First round of the Serie B promotion playoffs saw Sudtirol beat Reggina, 1-0 Friday. Cagliari beat Venezia, 2-1 today. Semifinal Round First Legs Monday: Bari at Sudtirol Tuesday: Parma at Cagliari Second Legs Thursday: Sudtirol at Bari Friday: Cagliari at Parma
Bayern fired CEO and Chairman Oliver Kahn and Sporting Director Salihamidzic on Friday, prior to winning the title for an 11th straight season in dramatic fashion today. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...-kahn-hasan-salihamidzic-bundesliga-title-win
Yeah, I saw that story too. It was like, "Thanks for nothing!" You'd think the club that had questions to answer would have been Dortmund.
In fairness, they'd screwed up the club and made a lot of bad decisions. The title race should never have been that close, Bayern should have put that out of reach a month or more ago. Nagelsmann shouldn't have been fired either.
Yeah, Munich hit the panic button on some of their moves this year. When you win as much as they do, I guess the bar is set kind of high.
The annual battle to stave off relegation is coming to a head. England today, Italy and France next week. Southampton are already down in the EPL, but 3 teams are fighting to keep their top-flight status. Everton is on 33 points; Leicester City and Leeds United are both on 31. Interestingly, all 3 teams are playing at home in their 'must-win' matches. Bournemouth is at Everton, Tottenham Hotspur is at Leeds United, and West Ham is at Leicester City. If all these teams end up with 34 points in the final table, Leicester City have the best goal difference coming into today's deciding matches (-18). Everton is at -24, while Leeds is at -27. In Italy, Cremonese and Sampdoria are already relegated to Serie B next year, which means Lecce, Spezia, and Hellas Verona are fighting to avoid the final space in the drop zone. Spezia didn't help its cause Saturday, getting pounded at home by Torino, 4-0. That left the team on 31 points, just 1 point above Hellas, who are hosting Empoli today. Coming up next, Lecce, on 33 points, is at surprising Monza. Next Sunday's final matches find Lecce at home against Bologna, while Spezia travel to Roma and Hellas Verona goes to AC Milan. Final matches for Ligue 1 are set for next Saturday. This is a transition year in France, as the French football league decided in 2021 to run with 18 teams instead of 20 in League 1, beginning next season. League 2 will have 18 teams as well, beginning in the 2024-25 season. Troyes, Ajaccio, and Angers are already relegated, so the only team left to join them will come down to Auxerre on 35 points, and Nantes who sit on 33 points. On paper, Nantes would seem to have the advantage, as the team hosts last-placed Angers while Auxerre is home against Lens, who are in second place. Auxerre could have secured safety Saturday had it won in Toulouse, but the team could only manage a 1-1 draw.
Carlisle and Stockport are in the 9th minute of stoppage time, tied 1-1. Extra time seems like a given and the winner goes up to League One.
Lecce confirmed its Serie A status for 2023-24. Lecce scores a 1-0 win on a PK in the 100th minute of play, following a handball by Monza in the box in the final minute of stoppage time, which was 8 minutes long! Earlier, in the 84th minute, Monza were given a PK opportunity following a foul in the box by Lecce, but the keeper stopped the attempt to keep the game scoreless at the time! Hellas Verona suffered a 1-1 draw at home, as Empoli got the tying goal in second half stoppage time. So, next Sunday, it all comes down to what Hellas and Spezia do, with both teams tied on 31 points (Lecce now have 36). Despite having a better Goal Difference, Hellas trails Spezia, because the first tie-breaker in Serie A is head-to-head play, and Spezia beat Hellas Verona 2-1 in one match, while the other ended 0-0.
Everton scores to go up 1-0 on Bournmouth and jump back ahead of Leicester one spot above relegation. Meanwhile, NBC prattles on for 110 minutes before finally starting the Indy 500 and it's already boring.
I did yardwork this morning knowing the green flag wasn't until 10:45 MT. Came in and sat down as they were on their warm up laps.
Watching the replay...incredible! Also incredible that the tire that went aerial missed all the spectators. Looks like Kirkwood's head never touched the pavement when his car was sliding against the wall in an upside down position.
I actually missed Kirkwood flipping live because my eyes tracked that tire instead. Then they spent, understandably, a long time reviewing Kirkwood and his condition while I was thinking "was I the only one that noticed the tire?". They did go back and show where the tire landed finally. And as I type this they're showing the car the tire landed on.
The camera in Kirkwood's car showing the sparks as the car slides upside down was spectacular, especially since he's okay.
Sheffield Wednesday scores in the final minute of extra time to win 1-0 and move up to the EFL Championship next year.