Schalke, Rennes, Fiorentina: A Wild Friday Night in European Football
Same points, very different mood.
Schalke and Union Berlin both came into the night with a single point from their opening two Bundesliga fixtures. Only one of them looked like a promoted side fighting for air. It wasn’t Schalke.
Robin Gosens set the tone early, thundering in an angled volley to give the visitors control. Just after the interval, Adil Aouchiche doubled the lead with a crisp, composed finish that underlined Schalke’s growing confidence.
Behind them, Loris Karius turned back the clock.
Named player of the match, the goalkeeper repeatedly shut the door on Union, smothering half-chances and clawing away their few clear looks at goal. Berlin finally broke through in the sixth minute of stoppage time when Tim Skarke found a way past him, but even that offered only brief hope.
With almost the final kick, Maximilian Wober stepped up and lashed in Schalke’s third to restore the two-goal cushion and seal a 3-1 win. Union’s late push died on the spot.
The night also delivered an unusual twist. Referee Timo Gerach pulled up early in the second half with a sore calf and had to come off, prompting fourth official Jarno Wienefeld to step in. An experienced Bundesliga 2 referee, Wienefeld suddenly found himself in charge of his first top-flight game on a night when Schalke refused to blink.
Mastantuono hat trick drags Fiorentina off the floor
Fiorentina and Venezia both opened their Serie A campaigns with three straight defeats. Something had to give. For a while, it looked like the home side might finally be the one to break out.
Venezia struck first. In the 22nd minute, Akor Adams finished neatly with his right foot after clever build-up play from American midfielder Gianluca Busio, and the hosts had the lead and a bit of swagger.
It didn’t last long.
Franco Mastantuono tore the game away in the space of two breathless minutes. He surged forward to level in the 29th, then struck again in the 30th to flip the match on its head and send Fiorentina into halftime in front.
The pressure didn’t ease after the break. Midway through the second half, Mateo Pellegrino made it 3-1, scoring for the second match in a row and tightening Fiorentina’s grip.
Six minutes from time, Mastantuono completed his hat trick, the kind of ruthless, statement performance that can jolt a season awake. Antoine Hainaut pulled one back late for Venezia, but the damage was long done.
Venezia stayed rooted to the bottom of the 20-team table, still without a point. Fiorentina climbed to 15th and, finally, into the season.
Sevilla edge lifeless Valencia to climb
It wasn’t pretty. It didn’t need to be.
Sevilla moved into joint second in La Liga with a late 1-0 win over a Valencia side that barely laid a glove on them.
Chances were scarce, tension constant. With nine minutes left, Sevilla finally cracked it. Giorgi Kochorashvili swung in a deep cross from the left, and Juan Antonio Iglesias met it with a looping header that sailed over the goalkeeper and dropped in.
Valencia never really responded. They finished the match without a single shot on target, a damning statistic for a club already under pressure.
Five games in, they sit bottom of the table with just one point from a possible 15 and no sign, yet, of a spark.
Relentless Rennes hit top spot, Marseille sink
In France, Rennes kept their momentum rolling and climbed to the top of Ligue 1 with a 1-0 win over Marseille.
The breakthrough came six minutes into the second half. Adrien Thomasson, a recent signing from Lens, struck his first goal for Rennes, a clean finish that proved enough to secure a third straight victory for the Breton side.
Rennes’ reward: a one-point lead over Monaco and a growing sense of authority at the summit.
For Marseille, the picture is far darker. This is their worst start to a league campaign in more than two decades. The defeat, their third in a row, leaves them stuck in 11th with only three points and mounting questions about where this slide stops.
West Ham run riot to top Championship
Across the Channel, West Ham turned the Championship into their playground for the night.
They hammered Wrexham 6-0, a scoreline as brutal as it sounds, with six different players finding the net. No single star, just a wave of claret and blue finishing the chances that kept coming.
The result pushed West Ham to the top of the table, a point clear of West Bromwich Albion and sending an early message in a long, unforgiving season.
From Schalke’s surge and Mastantuono’s hat trick to Rennes’ rise and Valencia’s freefall, Friday felt less like an ordinary matchday and more like a line being drawn in several seasons at once.
