A forty year trophy wait ended in Seville for Bilbao

SPAIN

As we enter crunch time across Europe and the season’s begin to draw to a close there’s going to be ecstasy and heartbreak for clubs, players, and fans alike. Over in Spain we got a taste of that this weekend. Athletic Bilbao faced Mallorca in the Copa del Rey final where both teams were fighting for their first trophy in decades. Only one could win it though. Bilbao were the favourites, having a strong league campaign and only losing four of their last thirty games. However, it was Mallorca who took the lead just over 20 minutes into the match. An out swinging corner led to multiple attempts on Julen Agirrezabala’s goal, one of those finding the back of the net from Dani Rodríguez after Bilbao failed to clear their lines. Bilbao thought they’d levelled it before the break only for Nico Williams’ finish to be correctly declared offside. Mallorca led at the break.

It only took six minutes of the second half for Bilbao to equalise though. Nico Williams played Oihan Sancet in for him to slot the ball past Dominik Greif to level the score. Neither could find the decisive goal in normal or extra time however… penalties it was. Vedat Muriqi stepped up first to put Mallorca ahead, followed by Raúl García scoring to make it 1-1. Then it got interesting, Manu Morlanes saw his penalty saved and Nemanja Radonjić missed the target, suddenly Bilbao were 3-1 up and the trophy was almost in their hands. Even after Mallorca made it 3-2 it was a score and win situation for Álex Berenguer, and he delivered. Slotting it home to win it for Bilbao, they had their first trophy in forty years. A massive win for the Basque side, and a truly momentous occasion!

GERMANY

This season the Bundesliga has been a place of pure entertainment. Only the Premier League is averaging more goals per game in the top five leagues and it’s been a year for the underdog in Germany. A result which nearly no one would’ve seen coming this weekend was Heideheim beating Bayern 3-2. The side promoted this season are having a brilliant campaign, sitting 10th in the league currently. However, trailing 2-0 at half-time this weekend no one could’ve seen the comeback that came in the second half. But Heidenheim believed. Substitute Kevin Sessa scored just five minutes after introduction, before a double from Tim Kleindienst completed the comeback, a first win over Bayern for the home side! This defeat means Leverkusen can win their first league title next weekend if they beat Werder Bremen!

On Saturday evening Stuttgart went level on points with Bayern after Serhou Guirassy’s goal was the difference between them and hosts Borussia Dortmund. This almost confirms Stuttgart’s place in the Champions League next season bar a big slip up. It looks like Germany may only have four UCL spots so it will be a fight between RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund for that, both currently level on points but RB with superior goal difference.

At the other end of the table there were some big results in the survival fight. Mainz’z 4-0 victory over Darmstadt means it’s almost certain that the away side returns to the Bundesliga II. It also makes the fight for survival much tighter as Kӧln came from behind to beat Bochum in an unbelievable turn around! Two headers in ninety seconds turned a 1-0 loss to a 2-1 win for the home side. Now only four points separates the three fighting for survival, with Wolfsburg and Union Berlin not much further ahead.

ITALY

It seems to just be a matter of time before Inter Milan lift the league title. After picking up another win this weekend versus Udinese they are still on track to win the trophy versus bitter rivals AC Milan. AC also picked up a win this weekend as they convincingly defeated Lecce 3-0 courtesy of goals from Rafael Leão, Olivier Giroud, and Christian Pulišić. Elsewhere, Roma picked up an important win in their derby versus Lazio. It was a goal from Gianluca Mancini which won it as they fight for Europe. It looks like Italy are likely to get five UCL spots which will be a benefit to Roma if they finish fifth, where they sit currently.

A surprise result between relegation battling Frosinone and Bologna occurred this weekend as Thiago Motta’s side were held to a goalless draw in a game many would’ve anticipated them to win. Prior to the fixture Frosinone had lost six out of seven of their previous games while Bologna had won six out of their last seven respectively. Credit goes to Eusebio Di Francesco and his side though as they fought for the draw in a pretty even game. Fans will be hoping they can carry this fight into their remaining fixtures and achieve survival. One result which changes things up at the bottom is Cagliari’s victory over Atalanta, this was a shock for most Serie A fans. The late winning goal from Nicolas Viola took the home side from seventeenth to thirteenth. A very important win in the bottom half!

FRANCE

The table in France looks how most generally anticipate it will at this time of the season, PSG running away with it while the other fight it out for Europe and survival. Although when it gets to this stage of the season facing PSG is often a less daunting scenario than other times, this due to the fact they are often resting players for their UCL campaign. This was exactly what happened this weekend as bottom side Clermont Foot managed to pick up a point at the Parc des Princes. Despite being bottom of the table Clermont are now somehow unbeaten versus the Parisians in their last three games… who would’ve thought it! 

One place below PSG is Brest, they were the victors in this week’s most hectic game in France. They trailed one nil after just six minutes as Metz looked to pick up a surprise win, although it wasn’t long before Brest responded, and then the goals came rolling in. Brest went in 3-1 up at half-time after goals from Brendan Chardonnet, Kamory Doumbia, and Steve Mounié. They added another to this on the hour mark to make it four before Metz picked up two fairly late consolation goals. Metz still sit in the relegation zone but only five points away from automatic safety and three from the play-offs.