Totti's 250th Serie A goal fails to save Roma

 Francesco Totti, two days short of his 40th birthday, scored his 250th Serie A goal for AS Roma on Sunday but it was not enough as they lost 3-1 at Torino.

Roma were undone by two goals from Iago Falque, a player they loaned to their opponents at the start of the season, as they slipped to a second successive away defeat.

Andrea Belotti headed Torino in front in the eighth minute and they struck again when Falque converted a penalty in the 53rd after Belotti was tripped by Bruno Peres.

In between, Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart twice denied his former Manchester City team mate Edin Dzeko an equaliser for Roma.

Roma were themselves awarded a penalty in the 55th minute and halftime substitute Totti, playing his 25th season at his only professional club, sent Hart the wrong way to score his second goal of the campaign.

Falque restored Torino's two-goal lead 10 minutes later with a shot which took a wicked deflection off Federico Fazio, leaving Roma with 10 points from six games and Torino with eight.

Totti, Serie A's second all-time leading scorer, is 24 goals short of Silvio Piola's record of 274, set in 1954.

Atletico's Griezmann downs Depor

Antoine Griezmann's second-half goal earned Atletico Madrid a 1-0 win against 10-man Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday, but Diego Simeone's side suffered a double injury blow ahead of their Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.

Middlesbrough win north-east derby, West Ham edge Bournemouth

Middlesbrough handed Sunderland's new manager David Moyes a 2-1 defeat on his home debut and West Ham United beat Bournemouth 1-0 with a late goal to record a welcome first Premier League win at their new London Stadium on Sunday.

Boro's Cristhian Stuani struck twice in the first half to earn the points, while a Michail Antonio header gave West Ham the spoils against a Bournemouth side reduced to 10 men in the 78th minute when midfielder Harry Arter was sent off.

Both matches were laced with added importance as Boro and Sunderland renewed their rivalry having last faced each other in the league nearly eight years ago and, with Newcastle United relegated, the clash is the northeast's only derby this season.

For West Ham manager Slaven Bilic anything less than victory in the club's first top flight game at their new ground would have raised questions "like a snowball" about the wisdom of the move from Upton Park to their new 60,000 capacity stadium.

Monday, 22 August 2016 | MYT 4:04 AM

Middlesbrough win north-east derby, West Ham edge Bournemouth

BY NEIL ROBINSON

 Middlesbrough handed Sunderland's new manager David Moyes a 2-1 defeat on his home debut and West Ham United beat Bournemouth 1-0 with a late goal to record a welcome first Premier League win at their new London Stadium on Sunday.

Bale double gives Real Madrid winning start

 Gareth Bale scored a double in a commanding 3-0 win for Real Madrid in their La Liga opener at Real Sociedad on Sunday, building on his stunning displays for Wales at Euro 2016.

Bale opened the scoring with a powerful header in the second minute and rounded off the win four minutes into added time with a simple finish after new arrival Marco Asensio had scored his first league goal for Real in the 40th with a sumptuous lob.

Elsewhere, title rivals Atletico Madrid were denied a win with virtually the last kick of the game and had to settle for a 1-1 draw at home to promoted Alaves.

The game looked to be heading for a goalless draw until the home side were awarded a penalty in injury time for a handball, allowing Kevin Gameiro to mark his Atletico debut by converting from the spot in the 93rd minute.

Diego Simeone's side were dealt a nasty late surprise though when Manu Garcia let fly from outside the area to salvage a point for the Basque side, the 2001 UEFA Cup runners-up who were playing their first top flight game in 13 years.

Earlier on Sunday, Sporting Gijon beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 thanks to quick fire goals from Duje Cop and Victor Rodriguez at the start of the second half, with Borja Viguera scoring late for the visitors.

RACIST CHANTS

Midway through the first half referee Carlos Clos Gomez halted the game for a minute after Athletic striker Inaki Williams, a Spain under-21 international born in Spain to a Ghanaian father and Liberian mother, was subjected to racist chanting from the home supporters.

Real are third in the table with three points, behind Barcelona and Sevilla on goal difference, while Atletico are seventh.

After title rivals Barcelona had laid down a marker with a ruthless 6-2 win at home to Real Betis on Saturday, the pressure was on Real to make a strong start.

They were without first choice forwards Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, so Bale was accompanied by Alvaro Morata and Asensio instead.

The Wales international had nodded in the only goal in this fixture last season late in the second half but needed little more than 60 seconds to strike this time, meeting Dani Carvajal's whipped cross from the right to power the ball into the top near corner.

"It's important to get off to a winning start especially at a ground as difficult as this one. This was the best way to start the season," Zidane told reporters.

"Every player put in a huge effort and we attacked and defended together. If we fight for every ball we can achieve big things."

Real's second goal came in the 40th minute via Raphael Varane's scooped pass from defence up to Asensio, the youngster controlling with one touch before producing a delightful chip over Geronimo Rulli.

Bale completed the win when he latched on to James Rodriguez's through ball to race clear and calmly take it round Rulli to score again.

(Editing by Alison Williams/Rex Gowar)

Southampton's Austin roars on at spluttering Hammers

Southampton coasted to a 3-0 win at West Ham United in the Premier League on Sunday to record a fourth successive victory in all competitions and increase the concerns of the home fans about their team's dismal record at the new stadium.

The key goals came either side of the break from Charlie Austin and Dusan Tadic while James Ward-Prowse added a third in stoppage time to complete a miserable afternoon for the Hammers.

The defeat was West Ham's fourth in a row in the league - and second in succession at the London Stadium where they moved from Upton Park for the start of the season - sparking boos from disgruntled supporters at halftime and the final whistle.

Austin scored with the visitors' first shot on target after 40 minutes, the striker finishing first time from a Ryan Bertrand cross for his fourth goal in five games. The 27-year-old then set up Tadic to slot home the second in the 62nd.


"When you are on a hot streak you just want the goals to keep coming," said Austin, who has displaced Ireland international Shane Long in the starting lineup. "We're all fighting for places but as long as we win we're all happy."

Although West Ham had a shot cleared off the line by Virgil van Dijk, they always looked vulnerable and duly conceded a 16th goal from six league games when substitute Ward-Prowse pounced.



"It is not good enough," said West Ham manager Slaven Bilic. "We are a team expecting something to happen by default."

West Ham's Noble says they could have lost 6-0

West Ham United's Mark Noble admitted with rare post-match candour that they were fortunate to escape with a 3-0 defeat by Southampton at the London Stadium on Sunday - their fourth successive reverse in the Premier League.

"To be honest, it could have been six," said Noble, the club captain and veteran of 12 years. "It was laughable. We probably could have played until tonight and still not scored."

The same sentiments were probably shared by the fans who booed the team off the pitch at halftime and at the end along with the thousands who walked out long before the final whistle.

The former Olympic Stadium is not a happy new home for West Ham, who may well still be smarting from the recent remarks of club great Billy Bonds after he described it as "not a football ground".

The east London club's problems go much deeper than location, however. The previous week they shipped goals in a 4-2 defeat at West Bromwich Albion, hardly prolific scorers, and have now conceded 14 in their last four league defeats.

Manager Slaven Bilic looked shell-shocked after the match, answering questions with soft, measured tones.

"It is the same players and manager who were doing good things last season (when they finished seventh). Eighty percent of the team is like that. But we were not happy with how we played in the last third of the pitch," he said.

POOR IMITATION

That was probably a reference to West Ham's on loan Italian striker Simone Zaza, who looked a poor imitation of his opposite number, Charlie Austin, in every respect.

Southampton's impressive forward held the ball well, brought others into play, including Dusan Tadic for the second goal, and executed his one chance superbly for the opener.

Zaza, on the other hand, looked lost up front, and was only noticeable when he threw himself to the ground in search of a penalty. Zsa Zsa Gabor could not have been more theatrical.

Bilic will point to the injuries which have severely disrupted his team's season, but West Ham must look beyond excuses. They are third from bottom of the table with three points from six games and have a long hard season of them.

No one is better placed than Southampton to warn the London club about the possible aftermath of moving home.

Within four years of leaving the Dell, an old-style stadium that resembled West Ham's old Upton Park ground, for St Mary's, they had changed managers four times and been relegated to the Championship, on their way to English football's third tier.

It is too soon to predict similar doom for West Ham but Noble, who saw them relegated in 2011, knows how to tell a few home truths, which do not involve blaming the new stadium for their plight.

"I've been in this position before at the club," he said. "At the moment we're just not good enough."

(Reporting by Neil Robinson; editing by Ken Ferris)

Rampant Dortmund will put stuttering Real to the test

European champions Real Madrid head to rampaging Borussia Dortmund for their Champions League Group F game on Tuesday in a frazzled state with their buoyant start to the season having been punctured by successive La Liga draws.

Real gave away a late equaliser to draw 2-2 at Las Palmas on Saturday, after their joint-record 16-game winning streak in La Liga was halted by Wednesday's 1-1 home stalemate against Villarreal, which saw their lead at the top cut to a point.

Dortmund, meanwhile, have been on a sizzling run since losing to RB Leipzig on Sept. 10, scoring 20 goals in four straight wins against Legia Warsaw in the Champions League and Darmstadt, Wolfsburg and Freiburg in the Bundesliga.

Dortmund, who thrashed the Polish club 6-0 away in their opening group game, are second in the German top flight and on Friday equalled a club record of 24 games without defeat at home in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win over Freiburg.

Even in the midst of Real's sensational winning run, Zinedine Zidane's side were criticised by the media for unconvincing performances and their sloppiness was punished by Las Palmas in their last La Liga outing.

Midfielder Tana hooked home a poor clearance from Real's Raphael Varane to cancel out Marco Asensio's opener and, after Karim Benzema had restored Real's lead, Sergio Araujo sneaked into the box from the left to level in the 85th minute.

Real's lacklustre displays have been compounded by the absence of midfield anchor Casemiro and influential left back Marcelo through injury and the form of talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo has endured a difficult start to the season, scoring twice in four games -- including against his former club Sporting in Real's 2-1 home win in their first Champions League group game - while missing three due to injury and illness.

He reacted angrily to being substituted by Zidane with 18 minutes left at Las Palmas.

Striker Alvaro Morata, however, said there were still plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

"We still haven't lost and we are still top of the league. The important thing is how you finish and we have to win all our games if possible," he told reporters on Saturday.

"We have to keep working and now focus our minds on the Champions League."

Eleven-times European champions Real have a dismal record in Germany, having won four out of 30 competitive games in the country, and have lost their last three visits to Dortmund.

Dortmund are waiting on the fitness of their Spain centre-back Marc Bartra and Colombian forward Adrian Ramos, who both missed Friday's win over Freiburg.

Their hitman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finished the game with a knock although the Gabon striker, who has four goals in his last three games, said it was nothing to worry about.

(Reporting by Richard Martin; editing by Ken Ferris)