Germany

According to a report by David Ornstein of The Athletic, Liverpool is in the process of finalizing a move for RB Leipzig central defender Ibrahima Konate. 

Borussia Mönchengladbach have agreed to hire former Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso as their manager for next season, German newspaper Bild reported on Monday without identifying its sources.

Alonso, who won the World Cup and two European Championship titles and was a Champions League winner at Liverpool and Real Madrid, became coach of boyhood club Real Sociedad's youth team in 2019 and has led them to the playoffs in the third tier.

Real Sociedad declined to comment on the Bild report, saying Alonso was focused on his side's promotion campaign.

In a sign of just how good Bayern Munich is right now, the German giants went down a man in the 12th minute and still found a way to demolish Stuttgart 4-0 on Saturday at Allianz Arena. 

Alphonso Davies was shown the first red card of his career, but it mattered little as Bayern scored three times in the 10 minutes that followed. Robert Lewandowski had a perfect hat trick by halftime as he passed yet another milestone. 

Holder Bayern Munich will face the team it beat in last year's Champions League final in this season's quarterfinals after being paired with Paris Saint-Germain in Friday's draw.

In the other standout tie of the last eight 13-time champions Real Madrid faces six-time winner Liverpool in a repeat of the 2018 final won by the Spanish club.

Runaway Premier League leader Manchester City, seeking its first Champions League title, will play Borussia Dortmund, with the winner to face Bayern or PSG in the semifinals.

Heiko Vogel, a former Champions League coach at FC Basel now managing the Borussia Mönchengladbach U-23s, was charged with “unsporting behavior” toward referees during a recent match. His so-called punishment might have been more offensive than the transgression itself. 

I know, it’s hard being a goalkeeper. They’re rarely praised for making game-changing saves and heavily criticized for any blunders they make. But Rune Jarstein’s effort on the Julian Brandt goal vs Hertha Berlin on Saturday left a lot to be desired. 

Borussia Dortmund beat Hertha 2-0 thanks to Brandt’s long-range goal. It was a vital win for Borussia Dortmund, which has fallen out of the Champions League places in the Bundesliga and sits fifth but will likely end the weekend back in sixth. 

BREMEN, Germany — Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen on Saturday with striker Robert Lewandowski climbing to second place in the Bundesliga's all-time scorers list as the champions opened up a five-point lead at the top.

The 32-year-old Lewandowski, the 2020 FIFA World Player, twice hit the woodwork early in the second half before tapping in for to make it 3-0 and join Klaus Fischer on 268 Bundesliga goals, second on the all-time scorers list only to Gerd Mueller and his astonishing 365-goal record.

On Saturday, ABC broadcast a Bundesliga match for the first time ever. Gone are the days of hoping you can find the Bundesliga on tape delay a day or two later as major broadcasters are giving the beautiful game the attention it deserves in the U.S., and not just for major Premier League matches. Now that the soccer TV ratings are out for the past weekend, we wanted to point out a few interesting facts about the viewership.

Jurgen Klopp will breathe a sigh of relief on Wednesday night. Liverpool finally put away an indifferent RB Leipzig with a 2-0 win at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, completing a 4-0 aggregate victory in the Champions League Round of 16. But this was far from a return to form for the defending Premier League champions, and it wasn’t the type of performance that will inspire a turning point in Liverpool’s season.