European football matchday: Man City aim to open Premier League account; Barcelona seek a second straight win

A look at what’s happening in European football on Saturday:

England

Manchester City look for their first points of the new Premier League season in a home match against promoted Norwich. City opened their title defence with a 1-0 loss at Tottenham.

Liverpool host Burnley in the early game as Juergen Klopp’s team goes for a second straight win to follow up a 3-0 victory at Norwich. Other teams looking to make it two wins from two are Brighton, Everton and Brentford, who play Watford, Leeds and Crystal Palace, respectively.

Spain

Barcelona seek a second straight win in their post-Messi era when it visits Athletic Bilbao. Ronald Koeman’s team opened with a 4-2 victory over Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou in its first match without Lionel Messi. Now it travels to Bilbao to face the Basque side that is always a tough test at home. More than 10,000 fans will be allowed into San Mamés stadium for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Villarreal, last season’s Europa League winner, visit promoted Espanyol after both sides were held to scoreless draws in their openers. Valencia try for a second win when they visit Granada, while promoted Mallorca is at Alavés.

Italy

Inter Milan kick off their title defence at home to Genoa in the first match of the Serie A season. It has been all change at Inter after financial constraints meant that the Nerazzurri had to sell two of their top players in Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi, while Simone Inzaghi replaced Antonio Conte as coach.

It remains to be seen how much all that will affect Inter’s chances of retaining its Serie A title. Maurizio Sarri has replaced Inzaghi in the Lazio dugout and his first game is at newly promoted Empoli. After finishing third last season, Atalanta will be looking to take advantage of other teams’ disarray to again challenge for the title and travels to Torino.

Germany

Bayer Leverkusen welcome Borussia Mönchengladbach for an intriguing Bundesliga match between two well-regarded teams with new coaches. Gerardo Seoane’s Leverkusen started the season with a draw at Union Berlin, and Adi Hütter’s Gladbach held defending champion Bayern Munich to a draw in the league’s opening game. Borussia Dortmund face a tricky game at Freiburg, while Hertha Berlin welcome Champions League qualifier Wolfsburg.

France

French champion Lille are still searching for their first win of the season as they visit Saint-Etienne. Lille’s title defence got off to a poor start after a 3-3 draw at Metz was followed by a 4-0 home loss to Nice last weekend. Coach Jocelyn Gourvennec clearly has defence issues to sort out against Saint-Etienne, which is coached by former Lille boss Claude Puel. Monaco host Lens in the early game. Both teams are looking for their first league win of the season.