Naples celebrates, PSG breathes and Real Madrid offers itself a new crown

2023-05-08 11:36:32

Thanks to its victory in Troyes, Paris Saint-Germain remains first in the French championship by keeping Lens, winner of Marseille, at a distance. In England, Arsenal enjoyed valuable success at Newcastle and moved up behind Manchester City, still at the top of the Premier League. Real Madrid have crowned themselves as King of Spain. And Naples was finally able to celebrate its title at the Diego-Maradona stadium.

PSG protects its crown, Lens becomes its dolphin

Paris Saint-Germain gave themselves some air, Sunday May 7, by disposing (3-1) of Troyes, a virtually relegated team, to regain a six-point lead over Lens. Four days from the end of Ligue 1, the eleventh title, a new French record, is not far away. Kylian Mbappé quickly scored (8^e), registering his 24^e goal of the season in Ligue 1, imitated by his teammates Vitinha (59^e) et Fabian Ruiz (86^e). Only a relaxation too often seen this season allowed Xavier Chavalerin to reduce the score (83^e). This victory is good for PSG, which has been fighting for several weeks against fire starts, the Saudi escapade of Lionel Messi, suspended by his club, the headquarters of the ultras in front of Neymar’s home…

Behind PSG is now Lens, Saturday winner of Olympique de Marseille (2-1) in a volcanic Bollaert stadium. The Sang et Or have also confirmed their mastery of major events: against the first four, they have beaten OM twice, Monaco twice, and PSG once. This victory, combined with the defeat of Lille (5^e) in Reims (1-0), assures them of playing at least the Europa League next season. But the Lensois can claim more if they remain as efficient at the end of the season. For its part, Marseille, now third two lengths behind its winner, no longer has the hand for direct qualification in the Champions League.

This 34^e The day was marked by the stunning and spectacular victory of Lyon at home: led 4-1 by Montpellier after an hour of play and a quadruple from Elye Wahi, OL achieved an incredible “comeback” thanks to the quadruple of their ” general” Alexandre Lacazette, including an unexpected penalty after 100 minutes of play. The day after this exploit which revived OL in the race for Europe, the club officially announced the departure of its historic president, Jean-Michel Aulas, who had held this position since 1987. He left his place as CEO of OL Groupe to the American John Textor who bought the Rhone club last December.

Borussia Dortmund crushes Wolsfburg and stays on the heels of Bayern Munich

Borussia Dortmund continued their impressive run at home this season in the Bundesliga by outclassing Wolsfburg (6-0), a club in the first part of the table of the German championship. Led by striker Karim Adeyemi, who scored twice, and midfielder Jude Bellingham, Borussia thus maintains the suspense in the title race with Bayern Munich.

With three rounds to go, reigning ten-time German champions Bayern Munich have a small point lead over Borussia Dortmund (65 to 64), with a similar schedule for both teams – two home matches and one outside. Again sluggish, Bayern Munich provided the essentials, Saturday May 6, by going to win on the lawn of Werder Bremen (2-1). He folded the case in the space of ten minutes in the second half with Serge Gnabry (62^e) and Leroy Sané (72^e), Niklas Schmidt reduced the score with a sumptuous shot in the 87^e.

Behind Bayern and Borussia, an excellent operation was carried out by RB Leipzig, which dominated Freiburg (1-0) thanks to a goal from Slovenian Kevin Kampl at the start of the last quarter of an hour. Thanks to this success, Leipzig climbed onto the Bundesliga podium and took their destiny into their own hands to qualify for the next Champions League.

Napoli celebrate their league title with a win

Naples released, on Sunday May 7, its new title of Italian champion in a Diego-Maradona stadium celebrating with a narrow victory over Fiorentina (1-0), thanks to a penalty from Victor Osimhen. The Nigerian center-forward, who already scored the goal having mathematically ensured the Neapolitan Scudetto Thursday in Udine (1-1), was forgiven for another missed penalty at the start of the second period. He consolidates his position as top scorer with this 23^e goal, ahead of Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan, 19). The presentation of the trophy will only take place on June 4, after the final day, but the Maradona stadium obviously did not wait to celebrate the title in a festival of colors.

Napoli’s new runner-up is Juventus Turin, who beat Atalanta in Bergamo (2-0). The match was marked by racist insults from the Bergamasque public towards Dusan Vlahovic, author of the second Bianconero goal. The Serb was warned for having silenced the fans after his goal, like Romelu Lukaku a month ago when he was the target of racist cries from Juve’s tifosi in the Italian Cup.

The “Old Lady” has thus returned to the standings ahead of Lazio Rome, dominated on Saturday by AC Milan (2-0). For its part, Inter Milan, which beat AS Roma (2-0) at the Olimpico, is in 4^e position in the ranking. The two Milanese clubs were therefore full of confidence before their shock in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League, Wednesday, May 10.

Manchester City keep the lead, Liverpool return

During the 35^e Premier League day, the Gunners managed to win on Saturday, May 6, in Newcastle (2-0), who had lost only once at home this season. Arsenal have thus returned to one point behind the leaders of the English championship, Manchester City, who have one game less. The Mancunians consolidated their first place thanks to a victory against Leeds (2-1) and a double from Ilkay Gündogan.

By chaining against Brentford (1-0) a sixth victory in a row, Liverpool is coming back strong, but perhaps a little late, in the race for the Champions League. With 62 points, the Reds are only one length behind Manchester United (4^e), beaten this weekend by West Ham (1-0), and three from Newcastle (3^e). But the Reds have two games more than these two formations.

Lower in the standings, Chelsea won their first game under Frank Lampard by winning (3-1) at Bournemouth, with an assist from N’Golo Kanté on Conor Gallagher’s opener (0- 1, 9^e) and Benoît Badiashile’s first English goal to restore the advantage to the Blues (1-2, 82^e) that point to the 11^e place.

A 20^e King’s Cup for Real Madrid

On this royal coronation weekend, La Liga was taking a break this weekend to make way for the King’s Cup final. Real Madrid beat Osasuna (2-1) on Saturday May 6 at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville and thus won for the 20^e times this trophy. The people of Madrid opened the scoring through Rodrygo on their first ball from the 2^e minute of the match. He scored twice in the 70^e minute, while the Navarrese had come back to the score ten minutes before thanks to a goal from Lucas Torro. Carlo Ancelotti’s men won their first trophy of the season in the best of times, three days before their Champions League semi-final first leg against Manchester City.

With AFP