It may be a marathon, and it may ask far too much of the game's best players and best clubs, but you have to say this much for the European soccer calendar: It's rarely actually monotonous. Every month has its own distinct personality, from the international break and increasingly important Champions League group stage matches of October or November, to the England-specific glut at the end of December and beginning of January, to the Champions League knockouts and title pushes of April, and so on.
September's personality might be the strangest of the bunch. The season just started, we were just getting an impression of teams, the chaotic last stages of the summer transfer window reaped loads of change and general carnage ... and then we hit pause for a couple of weeks for the first international break. It's awkward, but it is what it is, and there are intriguing international matches as well as some Women's Champions League qualifiers to get us through this first period. Then there are some seriously big club matches to take us from there.
With all of that in mind, let's preview the month of September. Below are the five most interesting matches in eight different leagues and categories between now and Sunday, Oct. 1.