The Big Five Have Started: 2026-27 European League Openers, Contenders, Dark Horses and the Jerseys to Wear
Real Madrid are three from three, Manchester City and Hull City share the Premier League lead, Bayern ran riot on opening day and PSG still cannot win in Ligue 1. We review the first fortnight of the 2026/27 season across England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, name the dark horses and pick the shirts that match every story.
Europe's five biggest leagues are barely two weeks old and already producing chaos, statements and at least one fairy tale. Real Madrid have won all three under Jose Mourinho, Manchester City and a promoted club called Hull City share the early Premier League lead, Bayern Munich opened the Bundesliga with another demolition, and PSG, the European champions, cannot win a league game yet. Here is the 2026/27 season as it actually looks after the first real fixtures, with the contenders, the dark horses, the players to watch and the shirts to go with every story.
The Premier League began on August 21, La Liga a day later, and Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 all joined within the same weekend. Two rounds of Premier League football are in the books, La Liga has played three, and the continental leagues are one to two games deep. The full fixture map for Europe's club season lives in our Champions League 2026/27 hub, while every club shirt in one place is a tap away in the club jerseys hub.
What follows is the opening fortnight, league by league: who has the early momentum, who is already in trouble, which outsiders are worth your attention, and the 2026/27 shirts that match each storyline. Every club range is gathered in the soccer club teams collection.
The opening fortnight in numbers
| League | Kicked off | Early leader | Early surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League | August 21 | Man City & Hull City (6 pts) | Hull beating Man United 2-0 |
| La Liga | August 22 | Real Madrid (9 pts) | Alaves unbeaten, 7 pts |
| Serie A | August 22 | Inter & AC Milan (6 pts) | Roma and Juventus 4-0 wins |
| Bundesliga | August 28 | Bayern Munich | Leipzig losing 1-5 to Wolfsburg |
| Ligue 1 | August 23 | PSG winless, 2 draws | Rennes and Lille holding PSG |
Nine days of domestic football have already redrawn the conversation around half of Europe's heavyweight clubs. What the table above does not show is how: the late winners, the collapses, the debuts and the three-point weekends that set up the next nine months.
Premier League: two perfect teams and one perfect story
Manchester City are two from two and already look ominous. Enzo Maresca's side needed a 94th-minute Gvardiol winner to beat Bournemouth on the opening day, then dismantled Crystal Palace 4-1 with braces from Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki. Haaland has three goals in two games and the new City midfield, rebuilt after the departures of Rodri and Bernardo Silva, is creating for fun. The Manchester City collection covers the Maresca era kit.
Chelsea are the league's box office. Xabi Alonso's side beat Fulham 3-2 on the opening Monday night, then traded seven goals with Brighton in a wild 4-3: 3-0 up inside 32 minutes through Lavia, Pedro Neto and Joao Pedro, chased all the way by Brighton, with Cole Palmer converting a penalty before Pascal Gross scored a stoppage-time header. Seven scored, five conceded: brilliant to watch, alarming to defend.
Manchester United answered their nightmare start. The 0-2 loss to promoted Hull City was the shock of the opening round, but Bruno Fernandes responded with a hat-trick in a 5-2 win over Ipswich, with Harry Maguire and Bryan Mbeumo also on the scoresheet. The Fernandes away shirt in our shop section below is the obvious pick after that afternoon.
Liverpool have twice come from behind and twice drawn 2-2. Andoni Iraola's side rescued a point at Newcastle through a 99th-minute Szoboszlai penalty, then needed Victor Munoz's late equalizer against Nottingham Forest. The attack looks excellent; the wins are not there yet. And Tottenham have lost both games without scoring, 0-3 to Brentford and 0-2 to Newcastle, despite the 400 million euro rebuild that brought Tonali, Savio and Mateus Fernandes. De Zerbi's project is the early-season talking point, for all the wrong reasons.
And then there is Hull City. Promoted, written off, top of the table with six points from two games, including that 2-0 win at Old Trafford and a 1-0 victory at Coventry through Liam Millar. Hull are the feel-good story of August, the early proof that the Premier League punishes nobody more than the complacent. The English clubs collection has every side in the division.
La Liga: Mourinho's perfect start, Barcelona's demolition
Real Madrid are three wins from three and Kylian Mbappe is in hat-trick form. Mourinho's return began with a late 2-1 win at Espanyol, continued with a 4-1 demolition of Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu in which Mbappe scored all three of the second-half goals, and finished August with a 4-0 win over Malaga. Bellingham, Vinicius and the new signings Bernardo Silva and Cucurella have slotted straight in. Madrid sit top on nine points.
Barcelona answered their opening draw in style. After 2-2 at Real Betis on the first weekend, Flick's side tore Elche apart 5-0: Raphinha converted a penalty, doubled the lead and finished with a brace, Fermin Lopez scored twice, Adeyemi added another, and new signing Anthony Gordon provided two assists. The one worry was Gavi leaving early through injury. Barcelona's late game at Rayo Vallecano closes the matchday on Monday night.
The early La Liga dark horse is Alaves. Unbeaten with seven points from three games after Lucas Boye's winner against Villarreal, they have the best form in the league outside Madrid. Atletico Madrid also showed their teeth with a 3-1 win at Sevilla, and Racing Santander needed a Zabiri hat-trick to beat Elche 3-2. The Real Madrid collection and Barcelona collection hold both giants' 26/27 kits.
Serie A: Inter start the defense, Milan keep pace
Champions Inter Milan opened with a 4-1 win over Monza, recovering from an early scare to run away in the second half. Simone Inzaghi's side are the team to beat again, with the added steel of Akanji from Manchester City. AC Milan are matching them step for step under Ruben Amorim: a 2-1 comeback win at Torino in which Rabiot set up a goal and scored one, then a comfortable 2-0 home win over Venezia through Goncalo Ramos. Two from two for a side that had lost its previous three home league games.
The depth behind them is real: Juventus opened with a 4-0 win over Pisa, Roma beat Fiorentina 4-0, and Napoli won 2-0 at Genoa. Italy's top flight is deeper than it has been in years, and the derby-dominant Milan clubs are pushing each other from round one. Both Milan shirts are in our shop section below.
Bundesliga: Bayern's ritual, Leipzig's shock
Bayern Munich opened with a 5-1 thrashing of Stuttgart, extending their extraordinary run of unbeaten Bundesliga opening games to 15 consecutive seasons. Upamecano headed them in front, Olise restored the lead after Stuttgart's equalizer, an own goal made it 3-1, and Pavlovic and Luis Diaz finished the job. It came a fortnight after Bayern beat Dortmund 2-1 to lift the German Super Cup. Kompany's side look ready to defend the title.
The shock belonged to RB Leipzig, beaten 1-5 at Wolfsburg after finishing fourth last season, while Bayer Leverkusen ground out 2-1 at St Pauli. Borussia Dortmund, the perennial outsiders, remain a work in progress. The custom jersey shop covers every Bundesliga name worth printing on a shirt.
Ligue 1: PSG cannot win, and cannot lose
The European champions are winless in Ligue 1, and yet entirely undefeated. On the opening day, PSG needed a debut double from Ferran Torres, including a stoppage-time header, to escape Rennes 2-2. On matchday two at Lille, they trailed to a spectacular Haraldsson strike and Bakwa's 84th-minute goal, then pulled off a 91st-minute Vitinha goal and a 95th-minute Marquinhos header to draw again. It is not how Luis Enrique wanted to start, but it is a reminder that this squad keeps going until the final whistle.
The teams holding them, Rennes and Lille, have announced themselves as this season's French dark horses, and the gap between PSG and the chasing pack looks smaller than the market suggests. The Paris Saint-Germain collection has the full 26/27 range, from match shirts to the strike training line.
Shop the opening fortnight
These are the 2026/27 shirts tied to the stories of the first two weeks: the perfect starters, the comeback kings, the hat-trick heroes and the European champions who refuse to lose.
Manchester City Home Jersey 2026/27 Champions League - Haaland #9
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2026-2027 B.Fernandes 8 Man Utd Away Shirt
Chelsea Home Jersey 2026/27
Liverpool Home Jersey 2026/27 Champions League - Szoboszlai #8
In Spain, the Raphinha shirt is the story of Barcelona's 5-0, and Mbappe's home shirt speaks for the three wins in three and the hat-trick at the Bernabeu. Italy's Milan pair, Thuram and Gila, are the two unbeaten starts in Serie A, while Bayern's 26/27 home jersey and Dortmund's new edition cover the Bundesliga, and the Vitinha strike shirt and Barcola home shirt tell the PSG story that refuses to end in a defeat.
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Shop 2026-2027 Barcelona Home Shirt (Raphinha 11)
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Shop 2026-2027 Real Madrid Authentic-Style Home Shirt (Mbappe 10)
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Shop 2026-2027 Inter Milan Home Shirt (Thuram 9)
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Shop 2026-2027 AC Milan Home Shirt (Gila 34) Premium Fan Gear
Bayern München Home Jersey 2026/27
Dortmund Home Jersey 2026/27
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Shop 26/27 PSG Strike Training Shirt (Black) (Vitinha 17) - Fan Gear
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Shop 2026-2027 PSG Aero-Fit Home Shirt (Barcola 29)
Every club range is in the soccer club teams collection, with the new kits together in the 26/27 season collection and the full season guide in our Champions League contenders and dark horses review for the continental view.
Wear Your League
The season is underway and the early storylines are already set. Get the 26/27 shirt of your contender, your dark horse or your comeback hero before the next round, with free worldwide shipping over $49.9.
Shop the 26/27 Club Jerseys