World Sports News in Brief

Bayern cruise past Frankfurt 5-2 to stay on title track

Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2 on Saturday (May 23), surviving a brief second-half comeback scare to stay four points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga with seven games left to play.

Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt - Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany - May 23, 2020  Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller in action with Eintracht Frankfurt's Kevin Trapp, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. (Photo: Reuters)
Soccer Football - Bundesliga - Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt - Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany - May 23, 2020 Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller in action with Eintracht Frankfurt's Kevin Trapp, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. (Photo: Reuters)

Bayern, chasing a record-extending eighth straight league crown, next face Dortmund in the league’s big game on Tuesday and victory there would send them seven points clear. RB Leipzig, on 51, travel to Mainz 05 on Sunday and will push Gladbach to fifth with a win.

* Fernando Alonso won at Indianapolis, in the virtual world at least, on Saturday in a field featuring 80-year-old US great Mario Andretti and a cast of Indy 500 winners and Formula One champions. The Spaniard, who will return to the Indianapolis oval for real in August to try to win the 500 and become only the second driver to seal the 'Triple Crown of Motorsport', beat Jenson Button by 0.037 seconds.

* Local hero Charles Leclerc will have the streets of Monaco to himself on Sunday, the day he should have been racing in Formula One's cancelled showcase, for a blast around his home grand prix circuit in a Ferrari sportscar. The 22-year-old is featuring in a short film by Claude Lelouch harking back to the French director's 1976 'C'etait un rendez-vous' - an illicit high-speed drive through Paris in the early morning.

* Werder Bremen midfielder Leonardo Bittencourt scored a brilliant first-half winner to seal 1-0 victory at Freiburg on Saturday that reignited their hopes of staying in the Bundesliga. The victory at an empty Schwarzwald stadium on the second weekend of Bundesliga action since the league resumed after the COVID-19 stoppage helped 10-man Bremen reach 21 points from 26 games, boosting their bid to avoid being relegated for the first time in 40 years.

* Plucky Paderborn replied quickly through Dennis Srbeny to an early Robert Skov goal for Hoffenheim to grab a 1-1 draw in their Bundesliga clash on Saturday, their second draw in two games since league play resumed following the coronavirus pandemic. The draw leaves Paderborn bottom of the table on 18 points, while Hoffenheim are ninth on 36.

* German World Cup-winning midfielder Mario Goetze will leave Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season, the club's sports director Michael Zorc said on Saturday. Speaking to Sky television before the game at VfL Wolfsburg, Zorc confirmed that Goetze would be leaving after the season.

* Borussia Dortmund scored a goal in each half through Raphael Guerreiro and Achraf Hakimi to beat hosts VfL Wolfsburg 2-0 on Saturday for their sixth straight Bundesliga win to stay on the heels of leaders Bayern Munich.

* The top Czech soccer league prepared to resume on Saturday night after a two-month break due to the new coronavirus pandemic, with Teplice to host Slovan Liberec in a match that will include pre-kickoff temperature checks and other protective measures. The re-start will make the Czech league one of the first in Europe to take to the pitch again, following the Bundesliga in neighboring Germany which began matches on May 16.

* Portugal's Primeira Liga will offer its followers a feast of summer football when it resumes after the novel coronavirus stoppage, with matches to be played almost every day according to a new fixture list the league released on Saturday. The championship will restart on June 3 with Portimonense against Gil Vicente and Famalicao hosting leaders Porto. The 25th round of matches will continue over the following three days, with second-placed Benfica at home to Tondela on June 4. After a rest day on June 8, the following round of matches will be spread over five days from June 9 to June 13.

* Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino said he was open to coaching again in England's Premier League and will make a decision on his future based on the kind of project put to him by any potential employer, whether in the top six or not. The Argentine took Spurs to the Champions League final last year but his side were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool. He was sacked in November, ending a successful but ultimately trophy-less 5-1/2 years in charge of the club. Reports in the British media have said the 48-year-old is among the top contenders to replace Steve Bruce at Newcastle United if a proposed Saudi-backed takeover of the club goes through.

* With professional tennis shut down by the novel coronavirus pandemic, world number one Novak Djokovic is bringing together some of the world's top tennis players for a series of matches to run from June 13-July 5 in the Balkan region. World number three Dominic Thiem of Austria and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who is ranked 19, have confirmed their participation in the eight-man event which will end with Djokovic's exhibition match against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Zadar, in Croatia, Montenegro and Banja Luka in Bosnia will be the other venues for the matches, which will be broadcast on television.

Reuters