Sluggish Man United beaten 3-1 by Palace in 1st EPL game

Manchester United was well off the pace in its first Premier League game of the season Saturday, losing 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace in a match featuring a converted retaken penalty following an intervention by VAR.

After a short and disjointed preseason, United's players were sluggish throughout as Wilfried Zaha's two second-half goals earned Palace a win at Old Trafford for a second straight season.

Zaha's first goal came from the penalty spot after the referee ordered a spot kick to be retaken because of encroachment from United goalkeeper David de Gea before he saved an attempt by Jordan Ayew. De Gea didn't have at least one foot on the goal line as Ayew struck his shot.

That made it 2-0 in the 74th minute and although Donny Van de Beek's goal six minutes later gave United hope, Zaha shrugged off his marker before firing home Palace's third goal in the 85th.

Andros Townsend put Palace ahead in the seventh minute.

United had barely a month between seasons after a late finish to the 2019-20 campaign owing to its involvement in the latter stages of the Europa League. The offseason has been troubled, too, with captain Harry Maguire getting arrested and being given a suspended 21-month sentence last month for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest during an incident on the Greek island of Mykonos. Maguire has since filed an appeal against his conviction and will get a retrial on a date yet to be announced.

Mason Greenwood has also been training alone after being dropped from the England squad for breaching coronavirus rules by meeting up with women from outside the team bubble while the national team was in Iceland.

While Maguire started against Palace, Greenwood was on the bench and came on in the second half. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Nemanja Matic were only deemed fit enough to start on the bench, too.

Paul Pogba, who contracted the coronavirus in the offseason, struggled with the intensity of the game and gave possession away repeatedly in the second half.

Fiorentina's Castrovilli scores 1st goal of Serie A season

Gaetano Castrovilli scored the first goal of the Serie A season to give Fiorentina a 1-0 win over Torino on Saturday.

Castrovilli was left unmarked at the back post to volley in a cross from Federico Chiesa 12 minutes from time.

It was almost a copy of the goal Cristiano Biraghi had scored just after halftime for Fiorentina but that was disallowed for offside.

Torino also had a goal disallowed, in stoppage time, as Andrea Belotti's acrobatic scissor-kick volley was ruled out for offside.

Torino goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu made a number of fine saves to keep his team in the match.

No fans were present because of the coronavirus pandemic but up to 1,000 fans will be allowed into stadiums for Serie A matches from Sunday.

The Italian government agreed to open up the stadiums to a limited number of fans following a meeting between the health and sports ministers and other politicians on Saturday.

Roma drew 0-0 at Hellas Verona in its first match under new ownership but both sides rattled the woodwork.

The Friedkin Group took control of Roma last month from American James Pallotta.

Both sides enjoyed chances and Verona hit the crossbar in each half through Adrien Tameze and Federico Dimarco.

Leonardo Spinazzola also saw an effort crash off the bar for Roma.

Roma center forward Edin Dzeko, who remains a source of transfer speculation amid reports that he could be headed to Juventus, was kept on the bench.

Promoted Lens beats Bordeaux 2-1 for 3rd win in 4 games

Promoted Lens continued its surprisingly strong start to the season by beating Bordeaux 2-1 at home on Saturday in the French league for a third win in four games.

Having already toppled defending champion Paris Saint-Germain at home, the northern

France side sits provisionally in second place ahead of Saturday's later game between Rennes and Monaco.

Ignatius Ganago has proved to be a good signing and the 21year-old striker from Cameroon netted his third goal of the season to put Lens ahead in the 47th minute, after a poor back pass fell in his path.

Bordeaux lost Paul Baysse, who conceded a penalty and was sent off, before midfielder Gaël Kakuta made it 2-0 from the spot in the 59th. Nigeria winger Samuel Kalu headed in a consolation deep into stoppage time as midtable Bordeaux lost its first game.

PSG has lost two of its opening three matches and faces a difficult match away at Nice on Sunday.

Champions League runner-up PSG will be without Neymar and three other suspended players, but is set to welcome back Kylian Mbappé after recovering from the coronavirus.

Nice is without striker Kasper Dolberg and two other firstchoice players who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

Also Sunday, Saint-Étienne aims for a fourth straight win when it travels to face Nantes and Marseille looks to bounce back from a home loss to SaintÉtienne when it hosts Lille.

Dortmund beats Gladbach 3-0 as fans return in Bundesliga

Youngsters Gio Reyna and Erling Haaland scored as Borussia Dortmund started its Bundesliga campaign with a 3-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.

Some 9,300 fans were allowed at the game in Dortmund's Wesfalenstadion, making it the bestattended game in Germany since coronavirus restrictions hold in March.

The league's opening weekend has seen limited numbers of fans return for the first time, helping to end the eerie silence — broken by players' shouts —- in empty stadiums.

However, matches in Cologne and Munich went ahead without the planned return of fans due to a spike of new infections in both cities.

The 17-year-old Reyna marked another milestone as he scored his first league goal to break the deadlock for Dortmund in the 35th minute. He later earned a penalty for the home side.

Reyna played a one-two with Jude Bellingham, also 17, and fired past Gladbach 'keeper Yann Sommer for the opening goal.

It was the attacking midfielder's first goal in his 16th Bundesliga game since making his debut as a substitute against Augsburg on Jan. 18.

At the time he became the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga, aged 17 years, 2 months, 5 days.

Reyna was involved again when he fell in the penalty area under a risky challenge from Ramy Bensebaini. Referee Felix Brych waved play on but then changed his mind after the video referee suggested he check replays.

The 20-year-old Haaland scored from the resulting spot kick in the 54th.

Jadon Sancho set up Haaland's second goal on a counterattack in the 78th.

Dortmund supporters were the only ones to see their side win in the opening round so far.

No away fans are allowed across the league as strict measures against the coronavirus remained in place. took