Borussia Dortmund suffered a severe setback in the Bundesliga title race when their shock 4-2 home loss to lowly Schalke 04 in the Ruhr valley derby on Saturday left them a point behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Dortmund, who had two players sent off, are on 69 points, with three games left to play, with Bayern, who face strugglers Nuremberg on Sunday, on 70.
The Bavarians will open up a four-point lead with a win on Sunday, leaving Dortmund hoping that Bayern might slip up twice in the remaining three games.
Schalke are now all but certain of staying up, having moved up to 30 points in 15th place, nine ahead of the relegation playoff spot occupied by VfB Stuttgart, who are in action against Borussia Moenchengladbach later on Saturday. Daniel Caligiuri’s 18th-minute penalty drew the visitors level after Mario Goetze’s close-range header from a superb Jadon Sancho assist had put Dortmund in front in the 14th.
Salif Sane’s powerful header from a Caligiuri corner in the 28th made it 2-1 for Schalke, who looked nothing like the team that have been battling to avoid relegation much of this season.
Disciplined at the back and waiting for their chances on the break, Schalke were able to successfully soak up attack after attack from Dortmund, who had more than 75 percent of possession in the first half but clearly lacked the final pass.
Things took a turn for the worse after the break with Dortmund captain Marco Reus sent off on the hour with a straight red card for a studs-up challenge on Suat Serdar. Caligiuri curled the resulting free kick into the top corner before Dortmund were reduced to nine men with Marius Wolf getting his marching orders in the 65th for another rough challenge on Serdar.
Dortmund gave it all they had and Axel Witsel cut the deficit in the 85th minute but Breel Embolo netted Schalke’s fourth goal a minute later to seal a memorable derby win in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for last year’s league runners-up.
RB Leipzig made sure of their top-four finish and a return to the Champions League by beating Freiburg 2-1 to remain in third place on 64, 10 ahead of fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.
Mbappé sent off as PSG implode in French Cup final
Kylian Mbappé was dismissed as underdogs Rennes stunned big-spending Paris St Germain in the Coupe de France final.
Dani Alves and Neymar gave PSG a two-goal lead but Presnel Kimpembe’s own goal and Mexer’s header levelled it at 2-2.
Mbappé was sent off in extra time for an awful challenge and, after a perfect 10 shoot-out penalties, Ismaila Sarr put Rennes 6-5 up before Christopher Nkunku blazed over.
Rennes celebrated their first Cup title since 1971, leaving PSG with only the Ligue 1 trophy at the end of a season in which they exited the Champions League at the last-16 stage and lost their League Cup crown under Thomas Tuchel.
Ronaldo joins the 600 club
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 600th goal of his club career to earn Italian champions Juventus a 1-1 draw away to Inter Milan in Serie A on Saturday.
The Turin club wrapped up an eighth successive league title last weekend but found themselves behind early on to a wonder-strike from Radja Nainggolan. However, the Portuguese responded with a powerful finish in the second half to hit 20 league goals for the season, moving within two strikes of Serie A’s leading scorer, Fabio Quagliarella of Sampdoria.
Inter remain in third place on 62 points, four ahead of Roma below them, while Juventus, who dropped points for just the sixth time in 34 games this season, move up to 88.
Ronaldo’s drilled left-footed finish was his 27th for Juventus, adding to the 450 he scored at Real Madrid, 118 for Manchester United and five as a teenager with Sporting Lisbon. The Portugal international is narrowly ahead of Lionel Messi, who scored his 598th goal for Barcelona to help them win the Spanish La Liga title with a 1-0 win over Levante on Saturday.
Mbappé sent off as PSG implode in French Cup final
Kylian Mbappé was dismissed as underdogs Rennes stunned big-spending Paris St Germain in the Coupe de France final.
Dani Alves and Neymar gave PSG a two-goal lead but Presnel Kimpembe’s own goal and Mexer’s header levelled it at 2-2.
Mbappé was sent off in extra time for an awful challenge and, after a perfect 10 shoot-out penalties, Ismaila Sarr put Rennes 6-5 up before Christopher Nkunku blazed over.
