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Inter continue Scudetto march

HARRY KANE scored twice and Joshua Kimmich bagged a late winner as Bayern Munich came back to tri umph 3-2 at Borussia Dortmund yes terday and move 11 points clear in the Bundesliga. Bayern trailed at half-time after Nico Schlotterbeck headed Dortmund in front, before Kane scored from close range and then converted a penalty. Dortmund levelled through Daniel Svensson but Kimmich was in the right place to blast in with three minutes remaining to leave Bayern cruising PSG win to extend lead at top of Ligue 1 BRADLEY BARCOLA scored and Desire Doue had a penalty saved as Paris Saint-Germain held on for a 1-0 win away to Le Havre yesterday to extend their lead at the top of the Ligue 1 table to four points. PSG were looking to take advantage of another slip-up by title rivals Lens, who were held to a 1-1 draw away at Strasbourg on Saturday to go two games with out a win. Luis Enrique’s side duly got the job done with Barcola head ing in from a Lee Kang-in cross on 37 minutes for his ninth goal of the season. It was not a full-strength PSG, with Ousmane Dembele again out injured along with Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves, while skip per Marquinhos was among the players rested. Doue came off the bench in the second half and won a pen alty with just over 10 minutes remaining, but his kick was kept out by Le Havre goalkeeper Mory Diaw diving to his right -- PSG have converted only five of their 10 spot-kicks this season. Diaw also produced a fine reaction save from Nuno Mendes while PSG goalkeeper Matfei Safonov made a key stop to deny Issa Soumare at the other end. “There are no nice and easy games for PSG because every match is important. We need to get players back and improve because we have less confidence than usual at the moment,” said Luis Enrique. The reigning European cham pions are gearing up for a Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea and have now won nine out of 10 Ligue 1 games played since the start of December. “It is the first time we have had a four-point gap at the top so this is a time for us to be happy. It was important to get the win here,” added the coach. Elsewhere, Rennes made it two wins out of two under new coach Franck Haise as they beat Toulouse 1-0 in Brittany thanks to Arnaud Nordin’s first-half goal. Monaco got back on track after losing to PSG in their Champions League play-off tie as USA star Folarin Balogun and Simon Adingra scored in a 2-0 win over Angers. – AFP

INTER MILAN bounced back from Champions League elimination with yesterday’s 2-0 win over Genoa which continued their march towards the Serie A title. Federico Dimarco’s brilliant volley just after the half-hour mark and Hakan Calhanoglu’s second-half pen alty were enough for Inter to extend their already huge lead over AC Milan at the top of the table to 13 points. Milan will be favourites to win at Cremonese overnight, with the local rivals set to face off this weekend in a match which will in all likelihood have little impact on the destination of the Scudetto . “We got the job done… in the end what matters is the team,” said Dimarco who has scored seven goals and set up 15 more in all competitions this season. “If my goals and assists don’t give

us trophies they won’t be worth very much. I’d rather have fewer goals and assists if it means us winning the league.” Inter, whose fans unloaded a collec tion of anti-Milan chants in anticipa tion of the derby, have dropped just two points in 15 league matches and have been a cut above the rest in Italy’s top flight this season. Their domestic dominance comes in stark contrast to the humiliating manner in which they were dumped out of the Champions League by Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday night. A 5-2 aggregate defeat to the Norwegian minnows cast doubts over not just the quality of Cristian Chivu’s team but of Italian football as a whole. There was plenty of quality in

Verona, the Belgium forward’s first goal of the season. Lukaku forced home Giovane’s cross to snatch the win for third-placed Napoli with the last kick of the game at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi. Napoli had looked like dropping points in northern Italy when Jean Daniel Akpa Akpro levelled Rasmus Hojlund’s early opener in the 65th min ute. But Lukaku, who only played his first game of the season in late January, gave Napoli a huge win with both Como and Atalanta pushing for a top-four placing. “I was a dead player before coming here,” said Lukaku to DAZN . “This sea son has been difficult, but we’ve got to aim high.” – AFP

Dimarco’s opener however, the Italy full-back beautifully placing a first time finish from a tight angle after exchanging passes with Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Little else happened in a humdrum encounter until Alex Amorim handled a cross from Luis Henrique, whose shot had been tipped onto the post just moments before. Calhanoglu calmly stroked home the spot-kick on his return to action following niggling muscle problems which have caused him issues since before Christmas, sealing the points for Inter. Romelu Lukaku kept Napoli on course for a Champions League spot with a last-gasp winner in the champi ons’ 2-1 victory over rock-bottom

Barca hit

Yamal nets hattrick to extend lead on Real Madrid B ARCELONA’S star Lamine Yamal scored the first hat Yamal has now equalled his tally of 18 goals last season across all competitions, becoming the team’s top goalscorer and raising the one area of his game which called for improvement. “I think that (I’ve improved over time), Villarreal for four

what happens is that people want me at 16 years old to score 100 goals and I’d like that too, but it’s very hard,” continued Yamal, with the match ball tucked under his arm. “So (I’m improving) bit by bit, but I’m very happy, when it’s a goal, or two goals, to help the team.” Flick said Yamal had lacked some confidence earlier in the season. “The opposition (have been) playing two or three players against him. You could feel he didn’t have the confidence or the dynamic for these one-on-one situations,” Flick told report ers. “When he enjoys playing football it’s perfect for him and also for us.” Barca took the lead when Fermin Lopez won the ball high up the pitch and fed Yamal, who curled home after 28 minutes. Yamal’s second followed nine minutes later, a stunning individual goal after he drove in from the right. The teenager left Sergi Cardona and Alberto Moleiro for dead and then whipped a strike into the far top corner. Gueye turned home from close range after a corner and Ayoze Perez almost pulled Villarreal level before Yamal completed his hat-trick. Substitute Pedri played the teenager in with an inch-perfect pass and he produced a clinical finish. “It’s hard to stop such a brilliant player,” said Villarreal coach Marcelino Garcia Toral of Yamal. “The third goal was very bad defending from us. “We gave him a motorway (to run into) and if you give a motorway to Lamine it’s normal he scores against you.” – AFP

trick of his career in a 4-1 win

over Villarreal on Saturday that took the Catalan giants four points clear at the top of La Liga. The Spain international struck twice in the first half and, after Pape Gueye pulled one back for the visitors at the Nou Camp, stroked in a third for Hansi Flick’s side. Robert Lewandowski rounded off Barca’s triumph with a late tap-in as they extend their lead on Real Madrid, who host Getafe overnight, and fourth-place Villarreal who now trail the champions by 13 points. Atletico Madrid moved third, level on points with Villarreal, after Julian Alvarez snatched them a 1-0 win at bottom side Real Oviedo. Barca star Yamal, who seems to have fully recovered from a groin issue which bothered him for several weeks earlier in the campaign as he struggled to hit top form, was at his effervescent best.

“It was a mix of everything. I wasn’t feeling good about myself, plus the (groin issue) as well, I wasn’t playing happy, and I think it showed,” Yamal told Movistar . “For about a week or so now I’ve

Barca’s Lamine Yamal (right) scores his third goal against Villarreal during the La Liga clash at the Nou Camp yesterday. – AFPPIC

been feeling much better. It was that desire to smile while I was playing that I hadn’t felt for a long time, and now I’m happy. I’m happy playing and really content.” The winger became the youngest player to score a hattrick in La Liga in the 21st century at 18 years and 230 days old.

Kane bags brace as Bayern end Dortmund’s title hopes

Some considered Muller’s mark of 40 goals in a league campaign from 1971 72 as unbeatable until Lewandowski’s record run. The 32-year-old Kane now has 45 goals in all competitions this term, the best mark in his career, with a third of the season remaining. “Sometimes as a striker you go through spells where almost every thing you touch goes into the back of the net – whether you finish it well or whether you don’t,” Kane told ESPN . – AFP

the 2020-21 campaign with Bayern. “I’m in a good moment. I’ve got to keep doing what I’m doing,” Kane told Sky Germany , saying he was “for sure” on track to beat the record with 10 games of the season remaining. “I know it’s a question pretty much after every game right now, but there’s still a lot of games to play. I need to try and be consistent over that period. We’ll see come late April, start of May, if it’s possible.” Lewandowski claimed the record from Germany striker Gerd Muller.

Schlotterbeck said. “It just didn’t go our way.” Dortmund captain Emre Can was subbed off before halftime and coach Niko Kovac said “it looks like” a serious knee injury. Dortmund have now lost just twice in 24 league matches this season, both times to Bayern. Kane’s fourth successive Bundesliga brace took him to 30 goals from 24 games this season and within reach of Robert Lewandowski’s single season Bundesliga record of 41, set in

towards a 35th German title. “We’ve got an 11-point lead. We’ve scored 88 goals. Why stop now? We’re going full throttle,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said of his side’s final stretch of the season. The result all but sews up another Bundesliga crown for the Bavarian giants with 10 games remaining, while continuing Dortmund’s rough week, just days after their Champions League exit at Atalanta. “It was an all-in game for us. You can’t accuse us of not giving our all,”