European roundup: Napoli no-shows for Juventus clash after positive Covid tests
One of the top Serie A fixtures of the season descended into chaos on Sunday when Napoli failed to turn up for their match at Juventus after their local health authority told the players to stay at home following positive Covid-19 cases.
With the league refusing to call the game off, Juventus arrived at the Allianz stadium in Turin in their team bus one hour before the scheduled kickoff time while Italian media reported no sign of Napoli. Under Serie A rules, Juventus would be handed a 3-0 win in the match, which was due to kick off at 8.45pm local time.
A Napoli spokesman confirmed that the team had been placed into isolation by the health authority (ASL) after two players tested positive in the last four days. He said they would challenge any decision to forfeit the game. An official from the Naples ASL confirmed in a television interview that the Napoli players had been ordered to stay at home.
Robert Lewandowski scored four goals including a stoppage-time penalty to give Bayern Munich a 4-3 home win over Hertha Berlin in a pulsating Bundesliga match.
Lewandowski fired Bayern into a 2-0 lead with two trademark goals before the visitors hit back through Jhon Córdoba and Matheus Cunha to set up a frantic climax.
Lewandowski restored Bayern’s lead with a close-range finish in the 85th minute but the game seemed to be heading for a draw after the substitute Jessic Ngankam levelled three minutes later with his first touch of the ball.
Bayern and their talismanic Polish striker had the last laugh, though, as he steered his spot-kick into the bottom left corner past the goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow after he was hauled down by Maximilian Mittelstaedt.
Augsburg were denied a third successive win at the start of the season after they were made to work hard for a 0-0 draw at struggling Wolfsburg.
Philippe Coutinho scored his first league goal since returning to Barcelona to help his side draw 1-1 at home to an excellent Sevilla side as the Catalans dropped points for the first time under Ronald Koeman.
Europa League holders Sevilla took an early lead when Dutch forward Luuk de Jong pounced on a poor headed clearance in the area and smashed into the net, flummoxing Barca keeper Neto.
But the Catalans hit back less than two minutes later when club record signing Coutinho, back at the club after spending last year on loan with Bayern Munich, reacted fastest to fire home after a Lionel Messi pass was deflected
into his path.
Sevilla could also have snatched a winner, with Youssef En-Nesyri seeing a deflected shot hit the crossbar before failing to test Neto with a free header.
Vinícius Júnior and Karim Benzema got the goals as Real Madrid claimed their third consecutive league win with a 2-0 victory at Levante. Vinícius struck in the 16th minute when he curled in after a corner, while Benzema added a second in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
“We can be very proud of what the boys have done, we’ve only just started and we have three wins and one draw, what more could I ask for?,” the Real Madrid head coach, Zinedine Zidane, said.
“The match did not leave me with any bad sensations,” he added. “We know we can improve and concede fewer chances and we’re going to do that but we’re focusing on the positives, which is that we have three more points, a clean sheet and we’re all happy.”
Elsewhere, Osasuna beat Celta Vigo 2-0, Alavés saw off Athletic Bilbao 1-0, while Cádiz and Granada shared the points in a 1-1 draw.
Internazionale dropped their first Serie A points of the season when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Lazio in a badtempered match in which one player from each side was sent off.
Lautaro Martínez gave Inter the lead on the half-hour and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic equalised for the hosts 10 minutes after the break before tempers flared. Lazio had their forward Ciro Immobile, leading scorer in Serie A last season, sent off after 70 minutes following a clash with the Inter midfielder Arturo Vidal although it seemed harsh. Immobile went down under a challenge from Vidal, who bent down over his opponent and Immobile appeared to prod the Chilean who reacted theatrically.
Irrepressible Atalanta kept up their record of scoring at least four goals in every game this season as they despatched Cagliari 5-2 on Sunday to maintain their 100% record in Serie A. Luis Muriel, Alejandro Gomez, Mario Pasalic, Duvan Zapata and Sam Lammers shared the goals in another entertaining Atalanta performance while Diego Godín and João Pedro replied for the Sardinian side, whose goalkeeper, Alessio Cragno, spared them further damage.
Gianluca Lapadula scored the only goal of the game as Benevento defeated Bologna. Parma won by the same margin against Hellas Verona thanks to a first-minute strike from Jasmin Kurtic. Meanwhile, Rafael Leão netted twice as Milan saw off Spezia with three unanswered goals.