Napoli can clinch title in its stadium named after Maradona
Napoli could get the chance to clinch its first Serie A title since Diego Maradona's playing days in front of its fans this weekend at the stadium now named after the club's most emblematic player.
The Italian league announced Friday that Napoli's match against regional rival Salernitana originally scheduled for Saturday will now be played on Sunday at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT). That means that if second-place Lazio doesn't win at Inter Milan earlier Sunday, Napoli would seal the "scudetto" with six rounds to spare if it wins at home.
The scheduling move was made following a request by authorities in Naples in order to maintain public safety in the city, by concentrating the initial celebrations inside the stadium in case of the title.
Maradona led Napoli to its only Serie A trophies in 1987 and 1990 in what was previously known as the Stadio San Paolo. The stadium was renamed for him when he died 2 ½ years ago.
Napoli enters the weekend 17 points ahead of Lazio.
Also, Napoli's next game at Udinese was moved from Tuesday to Thursday.
Field narrows to 6 teams in Premier League's relegation race
The math is changing in the scramble to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
From an unlikely nine-team scrap at the end of March, the field looks to have slimmed to six candidates with a month to go in the season. And one of them already appears doomed.
Southampton's 11-year stay in the top division looks like ending, with the team having plunged to last place and six points adrift of safety after collecting only three points from its last eight games.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton and Bournemouth — all onto their second managers of the season — have found some form and results at the right time to seemingly pull clear of danger.
It leaves five clubs likely battling to avoid the other two relegation spots alongside Southampton, and there are some big names in there.
Like Everton, a nine-time English champion which has been in the top division in its various guises since 1954.
Like Leicester, which was a league champion — at preseason odds of 5,000-1 — just seven years ago.
Like West Ham, which has played in Europe for the past two seasons on the back on league finishes in sixth and seventh place.
Leeds and Nottingham Forest — historic clubs who have fallen on hard times for much of this century — make up the quintet and, with their fanbases, won't go quietly.
The state of play is this: Southampton has 24 points, four behind next-to-last Everton and five behind third-to-last Leicester. Nottingham Forest and Leeds are a point clear of the bottom three, and West Ham a further four points ahead but with tough upcoming matches and involvement in the Europa Conference League to balance.
All have five games to play except for West Ham, which has six.
They all are fully aware that dropping out of the Premier League has never been so costly, with clubs gaining at least $100 million per season through broadcast revenue alone from Britain and overseas contracts.
Bundesliga title race heats up with Dortmund top, not Bayern
Five matches for a "salad bowl." The Bundesliga title race looks set to go to the final day of the season with only one point separating league leader Borussia Dortmund and 10-time defending champion Bayern Munich.
The winner will receive the "Meisterschale" (champion's bowl), which is commonly referred to as the "salad bowl" because of its appearance.
In recent years, Bayern has usually had the bowl in the bag by now.
With the exception of 2019, the title race hasn't been this close at this stage since 2010, when Louis van Gaal's Bayern team had just taken a one-point lead over Schalke with a 2-1 win over the then-league leaders in Gelsenkirchen.
This time, the Bavarian powerhouse is in the unaccustomed role of being a point behind.
Bayern enjoyed a 4-2 win over Dortmund in Munich on April 1 but has been misfiring since. It was one of only two wins Bayern has managed in seven games in all competitions since Thomas Tuchel was appointed coach.
The decision to fire his predecessor, Julian Nagelsmann, and the team's subsequent poor form — and Champions League and German Cup exits — has piled pressure on Bayern chief executive Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić. Both of their jobs are reportedly under threat.
Such is Bayern's predicament that former club president Uli Hoeneß spoke with Tuchel before training on Wednesday. Kicker magazine reported that the men spoke for about 15 minutes and that Hoeneß became very animated at times before he left Tuchel to oversee practice.
Dortmund has overcome its own troubles to take over on top. The team coached by Eden Terzić missed previous opportunities to capitalize on Bayern's weaknesses, but finally seized its chance last weekend when Mainz defeated Bayern 3-1.
With the lead in the standings beckoning, Dortmund responded by beating Eintracht
Frankfurt 4-0.
Dortmund can stretch its lead to four points on Friday with a win at relegation-threatened Bochum in their local derby, while Bayern will hope to improve its poor record under Tuchel with a win over last-place Hertha Berlin in Munich on Saturday.
After Bochum, Dortmund has home games against Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach, then Augsburg away, before ending with a home game against Mainz.
"There's five really tough games to come, whichever way you look at it," Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham said.
After Hertha, Bayern visits Werder Bremen, then has home games against Schalke and Leipzig before finishing the season in Cologne.
Bayern will likely need to win every game to avoid the ignominy of finishing the season without a trophy.
"We can still be German champion, anything is possible, and we won't slack off a millimeter," Kahn said after the loss in Mainz. "You need belief and sometimes it just takes a moment for it to come back. We have to give ourselves a shake, see that we get back into form."