Paris St Germain coach Luis Enrique wants the club to keep their focus on domestic and European titles despite all but securing a fourth consecutive Ligue 1 crown.
PSG thrashed relegation-threatened Saint-Étienne 6-1 to virtually assure themselves of a second straight title under the Spaniard. Only Monaco have a mathematical chance to overhaul them after their 2-1 win over Nice left them 21 points behind PSG with seven games to play.
“We are already champions, we have been for a few weeks now. I think we’ve been the best team in the league from the beginning until now and it’s just an anecdote when we become champions,” said Luis Enrique. “We have two months of competition where we’re all playing for titles again, and we have to be competitive in all competitions. That’s the hard part. The easy thing is to relax, the easy thing is to drop the intensity. We can’t let that happen.”
Saint-Étienne took a surprise early lead through Lucas Stassin’s header, but PSG levelled before the break when Gonçalo Ramos scored from the spot after being fouled by Florian Tardieu.
The visitors dominated the second half, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia firing home five minutes in before Désiré Doué got their third three minutes later from Bradley Barcola’s assist. PSG continued to attack and João Neves added a fourth in the 62nd minute before Doué scored his second four minutes later.
Saint-Étienne, second from bottom in the standings and on the brink of relegation, thought they could pull a goal back when Nuno Mendes collided with Stassin in the box, but the penalty was overturned after a VAR review. Substitute Ibrahim Mbaye completed the rout.
PSG are unbeaten in 27 games and face second-tier Dunkerque in the French Cup semi-finals on Tuesday and Aston Villa in a two-leg Champions League quarter-final tie next month. “We want to win everything, that’s our goal, to compete, win and take every single trophy,” said Luis Enrique.
PSG would have clinched the title already if Monaco and Nice had drawn in the late game. That looked a possibility with the score 1-1 until the 73rd minute before Breel Embolo scored the winner for Monaco after good work from Maghnes Akliouche.
Mika Biereth had an early penalty saved for Monaco by goalkeeper Marcin Bulka and Nice took the lead shortly before the break when Jérémie Boga headed in a cross. Biereth equalized in the 55th after latching on to Maghnes Akliouche’s clever flick and shooting into the top right corner for his 12th league goal.
Marseille’s faint hopes of the title ended after they went down 3-1 in the earlier game at struggling Reims. The home side took the lead against the run of play in the 29th minute when Keito Nakamura wrong-footed defender Leonardo Balerdi inside the penalty area and curled the ball in for his ninth league goal.
Reims doubled their advantage when Nakamura shrugged off Valentin Rongier to set up Mamadou Diakhon for a left-foot finish and added a third through Valentin Atangana before Rongier pulled one back for Marseille.
Kylian Mbappé struck twice to guide Real Madrid to a 3-2 home win over relegation-threatened Leganés, to move the reigning champions level on points with La Liga leaders Barcelona.
The hosts made a dominant start and opened the scoring after 32 minutes when Mbappé coolly chipped in a penalty, awarded after Óscar Rodríguez brought down Arda Guler in the box. Leganés responded almost immediately as Diego García tapped in a loose ball at the far post to equalise before Rodríguez set up Dani Raba to slot past goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
Real midfielder Jude Bellingham brought the scores level two minutes after the break, following up a rebound off the crossbar. Mbappé bagged his second and the winner with a brilliant curled free-kick in the 76th minute.
Diego Simeone, the manager of Atlético Madrid, rued the late penalty his team conceded as their La Liga title ambitions received another setback in a 1-1 draw at Espanyol.
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The Atlético defender Clément Lenglet brought down Leandro Cabrera in the box, handing Espanyol a lifeline as Javi Puado equalised from the spot in the 71st minute to secure the draw.
“We controlled the game better in the first half, we were doing well,” said Simeone. “The penalty came from an isolated play and they scored the goal and the game went into a different territory, they had the home enthusiasm with their people to win.”
Leroy Sané scored twice in the second half as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich were made to work hard for a 3-2 win over visitors St Pauli on Saturday to restore their six-point gap at the top going into the last seven matchdays.
Bayern, who face Inter in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on 8 April, took a 17th-minute lead when Harry Kane tapped in from Michael Olise’s cross. Kane, who leads the Bundesliga top scorers’ list with 22 goals, has now scored against all 19 clubs he has faced in the Bundesliga, the second best all-time record behind the retired Miroslav Klose.
The visitors, who had hit the crossbar earlier, levelled 10 minutes later from Elias Saad’s clever flick and gave Bayern a run for their money before Sané took control.
The hosts, looking for their first win in three Bundesliga matches, struck in the 53rd minute from yet another superb Olise cross for Sané to drill in.
Jamal Musiala saw his 69th-minute effort tipped on to the crossbar but Sané did it better two minutes later, finishing off a quick move after a Kane cutback. St Pauli’s Lars Ritzka unleashed an unstoppable shot in stoppage time to cut the deficit but it was too little too late.
Igor Tudor began his reign as Juventus manager with a less-than-convincing win over Genoa.
Tudor, who was appointed on Sunday to replace the sacked Thiago Motta, said: “I heard the chants of the fans and it was emotional,. But the victory is more beautiful than these emotions. This was important for the fans. It was nice, but I was focused because it was important to start in the right way.”
Kenan Yildiz scored a superb solo-goal after 25 minutes to claim the points for Juve, who are one point behind fourth-placed Bologna as they bid for a Champions League spot.
