This year’s FA Cup final is to be a Manchester derby once more after the city’s two big guns edged their semifinals in contrasting style. Cup holders Manchester City rode their luck against Chelsea before Bernardo Silva’s late goal settled the tie 1-0. It was Chelsea’s eighth consecutive fruitless trip to Wembley and follows their Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool earlier this campaign.
Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United will have another crack at silverware after they scraped through on penalties despite surrendering a 3-0 lead in comical fashion. The Red Devils seemed to be on course to a straight forward victory over Coventry City thanks to goals from Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes only for the Sky Blues to force extra time with a quick fire triple.
City’s cup engagement was an invitation to Arsenal to take charge of Premier League standings and they duly obliged by seeing off hard battling Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 via goals by Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard. The Gunners are level on 74 points with Liverpool, who triumphed 3-1 at Fulham courtesy of strikes from Trent Alexander Arnold, Ryan Gravenbach and Diogo Jota.
In Spain, Real Madrid moved within a breath of a record extending 36th Liga Santander crown when they twice fought back from a goal down to beat sworn rivals Barcelona 3-2 at the Estadio Olimpico Lluis Companys. La Liga deputy top scorer Jude Bellingham scored an injury time winner thereby becoming the first Los Blancos star in 17 years. to net in his first two El Clasicos.
Girona took charge of their Champions League qualification destiny by pummelling Cadiz 4-1 to open up a ten point advantage over fifth placed Athletic Bilbao who were held to a 1-1 draw by Granada. The surprise result of the weekend was Deportivo Alaves’ 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid that left Diego Simeone’s Los Colchoneros seven points behind Girona.
Across the Basque country border, Paris Saint Germain moved within inches of their tenth Ligue One title in twelve years by obliterating Olympique Lyon 4-1 at the Parc des Princes in a precursor to next week’s Coupe de France final against the same opponents. PSG are eleven points clear of Monaco who prevailed 2-0 at third placed Stade Brest. Lille Metropole are fourth following their 1-0 victory at home to Strasbourg.
In Germany, Josip Stanisic netted a 97th minute leveller against Borussia Dortmund to help newly crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen extend their unbeaten run to 45 matches across all competitions. Dortmund’s draw meant they’re now two points behind RB Leipzig in the race for fourth place as Marco Rose’s side prevailed 2-1 at Heidenheim on Saturday.
Bayern Munich’s 5-1 victory at Union Berlin coupled with VFB Stuttgart’s 1-2 setback at Werder Bremen put the ousted champions firmly in control of the race for second position. In the lower echelons of the standings, there was a rare victory for basement club Darmstadt who triumphed 2-0 at thrice champions Cologne.
The two most important fixtures in Serie A take place tonight when champions elects Inter Milan face off with city rivals AC Milan four days after Stefano Pioli’s Rossoneri were knocked out of the Europa League by AS Roma and Danielle de Rossi’s Giallorossi, who’ve lost just once in ten outings challenge Thiago Motta’s Bologna for fourth place. Juventus remain third despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Claudio Ranieri’s lowly Cagliari.
