📝 Newcastle and Villa win impressively as penalties punish West Ham | OneFootball

In a jam-packed Saturday afternoon of friendly action, there were a number of notable results ahead of the start of competitive football.

Both the Premier League and Bundesliga return to action next week.

Early goals have been a theme of Southampton’s pre-season so far and that continued in their first home game when Danny Ings netted after just three minutes en route to a 2-0 win.

The second arrived from Pierre-Emile Højbjerg who calmly found the net from a Che Adams pass to start to season with a smile on the south coast.

Everton’s trip to Bremen for their final friendly fixture saw the sides play out a scoreless draw – one that was marred somewhat by an early injury to Fabian Delph.

In another Bundesliga-Premier League friendly, Aston Villa’s key midfield duo struck late to deliver a morale-boosting 3-1 win ahead of their top flight return.

Conor Hourihane twice scored free-kicks, while John McGinn grabbed the other late on for the Villains, with Yussuf Poulsen getting the Leipzig goal.

Joelinton’s first goal at St James’ Park fired his side en route to an impressive 2-1 win over Saint-Etienne in a game that saw new boy Allan Saint-Maximin make his debut.

A wonderful Matty Longstaff strike from distance ultimately proved to be the winner, with Mathieu Debuchy grabbing a late header against his former club.

West Ham’s home clash with Athletic Club couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start as a Sébastien Haller own goal and Inaki Williams put the visitors two up early.

But midway through the half, the Hammers hit back with two goals in quick succession, firstly from Jack Wilshere and then Manuel Lanzini.

The highlight of that second goal came with the glorious Pablo Fornals overhead kick assist, as witnessed above.

Athletic went on to win the resulting penalty shoot-out 4-2, claiming the Betway Cup.

Crystal Palace fans have big reason to be worried about the season ahead as their disappointing summer window was followed up by a 4-0 thrashing against Hertha Berlin.

After a curious Marvin Plattenhardt opener, Vedad Ibisevic added a second before Maxi Mittelstaedt and Davie Selke chipped in with late goals to add some gloss to the scoreline.

Watford fought back from going behind to a Mikel Oyarzabal goal by coming out on top 2-1 thanks to goals from Will Hughes and Andre Gray.