(Reuters) – Talking points from the weekend in European soccer leagues:
GERMANY
KANE LOOKS SET TO RIP UP BUNDESLIGA RECORDS
Few doubted that Harry Kane would find Bundesliga defences to his liking, but not many would have predicted the deluge of goals the England captain has delivered already for champions Bayern Munich.
Kane scored a hat-trick for the second successive week on Saturday and his third of the season, this time in a 4-0 away demolition of supposed rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The former Tottenham Hotspur striker now has 15 Bundesliga goals this season after 10 games, only one behind last season’s joint top scorers in the top flight.
Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern system looks so perfectly set up for Kane that, barring injury, it is hard to see the goal flow slowing any time soon.
No player has ever scored 15 goals in the first 10 games of a Bundesliga campaign and Robert Lewandowski’s record of 41 goals for Bayern in the 2020-21 season already looks under serious threat.
SPAIN
GIRONA CONTINUE TO SOAR IN LALIGA
No team in Europe’s top five leagues has more points than Girona (31) at this stage of the season, a stunning statistic for a team that has flitted between the top flight and second tier over the last seven years.
Girona finished 10th last season with 13 wins after returning to LaLiga but they have already registered 10 victories this campaign, with a 4-2 comeback win at Osasuna propelling them to the summit.
In a league perennially dominated by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, Michel’s Girona have quietly gone about their business with an entertaining brand of football that has seen them score the most goals in LaLiga so far.
Led by Artem Dovbyk in attack and Aleix Garcia in midfield, 11 different players have got on the scoresheet — a terrific achievement for a club that lost top scorer Valentin Castellanos and key midfielder Rodrigo Riquelme in the close season.
ITALY
NEW LOW FOR MILAN WITH LOSS TO UDINESE
AC Milan’s slump continued ahead of their Champions League clash with Paris St Germain on Tuesday as Stefano Pioli’s side extended their winless run in all competitions to four games with a shock 1-0 loss at home to lowly Udinese.
Milan have not won a game in nearly a month, last taking three points in their 1-0 win at Genoa on Oct. 7. Since then, the 2021-22 champions were beaten 1-0 by Juventus and held to a 2-2 draw by Napoli in Serie A, on top of their 3-0 loss in Paris.
Milan, who were unbeaten in 15 of their previous 16 Serie A home games against Udinese, lacked spark and Pioli was criticised by Italian media for his tactical choices.
They have lost two home league games in a row without scoring for the first time since September 2012.
Milan sit third in the standings on 22 points, six adrift of leaders Inter Milan.
BELGIUM
UNION OPEN UP GAP AT THE TOP
Union Saint Gilloise came agonisingly close to winning the Belgian title in the last two seasons and are on course for another tilt, looking to end a wait of almost 90 years.
Their 2-1 win over Club Brugge on Sunday was a strong statement and came on the back of a superb individual performance from lightning-fast Algerian Mohamed Amoura, who scored both goals in Brussels.
Union’s victory opened up a four-point lead over Anderlecht, and left Club Brugge, who were champions two seasons ago and reached the knockout stage of last season’s Champions League, floundering in seventh place, 12 points off the pace.
Union, whose last title success was in 1935, could afford the luxury of missing a penalty in stoppage time.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, Rohith Nair, Anita Kobylinska and Mark Gleeson; Editing by Toby Davis)
