After weeks of wrangling, with several U-turns on the way, Italy is due to decide on Thursday if and when its top-flight Serie A soccer league can resume after the coronavirus stoppage.
Possibly encouraged by seeing how Germany's Bundesliga has restarted without problems so far, the Italian government appears to have relaxed its position recently.
In midweek action in the 2.Bundesliga, VfL Osnabrück defeated Greuther Furth to take its point tally to 33 for the season. Osnabrück, competing in the 2.Bundesliga for the first time since 2010-11 after securing promotion last season, is now five points clear of the relegation playoff space with six games left to play.
USMNT player Timmy Chandler helped Eintracht Frankfurt secure a 3-3 draw against Freiburg with an 82nd-minute goal on Tuesday.
Frankfurt had gone down 3-1 before Japanese midfielder Daichi Kamada struck in the 79th minute to bring Die Adler back within one. Soon after, Chandler popped up at the back post to steer home a long cross from Filip Kostic.
As the world begins to go back to some sort of normalcy, the football world is also making a slow return. Clubs have started to return to training and all the players have clearly not taken their foot off the gas during quarantine — especially the one and only Lionel Messi.
FC Barcelona is back to training and oh how I’ve missed Messi leaving the world speechless with his insane talent.
Football isn't ready. pic.twitter.com/4nmNnqJErr
Reports flooded out of Milan on Monday about Zlatan Ibrahimovic picking up an injury during training with AC Milan. The Italian club said the injury was sustained to his calf and he'll undergo medical exams on Tuesday to discover its extent.
Several different outlets in Milan had reported that the situation was far more severe and that Ibrahimovic could be done not only for the season but for his career with a ruptured Achilles tendon, but that's not the case.
Bayern Munich put itself on the cusp of an eighth straight Bundesliga title after defeating Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at an empty Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday. Joshua Kimmich’s delicate chip just before halftime proved the difference as Bayern opened up a seven-point lead at the top with only six matches remaining.
Another European league looks set to restart play soon after the pandemic-enforced shutdown.
According to a report in the Ukrainian press, the country's Premier League has been given the green light to resume play this coming weekend. The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) and the country's Ministry of Health decided after a meeting that the competition will be allowed to go ahead.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas has said he hopes a derby between Real Betis and Sevilla will kick the Spanish top-flight season back into action on June 11 after being paused for three months during the coronavirus pandemic.
"There is a possibility that there is a game on June 11, which would be the only match that night and perhaps there will be a tribute to all the people who have died (from the virus)," Tebas told Spanish television network Movistar on Sunday. "I hope that date can be confirmed and we would like the game to be the Seville derby, kicking off at 10pm."
Mario Götze will bid farewell to his boyhood club for a second time at the end of this season, according to Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc.
The battle for the prestigious European Golden Shoe award has effectively morphed into a four-horse race between Lazio’s Ciro Immobile and three Bundesliga representatives: Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner and Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland. The Bundesliga top scorers are largely pacing Europe right now, but who else is lighting up Germany’s top division?
(Updated 05/24/20)