Paris Saint-Germain secured the French league title without kicking a ball as second-placed Lille could only draw 0-0 at Toulouse.
Lille had to win to have any chance of catching the leaders but PSG went on to win themselves later on Sunday, 3-1 against Monaco thanks to a hat-trick from Kylian Mbappé. It is PSG’s sixth title in the last seven seasons, with only Monaco in 2017 breaking their dominance.
PSG could have won it three games ago but drew 2-2 at home to Strasbourg when a win would have made it secure. Then PSG needed a draw at Lille last Sunday, only to lose 5-1 in the club’s heaviest defeat since the Qatari investors QSI took charge of the club in June 2011.
A win away to Nantes would have sufficed, too, on Wednesday night only for PSG to lose 3-2. The 10 goals conceded in those three games made for PSG’s worst defensive record during a three-game spell since 1985.
In Germany Borussia Dortmund eased past Freiburg 4-0, with goals from Jadon Sancho, Marco Reus, Mario Götze and Paco Alcácer, to stay a point behind the leaders, Bayern Munich, with four games left in the Bundesliga season. Sancho tapped in from close range for the visitors in the 12th minute and Reus completed another fine move in the 54th to score his 16th goal of the season. The pair then combined to set up Götze for their third in the 79th and Dortmund’s top scorer Alcácer made it 4-0 with an 87th minute penalty, his 17th league goal.
The result kept Dortmund, on 69 points, within striking distance of Bayern, who are top on 70 after their 1-0 victory over Werder Bremen on Saturday. “It is important that we stick together in the tough moments and continue believing that we can become champions,” said captain Reus. “We want to keep up the pressure on Bayern until the end and we managed to do that with today’s win. “Now we need to recover in the next days and start preparing for the derby against Schalke.”
Karim Benzema claimed a hat-trick as Real Madrid recovered from a lacklustre first half to condemn Athletic Bilbao to a 3-0 defeat at the Bernabéu. The Frenchman dispatched the impressive Marco Asensio’s 47th-minute cross and then scored from Luka Modric’s corner with 14 minutes remaining before adding a third in stoppage time to take his tally for the season to 30 goals in all competitions.
Third-placed Real, who reduced the gap to Atlético Madrid in second to four points in the process, were off the pace before the break but managed to find the required quality after the restart to kill off opponents who saw plenty of the ball but did not do enough with it. Agencies