BARCELONA: Barcelona survived a nervy second half to beat Napoli 3-1 on Tuesday and reach the Champions League quarter-finals 4-2 on aggregate.
Xavi Hernandez’s side came flying out of the blocks with goals from Fermin Lopez and Joao Cancelo but after Amir Rrahmani pulled one back, the Catalans started to sweat.
Italian champions Napoli, who salvaged a 1-1 draw in the last-16 first leg, were finally beaten when Robert Lewandowski swept home from close range.
It is the first time four-time winners Barcelona have reached the last eight of the competition since 2020, and they did so without injured midfield trio Pedri, Gavi and Frenkie de Jong.
Coach Xavi Hernandez said he was leaving at the end of the season in January and his team have gone on a run of nine games without defeat after that decision.
Teenage stars Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi have been key in that run, and both excelled against Napoli on a night which offered some relief to Barcelona amid a bleak season.
Xavi demanded the fans turn their temporary Olympic Stadium home on the city’s Montjuic hill into a pressure cooker, and they duly obliged. Over 50,000 spectators marked the club’s largest attendance this season.
Francesco Calzona’s Napoli wilted as the Spanish champions came out of the blocks flying.
Electric 16-year-old winger Yamal made strong inroads down the right and curled over in the opening stages.
The best chances fell to Lopez and the 20-year-old opened the scoring with his third attempt after 15 minutes.
Cancelo fed Raphinha who cut the ball back into the area for Lopez, who tucked home.
While he may lack the metronomic precision of Pedri, the midfielder provides thrust and an insatiable desire to shoot.
Two minutes later and the Catalans doubled their lead against the shellshocked visitors, with Yamal starting the move by breaking loose in his own half on the counter-attack.
The winger played in Raphinha and although the Brazilian hit the post Cancelo was running in to roll home the rebound.
Napoli battled their way back in when Matteo Politano slipped in down the right, with Ronald Araujo playing him onside.
The Italy winger crossed for Rrahmani who slotted home cleanly to pull Napoli back into the tie.
Napoli were almost level moments later but Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen made a superb save, tipping over Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s header.
The Italians started the second half strongly, with Barcelona forced back into their own half, aimlessly clearing the ball.
Xavi took action by bringing on Sergi Roberto and Oriol Romeu for Lopez and Andreas Christensen, aiming to freshen up the midfield and give his team new impetus.
Raphinha and Lewandowski drew saves from Alex Meret before Yamal struck from close range, but he was offside.
Danish winger Jesper Lindstrom headed narrowly wide for Napoli, before Lewandowski settled the tie after Ilkay Gundogan and Sergi Roberto combined to set him up.
Second-half jitters showed Barcelona are far from their former glory but in Yamal, Raphinha and Cancelo in particular they have the quality to trouble any prospective quarter-final opponent.
Barca edge past Napoli to make Champions League quarters return
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Barca edge past Napoli to make Champions League quarters return
- Second-half jitters showed Barcelona are far from their former glory but in Yamal, Raphinha and Cancelo in particular they have the quality to trouble any prospective quarter-final opponent
Barca edge Real Madrid in thriller to move to brink of Liga title
- Barcelona battled back to claim a fourth Clasico victory from four meetings this season, showing their dominance over Carlo Ancelotti’s side
BARCELONA: Barcelona mounted a spectacular comeback to beat Real Madrid 4-3 in La Liga on Sunday and move to the brink of the title after overcoming a hat-trick from Kylian Mbappe.
The France striker threatened to haul Madrid back into the title race but Raphinha’s double and goals from Lamine Yamal and Eric Garcia gave Barcelona a seven-point lead on the reigning champions with three matches remaining.
Hansi Flick’s side were knocked out of the Champions League in the semifinals by Inter Milan on Tuesday and risked their season collapsing if they were beaten by Madrid, but they resisted after Mbappe’s early brace.
Barcelona battled back to claim a fourth Clasico victory from four meetings this season, showing their dominance over Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
“We’ve opened up an important gap, it was key to win this game after the Champions League (defeat), the fans have forgotten it and so have we, let’s enjoy this,” Yamal told Movistar.
“It was important to win today to bring the league title closer and it went very well, we’re very happy.”
Real Madrid are set to finish the season without a major trophy.
“We have to defend better, that is quite evident from today’s game, we defended badly and that’s that,” said Ancelotti.
“Mbappe did well... in an attacking sense the team had clear ideas, but we could have defended better.”
Madrid had made the perfect start to what is expected to be the Italian coach’s final Clasico at the helm.
Mbappe earned a penalty when he was scythed down by Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, although the Catalans complained in vain the forward was offside in the build-up.
The striker beat Szczesny, who dived the right way and got his fingers to it, but could not keep it out.
In the 14th minute Mbappe doubled Madrid’s advantage with a lethal finish after Vinicius Junior played him through, with Barcelona complaining again about a perceived foul on Yamal earlier in the move.
It was his 26th La Liga strike, taking him past Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski on 25 at the top of the scoring charts, and his 38th of the season across all competitions, beating Ivan Zamorano’s club record of 37 in a first season with Los Blancos.
Just as they have done on so many occasions this season, Flick’s spirited young Barcelona fought their way back in front with a stirring comeback.
Garcia headed home Ferran Torres’ flick-on from a corner to spark it.
Then Madrid could not stop 17-year-old star Yamal from levelling with a cultured bending effort beyond Courtois after Torres laid the ball off to him.
Two minutes later, Raphinha drilled Barca ahead, with Pedri threading him through.
Mbappe thought he had won another penalty when he fell under pressure from Frenkie de Jong but VAR revealed an offside in the build-up.
Moments later, Raphinha netted his second, picking Lucas Vazquez’s pocket on the edge of the area, exchanging passes with Torres and beating Courtois.
Mbappe netted from an offside position before the break, bringing a rollercoaster first half to a close.
Yamal had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second half as Barcelona looked to put their arch-rivals to the sword.
However Vinicius got behind Barca’s high line and he fed Mbappe for his hat-trick.
Barcelona appealed for a penalty when Aurelien Tchouameni blocked Torres’ shot with his arm, but the referee did not give it despite being called to review it by VAR.
Real Madrid substitute Victor Munoz fired high and wide when sent through, and Szczesny denied Mbappe, who had another strike ruled out for offside.
“For me it’s not always fun, sometimes I really suffer a lot,” admitted Flick, who said his team made too many mistakes in defense.
Barcelona thought they had wrapped up their win with a superb Fermin Lopez solo effort but it was harshly disallowed for handball.
Madrid had no time left to fight back though, and Barcelona, who last won the league in 2023, could seal the title as early as Wednesday, should Los Blancos stumble against Mallorca.
If Madrid avoid defeat Barcelona will be champions with a win at Espanyol the next day.
“We’ll seal it on Thursday and that’s all,” said Torres.
Newcastle go third with 2-0 win over 10-man Chelsea
- The win leaves Newcastle in third spot on 66 points, three ahead of Chelsea
NEWCASTLE: An early goal from Sandro Tonali and a late Bruno Guimaraes effort gave Newcastle United a 2-0 home win over Chelsea on Sunday that moves the Magpies a step closer to Champions League football next season, with Blues striker Nicholas Jackson denting his side’s hopes by being sent off in the first half.
The win leaves Newcastle in third spot on 66 points, three ahead of Chelsea, who hold the fifth and final Champions League spot with two games to play.
Aston Villa are level with Chelsea on points, with Nottingham Forest, who face already-relegated Leicester City later on Sunday, two points further back.
Newcastle were good value for their win but it was Jackson’s moment of madness that decided the game, robbing Chelsea of their best goal-scoring option in a game the Conference League finalists could not afford to lose if they wanted to be at Europe’s top table next season.
The Blues got off to a bad start when midfielder Tonali ghosted in at the far post to steer home a pass from Jacob Murphy in the second minute, delighting the home crowd as they basked in the bright sunshine.
Newcastle’s task appeared to get easier when Jackson had his initial yellow card upgraded to a red in the 35th minute after a long VAR review, with the replay showing that the Senegalese striker had looked in the direction of Newcastle’s Dan Burn before leading with his elbow toward the
defender’s face.
Despite going down to 10 men, Chelsea dominated for much of the second half, forcing Eddie Howe to make a number of changes to bolster the home side’s defense and, after withstanding Chelsea’s onslaught, Guimaraes finally sealed the three points with a deflected shot from outside the box in the 90th minute.
Arnold eager to steer Iraq to 2026 FIFA World Cup
- Iraq's only appearance at the tournament was in 1986
- “What is important is we all believe we can win the next two games,” Arnold said
BAGHDAD: Graham Arnold is confident he can help Iraq qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time in 40 years after he was appointed as the country's national coach on Friday.
Asked whether Iraq can make the cut for the 2026 tournament which will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., the Australian told the federation’s website: "That’s my goal.
“That’s what I want to do. I haven’t come here to not be successful, and everyone in this room has to believe that. We can do it.
Iraq's only appearance at the tournament was in 1986, when they were eliminated after the group phase.
Arnold replaced Spaniard Jesus Casas whose contract was terminated by the local soccer governing body in the wake of a 2-1 loss to Palestine in March.
That result left the Iraqis in third place in the standings in Group B, four points adrift of leaders South Korea and one behind Jordan with two games left.
The top two nations in each of Asia's three qualifying groups advance automatically for the World Cup while the teams in third and fourth progress to another round of preliminaries.
“What is important is we all believe we can win the next two games, that is my first objective for Iraq,” he said.
Arnold's first game in charge will be against South Korea in Basra on June 5. They then face Jordan in Amman five days later.
Bayern Munich celebrate Bundesliga title with last home win for Thomas Müller
BERLIN: Thomas Müller led Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga title celebrations after helping the team beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0 in his last home game for the club on Saturday.
After being presented with the trophy, Bayern captain Manuel Neuer gave it to Müller to hoist toward the Munich sky and start the confetti-filled celebrations.
There was another outpouring of emotion when Harry Kane got his chance to lift the “salad bowl” — it’s the England captain’s first team trophy after a career of near-misses.
Bayern won the title last weekend and Michael Olize made sure of this win by scoring one goal and setting up the other for Kane’s league-leading 25th of the season to get the party underway in Munich.
Relegation decided
Bochum and Holstein Kiel were relegated while Leipzig’s hopes of Champions League qualification were over after drawing at Werder Bremen 0-0.
Last-placed Bochum lost at home to Mainz 4-1, and Kiel lost at home 2-1 to Freiburg, which consolidated fourth place and were well-placed for Champions League qualification.
Leipzig’s scoreless draw in Bremen left them four points behind Freiburg with one round remaining, meaning they can no longer qualify for Europe’s lucrative premier competition.
Neither Bochum nor Kiel have any possibility of catching third-from-bottom Heidenheim following the latter’s 3-0 win at Union Berlin. Heidenheim made sure of at least a relegation playoff place.
With one game left to play, Bochum had 22 points, Kiel 25, and Heidenheim 29 – just two behind St. Pauli, which had two matches remaining. St. Pauli play their penultimate match at third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.
Bochum needed to avoid defeat and hope for a favor from Union against Heidenheim at the same time. But Mainz were 3-0 up before Bochum scored. Mainz confirmed Bochum’s seventh demotion from the top division.
Bochum were promoted to the Bundesliga as the second division champion in 2021, ending an 11-year absence from the top division.
Bochum defeated Bayern 3-2 away in March, but they were Dieter Hecking’s team’s only win in their last 11 games.
“I’ve been relegated before, it’s anything but nice. You could see it with the lads, tears were flowing,” Bochum captain Maximilian Wittek said. “It’s among the worst things that can happen in football.”
Kiel also gone
Kiel were promoted for the first time only last season and coach Marcel Rapp’s team have quickly returned to the second division.
Kiel scored first but Johan Manzambi equalized before the break and Lucas Höler headed Freiburg toward the Champions League.
Freiburg moved four points clear of Borussia Dortmund, which visit Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday for Xabi Alonso’s last home game as Leverkusen coach. A Leverkusen win would send Freiburg to the Champions League.
Later, Hamburger SV had the chance to be promoted back to the division with a win at home against Ulm in the second division. Thousands of blue-clad fans greeted the team bus on its way to the stadium with songs, flags and flares.
Lazio snatch last-gasp draw with Champions League rivals Juve
- Igor Tudor’s team are level on 64 points with Lazio in fifth
- Randal Kolo Muani netted Juve’s goal in the 51st minute
ROME: Matias Vecino snatched a precious 1-1 draw for Lazio against 10-man Juventus with a stoppage-time equalizer in an enthralling battle between top-four rivals.
Uruguayan Vecino tapped home from close range after a miraculous Michele Di Gregorio save from Valentin Castellanos to spare Lazio from what would have been a painful defeat.
Juventus, who played for over half an hour with 10 men after Pierre Kalulu was sent off for striking out at Lazio striker Castellanos, stay fourth.
But Igor Tudor’s team are level on 64 points with Lazio in fifth, with sixth-placed Roma a point behind ahead of their clash at Atalanta on Monday night.
Randal Kolo Muani netted Juve’s goal in the 51st minute at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, his seventh goal in Italy’s top flight since signing on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in January.
Juve thought they were set to win when they survived a penalty scare moments before Vecino’s leveller, when Di Gregorio brought down Castellanos who was then ruled by VAR to have been offside.
But Vecino stepped up to save a point for Lazio and leave the fight for the final two Champions League spots firmly in the balance.
