The Weekend's Action: October 28th.

So, how about a quick recap of the action that took place today? I will move from West to East beginning with Portugal: Here we had Estoril take on Porto and actually do themselves proud despite losing. Striking early in the game, the 10th minute to be precise, Estoril took the lead emphatically through Steven Victoria! Unfortunately for the underdogs, Porto dominated the 2nd half, scoring in the 57th and 60th minutes to put their rivals under. Silvestre Varela and Jackson Martinez were the two who respectively scored. Maritimo v.s. Braga concluded 0-2 with the team from Braga owning the second half through Eder who slotted home in the 55th and 86th minutes. Rio Ave on the other hand edged Nacional 2-1 despite the visitors taking the lead in the 37th minute. Diego Barcelos was the man who struck Nacional ahead at that point. Unfortunately for them, Joao Tomas and Tarantini struck for Rio Ave in the 61st and 89th minutes respectively. The former was struck from the penalty spot. On to Spain now, where Athletic were edged by Getafe 1-2 despite collecting a last minute goal through Mikel San Jose in the 4th minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. Juan Rodriguez and Alvaro were on target for Getafe. Atletico were better at separating themselves from Osasuna after Miranda, Raul Garcia, and Falcao struck them to a 3-1 lead though Roland Lamah brought Atletico close to righting themselves in the 43rd. Nevertheless, they were undone in the end. Levante defeated Granada by the same scoreline thanks to Obafemi Martins' two goals in the 12th and 60th minutes. Pedro Rios made it three for the good before Granada's Youssef El-Arabi was able to add one to their tally in the 84th minute. Mallorca v.s. Real Madrid was a slaughter on the other hand: 0-2 at the half and 0-5 at the final whistle! Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice each while Jose Callejon was successful in the 1st minute of stoppage of time of the 2nd half to make it 5. Last but not least, Zaragoza edged Sevilla 2-1 with Helder Postiga and Cristian Sapunaru scoring for the home side while Gary Medel brought the visitors close to leveling - beginning in the 70th minute of the 2nd half. On to France now where Bastia took on Bordeaux and won 3-1 thanks to Florian Thauvin's two goals in the 6th and 17th minutes while Yoan Gouffran brought Bordeaux one back in the 30th. Sadly for them, Bastia were pushed further ahead through Wahbi Khazri in the 56th minute. On the other hand, Lorient and Ajaccio finished 4-4 after intense contest: Ajaccio were 2 up in the 12th minute before Lorient brought themselves one back. Ajaccio then tacked on two more before Lorient struck three times between the 46th and 94th minutes to level the game and split the points between the two sides. Marseille and Lyon's match was actually postponed. Up in England, Chelsea were edged in an inappropriate manner by Manchester United. I say inappropriate due to the fact that 2 players from the London side were sent-off under questionable circumstances. Be that as it may, David Luiz accidentally scored to put the team from Manchester ahead as Robin Van Persie made it 0-2 for Manchester. However, in  the 44th and 53rd minutes the team from London brought themselves level. Javier Hernandez put Manchester United ahead in the 75th after Chelsea were depleted in number by their sending-offs. Next up is Everton v.s. Liverpool where the visitors got 0-2 ahead by the 20th minute after an own goal and a strike from Luis Suarez. However, Everton were able to bring themselves level by the 35th minute with goals from Leon Osman and Steven Naismith in the 22nd and 35th minutes respectively. Newcastle's match with West Brom ended 2-1 as Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse struck for the home side on either side of Romelu Lukaku's 55th minute goal for the visitors of West Brom. Southampton and Tottenham ended in the opposite direction with Gareth Bale and Clint Dempsey scoring for the visitors before Jay Rodriguez gave Southampton their only goal of the game in the 66th. Now for Italy where Inter defeated Bologna 1-3 - striking twice before the home side could reply with their one and only through Nicolo Cherubin in the 58th. Esteban Cambiasso then struck Inter's 3rd and the games final goal in the 64th to wrap things up. Catania were then edged by Juventus after Arturo Vidal struck in the 57th minute to save the game. Fiorentina v.s. Lazio was a more one-sided game with Adem Ljajic scoring in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half. Luca Toni then struck in the 90th minute to wrap things up for the home side. Napoli were then able to edge Chievo 1-0 thanks to Marek Hamsik's 58th minute goal. Pescara and Atalanta finished their 90 minutes 0-0 while Roma were edged 2-3 by a capable Udinese side. Erik Lamela scored twice for the home side while Antonio Di Natale made it twice for the away side as Maurizio Domizzi was the man to score first for Udinese in the 32nd. Sampdoria were edged 0-1 by Cagliari thanks to Daniele Dessena's 47th minute goal. Torino were defeated by Parma 1-3 with three strikes before Torino had even one goal. The Netherlands meanwhile saw Feyenoord tie Ajax 2-2 while Heracles slammed Heerenveen 6-3 in their match-up. RKC were edged 0-1 by Twente thanks to Dusan Tadic in the 40th minute. Vitesse were similarly edged by AZ 1-2 while Zwolle actually did well for themselves against PSV: losing by just a goal after slotting home the opening goal in the 54th minute through Joey Van Den Berg. Nevertheless, Timothy Derijck equalized for PSV in the 75th before Van Den Berg unfortunately put the ball into his own net! With that 79th minute own goal, PSV took the three points on the day. And now on to Germany! Bayern were surprisingly overturned by Bayer Leverkusen in the 87th minute after Sidney Sam struck. Stefan Kiessling had opened the scoring in the game in the 42nd minute. In response, Mario Mandzukic equalized in the 77th though Sam's previously mentioned goal undid his success. Hannover were edged by Monchengladbach despite the fact that Hannover had actually made themselves a 2-0 lead by the 53rd minute. Amazingly, Alvaro Dominguez, Roel Brouwers, and Juan Arango scored a goal each between the 70th and 79th minutes to win the day. Last but not least, Stuttgart edged Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 after they scored on either side of Alexander Meier's 67th minute goal. Christian Gentner made the first goal of the game in the 6th minute for Stuttgart while Vedad Ibisevic won it all for the home side in the 84th minute. Last but certainly not least, Sweden had the luxury of seeing AIK draw with Syrianska while Atvidaberg finished a goalless draw with Mjallby. GAIS were defeated by Helsingborg 1-3 while Orebro were able to edge Goteborg 1-0 thanks to Shpetim Hasani's 14th minute strike. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sundsvall were clobbered 0-4 by Norrkoping thanks to a huge showing by the talented Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson who secured a hat-trick while Lars Gerson added one of his own. Such is the way of the world! Hope you enjoy it.