Bayern Munich scored three times in seven minutes to cruise past Union Berlin 4-0 in the Bundesliga on Saturday to stay clear at the top while edging closer to an all-time club scoring record.
The Bavarian club, chasing three trophies and fresh from their midweek Champions League quarter-final qualification with a 10-2 aggregate win over Atalanta, are nine points clear at the top.
Bayern have now scored 97 league goals, four short of equalling the all-time club record in the 1971-72 Bundesliga campaign. “We will get the record but the priority for me is something else,” Vincent Kompany, their coach, said. “I am not someone who likes talking about this record. I am not too interested. Your playing style does not stop because the season is coming to an end.
“We must never forget what our strengths are and keep bringing them to the pitch regardless of the opponent.”
Union managed to compete for half an hour before the hosts turned up the pressure, with the teenager Lennart Karl, who earned a Germany call-up this week, hitting a post. Michael Olise did better in the 42nd minute, curling a shot past Frederik Rønnow to put Bayern ahead.
Serge Gnabry fired home the second goal in first-half stoppage time before the Bundesliga’s leading scorer Harry Kane added the third four minutes after the restart. Kane, chasing Robert Lewandowski’s 41-goal record in a single Bundesliga season, now has 31 league goals with seven matches remaining.
Gnabry unleashed a powerful shot to bag his second goal in the 67th minute as the one-way traffic continued and Olise hit the woodwork with a low drive late in the game, before Kane nearly added another but chipped the ball wide.
Second-placed Borussia Dortmund missed a penalty but scored three goals in 11 minutes late in the second half to race back from 2-0 down and snatch a 3-2 victory over visitors Hamburg.
Dortmund found themselves 2-0 down in the first half with Hamburg taking a 19th-minute lead through Philip Otele’s tap-in and Albert Sambi Lokonga doubling it in the 38th.
The hosts missed a chance to cut the deficit before the break when Felix Nmecha sent a stoppage-time penalty wide but they got a second chance with a 73nd-minute penalty. Ramy Bensebaini did it better to pull a goal back before the substitute Serhou Guirassy scored from close range to level six minutes later.
The hosts were then awarded a third penalty and Bensebaini scored from the spot again in the 84th minute to complete their late comeback.
Milan changed gears in the second half to storm to a 3-2 win against Torino and trim the gap to Serie A leaders Inter to five points.
Torino had the better of the first half although Milan managed to take the lead in the 37th minute with a stunning goal from the defender Strahinja Pavlovic. A cross was cleared to Pavlovic and he took a touch before hitting a half-volley that looped up before coming down just between the bar and Alberto Paleari’s outstretched hand.
Giovanni Simeone levelled shortly before half-time, when some jeers rang out from the home fans. But whatever the manager, Massimiliano Allegri, said to his players during the break worked as Milan found another gear.
Adrien Rabiot restored Milan’s lead in the 54th minute, bundling in Christian Pulisic’s cross with his knee, and Youssouf Fofana extended the Rossoneri’s advantage two minutes later. There was a nervy finale as Nikola Vlasic pulled one back from the penalty spot after Pavlovic was adjudged to have dragged down Simeone.
Juventus missed the chance to move above Como and into fourth place after they could do no better than draw 1-1 with a depleted Sassuolo team hit by an outbreak of whooping cough.
Kenan Yildiz looked to have sent Juventus on the way to a simple win when he lashed home the opener in the 14th minute, but Andrea Pinamonti earned Sassuolo a point eight minutes after the break by sweeping home Domenico Berardi’s low cross. Manuel Locatelli’s feeble late penalty left Juventus level on 54 points with Como, who host lowly Pisa in Sunday’s lunchtime fixture.
Nuno Mendes scored a first-half penalty and provided an assist for Désiré Doué as Paris Saint-Germain moved back to the top of Ligue 1 with a resounding 4-0 victory at struggling 10-man Nice.
PSG move to 60 points from 26 games, one more than second-placed Lens, who won 5-1 at Angers on Friday, and have a game in hand. Nice are on 27 points from 27 games, 10 points above the relegation zone.
After missing several chances, the visitors took the lead on 42 minutes when the Nice defender Morgan Sanson was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box from Doué’s shot. Mendes converted for his sixth goal of the campaign.
The Portugal international then embarked on a mazy run into the Nice penalty area four minutes into the second half and found Doué, whose rasping shot gave Yehvann Diouf in the home goal no chance.
Nice were reduced to 10 players just past the hour-mark when Youssouf Ndayishimiye’s poor challenge on Lee Kang-in was deemed reckless on VAR review.
PSG did score again when Ousmane Dembélé picked out Dro Fernández on the edge of the box and the 18-year-old former Barcelona youngster fired into the net for his first goal in senior football. Warren Zaïre-Emery added a late fourth.