Key events
66 mins: Absolutely extraordinary goings-on in Czechia. Here’s Reuters:
The Czech Football League Association on Sunday launched proceedings against Slavia Prague after the club’s derby with Sparta was abandoned a day earlier in the closing minutes when home fans stormed the pitch and attacked opposing players.
The association released a statement following an extraordinary meeting, saying it would also open proceedings against Sparta after their fans used pyrotechnics and damaged the stadium. It plans to issue a decision on penalties on Tuesday before the next round of competition.
“The committee also clearly declares that it will pay maximum attention to events of this nature and will deal with them with an emphasis appropriate to their nature,” disciplinary committee chairman Jiri Matzner said in a statement.
Slavia chairman Jaroslav Tvrdik also announced the club would shutter the North Stand from where supporters invaded the pitch until those who attacked Sparta players were identified and hit with a lifetime ban.
He also said the club had suspended striker Tomas Chory and midfielder David Doudera for the remainder of the season for their actions during the match in which both received red cards, adding neither would play for the Czech champions again.
“Both players received approval to transfer in the summer. Neither will play for Slavia again,” Tvrdik told the podcast of the Slavia Friends’ Association.
The derby was abandoned on Saturday after hundreds of home fans stormed the pitch in the closing minutes, when Slavia were leading 3-2 at home and seconds away from clinching the Czech League title.
Slavia supporters breached security barriers during stoppage time and flooded the field, with some carrying lit flares and running toward the visiting section. Pyrotechnics were thrown into the stands as players from both teams attempted to leave the pitch.
Czech police intervened to restore order and said they have launched criminal proceedings on suspicion of rioting.
Authorities confirmed that Sparta goalkeeper Jakub Surovcik was among those targeted by home fans and was struck by a flare.
Sparta vice-chairman Frantisek Cupr accepted the apology from Slavia’s Tvrdik but said the rival club also had to accept a share of the blame for the action of its supporters.
“Football suffered a terrible disgrace yesterday, from which we will have to recover for a while,” Cupr said in a statement to iSport. “It doesn’t really matter what the disciplinary committee says, including the result of the match, yesterday we shot ourselves in the foot.”
67 mins: Newcastle hit the bar! It’s Osula with a free-kick that flicks the head of someone in the wall and crashes into the woodwork.
GOALS! Burnley 2-2 Aston Villa!
61 mins: Two goals in a minute at Turf Moor! Ollie Watkins puts Villa ahead, running onto Emi Martinez’s long pass, chasing it into the Burnley penalty area and prodding it past the keeper. Then within seconds Burnley steal the ball on their left, work it into the middle and to Zian Fleming, in space on the edge of the area, who makes no mistake!
58 mins: Chance! Awoniyi does excellently to turn a hopeful ball forward into a clear shooting chance 15 yards out, but then his finish is a bit tentative, and Pope flings out a foot to stop it.
57 mins: And as I type that Pisa go down to nine men, a straight red for Felipe Loyola.
55 mins: Cremonese have scored again, and now lead bottom-of-the-Serie-A-table Pisa 2-0. Those three points would take them to within one of Lecce in 17th place with two games to go, and no other teams rationally catchable (unless things go very wrong for Cagliari). Cremonese play Udinese away next Sunday and host Como on the 24th, on paper much harder fixtures than Lecce’s, who visit Sassuolo next Sunday and host Genoa on the 24th.
50 mins: Grimsby’s lead didn’t last very long: Kallum Cesay has equalised for Salford.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-2 Everton!
48 mins: Everton retake the lead at Selhurst Park! Palace attempt a pass through the Everton backline but a defensive slide-clearance sends the ball back over all the outfield players and releases Beto to run into the Palace penalty area, feint left and right, and pass through the legs of Henderson in the Palace goal!
46 mins: Peeeeeeep! Back under way in the Premier League. Will anybody win any of these games?
Grimsby’s League Two play-off semi-final against Salford City kicked off three minutes ago – and they’re already winning! Indeed, they’ve been winning for a while – Reece Staunton put them ahead after just 30 secondss.
Half-time reading: here’s a European football roundup, featuring more good news for Cesc Fabregas. It’ll be updated with results in Italy, Spain and France as the day progresses.
Half time!
45+3 mins: We’ve had half of the time, and nobody is winning anything. The halftimely scores in the Premier League are as follows:
Burnley 1-1 Aston Villa
Crystal Palace 1-1 Everton
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Newcastle
GOAL! Burnley 1-1 Aston Villa!
45 mins: An equaliser for Villa, Ross Barkley heading in from a right-wing corner.
45+1 mins: The last 15 minutes or so at the City Ground have been pretty fun, with Forest belatedly waking up to the fact that a football match was happening around them. But there’ll only be two additional minutes of it.
41 mins: It’s shaping up to be a big day in the 2.Bundesliga: Preußen Münster are down after drawing 1-1 with Darmstadt, and Furth have gone with them after losing 2-1 at Hertha Berlin. Schalke, who secured promotion last week, might have overcelebrated somewhat: after five straight wins, and without a league defeat since January, they’ve lost 3-0 at mid-table Nuremberg.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Everton
35 mins: A weak, poor finish from Ismaila Sarr with his left foot hits a defender and rebounds to him, and this time his right-foot finish is neither weak nor poor!
34 mins: And another! Bakwa now with an excellent cross from the right. Pope comes out but isn’t sure if Awoniyi will reach it and can’t really react when he doesn’t. It bounces off him to Cunha, who briefly has an empty net to aim for, but Pope gets across to get in the way before he can put the ball in it.
33 mins: Chance for Forest! An excellent run from Bakwa takes him to the byline and he pulls back towards Awoniyi, but the ball is hit hard and at a difficult height, and the striker can’t convert.
GOAL! Cremonese 1-0 Pisa! It’s Jamie Vardy!
30 mins: News from Italy! Como’s Bulgarian centre-back Rosen Bozhinov won the first booking of the game in the 16th minute, and then the second booking of the game in the 23rd. And Cremonese have made their numerical superiority pay, with Jamie Vardy scoring with his left foot from just outside the box.
24 mins: Action is paused at the City Ground while Matz Sels gets some medical attention. While play is stopped, there’s some Women’s FA Cup semi-final action to be aware of in the shape of a game between Chelsea and Manchester City that kicks off at 3.30pm, being liveblogged here:
The winner will play Brighton, who came back from two goals down to beat Liverpool in today’s early kick-off, thanks to Nadine Noordam’s winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Here’s Tom Garry’s report:
21 mins: Here’s a report on the Old Firm clash, courtesy of Ewan Murray:
This felt a hugely significant victory in the Scottish title race. Celtic require only two more of them to successfully defend the league. For the Rangers manager, Danny Röhl, yet another second-half capitulation will only increase murmurings about his capability of delivering success at Ibrox. Rangers will end this season trophyless and third in a two-horse race – remarkably, given the tens of millions spent on assembling their squad.
Celtic have moved to within a point and three goals of Hearts. Next stop for Martin O’Neill and his players is Motherwell on Wednesday evening. With Hearts hosting Falkirk at the same time, there is the increasing possibility of the title being decided when the Edinburgh club visit Celtic Park on Saturday. Supporters of Celtic and Hearts are likely to have run out of fingernails by then.
Much more here:
17 mins: Forest have now had a shot. It’s Bakwa with it, running into the area, checking onto his left foot, back onto his right, back onto his left, and trying to curl the ball into the far corner. But there’s a defender in the way, who heads it wide. From the corner, a first shot on target, in the shape of a timid header easily gathered by Pope.
14 mins: A dominant start for Newcastle at Nottingham Forest, where they’ve had 72% of possession, 100% of touches in the opposition penalty area, and the only shot of the game so far.
GOAL! Burnley 1-0 Aston Villa!
8 mins: Burnley are winning a game! Lesley Ugochukwu is given too much space on the edge of the area and has a shot from 23 yards or so. There’s not a lot of pace on it, but it’s well aimed and Emi Martinez can’t hold it, pushing it out to Jaidon Anthony, who thrashes it into the net!
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Everton!
6 mins: An early breakthrough at Selhurst Park, where a corner from the right is flicked on at the near post and drops for James Tarkowski, just beyond the far. He just needs to keep his head and tap it in, and that is precisely what he does.
4 mins: A tasty cross from the right for Newcastle, but nobody gets on the end of it. Here’s the top of the Scottish Premiership as it stands:
The final whistle has blown in the Old Firm game at Celtic Park, where Celtic came from behind to beat Rangers 3-1 and keep the heat on Hearts. The top two play each other next Saturday in their final game of the season, with both also playing in midweek.
1 min: Kick-off!
Before kick-off a minute’s applause in Nottingham in memory of Henry Newton, their former defender, who died last month at the age of 82.
Players are out, hands have been shaken and huddles are currently huddling. Football imminent.
Right, just a few minutes now before our 2pm kick-offs. And, marginally less importantly, I have finished eating my bagel.
Burnley interim manager Mike Jackson explains why he has made six changes for today’s game against Aston Villa:
I just think it needs freshening up a little bit. I think these guys deserve a chance to show what they can do. It’s got nothing to do with performances, it’s just that I think we need to change it up a bit. We want to see intent. We want to see a team with no fear. And a team that competes with no hesitation.
Nottingham Forest coach Vitor Pereira has a chat with Sky:
Different competition [to Thursday’s shellacking by Aston Villa]. Now is the time to forget about the last game. Today we have a big chance to get three points and to have in our hands, our future. It’s about reaching the 13th position because today with a win we can reach 13th position and this is our target today, this is what we have in our mind.
And you’re playing with a back three?
Yes. Because we came from two games in three days. We travelled to London and to Birmingham. It’s important to have organisation but with our ideas to win the game, to fight, to win the three points. There’s a lot of players injured, important players for us. But in the end, we start with 11 and let’s go.
Premier League teams!
And we have some teams! Here they all are:
Burnley v Aston Villa
Burnley: Weiss, Walker, Tuanzebe, Esteve, Lucas Pires, Florentino, Ugochukwu, Tchaouna, Mejbri, Anthony, Flemming. Subs: Dubravka, Hartman, Bruun Larsen, Foster, Humphreys, Ward-Prowse, Amdouni, Broja, Laurent.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Lindelof, Mings, Maatsen, Konsa, Barkley, McGinn, Tielemans, Rogers, Watkins. Subs: Bizot, Buendia, Digne, Torres, Abraham, Sancho, Douglas Luiz, Bogarde, Bailey.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
Crystal Palace v Everton
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Richards, Lacroix, Canvot, Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell, Johnson, Sarr, Larsen. Subs: Benitez, Lerma, Pino, Mateta, Clyne, Hughes, Riad, Devenny, Cardines.
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko, Iroegbunam, Garner, Rohl, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye, Beto. Subs: Travers, Patterson, McNeil, Barry, George, Dibling, Coleman, Alcaraz, Armstrong.
Referee: Thomas Bramall.
Nottingham Forest v Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Jair Cunha, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams, Anderson, Dominguez, Netz, Bakwa, Igor Jesus, Awoniyi. Subs: Ortega, Wood, Moreira, Lucca, Hutchinson, Yates, McAtee, Whitehall, Sinclair.
Newcastle: Pope, Hall, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Woltemade, Osula. Subs: Ramsdale, Trippier, Wissa, Gordon, Barnes, Elanga, Willock, Alex Murphy, Ramsey.
Referee: Paul Tierney.
Hello world!
There’s a trio of Sunday afternoonly Premier League fixtures for us to get our teeth into today, which should be enough to keep us busy and is just as well given that there’s not much going on elsewhere in the football world to distract from them. Nottingham Forest, top of a last-six-games Premier League form table, play Newcastle, who would be 16th in that same league, knowing that victory would take them above opponents who were a distant 13 points clear of them as recently as late March – and make them all but safe from relegation. “There’s been no end of season feel to our training ground work, that’s really important,” said Eddie Howe. “While there’s still an opportunity, we’ll try and grab it. We’re prepared for a tough game. It’s always difficult going to the City Ground, a stadium full of good atmosphere and good energy. We’re going to have to be at our very best.”
But not even Newcastle find form tables as depressing as Burnley, who have won only one league game since October and have pocketed a single point from their last six matches. Today they host an Aston Villa side whose own league form is not great and who could do with a point infusion to make their spot in the top five – for all that they still have another route into the Champions League – feel a bit more secure, with Liverpool and Manchester City their remaining opponents after today. Burnley have not won any of their last 13 home games and 14 would equal a club record set across two seasons in 2021. The last time Villa lost to a side that had already been relegated was against Burnley, in 2015. And finally there is Crystal Palace against Everton, a game upon which not a lot rides. Palace have won one (one) of their last 22 (twenty-two) top-flight games against Everton.
Beyond the Premier League the most interesting game the world of football has to offer (so far as I can see) is Cremonese v Pisa in Serie A, in which anything but a win against bottom-of-the-table opponents would surely (but not mathematically) condemn Cremonese to relegation. Plus there’s Fiorentina v Genoa! So strap yourselves in, it’s going to be one helluva ride.
