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European Round-up: Kane wins a medal, Napoli and Barca edge closer, PSG beaten, Premier…

HARRY KANE has won the first medal of his long career. Bayern Munich may have drawn 3-3 at RB Leipzig, but their nearest callengers, Bayer Leverkusen were held 2-2 by Freiburg, meaning they could not overtake Bayern. Kane was missing from Bayern’s game in Leipzig due to suspension, but he watched his team-mates come back from 2-0 down, lead 3-2 and then conceded an added-time goal by substitute Yussuf Poulsen. Bayern’s goals came from Eric Dier, who is set to leave the club, Michael Olise and Leroy Sané. Borussia Dortmund kept up their challenge for a Champions League place with a 4-0 win against Wolfsburg. Serhour Guirassy and Karim Adeyemi scored two goals apiece for BVB. There was an eight-goal thriller in Mönchengladbach as Borussia drew 4-4 with Hoffenheim. In the basement clash, Bochum and Heidenheim drew 0-0, a result that consigned Bochum to relegation to 2. Bundesliga. Holstein Kiel look likely to fill the other automatic relegation spot, while Hoffenheim or St. Pauli will need to win the play-off with team that finishes third in 2.Bundesliga. At present, Hamburg and Köln fill the top two places, with any one of half-a-dozen chasing that play-off spot. 

**Premier League: All roads leading to Europe**  

WITH the Premier title race settled and all three relegation spots confirmed, the remaining issues are around the places for the three European competitions. Liverpool were beaten 3-1 by Champions League chasers Chelsea, for whom Cole Palmer showed glimpses of his early season form, finally scoring a goal in the final seconds of the game at Stamford Bridge. Arne Slot made several changes to his line-up and gave some of his fringe players the chance to qualify for a Premier winners’ medal. Arsenal were beaten 2-1 at home by Bournemouth, while Manchester City closed the gap on the London side to three points with a 1-0 win against Wolves, thanks to a Kevin de Bruyne goal. The smart money is now on City overtaking Mikel Arteta’s out-of-sorts side, who have won just once in five league games. Newcastle and Chelsea are four points behind Arsenal. Newcastle were held 1-1 at Brighton, while Aston Villa kept up their challenge with a 1-0 win against Fulham. Manchester United were beaten 4-3 by Brentford, who also have their eyes on European qualification.

**La Liga: Barca still winning but Real won’t give up**

NEXT week’s Clasico has assumed even greater importance as Barca and Real Madrid fight out the destination of the La Liga title. Barca are four point ahead of Carlo Ancelotti’s side, but a Real win in the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys will close the gap and set-up a dramatic finale over the last three games. Barca won 2-1 at relegated Real Valladolid despite going a goal down early on. Two goals in a five-minute spell from substitute Raphinha and Fermín López were enough to give a weakened Barca side the points. They have a Champions League semi-final second leg ahead of them this week at Inter Milan with the score currently 3-3 after a pulsating first leg. Meanwhile, Real Madrid were 3-0 up on Celta Vigo with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice, but sloppy defending allowed the visitors to score twice. They hung on to win 3-2, but the locals were not overjoyed. 

**Serie A: Napoli still in the chair**

NERVES are showing a little in the Italian title race, with Napoli two points in front of Inter Milan with three games to go. Inter, who had won once in four games before meeting Verona, won 1-0 in a very lack lustre 90 minutes. A penalty from Albanian midfielder Kristjan Asllani in the ninth minute decided the game. Napoli also won 1-0 at struggling Lecce, with Giacomo Raspadori scoring the winner in the first half. Napoli remain favourites as two of their three remaining games are at home. They face Genoa and Cagliari on their own patch and travel to Parma. Inter, arguably have a slightly harder run-in, Lazio at home and Torino and Como away. Atalanta, in third place, won 4-0 at relegated Monza, two goals coming from Charles De Ketelaere, while Juventus drew 1-1 at Bologna and Roma beat Fiorentina 1-0 with a goal from Ukrainian Artem Dovbyk. 

**Cup final calendar**

**Date**

**Country**

**Teams**

May 14

Italy

Bologna v AC Milan

May 14

Ukraine

Shakhtar v Dynamo Kyiv

May 14

Turkey

Galatasaray v Tranzonspor

May 14

Hungary

Ferencvaros v PAKS

May 14

Romania

Cluj v Hermannstadt

May 14

Czech Republic

Sigma v Sparta

May 17

England

Crystal Palace v Manchester City

May 17

Greece

OFI v Olympiacos

May 22

Bulgaria

Ludogorets v CSKA Sofia

May 24

Germany

Arminia Bielefeld v VFB Stuttgart

May 24

France

Paris Saint-Germain v Reims

May 24

Scotland

Aberdeen v Celtic

May 25

Portugal

Benfica v Sporting

**Ligue 1: Strasbourg continue to shine**

PARIS Saint-Germain, with their eyes on their Champions League second leg game with Arsenal, made 10 changes to their starting line-up against Strasbourg and it seemed to backfire. The French champions were beaten for the second time in the league by an in-form home side who have lost one Ligue 1 game in 19. An own goal by Lucas Hernández and Félix Lemaréchal added a second before half-time. Although substitute Bradley Barcola pulled one back, PSG clearly had other things on their mind. Saint-Étienne took a step close to Ligue 2 when they were beaten 3-1 at home by Monaco. Les Verts have two games left and are five points off safety. They travel to Reims next weekend and finish with a home fixture with Toulouse.

**Attendances

**

**League**

**Home team**

**Away team**

**Attendance**

Germany

Borussia Dortmund

Wolfsberg

81,365

Italy

Inter Milan

Verona

70,222

Spain

Real Madrid

Celta Vigo

67,661

Italy

Roma

Fiorentina

63,640

England

West Ham United

Tottenham

62,468

England

Arsenal

Bournemouth

60,110

**Poland: Down to two**

THE Ekstraklasa title race is really now between Raków Czestochowa and Lech Poznań. Raków are two points in front with three games to go. Both sides won at the weekend, but Lech really hit the headlines with an 8-1 win against strugglers Puszca Niepołomice. Three players, Sousa, Gholizadeh and Ishak, scored two goals for rampant Lech. Raków, meanwhile, were 2-0 winners at Stal Mielic. Jagiellonia Białystok continue to lose ground in third place, they drew 1-1 with Górnik and trail the leaders by 10 points with a game in hand.

Watch out for…

* Champions League semi-finals second leg: PSG v Arsenal (1-0) and Inter v Barca (3-3)

* Europa League semi-finals second leg: Bodø/Glimt v Spurs and Manchester United v Bilbao. Chelsea face Djurgården in second leg of the Conference semi-final with a 4-1 advantage

* Big league games next week: Barcelona v Real Madrid, Bayern v Gladbach. Benfica v Sporting, Liverpool v Arsenal, Feyenoord v PSV.

Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a broad range of subjects. [View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen](https://gameofthepeople.com/author/georgefjord/)

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