European football: Doué’s late winner takes PSG to verge of Ligue 1 title

  • Luis Enrique’s side beat Brest 1-0

  • Atalanta deal blow to Milan’s Champions League hopes

Paris Saint-Germain left it late to earn a 1-0 home win over Brest on Sunday to all but guarantee a fifth successive Ligue 1 title as Désiré Doué came off the bench to score an 82nd-minute winner.

The victory advanced PSG to 73 points with two games left, six ahead of second-placed Lens, who also have two games remaining, and with a far superior goal difference. PSG require a single point from their next match at Lens on Wednesday to be mathematically certain of the title.

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Nottingham Forest 1-1 Newcastle, Burnley 2-2 Aston Villa, Crystal Palace 2-2 Everton – as it happened

The Premier League afternoon got under way with three games, 10 goals and three score draws

4 mins: A tasty cross from the right for Newcastle, but nobody gets on the end of it. Here’s the top of the Scottish Premiership as it stands:

The final whistle has blown in the Old Firm game at Celtic Park, where Celtic came from behind to beat Rangers 3-1 and keep the heat on Hearts. The top two play each other next Saturday in their final game of the season, with both also playing in midweek.

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Everton’s European hopes hit after Mateta’s equaliser for Crystal Palace

David Moyes’s European dream is now hanging by a slender thread. Against a Crystal Palace side who have been distracted by their Conference League exploits, Everton were unable to take their opportunity to close the gap on their rivals as Jean-Philippe Mateta came off the bench to equalise after they had twice been ahead, through goals from James Tarkowski and Beto.

It could have been even worse for Moyes had Adam Wharton’s shot not struck the outside of a post in the 90th minute. In a frantic finish, Dean Henderson denied Iliman Ndiaye in stoppage time before Mateta missed a great chance to win it for Oliver Glasner’s side.

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More Championship clubs fear they have been targets of Southampton’s spying

  • Middlesbrough apprehended alleged spy last week

  • Saints may claim that the offender was an intern

Middlesbrough have been approached by fellow Championship clubs who harbour suspicions that their pre-match training sessions may also have been spied on by Southampton.

The English Football League has charged the south-coast club with misconduct after a member of Tonda Eckert’s backroom was allegedly caught breaching regulations by filming and making audio recordings of one of Kim Hellberg’s final practice sessions before his Middlesbrough side faced Eckert’s Southampton in Saturday’s playoff semi-final first leg at the Riverside Stadium. As Hellberg prepares his players for Tuesday’s second leg at St Mary’s Stadium with the score goalless, Championship rivals are understood to be examining any available CCTV training-ground footage from recent weeks.

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Is the Premier League starting to gobble up Uefa’s lower-tier competitions? | Nick Ames

Aston Villa and Crystal Palace’s runs to European finals are historic achievements, but symptomatic of a worrying trend

There will be no doubting Unai Emery’s supremacy in the Europa League if he is reacquainted with the trophy in Istanbul this month. A fifth title would add to the Aston Villa manager’s legend and it would show he can do it with an English club. The latter achievement, though, may be diminished in value. A greater concern lies in the way that Premier League clubs, gradually but discernibly, are dominating Europe’s smaller competitions in a way Uefa surely could never have intended.

Villa will be the eighth English finalists from the last 22 teams to reach the Europa League’s showpiece. Should they win, it would be the first time since the first two years of the Uefa Cup, its predecessor with the same trophy, that sides from England have won the secondary tournament in consecutive seasons. They would build on Tottenham’s haphazard triumph of last May and while neither consistency nor relative excellence should be sniffed at their progress contributes to a concerning broader trend.

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European football: Olise fires Bayern’s winner against Wolfsburg after Kane misses penalty

  • Kane misses first Bundesliga spot-kick in 25 attempts in win

  • Slavia-Sparta derby abandoned after pitch invasion

Harry Kane missed a penalty as Bayern Munich failed to hit top form but the Bundesliga champions still edged struggling Wolfsburg 1-0 to bounce back after their midweek Champions League semi-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain.

Bayern, who won with a Michael Olise goal, had suffered a 6-5 aggregate loss to PSG after their 1-1 draw in Munich on Wednesday, narrowly missing out on what would have been their first Champions League final in six years. The frustration was evident at the start as the Bavarian side, with six changes in the lineup, lacked their usual attacking spark despite having Kane, the top scorer, in the starting XI.

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Manchester City keep pressure on Arsenal as Jérémy Doku sparks defeat of Brentford

After a biblical downpour, the skies cleared, and Manchester City executed the gameplan: secure victory and three points to keep their breath on Arsenal’s neck.

The clincher arrived via Erling Haaland’s 26th Premier League goal of the season – as with his side’s performance this was hardly pretty but no one in blue cared. Antoine Semenyo marauded down the right, his cross hit at least one Brentford body, the ball came to Haaland who, with a second stab at it, bundled home, the No 9 facing away from goal.

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Manchester City 3-0 Brentford: Premier League – as it happened

After a goalless first half, Jérémy Doku’s spectacular goal set up a crucial win for City

“Haaland has 25 goals,” begins Zach Neeley. “Arsenal’s highest is Gyokeres at 14, and not because they score fewer goals (67 to 69). Which is better, the bulk scorer who you know will go out there and usually get something? Or the balanced team, where it can come from so many places?”

That would make for a great podcast discussion. The short answer: it’s complicated. (See Van Nistelrooy, Ruud.)

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Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea: Premier League – as it happened

Liverpool started well but let Chelsea back into the game and ended the day booed off

Chelsea get the ball rolling at a lovely sunny Anfield. They’re kicking towards the Kop in this first half.

The teams are out! Liverpool in socialist red, Chelsea in royal blue. Anfield crackles with anticipation, albeit in that slightly understated 12.30pm-on-Saturday style. We’ll be off in a couple of Gerry-and-the-Pacemakers-soundtracked minutes. “I enjoyed the pre-match postbag,” trills Rob Knap. “I’m very much one of the (many, I imagine) rubberneckers today. My partner’s gone out and I’m a bit under the weather, sniffle, cough, etc - classic man flu - then I saw that Liverpool-Chelsea was on. How I’ve perked up! (Though that also might be the combo of too many Lemsips and extra-strong Lockets.) I foresee unbearable tension, slapstick defending and high aggro potential (not that any of us want to see any of the latter, of course).” Of course not.

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Pacific Northwest Sportswatch Daily Listings

(All times Pacific)
Schedule subject to change and/or blackouts
Saturday, May 9
COLLEGE BASEBALL
9:30 p.m.

Oregon at UCLA — BTN

SOCCER (MEN'S)
10:30 p.m.

MLS: Sporting Kansas City vs. Portland Timbers — Apple TV

MLS: San Diego vs. Seattle Sounders — Apple TV

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive TV listings provided by LiveSportsOnTV.

Southampton charged with misconduct by EFL in Middlesbrough ‘spying’ row

  • League to convene disciplinary panel at ‘earliest opportunity’

  • Furious Boro want playoff opponents to be punished severely

Southampton have been charged with misconduct by the English Football League and will face an independent disciplinary commission set to be convened “at the earliest opportunity”.

Middlesbrough remain furious after catching a man they maintain belongs to Tonda Eckert’s backroom staff allegedly spying on a vital training session before Saturday’s Championship playoff semi-final first leg against Southampton at the Riverside Stadium.

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