Schalke, Fiorentina, Sevilla, and Rennes Shine in European Leagues

Rennes hit the summit, Sevilla climb, Fiorentina breathe, and Schalke roar back to life on a night when even the referee couldn’t finish.

Schalke ruthless as referee limps off

Two games in, one point each, and nerves already twitching. Schalke chose Friday night to remind the Bundesliga they did not come up just to make up the numbers.

They beat Union Berlin 3-1, powered by a standout performance from Loris Karius and a flurry of clinical finishing. Newly promoted, yes. Overawed, not remotely.

Robin Gosens set the tone with a sharp, angled volley to open the scoring, a strike that settled Schalke and rattled Union. Moments after the restart, Aouchiche doubled the lead with a superbly taken effort, the kind of finish that turns a tense night into a statement.

From there, Karius took over. Union pushed, but the Schalke keeper kept them out for most of the second half, turning routine saves into momentum killers. Only deep into stoppage time did Tim Skarke finally beat him, scoring in the sixth added minute to give Berlin a flicker of hope.

It didn’t last. With almost the last kick of the game, Maximilian Wober restored the two-goal cushion, sealing the win and sending Schalke home with three precious points.

The match carried an unusual twist: referee Timo Gerach had to come off early in the second half after feeling a sore calf. Fourth official Jarno Wienefeld, an experienced Bundesliga 2 referee, stepped in and handled his first top-flight game on the fly. Schalke handled the rest.

Mastantuono hat trick lifts Fiorentina off the floor

In Serie A, two clubs arrived in desperate need of a spark. Venezia and Fiorentina had both lost their opening three games. Something had to give.

Venezia struck first. In the 22nd minute, Akor Adams finished neatly with his right foot after tidy build-up work from American midfielder Gianluca Busio. The home crowd finally had something to cling to.

Then Franco Mastantuono ripped the game away from them.

He burst forward twice in two minutes, striking in the 29th and 30th to flip the match and send Fiorentina into halftime with a 2-1 lead. From trailing and fragile to suddenly in control, almost in the blink of an eye.

Midway through the second half, Mateo Pellegrino made it 3-1, his second goal in as many games, stretching the gap and draining belief from Venezia. Six minutes from time, Mastantuono completed his hat trick, underlining Fiorentina’s revival and his own ruthless edge.

Antoine Hainaut pulled one back late for Venezia, but the damage was long done. The defeat left the hosts bottom of the 20-team table, still without a point. Fiorentina climbed up to 15th and, at last, into the season.

Sevilla edge blunt Valencia to join the chasing pack

In La Liga, Sevilla did not dazzle. They did something more important: they found a way.

A tight, poor-quality game against struggling Valencia seemed to be drifting toward a goalless stalemate. Chances were scarce, rhythm almost non-existent. Then, with nine minutes left, Sevilla finally broke through.

Giorgi Kochorashvili swung in a deep cross from the left. Juan Antonio Iglesias met it, his header looping over the keeper and dropping in. One clean moment in a scrappy contest, one moment that changed the table.

Valencia offered nothing in reply. Not a single shot on target all game, a stark statistic for a side already under pressure. With just one point from a possible 15, they sit bottom, mired in early-season trouble.

Sevilla, by contrast, moved into joint second, grinding out the kind of win that keeps a campaign on track even when the football isn’t flowing.

Relentless Rennes climb to the top

Across in Ligue 1, Rennes continued their surge.

A 1-0 win over Marseille made it three victories on the bounce and pushed them to the top of the table. The decisive moment came six minutes into the second half, when Adrien Thomasson, a recent signing from Lens, struck his first goal for the club.

It was enough. Rennes controlled what they needed to control, locked in defensively, and saw out a result that nudged them one point clear of Monaco.

For Marseille, the picture is far darker. This is their worst start to a league season in more than 20 years. A third straight defeat leaves them in 11th with just three points and a growing sense that the campaign is already slipping away.

Rennes, by contrast, look upward.

West Ham crush Wrexham to top the Championship

In England, West Ham delivered the most brutal scoreline of the night.

They hammered Wrexham 6-0, a ruthless performance that sent them to the top of the Championship table. Six different players found the net, underlining the depth and variety in their attack and leaving Wrexham chasing shadows.

The result lifted West Ham a point clear of West Bromwich Albion and laid down a marker in a long, unforgiving promotion race.

On a night of shifting tables across Europe, some clubs clung on, some sank, and others surged. The question now: who can turn one big result into a season-defining run?