Manchester City beat Manchester United in a derby at Old Trafford to stay in touch with Chelsea at the top of the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Liga F leaders Barcelona continued their Clasico dominance over Real Madrid as clubs across Europe dealt with a first post-Champions League weekend of the season.
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The strains of Champions League status
With the group stage of the Champions League getting underway last week, the impact was felt all over the European leagues at the weekend as some teams appeared bleary eyed for their domestic commitments that put their squad depth to the test.
Lyon‘s return on Friday set the tone, and they had an error from Dijon‘s young goalkeeper Alice Pinguet to thank for letting them draw level after going 1-0 down at home. A late flurry of goals sealed a 4-1 win that made a frustrating evening look far more straightforward than it was. In Germany, neither Eintracht Frankfurt (against lowly Nuremberg) nor Bayern Munich (at Werder Bremen) looked as secure as their respective 2-0 wins suggest, and it was the same elsewhere for Benfica against Braga (1-0), Roma vs. Sassuolo (2-0) and Paris FC as they faced Bordeaux (1-0.) Paris Saint-Germain‘s 2-1 win over Fleury looked like it…
