European soccer news: Flick's dream Barça debut, PSG's post-Mbappé era

We are so back. It’s been a long summer of sticky, sweaty days chock full of international football and preseason tours, but finally, the European club game has returned.

The Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue 1 all kicked off their campaigns on Saturday. In Germany, the Bundesliga season is a week away, but we were still treated to the Super Cup and DFB-Pokal.

The world’s biggest soccer stars made their marks on grounds all over the Old World. And in Suffolk, one of the world’s biggest musicians watched from the executives’ box.

The lead: Flick’s dream Barça debut

Hansi Flick fielded three 17-year-olds in his first game in charge of Barcelona, but it was veteran striker Robert Lewandowski, who will turn 36 next week, who ensured his former Bayern Munich coach got off to a winning start in testing circumstances at Valencia in LaLiga on Saturday.

Lewandowski struck twice after Hugo Duro had opened the scoring as Barça, missing key players through injuries, holidays and registration issues, came from behind to silence the whistles coming from a raucous home crowd on a searing hot Spanish summer night at Mestalla and win 2-1.

Preseason has not been kind to Flick, who replaced Xavi Hernández earlier this summer. Ronald Araújo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati are among those he has lost to injury; Fermín López remains on holiday after his exploits at the Olympic Games; and neither Dani Olmo nor Vitor Roque are yet registered for action. Ilkay Gündogan dropped out of the squad with a knock pregame, too.

Valencia have fallen in recent years, failing to qualify for Europe since 2019, but a trip to Mestalla remains one of the tougher tests in Spanish football — especially in the opening game of the season.

Undeterred, Flick boldly stuck with the youngsters that, until Monday’s 3-0 friendly defeat to AS Monaco, had served him well in preseason. Academy graduates Marc Bernal, 17, and Marc Casadó, 20, were paired together in midfield. Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal completed the trio of 17-year-olds in the Barça lineup with a team that very much felt like a new era.

The game sparked to life in a frantic few minutes before the break. Duro headed Valencia into the lead in the 45th minute, the goal given after an offside review, before Cubarsí produced a brilliant goal line clearance from Duro after a Marc-André ter Stegen error. Barça raced up the other end and Alejando Balde crossed for Yamal to set up Lewandowski from close range.

From the brink of 2-0 to 1-1 on the stroke of half-time.

Four minutes into the second half, Barça led. Raphinha nipped in front of his marker to win a penalty and Lewandowski converted from 12 yards.

What will perhaps please Flick the most is how his team then took control of the game, almost making it a non-contest. Angry Valencia supporters felt every decision was going against them, every whistle from the referee greeted by dangerous decibels of shrieks. Barça’s youngsters stuck to the task, though, Bernal impressive on his competitive debut, Casadó everywhere and Yamal showing the skills and touches that helped Spain win the European Championship.

There were mistakes. From Ter Stegen and Iñigo Martínez, from Bernal and Jules Koundé, while Cubarsí was lucky to avoid a yellow card when already on a booking. Flick’s decision to remove him almost immediately suggests he knew the young centre-back had got away with one.

It was far from perfect, but Pedri came on to give Barça an essence of control again, another positive from the night. Flick could not have asked for much more on debut. — Sam Marsden

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Saturday talking points around the leagues

Leverkusen are football’s new ‘mentality monsters’

The German Super Cup is usually the clash between the German champions and cup winners from the previous season, but since Bayer Leverkusen were able to claim both trophies in 2023-24, they faced last year’s Bundesliga runners-up, VfB Stuttgart, on Saturday.

Stuttgart’s squad has undergone a considerable transformation over the summer, with three key players — defenders Hiroki Ito and Waldemar Anton as well as goal scorer Serhou Guirassy — leaving the club. The general expectation has been that, despite manager Sebastian Hoeness’s tactical acumen, Stuttgart won’t be able to deliver the same kind of performance as last season.

And so, Leverkusen went into the Super Cup in their own stadium as the clear favorites, and the first ten minutes unfolded as expected, with the hosts creating chances and eventually scoring through Victor Boniface. Stuttgart, however, managed to strike back immediately thanks to a superb combination play involving Maximilian Mittelstädt, Chris Führich and Enzo Millot, three of last season’s key players.

Shortly before the halftime break, the game heated up significantly, as Martin Terrier, Leverkusen’s signing from Stade Rennais, was issued a straight red card after hitting Ermedin Demirovic‘s ankle hard around the halfway line.

Thanks to their numerical advantage, Stuttgart became increasingly dominant. Hoeness’s players often attempted to create breakthroughs on the left wing, where Mittelstädt and Führich once again formed a fruitful partnership. Even after Mittelstädt was replaced by Frans Krätzig moments after the hour mark, Stuttgart’s left side remained dangerous. In fact, Krätzig and Führich set up Deniz Undav to put the guests in front.

As they did so many times last season, though, Leverkusen managed to stay in the game until the very end when Patrik Schick equalised, which took the game to a penalty shootout. Krätzig and Silas Katompa Mvumpa did not score while Leverkusen’s four penalty takers were successful, allowing them to celebrate their third trophy under coach Xabi Alonso.

Some time ago, Jürgen Klopp introduced the phrase “mentality monsters” into the English language, as a literal translation from a well-known German word. It is safe to say that Leverkusen are exactly that. — Constantin Eckner

PSG embark on the post-Mbappé era

Kylian Mbappé was not in Le Havre on Friday night with Paris Saint-Germain, but his name was on everyone’s lips as the French top flight kicked off its campaign on Friday. He was still the big talking point in French football despite leaving Paris more than two months ago.

The biggest question around PSG was how would they cope without him? It will take more time to answer such a far-reaching question, just as it will take more time to get used to Ligue 1 without Mbappé.

Nevertheless, Les Parisiens — fielding a B team including 16-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye, the youngest ever player to feature for the club — had to find a new way to play and win. They did just that on Friday.

Quite convincingly at first, with a superb early team goal from Lee Kang-in to start the game before setting the tempo and taking control of the contest. Then came a massive dip in both form and energy, which saw Le Havre exploiting PSG’s primary weakness, defending set pieces, to level the score three minutes into the second half.

It was only when Luis Enrique sent on the big names in Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola halfway through the second half that the champions regained their superiority. Both scored in the game’s last five minutes, with Randal Kolo Muani netting the fourth and final goal.

Starting the season with a 4-1 win away from home would please most clubs, but Luis Enrique knew it wasn’t good enough. “The win is the tree which hides the forest,” he said after the game, well aware of the progress his team still has to make: to not only improve, but to move on from Mbappé. — Julien Laurens

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News of the day

• Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said Mohamed Salah can continue his record-breaking run of scoring on the opening day of the Premier League season for years to come after he helped them to a 2-0 win at Ipswich Town on Saturday. “If [you] see what he does to keep his body as it is, there are many more years inside of him,” Slot said. “[Regarding the future,] I am looking at Brentford and not at the end of the season.”

• Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has said it would be more beneficial for Ben Chilwell to leave the club in order to find playing time as Chelsea come to terms with their crowded squad. “It’s quite clear, I love the way he is but the problem is that he struggles with us a little bit to find his best position,” Maresca told reporters on Saturday. “This morning we had 22 players training, and if you ask all of them they will say they want to play against City on Sunday but that is impossible.”

• Carlo Ancelotti has said Real Madrid‘s hectic fixture list this season means the club are considering giving “individual holidays” to players during the season, to avoid burnout. “We’re evaluating some things,” Ancelotti said in a news conference on Saturday. “The players need to rest, they need holidays. We’re thinking that during the season we could give the players individual holidays for a week.”

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And finally, on Saturday …

It’s hardly out of the ordinary for the owner of a football club to watch their side from the comfy confines of a box seat, so Ipswich Town’s new minority owner being in attendance for the club’s Premier League return on Saturday should come as no surprise. Except that said owner just happens to be winner Ed Sheeran.

Lifelong Ipswich Town fan Ed Sheeran in the house at Portman Road for today’s clash against Liverpool. 👏 pic.twitter.com/7lr61O8niN

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) August 17, 2024

It was announced on Thursday that the four-time Grammy Award winner had purchased a 1.4% stake in the newly promoted Tractor Boys, and he wasted little time in getting a closer look at his investment. Sheeran is the club’s most famous supporter, its shirt sponsor since 2021, and now he has a seat in its executives’ box.

The newly minted minority owner had to depart at half-time, he told TNT Sport, jetting off to Serbia for a concert on Saturday night. When he left, Ipswich were still level with mighty Liverpool. By the time took to the skies, though, the visitors left Portman Road with a 2-0 victory over Sheeran’s side.

If only time were, in fact, frozen forever still. — Austin Lindberg