Bayern Munich crushed hosts St Pauli 5-0 in the Bundesliga to set an all-time season scoring record while also extending their lead at the top to 12 points with five games left to play.<\/p>\n
The Bavarian club, who host Real Madrid on Wednesday in their Champions League quarter-final second leg after their 2-1 win in Spain, are within touching distance of the league title on 76 points, with second-placed Borussia Dortmund stuck on 64 after their 1-0 home loss to Bayer Leverkusen.<\/p>\n
A ninth-minute header from Jamal Musiala put the visitors equal with the record of 101 goals in one season, set by Bayern in the 1971-72 campaign. But they added two more in quick succession, with Leon Goretzka in the 53rd and Michael Olise a minute later, to beat the previous best mark and make sure of the three points.<\/p>\n
Nicolas Jackson added a fourth in the 65th before Rapha\u00ebl Guerreiro slotted in to make it 5-0, with Vincent Kompany having rested several players, including Harry Kane. Bayern are still in the running for three trophies and face Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final on 22 April.<\/p>\n
Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s 1-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, thanks to a first-half winner from their captain, Robert Andrich, keeps them in the mix for a top-four finish with five matches left to play. The 2024 Bundesliga champions are now fifth on 52 points, one behind fourth-placed Stuttgart, who host Hamburg on Sunday. The top four teams are sure to qualify for next season\u2019s Champions League, with the Bundesliga vying with La Liga for a fifth place.<\/p>\n
In Spain, Barcelona took a major step towards the La Liga title with a 4-1 victory over their city rivals Espanyol, moving nine points clear of Real Madrid. Ferran Torres struck twice, assisted by Lamine Yamal both times, in the first half as the hosts dominated possession.<\/p>\n
He first scored with a header from a corner in the 10th minute and doubled the lead in the 25th, racing clear from another Lamine Yamal pass. Espanyol<\/a> pulled one back in the 56th minute when Pol Lozano fired in a rebound from just inside the box, but Lamine Yamal restored control in the 87th minute in a quick counter, with Marcus Rashford adding a fourth from Frenkie de Jong\u2019s cross as Bar\u00e7a moved to 79 points with seven games left. Second-placed Real lost ground after a 1-1 draw with Girona on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not over until we\u2019ve won the league, but it\u2019s only up to us and that\u2019s a great feeling,\u201d Torres told Dazn. \u201cIt was a tough, hard-fought match, the scoreline doesn\u2019t tell the whole story. It was close, some little mistakes almost cost us dearly. But we\u2019re proud of our performance.\u201d<\/p>\n Atl\u00e9tico Madrid coach, Diego Simeone, rotated heavily for his team\u2019s visit to Sevilla to keep players fresh for the second leg against Barcelona and Atl\u00e9tico, fourth, fell to a 2-1 defeat.<\/p>\n Akor Adams sent the hosts ahead from the penalty spot and after 20-year-old Atl\u00e9tico reserve defender Javier Bonar levelled, Nemanja Gudelj struck again for Sevilla<\/a> before the interval.<\/p>\n Atl\u00e9tico have a wide 12-point cushion on Real Betis, fifth, who visit Osasuna on Sunday. The victory was important for Sevilla, the Andalusians climbing out of the relegation zone and up to 15th.<\/p>\n In Italy, after falling out of the Serie A<\/a> title race, Milan are looking nervously at the teams behind them after a shock 3-0 loss at home to Udinese. The team was loudly jeered off the field after their third defeat in four matches.<\/p>\n The Rossoneri are not only nine points below the league leaders, Inter, but just six points above Roma, in sixth, in the fight for the four Champions League qualifying places. Juventus, in fifth, are taking on Atalanta<\/a> in the day\u2019s late kick-off.<\/p>\n An own goal from Davide Bartesaghi set the tone before Jurgen Ekkelenkamp\u2019s header made it two on 37 minutes. Arthur Atta scored Udinese\u2019s third with 20 minutes to go, feinting to shoot into the far corner before slotting into the bottom left.<\/p>\n Juventus moved into fourth place with a 1-0 in at Atalanta. Jeremie Boga bundled home the only goal in an uneventful match in Bergamo the day after coach Luciano Spalletti \u2013 hired with the aim of getting Juve into the Champions League \u2013 signed a new deal with the Turin club until 2028.<\/p>\n Jurgen Ekkelenkamp celebrates scoring Udinese\u2019s second against Milan. Photograph: Daniele Mascolo\/Reuters<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Cagliari took a crucial step toward avoiding relegation by beating their fellow strugglers Cremonese 1-0. Cagliari\u2019s first win since January lifted the Sardinian team six points above Cremonese<\/a> and the relegation zone. Sebastiano Esposito scored his third goal in four matches in the 63rd minute, heading in a cross from Z\u00e9 Pedro, who had only just come off the bench.<\/p>\n Hellas Verona remained nine points from safety after losing at mid-table Torino 2-1.<\/p>\n The Swiss Super League match between Thun and Basel scheduled for Saturday was postponed after a fire destroyed the first-team dressing room area at St Jakob-Park, damaging kit and other equipment, Basel<\/a> said. The fire late on Friday damaged the players\u2019 boots and kit, as well as medical and technical equipment. No one was injured and the reason for the fire was not yet known, the club said.<\/p>\n A statement said: \u201cDue to the damage incurred \u2026 and the lack of usable match and medical equipment, FC Basel is unable to play the away match against FC Thun on Saturday.\u201d The league had approved the postponement and a new date would be found, Basel said.<\/p>\n Basel, the defending champions, are fourth in the table, 18 points behind Thun, the surprise leaders, who have 71 points from 32 games. This weekend\u2019s games are the final ones before the 12-team division splits into two groups of six. Thun, promoted last year, were 12 points ahead at the start of the weekend and are in line for the first title in their history<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bayern Munich crushed hosts St Pauli 5-0 in the Bundesliga to set an all-time season scoring record while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-601475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}