Europe

BERLIN — Borussia Dortmund substitute Erling Haaland headed a stoppage-time winner to give them a 1-0 victory at Fortuna Duesseldorf on Saturday and keep their slim Bundesliga title hopes alive.

Norwegian Haaland scored with the last action of the game to lift second-placed Dortmund to 66 points, with leaders Bayern Munich on 70 before they host Borussia Moenchengladbach later. After the goal, BVB coach Lucien Favre pulled up with an apparenty injury while celebrating.

Espanyol defender Bernardo Espinosa and forward Wu Lei scored either side of the break to hand the relegation-threatened side a 2-0 LaLiga home win over Alaves, who had goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco sent off early in Saturday's contest.

Victory in their first match on the league's resumption after the COVID-19 stoppage took basement team Espanyol to 23 points from 28 games, three points off the safety zone.

Top-flight football returned to Turkey from a three-month hiatus with a bang on Friday. Fenerbahce went down a man and a goal before rallying to beat Kayserispor 2-1, with Luiz Gustavo scoring a late winner on a beautiful curler in the 88th minute.

The Turkish Super Lig had been suspended since March 17 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The league returned with two matches on Friday, including first-place Trabzonspor defeating Goztepe 3-1. 

Third-placed RB Leipzig scored two quickfire goals through Dani Olmo immediately after Hoffenheim had a penalty award overturned by VAR in a remarkable opening 12 minutes on the way to a 2-0 victory on the road in the Bundesliga on Friday.

The win gave Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann a happy first return to the club where he began his coaching career as a 28-year-old. His side now have 62 points from 31 games, one behind Borussia Dortmund and eight off Bayern Munich who both play on Saturday.

Society could learn a valuable lesson from soccer in the ongoing struggle against racial discrimination, according to former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

The killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by a white policeman in Minneapolis last month has prompted a wave of protests across the world and focussed attention on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Soccer players have shown their support for the movement and Wenger believes the fact that so many black players have made the grade shows the sport does not suffer from racism.

American basketball great Shaquille O'Neal may not able to travel across the pond to support his favourite soccer club Northampton Town but his face will be in the stands during their League Two playoffs.

Although coronavirus guidelines mean matches will be played without spectators, Northampton are looking to fill the stadium with cardboard cut-outs of fans when they face Cheltenham Town in the first leg of the semi-final on June 18.

That racist ass-hat West Brom fan is punching the air right now as the Premier League will feature a powerful statement of solidarity on each club’s kits for the league's return on Wednesday, June 17. In a meeting between clubs on Thursday, it was decided all kits will feature the statement “Black Lives Matter” in place of players’ names along with BLM badges on the shirt.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli will miss the Premier League restart after being suspended for a match by the Football Association on Thursday, having been found guilty of misconduct after mocking the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Alli, 24, was charged with breaching FA Rule E3 (1) after posting a video on social media of himself at an airport wearing a mask and apparently mocking a man of Asian appearance.

BELGRADE — Holders Partizan Belgrade beat bitter city rivals Red Star 1-0 on Wednesday to reach the Serbian Cup final as fans were allowed to attend games in unrestricted numbers for the first time since the coronavirus halted soccer in the Balkan nation in mid-March.

A near-capacity 25,000 crowd turned out for a tense Belgrade derby in a familiar atmosphere at Partizan's stadium as both sets of fans lit flares and taunted each other, with Bibras Natcho settling the match in the 58th minute.

As Italian football prepares to resume on Friday with the Coppa Italia semifinals followed by Serie A on June 20, the sport does so under the shadow of a national death toll that’s now surpassed 34,000.