German champions and leaders Bayern Munich retained their four-point cushion at the top of the Bundesliga with a 4-0 home rout of Stuttgart on Saturday with Robert Lewandowski netting a hat-trick after they had Alphonso Davies sent off early on.
The result left Bayern top on 61 points from 26 games with second-placed RB Leipzig on 57 before their highly anticipated meeting on 3 April after the international break.
Davies was shown a straight red card in the 12th minute for a studs-up challenge on Wataru Endo but his dismissal only galvanised Bayern with Lewandowski firing them ahead five minutes later.
Serge Gnabry made it 2-0 in the 22nd after a sweeping move involving Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané. Lewandowski added the third less than 60 seconds later when he rose to head home a Müller cross from the right.
The Poland striker added some gloss in the 39th minute with a clinical left-footed finish from inside the penalty area as he pounced on sloppy defending by Stuttgart after Sané’s jinking run down the right flank.
Bayern took their feet off the pedal in the second half but despite their numerical disadvantage, they still dominated as Lewandowski and Gnabry missed chances to give them an even bigger win against the hapless visitors.
Erling Haaland continued his rich vein of form as he netted twice including a late equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw for Borussia Dortmund at Cologne in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
The result left fifth-placed Dortmund losing ground in the hunt for a top-four finish as they have 43 points from 26 games, four less than Eintracht Frankfurt in fourth who celebrated a 5-2 home win over Union Berlin. Cologne stayed 14th on 23 points, two above the relegation spots.
Borussia Mönchengladbach are ninth in the table after they won 3-0 at strugglers Schalke on Saturday to keep them in contention for the European places.
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Haaland gave Dortmund a third-minute lead with a sublime finish as he took a long Emre Can ball in his stride and held off Jorge Mere’s challenge before he steered a low shot through the legs of goalkeeper Timo Horn.
Ondrej Duda levelled with a 35th-minute penalty after Noah Katterbach’s shot hit Jude Bellingham in the arm and Ismail Jacobs then turned the tide as he capped a fast break with an unstoppable shot after 65 minutes.
Just when it seemed Cologne would complete the league double over Dortmund having beaten them 2-1 in the reverse fixture, Haaland popped up in front of goal to tap in a 90th-minute leveller after an assist by Ansgar Knauff.
Meanwhile in Spain a drone carrying a flag opposing Euro 2020 matches in Bilbao interrupted Athletic Bilbao’s match at home to Eibar in La Liga on Saturday.
Play had to be halted in the 68th minute of the 1-1 draw while referee Valentin Pizarro Gomez picked up the drone and accompanying flag and carried it off the field before restarting the game.
Photos here of the drone (apparently carrying a banner against Bilbao hosting Euro 2020 games) that fell onto the pitch at San Mamés during Athletic-Eibar just now https://t.co/hPu9cNcyq1
— The Spanish Football Podcast (@tsf_podcast) March 20, 2021
Bilbao is one of 12 host cities chosen to hold games at the rescheduled European Championships and is due to host all three of Spain’s group stage matches, which will be the first time the national team has played in the Basque Country since 1967.
The move has been opposed by separatist-leaning groups and political parties, who do not want Spain to play on Basque soil. Opposition to hosting the tournament in the city has increased since the prospect of hosting matches without supporters has grown stronger due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema twice combined with teammate Toni Kroos to continue his scoring run as his side earned a 3-1 win away to Celta Vigo on Saturday to move to within three points of La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.
Benzema curled a shot into the bottom corner to give Real the lead in the 20th minute after being released by a fine piece of play from Kroos, who danced past a defender before taking out three more with a pass into the feet of his teammate.
Kroos was again involved for the second goal arriving on the half-hour mark, winning the ball back on the edge of the box and allowing Benzema to dribble across the box and score his eighth goal in six matches in all competitions.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3vMbHyw
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