European leagues round-up

LONDON – Mainz 05 made it seven wins out of seven in the Bundesliga this season by beating Hoffenheim 4-2 at the weekend while stuttering champions Bayern Munich dropped further behind the leaders with a 2-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund.

Real Madrid thumped six goals past Deportivo Coruna in Spain and Stade Rennes went top in France for the first time in 40 years.

GERMANY
Mainz 05 equalled the record for the best start to the Bundesliga season by beating Hoffenheim 4-2 and notching up their seventh straight win of the season.
Sami Allagui and Adam Szalai scored the first two for Mainz followed by a Luiz Gustavo own goal and an Andre Schuerrle penalty. Demba Ba and Gylfi Sigurdsson replied for Hoffenheim.
Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern 2-0 with second-half goals from Paraguay striker Lucas Barrios and Turkey midfielder Nuri Sahin to stay second. Bayern, a modest 12th, are already 13 points behind Mainz.

SPAIN
Real Madrid took full advantage of a slip-up by Barcelona with a sparkling 6-1 victory over Deportivo Coruna to climb above their arch-rivals into third place in La Liga.
Barca failed to capitalise on a clinical Lionel Messi strike at home to Real Mallorca and the champions conceded a soft goal just before halftime to draw 1-1 at the Nou Camp.
Real have 14 points, two behind leaders Valencia who secured their place at the top for another week when Aritz Aduriz and Vicente netted in a 2-1 home win over Athletic Bilbao.
Villarreal are second on 15 after they recorded a fifth successive victory, beating Racing Santander 2-0 thanks to goals from Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi.

ITALY
Inter Milan surrendered top spot in Serie A after a 0-0 home draw with bitter rivals Juventus where both sides had good chances to score.
Lazio took over the lead following Stefano Mauri’s well-worked goal in a 1-0 home win over Brescia.
Napoli are third thanks to a 2-0 victory over second-from-bottom AS Roma while AC Milan in fourth needed a 40-metre screamer from Andrea Pirlo to overcome Parma 1-0.

FRANCE
Stade Rennes took top spot in Ligue 1 for the first time in 40 years on Sunday after a superb goal by Romain Danze on the stroke of halftime set them on the way to a 3-1 win over Toulouse.
A second-half goal from Senegalese captain Abdou Khader Mangane and a penalty from Sylvain Marveaux completed the victory for Rennes, who are unbeaten after eight games. Rennes leap-frogged St Etienne who were held to a 1-1 home draw by Olympique Marseille and are one point behind in second place.

NETHERLANDS
Brazilian Jonathan Reis struck twice to inspire PSV Eindhoven to a 3-0 home win against VVV Venlo which took them top of the Dutch league.
Previous leaders Ajax Amsterdam, unbeaten for 25 league matches, lost 2-1 at home to Utrecht who scored with two Ricky van Wolfswinkel penalties.
Twente Enschede moved into third, two points behind PSV, after a 4-2 home win over Groningen.

PORTUGAL
Champions Benfica beat last season’s runners-up Braga 1-0 at home to climb into second place.
Midfielder Carlos Martins scored in the 73rd minute, receiving a pass from Argentine forward Javier Saviola inside the box and firing in with his left foot.
Benfica are six points adrift of leaders Porto, who play away at Vitoria Guimaraes on Monday and have a 100 percent record after six matches.

GREECE
Leaders Olympiakos Piraeus beat Olympiakos Volos 3-1 to stay one point ahead of Panathinaikos who beat Ergotelis 4-1.
Djibril Cisse scored twice for Panathinaikos, taking his season’s tally to five, with Kostas Katsouranis and Nikos Spiropoulos also on target.
– Nampa-Reuters