Rodri made his Barcelona debut during a 2-0 La Liga win over Athletic Bilbao, while Chelsea and Fulham progressed to the English League Cup third round.
Rodri made his debut for FC Barcelona, coming off the bench in the 62nd minute of a 2-0 Spanish League victory over Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou. The midfielder, signed from Manchester City after captaining Spain to a World Cup title, welcomed his first action with the team. “I'm happy to play my first game with Barcelona, happy for the victory, the second in a row for the team,” Rodri said post-match. “It's important to start gaining rhythm. I felt good with my first minutes.”
Barcelona secured their second straight win of their Spanish league title defense courtesy of goals from Raphinha and Fermín López in each half. A pre-match tribute to Barcelona's eight World Cup winners was cancelled after an incident last weekend where police detained a fan over an 'estelada' flag at Elche; instead, local organizers distributed around 10,000 small pro-independence flags to supporters inside the stadium. In the other La Liga matchup, Osasuna fought back to record a 2-1 victory over 10-man Celta Vigo.
In the second round of the English League Cup, Chelsea defeated third-division side Luton 2-0 to advance to the third round. Danny Welbeck scored for Chelsea alongside an own-goal by Luton's Hakeem Odoffin. Chelsea coach Xabi Alonso fielded a strong squad following a 3-2 victory over Fulham on Monday, though Enzo Fernandez was left out. Jack Wilshere, 34, coached Luton. Meanwhile, Fulham secured a 3-0 victory against third-tier Wimbledon with goals from Emile Smith Rowe, Rodrigo Muniz, and Gonzalo García, marking coach Álvaro Arbeloa's first win with the London club.
European cup action saw Mohamed Salah's Trabzonspor eliminated from the Europa League after a 4-0 second-leg defeat to Ferencvaros, falling 5-0 on aggregate. Trabzonspor finished with nine players following red cards for Ruslan Malinovskyi in the 13th minute and Sidny Lopes Cabral in the 57th minute, with Salah substituted in the second half. Portugal's Benfica advanced 6-2 on aggregate after a 3-1 away win against Danish side AGF, featuring two goals from Gianluca Prestianni. In the Conference League playoffs, Rangers were knocked out in a penalty shootout by Czech side Jablonec.
Reporting sourced from The Hindu Football. Photo courtesy The Hindu Football.