Atletico’s faltering title bid faces tough test at Sevilla

Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke Resurreccion in action for Spain against Kosovo’s Arber Zeneli. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 01 April 2021
Follow

Atletico’s faltering title bid faces tough test at Sevilla

  • With both teams eliminated from the Champions League and the Copa del Rey, their focus is fully on the league standings

BARCELONA, Spain: Atletico Madrid have 10 games left this season to protect what remains of their once commanding lead in the Spanish league.

The team led Barcelona by 12 points in December, but that advantage has shrunk considerably since the start of the year. After winning only four of their last nine league games, Atletico now lead Barcelona by just four points.

Atletico face one of their toughest remaining matches on Sunday when it travels south to play at fourth-place Sevilla. With both teams eliminated from the Champions League and the Copa del Rey, their focus is fully on the league standings.

“It would be very painful to lose this league,” Atletico midfielder Koke Resurreccion told Marca Radio while playing for Spain in World Cup qualifying over the past week.

“We all know that leagues are decided over the final stretch of the season,” he said. “We knew that things would get tight ... We shouldn’t worry about being favorites or not. Barça and Real Madrid, which are among the best teams in the world, will fight until the end just like we will.”

Atletico will be waiting to see if forward Joao Felix is fit to play after he had to be substituted with an apparent injury in Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg on Tuesday.

If he cannot play, that will put even more pressure on Koke to link up with Luis Suarez, whose 19 goals this season are second only to Lionel Messi’s 23 in the competition.

After winning seven of their last eight home matches in the league, Sevilla have a strong hold on Spain’s final Champions League berth for next season with a 10-point lead over fifth place Real Sociedad. But the team could still catch third place Real Madrid, if they become complacent by focusing on its current Champions League bid.

Sevilla will have holding midfielder Fernando Reges back after he missed two matches with a muscle injury. Fernando said the international break will help his team regroup for the remainder of the campaign.

“Our team had gotten a bit worn down and was not playing at its best in some of our most recent matches, but after this break will be better prepared (for Atlético),” Fernando told Spanish website Muchodeporte.

Atletico’s top rivals face teams trying to avoid relegation. Barcelona will try to add to their 18-match unbeaten streak when it hosts Valladolid on Monday. Madrid, which trails Atlético by six points, welcomes Eibar on Saturday.

Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad face off on Saturday in the final of the 2020 Copa del Rey

The two Basque teams will meet in Seville at La Cartuja Stadium.

Organizers delayed the match from last year hoping the public health situation amid the coronavirus pandemic would improve enough to let spectators into the match.

But with Spain still battling COVID-19, the country’s soccer federation said it would be impossible to allow fans in.

The match will be the first of two cup finals for Bilbao this month. The team have also reached the final of this season’s Copa del Rey and will face Barcelona on April 17.


Kane scores as Bayern deliver comeback romp over Leipzig

Updated 17 January 2026
Follow

Kane scores as Bayern deliver comeback romp over Leipzig

  • The victory restores Bayern’s 11-point lead atop the ladder over second-placed Borussia Dortmund
  • Leipzig took a first-half lead through Romulo, but Bayern kicked into gear after the break

LEIPZIG, Germany: Harry Kane scored his 21st goal of the Bundesliga season as Bayern Munich came from behind to win 5-1 at RB Leipzig on Saturday.
The victory restores Bayern’s 11-point lead atop the ladder over second-placed Borussia Dortmund, while continuing their record-breaking campaign.
Unbeaten Bayern have dropped just four points on their way to a record-equalling tally of 50 after 18 games. Bayern’s total of 71 goals scored is also a record at this stage of a German league season.
Leipzig took a first-half lead through Romulo, but Bayern kicked into gear after the break, Serge Gnabry, Kane, Jonathan Tah, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Michael Olize all scoring.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said Leipzig were “twice as good as we were” in the opening half, adding “but in the second-half — my god, the boys delivered.
“We weren’t afraid and we really went for it.”
Leipzig goalscorer Romulo said “we played 75 minutes really on top, then I don’t know what happened, we turned off our minds. We have to learn something out of that.”
Leipzig were strong early and broke through after 20 minutes when Romulo snuck past Bayern’s Tah to poke in an Antonio Nusa pass from close range.
The hosts were undone in the simplest fashion just after half-time. Dayot Upamecano picked Christoph Baumgartner’s pocket and fed Gnabry, who guided the ball into the bottom corner.
Bayern took the lead after 67 minutes, once again thanks to a Leipzig mistake.
Olize’s floated cross looked harmless until Ridle Baku lost his footing, allowing an unmarked Kane time and space to blast home.
With Leipzig’s resistance broken, Tah, Pavlovic and Olize all scored in the final 10 minutes, while Jamal Musiala returned late off the bench after a six-month injury absence.

- Can rescues Dortmund -
Earlier, an Emre Can penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time saved Borussia Dortmund’s blushes in a 3-2 home win against lowly St. Pauli.
In the dying moments, VAR found a foul on Germany forward Maximilian Beier, bringing Dortmund captain Can to the spot.
“What a rollercoaster ride,” Can told Sky Germany.
“We need to do much better to settle things down and to convert our chances,” he added.
The hosts overcame a poor first half when Julian Brandt tapped in from close range just before the break. Having created the opener, Karim Adeyemi gave Dortmund a two-goal buffer in the 54th minute, converting a Fabio Silva assist.
Rock-bottom St. Pauli had won just once since September but fought back into the game when James Sands and Ricky-Jade Jones scored inside 10 minutes midway through the second half to stun the hosts.
Deep into stoppage time, Jones caught Beier on the edge of the penalty area, allowing Can to convert nervelessly from the spot.
Elsewhere, Hoffenheim’s Wouter Burger scored the only goal in a 1-0 home win over flailing Bayer Leverkusen to climb past Leipzig into third in the table.
Burger swung in an excellent free-kick after nine minutes to give the hosts the three points.
“That was an important one,” Burger said of his free-kick. “I was practicing them a bit this morning.”
Relegation candidates last season, Hoffenheim are on track to qualify for Europe’s top competition for just the second time in their history, having last done so under now-Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann in 2017/18.
Leverkusen have now lost four of their past six, falling three points behind the Champions League placings.
Cologne beat Mainz 2-1 at home, Wolfsburg played out a 1-1 home draw with Heidenheim and hosts Hamburg were held to a scoreless draw by Borussia Moenchengladbach.