Football: the main stories of 07.09.2026

Lazio left Udine with a perfect record: three matches under Gennaro Gattuso, three wins, third place in Serie A. They came from behind, Danilho Doekhi supplied the assist and Albert Gudmundsson settled it late, with Matteo Frattesi now having scored in every game of the season. Udinese coach Kosta Runjaic said his side paid dearly for losing Jakub Piotrowski and Oumar during the match. Gattuso, speaking afterwards, thanked president Claudio Lotito for the summer window. Milan are next, and that fixture will tell more about the start than Udine did.

Two squads got worse news than the table showed. Manuel Locatelli has a meniscus problem picked up in Juventus's match with Milan and faces months out, with Mario Gila separately admitting patellar tendon discomfort forced him off in the same game. At Aston Villa, Leon Goretzka will not debut until after the international break, pushing it to October — Unai Emery's side have one point and no goals from three league games and go to Club Brugge this week. Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, parted with global head of football Edu after just over a year.

• Al-Hilal lost 0-2 at home to Neom, their first league defeat in 47 matches since April 2025; Simone Inzaghi's side lead Al-Nassr by 3 points having played a game more.
• Carlos Tevez says he has persuaded Messi and Ronaldo to play on the same side at his farewell match in December.
• Stanislav Cherchesov's 500th match as a coach ended 1-1 at Rubin; he called the penalty against Akhmat one that "came from nowhere".
• Zenit turned down €45m from Al-Ittihad for Luis Henrique, and agent Timur Gurtskaya says Maxim Glushenkov skipped the signing of a new contract to go fishing.
• One outlet reports Gavi is back in the Barcelona squad after missing two matches.
• Red Star fans unveiled a tifo of war criminal Ratko Mladic before a derby with no love lost against Partizan — days after UEFA fined the club over Mladic chants.
• Belgium's FA says it still wants answers on why Folarin Balogun was cleared to face them at the World Cup; Mauricio Pochettino addressed the forward before the international window.
• UEFA confirmed a minute's silence at this week's Champions League matches for the victims of the Nepal floods.
• Andrea Belotti, a free agent, is due for a medical at Serie B side Modena; Manchester City sold 19-year-old forward Mahamadou Sangare to Al-Qadsiah.
• Joey Barton was refused bail and remains in custody; his trial has been put back to March.
• Kylian Mbappe said this could be his year for the Ballon d'Or; Harry Kane, on 73 goals last season, said only Messi has bettered that.
• An American consortium was granted approval to buy Shrewsbury Town.