Europe

La Liga took another step towards the finish line with Barcelona swatting aside Las Palmas, 4-1, and Real Madrid dispatching fourth-placed Sevilla 4-1 at the Bernabeu on Sunday.

The result saw Barcelona stay atop the La Liga table on head-to-head record, but Real Madrid maintain their vital game in hand. Barcelona’s final match is on Sunday against Eibar, while all eyes will be on Real Madrid in Galicia on Wednesday when they travel to play Celta Vigo before finishing away to Malaga.

Mikey Johnston is only 18 years of age, but he has undoubtedly just had the best weekend of his life.

Whirlwind debut day for Mikey Johnston! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/S5tOsL1EbO

— Celtic Football Club (@celticfc) May 8, 2017

The shameful specter of racist abuse in Italian football reappeared on May 6 after Torino’s match against Juventus. Not a week after the footballing authorities abandoned their duty of care regarding Sulley Muntari, Medhi Benatia noticed racist comments being made in his ear by a technician during a live, on-air interview following the 1-1 draw. Stopping abruptly, he demanded to know who had referred to him as a “Moroccan piece of sh*t”. 

Ajax did their level best to bungle away their place in the Europa League final. Lyon did their level best to crawl out of the hole they had dug for themselves. In the end, the distance was too great. The hole was too deep.

Facing a 4-1 aggregate deficit, Lyon girded their loins and went out and let Ajax get the first goal, courtesy of youngster Kasper Dolberg.

Ajax had a plan to make it interesting, though. They let Alexandre Lacazette get two goals in two minutes right before halftime, and the game was on.

Italian football has a crisis on its hands and I’m not even sure they realize how serious it is. For the better part of a decade now, with the exception of Juventus, Italy’s Serie A has been in decline. League officials would like to blame the country’s aging stadiums or the lack of a lucrative television deal - and those are valid points - but the real issue is much more serious. 

Italy does not have a football problem. Italy has a race problem. 

18-year-old Kylian Mbappe and AS Monaco’s youth revolution has garnered the headlines throughout the club’s thrilling run to the Champions League semifinals, but there’s a similar movement taking place in Europe’s less prestigious club competition, the Europa League, at AFC Ajax.

Ajax dismantled Lyon 4-1 in their Europa League semifinal first leg at the Amsterdam ArenA, and, after landing 16 shots on target, they’ll be disappointed that they didn’t add more to their total before the return leg.

The semifinals of the Champions League returned to Monaco’s Stade Louis II for the first time since 2004, and the 18,000+ in attendance would’ve surely expected their side to add to the 16 home Champions League goals they’d already witnessed since the beginning of their campaign.

But a Juventus side that had only given up two goals in this competition, and none throughout the knockout rounds, proved to be an entirely different challenge for Monaco’s goal-crazy attackers.

Despite calls from AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti and fellow professionals to have the club extend Francesco Totti’s contract another year, new Roma sporting director Monchi has confirmed that plans for this to be Totti’s last season had been put in place before he was appointed on April 24.