Malta Independent

Juventus win 2-1 to end Inter’s perfect start

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Juventus ended Inter Milan's perfect start to the season with a 2-1 win at San Siro to move top of Serie A on Sunday.

Gonzalo Higuain scored the winner 10 minutes from time as Inter coach Antonio Conte's first match against his former club ended in defeat.

Lautaro Martinez had converted a penalty in the 18th minute for Inter to cancel out Paulo Dybala's fourth-minute opener.

The Derby d'Italia victory sent Juventus top, a point above Inter and three above Atalanta.

Juventus got off to the perfect start as Miralem Pjanic floated a ball over the top for Dybala to run onto and slot past the outstretch­ed hand of Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.

Cristiano Ronaldo almost doubled Juve's lead five minutes later but his effort crashed off the crossbar.

Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt has struggled since his bigmoney move from Ajax and he gave away a penalty for handball. Lautaro fired the spot kick into the bottom left corner.

Ronaldo thought he had restored Juve's advantage four minutes from halftime but Dybala had strayed offside when he provided the assist and the goal was disallowed.

Matias Vecino also hit the woodwork for Inter midway through the second half.

Juventus won the match with a well-worked team move. Pjanic and Rodrigo Bentancur exchanged quick passes before the latter set up Higuain, who controlled the ball before driving it past Handanovic.

Atalanta marked its first match in its newly renovated stadium with a dominant 3-1 victory over Lecce.

Duvan Zapata and Alejandro "Papu" Gomez gave Atalanta a comfortabl­e halftime lead, which was extended by Robin Gosens, shortly after the interval.

Liverpool in driving seat as Man City lose; Arsenal 3rd as David Luiz scores

Liverpool might never have a better chance to end its long wait for a Premier League title.

Leader Liverpool is enjoying an eight-point advantage over defending champion Manchester City after its closest rival stumbled going into the internatio­nal break.

Adama Traoré struck twice in the closing stages for Wolverhamp­ton Wanderers to beat City 2-0 in Manchester on Sunday, the first defeat at home for Pep Guardiola's team in any competitio­n since a 32 loss to Crystal Palace in the league last December.

City's chances of reeling in Liverpool are being hampered by injuries in defense and the loss of Kevin De Bruyne, who is injured again after a run of problems last season.

City had dominated possession but failed to really trouble Rui Patrício in the Wolves goal. David Silva struck the post with a free kick but it was as close as Guardiola's side was going to get before Traoré finished off a break started by Raúl Jiménez in the 80th.

Traoré grabbed his second in similar fashion in injury time after Wolves withstood the home side's desperate attempts to equalize.

It left Guardiola contemplat­ing the side's second defeat of the season and the third game in which it has dropped points.

Liverpool maintained its perfect start with a late 2-1 win over Leicester on Saturday. Liverpool has not won the league title since the 1989-90 season.

Former Chelsea defender David Luiz helped Arsenal move up to third with his first goal for the Gunners in a 1-0 win over Bournemout­h.

Luiz headed home off a corner from Nicolas Pepe with only nine minutes gone. It turned out to be the only goal of a game that lacked both chances and quality as the Cherries managed to keep in-form Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the periphery.

Arsenal has still lost just once this season in the league and now sits one point behind Manchester City.

Gladbach routs Augsburg 51, moves top of the Bundesliga

Borussia Mönchengla­dbach moved top of the Bundesliga with its fourth straight win as it routed Augsburg 5-1 on Sunday.

Wout Weghorst's 69th-minute strike was enough for Wolfsburg to defeat promoted Union Berlin 10 at home and stay just behind surprise leader Gladbach in second place. Patrick Herrmann scored twice for Gladbach, which effectivel­y decided the result in the first 13 minutes by racing into a threegoal lead.

Marcus Thuram surged forward and cut the ball back for Denis Zakaria in the second minute, Herrmann scored in similar fashion in the eighth — when Alassane Plea pulled the ball back — and Herrmann combined with Plea again to make it 3-0 in the 13th.

A mistake from Augsburg 'keeper Tomas Koubek gifted Plea the fourth goal in the 39th. Koubek tripped over his own feet as he attempted to control Felix Uduokhai's back pass and couldn't stop a grateful Plea from scoring.

Augsburg had a penalty appeal turned down through the VAR before the break after André Hahn went down under Yann Sommer's challenge, but the visitors pulled one back in the 81st through Florian Niederlech­ner on a rebound after Sommer saved Fredrik Jensen's effort.

Herrmann set up Breel Embolo for Gladbach's fifth two minutes later. Gladbach is one point ahead of second-place Wolfsburg and two points clear of Bayern Munich and four other teams after seven rounds. Bayern was stunned 2-1 at home by Hoffenheim on Saturday, the seven-time defending champion's first defeat of the season.

Eintracht Frankfurt hosted Werder Bremen later Sunday.

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