Lamine Yamal’s superbly taken goal earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday in La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead on second-placed Real Madrid, who had temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo on Friday.
Yamal curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mamés stadium in a hard-fought clash.
Barcelona’s coach, Hansi Flick, rotated his side, with Tuesday’s visit to face Newcastle in their Champions League last-16 first leg looming. As a result his team put in a disjointed first-half display, creating little and looking far from their free-flowing best.
“We’re already seeing what Lamine can do – he puts it right in the top corner and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” the Barça midfielder Pedri told Movistar. “He’s very young and he’s only going to get better. What he has to do is not settle, to keep going like this, keep working and enjoying himself out there on the pitch, because he gives us a lot.”
Goals from Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier took Borussia Dortmund to a 2-1 win at Cologne, tightening their grip on Champions League qualification. Dortmund’s pulsating 3-2 home loss to Bayern Munich last week ended their slim Bundesliga title hopes. Saturday’s win took second-placed Dortmund eight clear of fifth-placed RB Leipzig.
Beier teed up Guirassy after 16 minutes, floating a ball over the Cologne defence for the Guinean to score his 12th Bundesliga goal this season. The hosts’ hopes of fighting their way back dimmed just before half-time when Jahmai Simpson-Pusey planted his studs in Beier’s heel and Daniel Siebert upgraded his yellow card to red after the video assistant referee recommended a review.
Beier was in the thick of things again when he swept home on the hour mark. Jakub Kaminski scored a late consolation for the hosts but Dortmund held on for their first league victory since mid-February.
Bayer Leverkusen came from behind twice but gave up the lead late to draw 3-3 at Freiburg, days out from their date with Arsenal. Leverkusen host the Champions League favourites on Wednesday in the first leg of their last-16 tie but Saturday’s wild draw may hurt their chances of reaching next year’s competition. The result leaves Leverkusen sixth, losing ground on their top-four rivals Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, who both won.
Freiburg twice went ahead thanks to goals from Vincenzo Grifo and Yuito Suzuki but Leverkusen twice equalised through Christian Kofane and another superb free-kick from Alejandro Grimaldo. Martin Terrier’s goal had the visitors on track for victory but Matthias Ginter struck with four minutes remaining to level things up.
RB Leipzig also looked set to drop points in the top-four race but forced Augsburg’s Arthur Chaves into a stoppage-time own goal in a comeback 2-1 home win. Robin Fellhauer gave Augsburg the lead after his teammate Keven Schlotterbeck missed a penalty but Yan Diomande pulled one back for the hosts before Chaves scuffed a David Raum cross into his own net.
Leipzig’s win took them to fifth, level on points with fourth-placed Stuttgart, who drew 2-2 at lowly Mainz. Stuttgart fell behind to a Lee Jae-sung strike but looked to have turned the match with goals to Ermedin Demirovic and Deniz Undav inside 61 seconds, before Danny da Costa nabbed a late equaliser for the hosts.
Hoffenheim took a step towards a second Champions League qualification with a 4-2 win at rock-bottom Heidenheim to stay in outright third. Alexander Prass bagged a first-half double and Fisnik Asllani and Tim Lemperle scored for the visitors, while Luca Kerber scored twice for Heidenheim.
Hamburg came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Wolfsburg, with all three goals coming from the penalty spot. Frustrated fans threw flaming scarves on to the pitch after the defeat, which pushes second-last Wolfsburg, who were German champions in 2009, closer to a first-ever relegation.
Meanwhile, Manuel Neuer will miss Bayern Munich’s Champions League last-16 first leg against Atalanta on Tuesday after picking up another calf injury. Bayern said their captain and goalkeeper suffered a minor muscle tear during the 4-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Bayern, the runaway leaders, did not give a timeframe on Saturday for his return but the newspaper Bild reported Neuer would be out for two weeks. That means he would miss both legs against Atalanta as well as the Bundesliga match at Bayer Leverkusen.
Juventus ended their wait for a first Serie A win since 1 February by defeating Pisa 4-0 at home with four second-half goals. Andrea Cambiaso nodded in Kenan Yildiz’s dinked cross from close range nine minutes after the interval before Juve doubled their lead in the 65th minute.
Pisa, the bottom club, gave the ball away on the edge of their own box, Manuel Locatelli drilled a shot off the post, and Khéphren Thuram slotted in the rebound for his first goal since September. Yildiz fired in his 10th goal of the campaign with a quarter of an hour left, before Jérémie Boga rounded off the scoring in injury time.
