Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have shown the team do not need star power to win trophies and with the French Ligue 1 title won with six games to spare, the French champions would look to finish the season without losing, manager Luis Enrique said on Saturday.
A 1-0 victory over Angers SCO at the Parc des Princes helped PSG win their fourth straight Ligue 1 title and a record-extending 13th overall.
PSG can still break Nantes’ 30-year-old record of 32 games unbeaten. Although Nantes lost one game en route to the title, no French club has ever gone an entire league campaign without losing.
Photo: Reuters
“Celebrating a title in early April shows that we’ve reached a very high level this season. We’ve achieved this target, but we have more games to play,” Luis Enrique told reporters.
“We are motivated to try and finish this season unbeaten,” he said. “Nobody has done that in France before, so that’s something that we want to achieve. That would help us in the [UEFA] Champions League and the Coupe de France.”
LA LIGA
Photo: Reuters
AFP, MADRID
Barcelona failed to break down a frantic Real Betis defense as they were held to a 1-1 draw in Spanish La Liga on Saturday, but still gained ground on Real Madrid who earlier conceded deep into added time to lose 2-1 at home to Valencia.
Barcelona moved four points ahead of Real Madrid atop La Liga. Both teams face UEFA Champions League first-leg ties this week, Real visit Arsenal tomorrow and Barcelona play in Borussia Dortmund the following evening.
Barcelona cut open Betis in the seventh minute and Gavi slid the ball past goalkeeper Adrian from inside the six-yard box.
However, the hosts were unable to turn a series of lively attacks into goals. Instead, the visitors hit back after 16 minutes when center back Natan Souza escaped the clutches of his defender to head home a Giovani Lo Celso corner.
Barcelona besieged the Betis goal in the second half, but were denied by a combination of dogged defending, strong goalkeeping from Adrian and some agonizing near misses.
“La Liga is more complicated, but we have to fight until the last game,” Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
“They didn’t need to do much to score two goals,” he said. “We took risks at the end and found ourselves hit on the counter-attack.
“We’ve had deserved defeats this season, but I don’t think we lacked attitude today,” he added. “It’s not a deserved defeat. We created lots of chances, but lacked a little effectiveness.”
The victory lifted Valencia to 15th, seven points clear of the bottom three.
PREMIER LEAGUE
AFP, LONDON
Arsenal’s faint hopes of catching Premier League leaders Liverpool are almost over after their 1-1 draw at Everton, while Wolverhampton Wanderers pushed Ipswich Town closer to relegation with a 2-1 win on Saturday.
Leandro Trossard’s opener for the Gunners was canceled out by Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty to leave Arsenal trailing 11 points behind Liverpool.
With just two wins in their last six league matches, Arsenal have tamely surrendered in the title race and are destined to go another year without their first English crown since 2004.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had said the best preparation for his side’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid would be to win at Goodison Park.
However, the Spaniard showed he had one eye on the visit of the European champions with his team selection.
Bukayo Saka was forced to wait for his first start since December last year as the England international was left on the bench alongside Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Jurrien Timber and Thomas Partey.
Wolves effectively sealed their survival and left Ipswich on the brink of relegation with a 2-1 win at Portman Road.
Vitor Pereira’s side trailed to Liam Delap’s 16th-minute goal as the striker swept in Dara O’Shea’s knockdown.
However, Pablo Sarabia drilled into the bottom corner to haul Wolves level in the 72nd minute, before Jorgen Strand Larsen prodded home on 84 minutes for his fourth goal in his last three games.
Crystal Palace beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 despite finishing with nine men in a bruising battle featuring three red cards at Selhurst Park.
Evanilson scored twice as AFC Bournemouth drew 2-2 with West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Aston Villa defeated Nottingham Forest 2-1 in Saturday’s late game.
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Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
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