Game Recaps

TURIN — Cristiano Ronaldo marked his 600th league appearance with his 20th Serie A goal of the season as Juventus beat Spezia 3-0 on Tuesday to move within three points of second-placed AC Milan.

The Portuguese guided in his side's third goal late on after Alvaro Morata and Federico Chiesa had struck earlier in the second half to put Andrea Pirlo's side in a commanding position. Ronaldo, who also hit the post with an effort in the first half, became the first player to score at least 20 goals in each of the last 12 seasons in Europe's top five leagues.

With Sunday’s Madrid Derby now on the horizon, Real Madrid missed a massive opportunity to ratchet up the pressure on Atlético by slipping to a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano on Monday night.

Real clearly felt the absence of Karim Benzema up top — along with the continued unavailability of Sergio Ramos, Eden Hazard, Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão — and today’s starting front three of Marco Asensio, Mariano and Isco was hooked en masse in the 61st minute after Portu had put Sociedad up 1-0 in the 55th.

Midfielder Samantha Mewis scored twice as Manchester City thrashed Birmingham City 4-0 on Sunday to win their seventh FA Women's Super League game in a row and close the gap to leaders Chelsea to two points with seven games remaining.

American Mewis netted either side of halftime to give her side a 2-0 lead before Lauren Hemp and Caroline Weir both scored to complete the rout.

After shining in the Europa League and playing well off the bench against West Ham, Gareth Bale was handed only his third Premier League start of the season against Burnley on Sunday and responded with a lethal display that included two goals and an assist for Harry Kane.

It took all of 68 seconds for Tottenham to open the scoring after Bale read Son Heung-min’s intentions out wide and stole behind the Burnley backline to convert from close range.  

Racing Louisville FC finally got to play a full 90 minutes of action against the University of Louisville, and Racing is definitely ready to compete in the NWSL.

The 2021 NWSL expansion team defeated the college side 4-0 as former Houston Dash forward Cece Kizer led Racing with a hat-trick to help solidify the win. As Racing has only been competing in practice, it was about time they got to play in a real scrimmage to get used to one another and improve their team chemistry. 

LEICESTER, England - Arsenal revived their hopes of playing in European competition next season after goals from David Luiz, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pépé helped them to a 3-1 win at Leicester City in an entertaining Premier League clash on Sunday.

The result lifted Arsenal two places up to ninth on 37 points from 26 games while Leicester stayed third on 49 points after suffering a second setback in three days following their Europa League elimination.

The University of Oregon started Pac-12 play on Friday against Stanford University. Stanford currently holds the NCAA College Cup and has faced Oregon annually since 1997, but until this past meeting, Oregon had never defeated Stanford, making Friday's 2-1 win over the Cardinal the first in program history.

MUNICH — Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry both struck twice as Bayern Munich crushed Cologne 5-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday to earn their first win in three league games and go five points clear at the top.

The champions, who next week face Borussia Dortmund, are on 52 points, with Leipzig, second on 47, taking on Borussia Moenchengladbach later on Saturday.

VfL Wolfsburg remained in third place with a 2-0 victory over Hertha Berlin.

Barcelona was nursing a slender one-goal lead for most of its match with Sevilla, the club directly behind it in the LaLiga standings. Lionel Messi had received the support Barça needed to be in position to win, but the Argentine hadn’t yet put his own stamp on the game. But as he does more often than not, Messi created a bit of magic late and helped Barcelona beat Sevilla 2-0 on Saturday at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.

Werder Bremen's United States forward Josh Sargent scored the winner as his struggling side came from a goal down at halftime to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Friday and hand the visitors a first league defeat of the year.

Victory moved Werder eight points above the relegation zone while ending fourth-placed Frankfurt’s 11-match unbeaten run in the Bundesliga, stretching back to early December.