Winners and Losers: Bayer pick up where they left off as goals pour in Portugal

Pat Dempsey

Will Bayer Leverkusen finally lose this season in the Bundesliga?Lars Baron / Getty Images via AFP

With the Bundesliga returning over the weekend, full service has now resumed in Europe's top leagues. Let's catch up on the highlights and lowlights from around the world with our weekly Winners and Losers.

Winner - Bayer Leverkusen

Last season’s Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen made a habit of scoring late-late goals on their way to an unbeaten domestic campaign and a run to the Europa League final - the only competitive match they lost in 2023/24.

And they started the new season in just the same manner on Friday with Florian Wirtz scoring a 101st-minute winner as Bayer overcame Borussia Monchengladbach 3-2 in the Bundesliga curtain raiser. Wirtz, who also scored in the first half, missed his late penalty but was on hand to tap home the rebound.

And so a new season begins in Germany and the late show continues in Leverkusen but the question will be how long Xabi Alonso’s men can keep up their ridiculous heroics. Incredibly, they are now 35 Bundesliga matches unbeaten.

Catch up on the Bundesliga results here.

Loser - Joshua Zirkzee

From hero to zero, Manchester United new man Joshua Zirkzee came on to score the winner in his side's Premier League opener but his luck ran out on Saturday against Brighton.

It looked like Alejandro Garnacho had notched the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 only for Zirkzee’s perhaps unintentional offside touch to see the score swiftly ruled out.

As it turned out, Brighton edged the match 2-1 thanks to a 95th-minute goal from Joao Pedro. The win was the Seagulls' second of the season and while they soar, United and Zirkzee were brought back down to earth after an encouraging start to their campaign.

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Winner - Galeno

Moving over to Portugal where FC Porto continued their perfect start to the league season with a 2-0 win over Rio Ave. Porto are now three wins from three with seven scored and none conceded.

One man has really shone for Porto, however, and that’s Brazilian Galeno, who has scored in every league match so far following on from his two goals in Porto's Super Cup win over Sporting.

Incredibly, Galeno’s three league goals have all come from defence, with the wide forward having been reinvented as a full-back this season. His last was netted after only 18 seconds - the fastest goal ever at Dragao - and what a finish it was. From winger to full-back, have we got ourselves a reverse Gareth Bale here?

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Loser - Aston Villa

We love a bold move at Flashscore but if you come firing shots, you best not miss...

Aston Villa did the double over Arsenal last season on their way to a top-four finish and Champions League qualification under Unai Emery. Ahead of the sides' first clash of the new season on Saturday, they popped their 1982 European Cup trophy in the tunnel as a little reminder of which side have done the business on the continent.

However, Mikel Arteta’s side scored two goals in the second half to silence the Villa Park faithful and head back to London with a 2-0 win and the bragging rights. Whether Villa were taking a dig at the Gunners or not, it's probably time to put that trophy away... for now at least.

Winner - Viktor Gyokeres

We gave some love to FC Porto above but they aren’t the only in-form side in Liga Portugal and Galeno isn't the only in-form player either. Defending champions Sporting have also started the new campaign with three wins from three, scoring 14 goals already.

On Friday, a Viktor Gyokeres hat-trick fired them to a 5-0 crushing of Farense. The big Swede also scored a brace in their 6-1 pummelling of Nacional the round before and once in their season opener as well.

Gyokeres scored a hat-trick against FarenseOpta by StatsPerform / Profimedia

Six goals from three starts is not a bad return for the man who tallied 29 in the league last season. Whatever happened to that big-money move? With a few days left in the transfer window, there could be a late push to snap up the deadly marksman.

Loser - Luis Rioja

Luis Rioja just loves losing in Vigo. After starting the season as an Alaves player, the forward suffered a 2-1 loss at Estadio de Balaidos with the Basque club in round one of LaLiga.

Rioja was then transferred to Valencia and guess what his next game was? That’s right, away to Celta Vigo again.

On Friday, it was a 3-1 loss with Los Che for Rioja and he’d be forgiven for not wanting to go to Galicia again anytime soon. Rioja has never won a match at Balaidos.

Catch up on the action from LaLiga here.