first player to score past them in over eight -and-a-half hours, the Rotterdammers rallied to win 4-1. The 36-year-old Dirk Kuyt, making the 600th league appearance of his career, got two of them to climb fifth on Feyenoord’s list of all-time oldest marksmen, behind Johan Cruyff, Michael Mols, Wim van Hanegem and Pierre van Hooijdonk.
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years after they last leaked six goals in an MLS game, Chicago Fire suffered the same fate. Handing them a 6-2 beating were DC United, who became the first club to score six or more goals in a game more than three times. Patrick Mullins headlined the victory by becoming the first United player to net an MLS hat-trick in over two years.
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penalties in Serie A have been won by Andrea Belotti in 2016 – more than any other player from the big five European leagues. The 22-year-old nevertheless saw the one he earned against Bologna on Sunday saved, meaning he has now missed spot-kicks in both of the opening two rounds of the season. However, that didn’t stop Belotti celebrating his maiden Italy call-up with a first career hat-trick. Their 5-1 success means Torino have not lost their first home game of a campaign since goals from Igli Tare and Roberto Baggio grabbed Brescia victory in Turin in 2001.
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is the number of times a manager had won his first four competitive games at the Manchester United reins until Jose Mourinho dramatically achieved the feat on Saturday. Ninety-two minutes had gone until substitute Marcus Rashford hit the only goal at Hull City, thus becoming the first teenager to score a Premier League goal under Jose Mourinho since the Portuguese first arrived in England in 2004. The Red Devils’ cross-city rivals won the following day to ensure both Manchester clubs have won their first three league games in the same season for only the second time in history.
Quick hits 952 days after his last goal in Serie A, Roma’s Kevin Strootman finally ended his drought.
42 Premier League matches have included a James Milner goal, and none have ended in defeat for the Yorkshireman’s side losing, this after his penalty helped Liverpool draw 1-1 at Tottenham Hotspur (34 wins, eight draws).
5 teams have now won by a six-goal margin in the Copa Sudamericana after Cerro Porteno smashed Real Potosi 6-0 in the first leg of their last-32 tie.