Last-gasp winner caps fightback as Leipzig keep pace with Bayern

Berlin (AFP) – A last-gasp Alexander Sorloth goal sealed RB Leipzig’s dramatic 3-2 comeback win at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday and kept them in the thick of the Bundesliga title race.

Leipzig fought back with second-half goals by Christopher Nkunku and Yussuf Poulsen before Sorloth’s winning header in the 93rd minute after Gladbach led 2-0 at half-time thanks to strikes by Jonas Hofmann and Marcus Thuram 

“We delivered a top performance and deserved to win,” said Poulsen.

“After a game like that, confidence is high and puts a spring in your step.”

The victory keeps second-placed Leipzig two points behind leaders Bayern Munich, who earlier romped to a 5-1 home win over Cologne.

Gladbach were in complete control at half-time after Hofmann netted an early penalty and Thuram used his shoulder to guide the ball into the net from a Breel Embolo header.

However, Sorloth came off the bench and inspired the second-half fight back.

The former Crystal Palace striker had a goal disallowed for handball before setting up Nkunku, who fired home Leipzig’s first goal on 57 minutes.

Poulsen smashed home the equaliser on 66 minutes.

Leipzig had all the momentum and peppered the Gladbach goal before Sorloth’s winning header deep into added time.

– Goretzka shines for Bayern –

Earlier, Bayern bounced back after taking just a point in their previous two league games as midfielder Leon Goretzka created three goals in their rout of Cologne.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting headed Bayern into an early lead before Robert Lewandowski, the league’s top scorer, struck twice to increase his league tally to 28 goals this season.

Serge Gnabry came off the bench to claim two late goals behind closed doors at the Allianz Arena on his first appearance since tearing a thigh muscle in Bayern’s Club World Cup final win in Qatar.

Coach Hansi Flick made just one change – Choupo-Moting for Kingsley Coman – from the side which beat Lazio 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Bayern quickly built a 2-0 lead through Choupo-Moting and Lewandowski with Goretzka setting up both goals.

However, Cologne midfielder Ellyes Skhiri chipped Manuel Neuer four minutes after the break to pull a goal back.

With just over 25 minutes left, Flick settled nerves by bringing on Gnabry and Thomas Mueller, who made his first appearance a fortnight after testing positive for Covid-19.

Mueller’s pass split the Cologne defence and found Lewandowski who restored the two-goal cushion on 65 minutes.

Cologne midfielder Dominick Drexler hit the post before Gnabry made it 4-1 by converting a cross, then claimed his second just before the final whistle after an excellent pass from Goretzka.

Wolfsburg remain third, seven points behind Bayern, after their 2-0 home win over Hertha Berlin, whose defender Lukas Kluenter turned the ball into his own net before Maxence Lacroix scored the hosts’ second.

Wolfsburg defender Marin Pongracic was sent off in added time for a second booking. 

England winger Jadon Sancho converted a penalty and Brazil midfielder Reinier scored his first goal for the club as Dortmund stayed fifth with a 3-0 home win over Arminia Bielefeld.

Japan midfielder Wataru Endo netted his first two Bundesliga goals in Stuttgart’s 5-1 thrashing of bottom side Schalke, whose Algeria midfielder Nabil Bentaleb had a second-half penalty saved.

On Friday, fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt had their 11-match unbeaten run ended by a shock 2-1 defeat at Werder Bremen, whose rising American star Josh Sargent, 20, hit the winning goal.

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Immobile penalty miss as Lazio fall at Bologna

Rome (AFP) – Lazio’s European ambitions took a knock on Saturday with a 2-0 defeat at Bologna in Serie A, days after losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League

Ciro Immobile missed a penalty with goals in either half from Ibrahima Mbaye and Nicola Sansone sealing all three points for Bologna who snapped their 15-match winless league run against the Romans.

“The missed penalty set the tone for the game,” said coach Simone Inzaghi.

Inzaghi’s side showed signs of fatigue as they came off a heavy 4-1 Champions League last 16, first leg defeat to holders Bayern Munich.

“We must forget about these two defeats which hurt. An ambitious team like ours needs to roll up our sleeves and do better.”

Lazio have lost momentum since losing to Inter Milan in the league two weeks ago, and next host Torino before travelling to champions Juventus.

Last season’s European golden shoe winner Immobile had a chance to score from the spot after quarter of an hour after Joaquin Correa was tripped in the box with goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski easily dealing with the striker’s weak effort.

And 11th-placed Bologna got the breakthrough two minutes later when Mbaye tapped in a rebound after Pepe Reina cleared a Riccardo Orsolini volley.

Musa Barrow set up Sansone for the second after 64 minutes with Skorupski solid amid a late Lazio flurry to end the Romans’ 19-game league scoring streak, two short of their record run in 1956.

Lazio stay sixth on 43 points with European rivals Roma hosting AC Milan on Sunday and Atalanta away to Sampdoria.

Champions Juventus, third with 45 points, travel to Hellas Verona, in ninth, later Saturday.

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Man City stride clear, Brighton pay the penalty amid refereeing chaos

London (AFP) – Manchester City’s centre-backs Ruben Dias and John Stones both struck as the Premier League leaders beat West Ham 2-1 on Saturday, while West Brom enlivened the battle to beat the drop with a controversial 1-0 win over Brighton in which the Seagulls missed two penalties.

Pep Guardiola’s men are now 13 points clear thanks to a 20-game winning run in all competitions that has seen them close in on an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.

For the first time in recent weeks, City showed signs of fatigue, though, and needed the dominant centre-back pairing that has been a huge part of their success defensively this season to also make their mark at other end.

“After 10 or 15 minutes today we realised we were not going to paint anything beautiful,” said Guardiola. “When you play a lot of games – in the league and then the Champions League – this is normal. We were lucky to get all three points.”

Kevin De Bruyne made just his second start since returning from a hamstring injury and the Belgian’s teasing cross was powered by home by Dias for his first City goal since joining from Benfica in September.

City had kept eight clean sheets in their previous 10 league games, but West Ham showed why they are fourth and pushing to edge out the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Michail Antonio had already threatened an equaliser by hitting the post before he did level by tapping home Jesse Lingard’s mishit shot just before half-time.

Stones smashed home Riyad Mahrez’s pass to restore City’s lead on 68 minutes.

West Ham could still have snatched a point deep into stoppage time when Issa Diop headed a glorious chance wide.

“I’m really disappointed we didn’t get a point,” said West Ham boss David Moyes. “It was a terrific performance. We came here and tried to match a top side – and for long periods we did.”

– Blunder costs Brighton –

West Brom kept their hopes of avoiding the drop alive with just a second win in 13 games under Sam Allardyce in a match overshadowed by a surreal moment of refereeing by Lee Mason that cost Brighton an equaliser.

Kyle Bartley’s early header gave West Brom the lead before Pascal Gross and Danny Welbeck both hit the woodwork either side of half-time from the penalty spot for the visitors.

Brighton did have the ball in the end when Lewis Dunk’s quickly taken free-kick, after Mason had whistled for it to be taken, caught Sam Johnstone napping. 

Mason initially did not award the goal before reversing his decision. However, after reviewing the incident on VAR, the goal was ruled out as the referee changed his mind for a second time.

“It’s embarrassing, it’s just a horrendous decision,” said Dunk. “I said to the ref ‘can I take it’, he blew his whistle and I took it. I don’t think he knew what he was doing.”

In a statement, the Premier League said: “Referee Lee Mason has overturned the goal because the whistle had been blown a second time before the ball had crossed the line.”

Victory for the Baggies hauls Allardyce’s men to within eight points of safety, while Brighton remain just four points clear of the drop zone in 16th.

Aston Villa coped without the injured Jack Grealish and kept their bid for the top four alive with a 1-0 win at Leeds.

Anwar El Ghazi’s early strike moved Villa to within six points of West Ham with two games in hand to come.

The Dutchman was sent off in the sides’ last meeting at Elland Road in the Championship when Leeds scored as Villa had a man down injured.

Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa won a FIFA fair play award for allowing Villa to equalise that day, but the visitors were not so generous Saturday as they held out comfortably for a vital win.

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Lewandowski, Gnabry net twice as Bayern go five points clear

Berlin (AFP) – Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry both scored twice as Bayern Munich romped to a 5-1 win at home to Cologne on Saturday to open up a five-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting headed Bayern into an early lead before Lewandowski, the league’s top scorer, struck twice to increase his league tally to 28 goals this season.

Gnabry came off the bench to claim two late goals behind closed doors at the Allianz Arena on his first appearance since tearing a thigh muscle in Bayern’s Club World Cup final win in Qatar.

Second-placed RB Leipzig can trim Bayern’s lead later at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Bayern coach Hansi Flick heaped praise on second-half replacements Gnabry and Thomas Mueller and singled out midfielder Leon Goretzka who set up three goals, as the “man of the match for me”.

The club world champions have a week to prepare before hosting Borussia Dortmund next Saturday and Flick said he wants to “introduce things to the team. I didn’t like one or two things today.”

Bayern had taken just a point from their previous two league games and Flick made just one change – Choupo-Moting for Kingsley Coman – from the side which routed Lazio 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Bayern quickly built a 2-0 lead through Choupo-Moting and Lewandowski with Goretzka playing a key role in both goals.

After floating in a cross which Choupo-Moting headed home on 18 minutes, Goretzka combined with Lewandowski to prise open the Cologne defence.

However, Cologne fought back in their bid to claim a first win in Munich since February 2011.

Midfielder Ellyes Skhiri, who also netted both goals in Cologne’s 2-1 win at Dortmund last November, chipped Manuel Neuer four minutes after the break to pull a goal back after a mistake by defenders Jerome Boateng and David Alaba.

– Gnabry adds double off bench –

With just over 25 minutes left, Flick settled nerves by bringing on Gnabry and Mueller, who made his first appearance a fortnight after testing positive for Covid-19.

A minute later, Mueller’s pass split the Cologne defence and found Lewandowski who restored the two-goal cushion.

A horrible mistake by Neuer outside his own area left the Bayern goal unattended, but Cologne midfielder Dominick Drexler could only hit the post.

Lewandowski came within a whisker of a hat-trick when he just failed to connect with Lucas Hernandez’s cross.

Gnabry was on hand to make it 4-1 before grabbing his second after Goretzka’s excellent pass, with both his goals coming in the last 10 minutes.

“When Thomas and I came on, things were still a bit dicey for us. We tried to create a bit of momentum,” Gnabry told Sky.

Wolfsburg remain third after their 2-0 home win over Hertha Berlin, whose defender Lukas Kluenter turned the ball into his own net before Maxence Lacroix scored the hosts’ second.

Wolfsburg defender Marin Pongracic was sent off in added time for a second booking. 

England winger Jadon Sancho converted a penalty and Brazilian midfielder Reinier scored his first goal for the club as Dortmund stayed fifth with a 3-0 home win over Arminia Bielefeld.

Japan midfielder Wataru Endo netted his first two Bundesliga goals in Stuttgart’s 5-1 thrashing of bottom side Schalke, who saw Nabil Bentaleb have a second-half penalty saved.

On Friday, fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt had their 11-match unbeaten run ended by a shock 2-1 defeat at Werder Bremen, whose rising American star Josh Sargent, 21, hit the winning goal.

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Mbappe on target twice in PSG cruise

Paris (AFP) – Kylian Mbappe scored twice to take his tally to 18 goals in Ligue 1 this season as Paris Saint-Germain eased to a 4-0 victory at bottom club Dijon on Saturday to keep the pressure on leaders Lille in the title race.

Moise Kean and Danilo Pereira also scored for Mauricio Pochettino’s team, who bounced back from a 2-0 home defeat by Monaco last weekend and moved back up to second place in the table, a point behind by Lille.

The leaders play on Sunday at home to Strasbourg, while Lyon are two points behind the capital club but can leapfrog them again with a win at Marseille, also on Sunday.

Fourth-placed Monaco are six points off top spot but can extend their unbeaten run to 12 games when they face Brest in the principality.

Former Monaco striker Mbappe had been kept quiet by his old club last weekend but he got back among the goals against the division’s bottom side, who have now lost their last seven games.

Mbappe had scored twice when PSG beat Dijon 4-0 at home in October and repeated the feat here to move onto 23 goals for the season in all competitions.

The victory was achieved in the ongoing absence of Neymar, with the world’s most expensive player missing a fourth consecutive game with a groin injury.

He has returned to individual training but, having already missed the first leg, he remains a doubt for the Champions League last-16 return match at home to Barcelona on March 10.

Angel Di Maria, Marco Verratti, Mauro Icardi, Leandro Paredes and Alessandro Florenzi were also missing at the Stade Gaston-Gerard along with long-term injury victim Juan Bernat.

– Kean makes mark again –

On-loan Everton striker Kean kept his place and he opened the scoring inside six minutes, taking a touch and poking the ball home from close range after being set up by Abdou Diallo.

Kean, who was also on target twice in the last meeting of the sides, has now scored 15 times for PSG, who could well be convinced to make his loan move into a permanent transfer come the season’s end.

Mbappe made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute, converting a penalty awarded for a handball by Bersant Celina.

Julian Draxler then had another goal disallowed for offside but Mbappe scored again six minutes into the second half, sweeping a low, first-time shot into the corner from a Rafinha pass to finish off a flowing move.

Danilo, who is on loan from Porto, wrapped up the win late on as he headed in Draxler’s corner for his first goal in French football, before being replaced by 17-year-old midfielder Edouard Michut who was making his senior debut.

Dijon are eight points adrift at the bottom and nine points away from outright safety. 

Saturday’s other game saw Metz win 2-1 at Bordeaux thanks to a stoppage-time goal by Cape Verde international Vagner Dias Goncalves.

Metz are now fifth, a position which brings with it qualification for the inaugural UEFA Europa Conference League next season.

Elsewhere in France, Marseille on Friday announced the appointment of Argentine Jorge Sampaoli, 60, as their new coach on a deal to 2023.

He is the permanent successor to the sacked Andre Villas-Boas and arrives after a year in charge of Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro.

Sampaoli, who coached Argentina at the 2018 World Cup, will not however be on the bench for Sunday’s game against Lyon.

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Celtic make winning start to life without Lennon

Glasgow (AFP) – Celtic caretaker manager John Kennedy got off to a winning start as Odsonne Edouard’s early goal was enough to see off toothless Aberdeen 1-0 on Saturday.

The Hoops assistant manager was promoted on Wednesday morning following the resignation of Neil Lennon with the Glasgow giants 18 points adrift of rivals Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Victory cuts Steven Gerrard’s men’s lead to 15, but with just seven points needed from their remaining eight games of the campaign, it is a question of when not if Rangers end Celtic’s run of nine consecutive league titles.

The coronation for the runaway leaders could even come at Celtic Park in three weeks time and there was little in Celtic’s performance to suggest they look capable of ending Rangers quest to go the full league season unbeaten.

In a similar contest to the one Celtic won by the same scoreline in Lennon’s final home game in charge 10 days ago, an early goal was all the hosts needed against a Dons side that have now not scored in seven of their last eight games.

With time and space, Edouard took a pass from Ryan Christie at the edge of the Aberdeen box and fired in a shot which took a deflection off defender Tommie Hoban and wrong-footed keeper Joe Lewis, for his ninth goal in nine games.

Aberdeen defender Ash Taylor had hit the bar in the fifth minute with a looping header from a Niall McGinn corner, but Derek McInnes’s men rarely threatened after falling behind as they remain four points adrift of Hibs in fourth.

Rangers are not in action until Wednesday as their opponents Livingston face St Johnstone in the League Cup final on Sunday.

Hibs missed the chance to extend their advantage as the best of the rest outside the Old Firm as Motherwell won 2-0 at Easter Road thanks to goals from Jordan Roberts and Devante Cole.

Kilmarnock remain in the relegation playoff place after a 1-1 draw with Dundee United left Tommy Wright still winless after four games in charge.

Jamie McGrath’s late penalty saw St Mirren beat Ross County 1-0.

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Celtic made winning start to life without Lennon

Glasgow (AFP) – Celtic caretaker manager John Kennedy got off to a winning start as Odsonne Edouard’s early goal was enough to see off toothless Aberdeen 1-0 on Saturday.

The Hoops assistant manager was promoted on Wednesday morning following the resignation of Neil Lennon with the Glasgow giants 18 points adrift of rivals Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Victory cuts Steven Gerrard’s men’s lead to 15, but with just seven points needed from their remaining eight games of the campaign, it is a question of when not if Rangers end Celtic’s run of nine consecutive league titles.

The coronation for the runaway leaders could even come at Celtic Park in three weeks time and there was little in Celtic’s performance to suggest they look capable of ending Rangers quest to go the full league season unbeaten.

In a similar contest to the one Celtic won by the same scoreline in Lennon’s final home game in charge 10 days ago, an early goal was all the hosts needed against a Dons side that have now not scored in seven of their last eight games.

With time and space, Edouard took a pass from Ryan Christie at the edge of the Aberdeen box and fired in a shot which took a deflection off defender Tommie Hoban and wrong-footed keeper Joe Lewis, for his ninth goal in nine games.

Aberdeen defender Ash Taylor had hit the bar in the fifth minute with a looping header from a Niall McGinn corner, but Derek McInnes’s men rarely threatened after falling behind as they remain four points adrift of Hibs in fourth.

Rangers are not in action until Wednesday as their opponents Livingston face St Johnstone in the League Cup final on Sunday.

Hibs missed the chance to extend their advantage as the best of the rest outside the Old Firm as Motherwell won 2-0 at Easter Road thanks to goals from Jordan Roberts and Devante Cole.

Kilmarnock remain in the relegation playoff place after a 1-1 draw with Dundee United left Tommy Wright still winless after four games in charge.

Jamie McGrath’s late penalty saw St Mirren beat Ross County 1-0.

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