• Late leveller is fresh blow to Madrid’s faint title hopes

• RB Leipzig’s 3-1 win is marred by online sexism row

Héctor Bellerín struck deep into stoppage time to earn Real Betis a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid on Friday, dealing another blow to the visitors’ fading title hopes.

Álvaro Arbeloa’s side appeared on course for a narrow win after taking the lead in the 17th minute. Federico Valverde let fly from outside the box and the Betis goalkeeper, Álvaro Valles, could only parry the ball into the path of Vinícius Júnior, who reacted swiftly to guide a neat finish just inside the right post.

PSG’s win against Nantes gives them a four-point lead on Lens, but now have a gruelling schedule to play through

By Get French Football News

“The title is still in play. Lens aren’t giving up,” warned Paris Saint-Germain captain Marquinhos after his team’s comfortable 3-0 win over Nantes on Wednesday night. Nantes put up a fight early in the match, and even had what would have been an equalising goal ruled out for offside, but they eventually caved to defeat at the Parc des Princes.

With five rounds of games to play, PSG have a four-point lead over Lens, who they meet in the penultimate fixture of the campaign. “This is a tough league but we haven’t had a challenger like this in other years,” added the Brazilian defender. “Lens are really having a great season. It’s good for us. It keeps us working hard and focused until the end of the season. We don’t have time to dwell. We’ll be playing every three days.”

Bill Foley – who also owns Bournemouth – thinks he can do better than Olivier Pantaloni but he may prove mistaken

By Get French Football News

“Why can’t we beat everyone?” asked Lorient owner Bill Foley earlier this month. It’s not the kind of fighting talk you are accustomed to hearing from a newly promoted side but, given that they have already beaten Lens, Lyon, Monaco, Rennes, and now Marseille at home, it is justified.

Lorient toyed with Marseille during their 2-0 win on Saturday, eliciting “olés” from the crowd as they knocked the ball around. The fans at the Stade du Moustoir are used to being treated. Lorient have lost just twice at home in the last two seasons. Not even Paris Saint-Germain took all three points when they visited earlier in the campaign. Marseille’s sporting director, Medhi Benatia, launched into a tirade after the match, denouncing his players’ performances as a “scandal”, but he should have shown more respect for opponents who have defied the odds this season.

Thierry Henry loves him. Didier Deschamps made him a France player at 17. And Luis Enrique says he is ‘spectacular’

By Get French Football News

When Warren Zaïre-Emery ran the show as a 17-year-old in a 3-0 win against Milan Thierry Henry said “the sky is the limit” for the midfielder. His stratospheric rise led him too close to the sun, though, and the crash back down to Earth was a rude one. But he has since dusted himself off.

Beeswax was Icarus’ undoing; a mild ankle sprain did it for Zaïre-Emery. Not quite the stuff of legend, but far from inconsequential. Having started six of PSG’s eight games in the league phase of the Champions League last season, he missed their playoff tie against Brest and would not start another game in the competition all season. Luis Enrique had found his formula and Zaïre-Emery was not part of it. Fabian Ruiz joined Vitinha and João Neves in the midfield and they started every knockout game as PSG won the competition for the first time. The PSG midfield was dazzling without Zaïre-Emery.

Habib Beye was given the Marseille job as he knows the club but his style is smothering the team’s attacking flair

By Get French Football News

Habib Beye quoted Pape Diouf, the late former Marseille president, when he was appointed as the club’s new manager in February, saying: “Pape Diouf, who I considered my spiritual father, always told me: ‘When the fire burns in Marseille, sometimes you have to let it burn because it will go out on its own.’ This club brings you immense emotions but from time to time you have to be able to stay cool, calm, and collected.”

The club was ablaze when Roberto De Zerbi’s tumultuous reign came to an end. His exit heralded a wave of fan discontent and incited change in the boardroom. Beye spoke about letting the fire burn out, but he would have been better advised to keep the flame alive. Under the Italian, Marseille were imperfect and inconsistent, but capable of brilliance. He played to the strengths in the squad. The attack was scintillating at times; the problem was the goals they shipped at the other end. Beye has not played to his squad’s strengths. Instead, his radical departure from his predecessor’s style has only accentuated Marseille’s weaknesses.

• Robert Lewandowski’s late winner sinks Atlético

• Real downed by Mallorca’s stoppage-time winner

Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski came off the bench to score a late winner in a 2-1 victory away to 10-man Atlético Madrid on Saturday that moved the defending champions seven points clear of Real Madrid – who suffered a shock defeat at Real Mallorca – at the top of La Liga.

Barcelona had plenty of motivation after Real’s 2-1 loss at Mallorca earlier on Saturday, but it was the hosts who took the lead six minutes before the break through Giuliano Simeone.

• St Helens 34-24 Wigan

• On-loan hooker scores twice in last 10 minutes

The derby rarely fails to disappoint, but just when you think this 130-year-old rivalry cannot get any more unbelievable, this happens. The scoreline looks unremarkable, but that tells only a fraction of the story of the 367th meeting between St Helens and Wigan.

The pre-match talk was not who would win, it was how many Wigan, the league leaders going into the Easter programme, would win by. Saints, humiliated 52-10 at Hull KR last week, were without a dozen first-team regulars, many of them starters. They soon lost a 13th when prop Agnatius Paasi limped off after four minutes.

• Lens were opposed to moving the Ligue 1 game

• The top two sides will now play on 13 May

Paris Saint-Germain’s visit to Lens, potentially a crucial encounter in the Ligue 1 title race, has been postponed to give PSG more time to prepare for their Champions League quarter-final against Liverpool.

The match between the top two teams in France’s top division – PSG lead Lens by a point – was scheduled for 11 April but will now take place on 13 May, three days before the final round of fixtures.

PSG were given the weekend off to help them in Europe, with little consideration for how it would affect other clubs

By Get French Football News

Paris Saint-Germain do not need a helping hand but they were given it: first by the French football federation, who postponed their match against Nantes at the weekend so they could concentrate on the Champions League, and then by Lens, who lost 2-1 to Lorient and failed to retake top spot in Ligue 1.

The decision to postpone PSG’s game was one agreed upon by all parties, one taken to aid their preparations for their second leg against Chelsea, and one not without precedent. The same Ligue 1 fixture was postponed last season so PSG could focus on their European tie against Aston Villa.

• Harry Kane has goal disallowed on return

• Guler scores from own half in Real Madrid victory

Bayern Munich came from behind and finished the match with nine players in a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, allowing Borussia Dortmund to close to within nine points of the Bundesliga leaders. Luis Díaz, who scored the equaliser after Aleix García’s opener, was sent off in the 84th minute for a second yellow card. Nicolas Jackson had received a red card in the 42nd minute.

Leverkusen took the lead in the sixth minute after Montrell Culbreath stole the ball off Díaz and fed it to Patrik Schick, who set up García on the edge of the box. The midfielder slotted home with a deflected shot. The hosts defended well to contain Bayern, and frustration showed when Jackson was sent off before half-time for a late challenge on Martin Terrier.

Monaco are flying but PSG are in bad shape before their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea

By Get French Football News

Sébastien Pocognoli doesn’t like to talk about “foundational matches” but there are moments that can shape a season for better or for worse – and they do not necessarily come on the pitch. Sometimes they come in restaurants.

Monaco hit a low at the Bernabéu at the end of January. Their 6-1 defeat to Real Madrid was their heaviest in European competition and followed a run of seven defeats in eight games in Ligue 1, the worst record in the club’s history. After their humbling defeat in Madrid, the squad remained in the city until the afternoon of the following day to come to terms with the deepening crisis. The club’s coaches and staff held a meeting to talk things through. The players also gathered to thrash things out. “We thought it was important to have one as players, to be open, to try to find solutions,” said Folarin Balogun. “It was positive.”

• Full-back scores only goal of derby at San Siro

• Wolfsburg sack head coach Daniel Bauer

Milan cut Inter’s lead at the top of Serie A to seven points after a 1-0 victory in the derby at San Siro. Pervis Estupiñán’s first-half strike helped Milan complete a Serie A double over their fierce rivals for the first time since 2011.

Inter had gone 15 league matches undefeated since their 1-0 loss to Milan in November but it was the full-back Estupiñán who found the only goal in the 35th minute.

The former Wolves manager has impressed in the dugout (and the classroom) since replacing Liam Rosenior

By Get French Football News

“Un bon match,” said Gary O’Neil as he walked into the press room, large mug in hand, after Strasbourg’s entertaining 1-1 draw with Lens. You can’t say the Englishman hasn’t embraced the move to Alsace since being named Liam Rosenior’s successor at the start of January; all that was missing was the minuscule espresso to complete the Londoner turned cultured European vibe.

His drink would have gone cold by the end of his 28-minute post-match press conference, which he delivered with a Cheshire cat grin that sometimes broke into a slight blush. There were even a few phrases in French. “I have another lesson on Monday. Hopefully, I’ll bring some more French next week,” he joked on his way out of the door, giving a shoutout to his teacher, Ella.

The club’s vision for a young team of players from the region has been put on hold due to concerns about going down

By Get French Football News

If anyone can empathise with Stéphane Gilli, it is probably Antoine Kombouaré, the man who now replaces him as Paris FC manager. Gilli had felt like a lame duck since the Arnault family took over the club midway through last season, but earning promotion to Ligue 1 at the first time of asking bought him a stay of execution. It didn’t last long. With fears of relegation growing, Kombouaré – a former lame duck turned firefighter – has taken his place.

Just like Gilli, Kombouaré too failed to fulfil the lofty ambitions of new owners; his face didn’t fit. QSI were merciless when they dispatched Kombouaré within just months of their purchase of Paris Saint-Germain in 2011; they were top of the league when he was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti. The self-proclaimed “bling bling” era had begun at PSG and, despite its flaws, there was at least a direction – which is more than can be said for Paris FC now.

• Raúl García’s 90th-minute winner sinks Real Madrid

• Bayern go eight points clear at top; PSG return to Ligue 1 summit

Raúl García’s superb 90th-minute strike consigned La Liga leaders Real Madrid to a 2-1 defeat at Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday.

Champions Barcelona trail Madrid by two points but can overtake them on Sunday if they beat Levante at Camp Nou.

Pierre Sage’s team thrashed Paris FC 5-0 to go top of the table yet he is still talking about avoiding relegation

By Get French Football News

Marseille have a propensity to explode. So when they lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain last Sunday and then lost their manager, it was no surprise. But seeing PSG having to put out fires is an unexpected turn. All the while, Lens have been a tranquil and unassuming force, keeping their dream of a Ligue 1 title alive – even if they don’t yet fully believe in it.

By this time last season, PSG were on the march. Unbeaten domestically until the end of April, after which point the league title was already mathematically ensured, Luis Enrique’s side were infallible. But that is not a word that applies to them in the present, as their 3-1 defeat to a managerless Rennes side proved this weekend.

• Inter’s late win over Juventus extends Serie A lead

• Real Madrid 4-1 Real Sociedad; Lens top of Ligue 1

Harry Kane scored twice in the first half as Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, restoring their six-point lead in the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 win over Mainz on Friday put them within three points of the league leaders but Bayern responded.

Bayern were in control from start to finish in Bremen, with Leon Goretzka joining the England captain on the scoresheet in the 70th minute. Kane now has 26 goals in 22 Bundesliga games this season and 41 in all competitions, 13 of those from the penalty spot.

• 20-year-old Rennes defender fell awkwardly on shoulder

• Barcelona outclass Mallorca; Højlund stars for Napoli

Liverpool’s new summer signing Jérémy Jacquet has sustained a “serious” shoulder injury, according to Rennes head coach Habib Beye. The 20-year-old fell awkwardly in the second half of a 3-1 defeat by Lens in Ligue 1 and appeared in agony as he left the pitch.

“For Jérémy, it’s his shoulder, and for Abdelhamid [Ait Boudlal, the other Rennes player injured] it’s muscular,” Beye said in his post-match interview. “We’ll have time to see, but it’s definitely quite serious for both of them.”

• Winger suffers online racism on return to France

• Abuse of Frenchman’s family led him to leave Mexico

Lens have condemned the racist abuse aimed at new signing Allan Saint-Maximin after a previous racist incident involving the former Newcastle winger’s children ended his career in Mexico’s top flight.

Saint-Maximin joined Lens on a six-month deal during the winter transfer window. He left Mexican side Club América, saying his children were the victims of racist abuse there.

• Massengo and Chaves strike late in Bavarian derby

• Mbappé sends Real Madrid top; Nwaneri scores on debut

Strugglers Augsburg scored twice in six minutes late in the second half to come from a goal down and stun hosts Bayern Munich 2-1 in the Bavarian derby on Saturday, the league leaders’ first Bundesliga loss of the season.

The hosts, fresh from securing a Champions League knockout spot with Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, took a 23rd-minute lead thanks to Hiroki Ito’s header but lacked any spark up front as Augsburg struck in the 75th and 81st minutes through Arthur Chaves and Han-Noah Massengo to earn their first win in Munich for 11 years.