Rangers suffered a shock defeat away to Kilmarnock on the opening weekend of the cinch Premiership season, while Hibernian and Aberdeen also started the campaign with frustrating results.
Brendan Rodgers kicked off his second spell in charge of Celtic with a victory, while there were winning starts for Hearts and St Mirren.
Here, the PA news agency looks at five things we learned from the weekend’s fixtures.
David Turnbull stakes his Celtic claimThe former Motherwell midfielder was handed his first league start in almost nine months when Rodgers picked his first team for a competitive Celtic match since returning as manager. Turnbull seized his opportunity with two goals and would have had another if it had not been for a double stop from Ross Laidlaw. Rodgers challenged the 24-year-old to continue working hard off the ball and make the most of his chance.
It never rains but it poursThe Scottish football season closed in farcical fashion last term as torrential rain led to a major delay in Scotland’s win over Georgia. And the wet weather also delayed the start of the Premiership campaign in Perth as water got into the electrics and led to the VAR technology failing initially before Hearts’ win against St Johnstone. Dens Park was also affected as Dundee’s draw with Motherwell was briefly held up to clear a massive puddle from near the corner flag.
Rangers still looking to find their grooveMichael Beale deployed an all-new front trio of Sam Lammers, Abdallah Sima and Cyriel Dessers at Rugby Park and Brazilian striker Danilo would come on later for his debut. But Rangers only managed four shots on target in their 1-0 defeat by Kilmarnock. Rangers only failed to score on two occasions in the Premiership last season and already find themselves chasing Celtic.
Killie signal their intentOne of Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes’ pre-season ambitions was to take something off the Old Firm and that was achieved on the opening day against Rangers. Midfielder Brad Lyons scored only his second goal for Killie after 65 minutes and the hard-working home side held out at Rugby Park with a degree of comfort. It was an early confidence-booster for the revamped Ayrshire outfit who battled at the wrong end of the table for most of last season.
Hearts steal an early march on Dons and HibsHibs, Hearts and Aberdeen have all enjoyed third-placed finishes over the past three seasons and the trio of big city clubs are widely expected to battle it out for the ‘best of the rest’ tag behind Celtic and Rangers this time round. All three kicked off the campaign with fixtures against teams that finished beneath them last term, but Hearts were the only side to emerge victorious after a 2-0 triumph at St Johnstone. Aberdeen and their huge away support were left frustrated by a 0-0 draw at Livingston, while Hibs suffered a demoralising 3-2 home defeat by St Mirren.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Clement wants ruthless Rangers after nervy win over Hearts
Rangers boss Philippe Clement called on his team to show greater ruthlessness after they were made to work for a 1-0 win over Hearts in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
Cyriel Dessers put the Gers ahead after just six minutes at Ibrox, diverting James Tavernier's effort past visiting goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
However, Clement's team failed to build on that quick start and inched over the line amid a tense atmosphere, moving back to within nine points of pacesetters Celtic and Aberdeen.
Speaking after the game, Clement acknowledged his players are fatigued after a gruelling run of fixtures but added they must start taking their chances.
"We made too many wrong choices with the ball and became too sloppy," Clement said.
"It's the end of a very busy period, though, with a lot of travelling and they're all human beings, not robots.
"We missed scoring the second goal and we know that until you get that goal the other team stays in the game, so I want us to kill the belief of the opponent faster.
"I'm very satisfied with the result and the deserved three points. We didn't show the same quality in the second half and we didn't finish off the game. We had a few chances, but it stays nervous until the last second."
Rangers host Dundee United after the international break, while Celtic visit Hearts and Aberdeen travel to St. Mirren.
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