Man City beats Sheff United to keep treble dream alive

Three goals for Riyad Mahrez have protected Manchester City's bid for three trophies.

The Algerian forward's hat trick in a 3‐0 win against Sheffield United on Saturday advanced City to the FA Cup final.

Having secured a place in the semifinals of the Champions League this week, Pep Guardiola's team took another step toward a treble with a routine victory at Wembley Stadium. The FA Cup final in June will be against Man‐ chester United or Brighton.

City can also seize control of the English Premier League title race against leader Arsenal on Wednes‐ day.

In City's current mood, it is diffi‐ cult to see anyone stopping the de‐ fending league champion from emulating Manchester United's 1999 treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup glory.

Certainly not second‐division side Sheffield, whose chance of an historic FA Cup shock was effec‐ tively ended in the 43rd minute when Mahrez struck from the penalty spot after Daniel Jebbison fouled Bernardo Silva in the box.

Mahrez doubled City's lead in the 61st when running straight through the heart of Sheffield's de‐ fense and firing past Wes Foder‐ ingham.

The third came five minutes later when turning home Jack Grealish's pass.

City was unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions and was not at its devastating best on Saturday, when leading scorer Erling Haa‐ land failed to add to his 48 goals this season in a subdued perform‐ ance.

Sheffield, which is on the brink of promotion to the Premier League, might have made more of a contest of it if Ilman Ndiaye had converted a close‐range effort in the second minute, which was saved by Stefan Ortega.

LEICESTER FINALLY WINS

A first win in 11 games lifted Leicester out of the relegation zone. Despite going behind to a Matheus Cunha goal, Kelechi Iheanacho and Timothy Castagna struck as the Foxes beat Wolver‐ hampton 2‐1 at King Power Sta‐ dium to move them out of the bottom three on goal difference.

It was a good start for new man‐ ager Dean Smith in his first home game in charge since replacing the fired Brendan Rodgers.

That meant Everton dropped to 18th, despite a creditable 0‐0 draw at in‐form Crystal Palace that high‐ lighted the Merseyside club's struggles in front of goal.

The Toffees have scored only 24 times, lowest in the league.

LEEDS LOSES AGAIN

While Leeds avoided a third straight rout, losing to Fulham 2‐1 was another blow to the Yorkshire club's battle to avoid the drop.

Having conceded 11 goals in it last two games — losing 5‐1 to Palace and 6‐1 to Liverpool ‐ this was certainly an improvement for Javi Gracia's team, but wins are in‐ creasingly hard to come by.

Harry Wilson and Andreas Pereira put Fulham two up before an own goal from Joao Palhinha.

Tuesday's home game against Leicester could be absolutely cru‐ cial to both teams' hopes of sur‐ vival.

LIVERPOOL FINDING FORM

Jurgen Klopp recorded his 100th league win at Anfield after Liver‐ pool beat Nottingham Forest 3‐2.

But perhaps more importantly, Liverpool's second win in succes‐ sion pointed to a long‐awaited up‐ turn in form in an inconsistent campaign.

Relegation‐threatened Forest twice came back before Mohamed Salah's winner in the 70th.

Diogo Jota put Liverpool in front twice in the second half, and Forest responded through Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs‐White.

"We gave away two goals too easy and in a game like this you have to control possession," Kloppp said. "You don't have to force it and sometimes we forced it."

Defeat increased the pressure on Forest manager Steve Cooper in an 11‐game winless run.

"Nobody will be happy coming out of here because we have lost a football match and it adds to the run," he said. "It doesn't look fa‐ vorable at all, we know that. But we must take some heart from the spirit and mentality in one of the hardest away games in Europe, never mind the Premier League."

Bayern loses in Mainz and Dortmund moves top in Bundesliga

Bayern Munich lost and Borussia Dortmund seized its chance as the Bundesliga got a new leader on Saturday.

Donyell Malen scored twice in Dortmund's 4‐0 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt as the "black and yel‐ lows" capitalized on Bayern's ear‐ lier 3‐1 loss at Mainz to move one point above the defending cham‐ pion with five rounds remaining.

"The table looks very well now," Dortmund sporting director Se‐ bastian Kehl said with a smile.

The pressure was on Dortmund after it failed to exploit Bayern's 1‐ 1 draw with Hoffenheim last week‐ end, but Edin Terzić's team responded with a committed per‐ formance to firmly declare its title credentials. Dortmund is bidding to end Bayern's 10‐year reign as German champion.

Jude Bellingham opened the scor‐ ing in the 19th minute, drawing the ball past a defender with his first touch before shooting inside the far post, Malen scored his first five minutes later, then Mats Hummels headed Dortmund's third goal be‐ fore the break.

After conceding three goals to 10‐ man Stuttgart last weekend, Dort‐ mund perhaps needed Malen to settle the issue in the 66th. Karim Adeyemi set up both of the Dutch player's goals.

MAINZ MISERY Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel endured a disap‐ pointing return to his former club Mainz where his team squandered the lead and lost 3‐1.

Sadio Mané scored and Bayern looked set to stretch its league lead to five points ahead of the late game. Mané headed in João Can‐ celo's cross at the far post in the 29th minute.

But Mainz improved after the break and Ludovic Ajorque equal‐ ized in the 65th when Bayern's de‐ fense was unable to clear the ball after a free kick. Leandro Barreiro scored the home team's second in the 73rd, and six minutes later Spanish left back Aarón Martín marked his 26th birthday by scor‐ ing Mainz's third.

Bayern's loss increases the pres‐ sure on chief executive Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić. They were already under scrutiny for their decision to fire coach Julian Nagelsmann be‐ fore decisive games last month. Bayern has since crashed out of the Champions League and German Cup, and Nagelsmann's replace‐ ment, Tuchel, has just two wins from seven games across all com‐ petitions.

Pál Dárdai's return for his third stint as Hertha Berlin coach failed to inspire the team when it slumped to a 4‐2 loss at home to Werder Bremen – a result that left Hertha on the bottom with little hope ahead of its visit to Bayern next weekend. Marvin Ducksch scored a hat trick for Bremen.

Wolfsburg routed Bochum 5‐1 away, and Cologne won at Hoffen‐ heim 3‐1.