Mourinho puts the blame on Khedira's red card for shock defeat

(GETTY IMAGES)

Real Madrid's good start to the season was ruined last night when they crashed to a 1-0 defeat at unfancied Levante, a humiliation coach Jose Mourinho blamed on German midfielder Sami Khedira, who was sent off.

With Cristiano Ronaldo starting on the bench because of an ankle injury he picked up in the champions League in midweek, Real struggled to create chances and were up against it when Khedira was ordered off after picking up a second yellow card for pushing the Levante captain Sergio Ballesteros in the 40th minute.

Arouna Koné got the home side's winner with 22 minutes to go and afterwards Mourinho was scathing about the red card. "The one responsible for the defeat is Khedira," he said. "I congratulate Levante, they are clever, they know how to provoke and that is also part of football."

Lionel Messi scored his first hat-trick of the season as Barcelona thrashed Osasuna 8-0 on Saturday. Valencia maintained their perfect start to the season in La Liga with a 1-0 win away at Sporting Gijon thanks to Roberto Soldado's close-range effort. Real Betis also have three wins out of three after beating Athletic Bilbao 3-2 last night.

Joe Cole had his first start for Lille, but the Ligue 1 champions could only draw 2-2 at home to Sochaux. A 78th-minute penalty from the much-coveted Belgian winger Eden Hazard looked to have given 10-man Lille all three points, but Sloan Privat's header four minutes from time equalised for Sochaux.

Lyons lead the way in France after a 2-0 home win over Marseilles, who now sit at the bottom of the table, increasing the pressure on coach Didier Deschamps. Big-spending Paris St-Germain had to come from two-down to draw 2-2 at newly-promoted Evian, Mathieu Bodmer getting their equaliser from a free-kick with nine minutes to go.

In Italy, Edinson Cavani scored a superb hat-trick to give Napoli a 3-1 home win over defending Serie A champions Milan last night. Alberto Aquilani, who is on loan from Liverpool, gave Milan an early lead only for Cavani to reply almost immediately and then add two more either side of half time. Napoli joined Juventus, who earlier won 1-0 at Siena, Udinese and Cagliari at the top of the table.