Erling Haaland scored his ninth goal in six games for Borussia Dortmund as they swept past Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Achraf Hakimi ran the game from rightback for Dortmund, cuing up Lukasz Piszczek to score the opening goal. Jadon Sancho made it 2-0 with a solo goal before he and Hakimi combined in the build-up to Haaland’s.
Dortmund overtook RB Leipzig for second place in the league with the win and were just one point off leaders Bayern Munich, who face Cologne today.
Photo: AFP
Six days after the defense allowed two late goals in a 4-3 loss to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Dortmund’s back line looked much improved against Frankfurt, who had few clear chances in their biggest defeat of the season.
“It’s really important, especially that we gave up few chances. I think they had one shot,” Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said. “We were very concentrated and switched on in every position.”
LA LIGA
Photo: EPA-EFE
Atletico Madrid were twice pegged back in Friday’s 2-2 draw against Valencia to keep Diego Simeone’s side in fourth in La Liga.
Atletico’s Marcos Llorente right-footed the visitors’ into an early lead before a close-range header from Gabriel Paulista got Valencia back level five minutes before the break.
Three minutes later, midfielder Thomas Partey had Atletico back in front, only for Geoffrey Kondogbia to earn Valencia a share of the points off a set piece after the restart.
It was Atletico’s 10th stalemate of the season and it left them on 40 points, with Valencia in sixth, two points adrift.
“We’re on the right path. It was an important match with lots of goal-scoring chances for both sides,” Simeone said.
LIGUE 1
AS Monaco celebrated their third successive Ligue 1 win after a second-half header by Islam Slimani gave them a 1-0 home victory over Montpellier HSC in an entertaining clash on Friday.
Algeria striker Slimani, on loan from Leicester City, rose to meet a corner in the 52nd minute and his downward header beat goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud and defender Damien Le Tallec on the line.
Monaco missed a string of chances to win by a bigger margin after Florent Mollet came close for the visitors in the sixth minute when home keeper Benjamin Lecomte saved with his foot.
SERIE A
Cagliari have banned three of their supporters for racially abusing opposition players at matches this season, the Serie A club announced on Friday.
In a statement, the Italian side said that the bans “will prevent those who are guilty of these deplorable acts from entering the Sardegna Arena, for any event, for life.”
The club did not specify for which incidents the fans had been banned, referring only to episodes in “recent months.”
The Sardinian club’s stadium has been a frequent host to racist abuse from fans towards black players, including Italy striker Moise Kean and his former Juventus teammate Blaise Matuidi.
However, it is likely they are referring to Romelu Lukaku, who in September became Italy’s most high-profile victim when Cagliari fans aimed monkey chants at him before he scored the decisive penalty in a 2-1 away win.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Wolverhampton Wanderers were held by Leicester City to a scoreless draw after Willy Boly’s first-half header was disallowed for a narrow offside in the English Premier League on Friday.
Boly had glanced in Matt Doherty’s knockdown just before halftime, but Pedro Neto was ruled by the video referee to be offside.
Leicester played from the 76th minute with 10 men after Hamza Choudhury was sent off. The midfielder was already on a booking and walked when he took down Leander Dendoncker having slipped and lost the ball.
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