Capital city clubs Real Madrid, Roma and Paris Saint Germain all suffered shattering defeats at the weekend, which put the jobs at least two high-profile coaches on the line.
Real, humbled 3-0 at Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in midweek, lost 1-0 at Espanyol despite dropping David Beckham and Raul to the bench and such was the fallout that under-fire coach Jose Antonio Camacho even offered to resign.
”I didn’t see Real Madrid play football,” said Camacho, who added ominously, but sagely, that ”the coach is responsible for all defeats”.
On Sunday, Camacho offered to resign but Real chairperson Florentino Perez insisted the coach sleeps on it until Monday.
Should Real lose at Osasuna on Tuesday, Camacho’s second reign at the Bernebau is also certain to end after just three games of the league season.
Camacho even gave Michel Owen his first start of the season but the former Liverpool striker couldn’t stop the rot as Maxi Rodriguez scored the only goal of the game against a Madrid side who were also missing the injured Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.
Brazilian superstar Ronaldo squandered Real’s best opportunity when he missed a penalty in the 50th minute.
Spain’s unforgiving fans will look at a table that shows not just the hated Barcelona a point ahead of them but also city rivals Atletico Madrid after the pair parted 1-1 in the capital on Sunday night.
Barca took the lead on 22 minutes through former Arsenal man Giovanni van Bronckhorst only for Fernando Torres to clip home the equaliser after the break.
Espanyol lead the way with Atletico and Barca, as well as Osasuna, reigning champions Valencia and Real Zaragoza in hot pursuit.
In Italy, French striker David Trezeguet scored twice as Juventus defeated newly promoted Atalanta 2-0 to set the early pace in Serie A.
Defending champions AC Milan secured their first win of the season at Bologna, while Roma lost a seven-goal thriller away to Sicilian side Messina.
Vincenzo Montella’s hat-trick was all in vain as Roma went down 4-3 away to newly promoted Messina to round off a miserable week for Rudi Voller’s men.
Roma are waiting to be punished by Uefa after their Champions League match at home to Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday was abandoned when Swedish referee Anders Frisk was struck by a coin thrown from the crowd.
Voller said defensive errors undid all their good work going forward.
”The team showed a lot of character, but we made too many errors at the back,” said the former Germany coach.
Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayor shot Monaco to the top of the French league table on Sunday with the winner in a 1-0 victory over Paris Saint Germain.
Adebayor’s diving header in the 83rd minute put Didier Deschamps’s men in the driving seat after six matches and left PSG still without a victory and having been thrashed 3-0 by Chelsea in the Champions League in midweek.
Coach Vahid Halilhodzic’s team failed a major test after crisis talks were held by players on Thursday to sort out the destructive infighting that was blamed for their Chelsea humiliation.
PSG supporters chanted ”Halilhodzic out, Halilhodzic out” on the final whistle at the Parc des Princes.
Monaco have 13 points and lead by one point from Auxerre, Bastia and Lyon, who have 12.
In Germany, Bayern Munich scored two goals in the final two minutes to snatch a sensational 2-2 draw with arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund.
With 88 minutes gone, Bayern trailed 2-0 after Brazilian striker Ewerthon had netted in both halves, but Bayern had saved their best for last.
Brazilian World Cup winner Lucio reduced the deficit with two minutes of normal time remaining and Dutch international Roy Makaay headed an incredible equaliser at the death to the disbelief of the capacity 83Â 000-strong crowd.
”We would have scored a third if the game had gone on for a few more minutes,” explained goal hero Makaay.
Unfashionable VfL Wolfsburg are the new leaders of the German top flight with a 2-1 win over Hansa Rostock.
It is the first time Wolfsburg have sat at the Bundesliga summit and they will hold that position for another week after VfB Stuttgart drew 0-0 with 10-man Hertha Berlin.
Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen continue to perplex their supporters, struggling to a 2-2 home draw against FC Nuremberg just three days after thrashing nine-time European champions Real Madrid 3-0 in the Champions League. — Sapa-AFP