Marie-Louise Eta’s landmark first match as interim head coach of Union Berlin ended in a 2-1 Bundesliga defeat at home to relegation-threatened Wolfsburg.
The 34-year-old Eta made history on Saturday when she became the first woman to take charge of a men’s team in one of the top five European leagues. Union Berlin, who turned to Eta for the rest of the season after sacking Steffen Baumgart last weekend, fell behind to an 11th-minute goal from Patrick Wimmer.
Second-bottom Wolfsburg doubled their advantage a minute into the second half when Christian Eriksen set up Dzenan Pejcinovic, before the former Nottingham Forest forward Oliver Burke halved the deficit late on.
Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric scored two penalties, including one deep in second-half stoppage time, to give the hosts a 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund and gift the Bundesliga leaders, Bayern Munich, the chance to wrap up the title with a win or a draw over Stuttgart on Sunday.
Dortmund are on 64 points with four matches left, while Bayern are 12 clear at the top and set to win their second successive league crown – though they will have to do it without the Germany forward Serge Gnabry, who could miss this summer’s World Cup after tearing a muscle in his thigh.
Dortmund were on the back foot throughout with Kramaric scoring a 42nd-minute penalty to give Hoffenheim a fully deserved lead. The visitors showed no signs of a comeback in the second half with Hoffenheim again in full control of the game, until Serhou Guirassy got the ball at the edge of the box and unleashed an unstoppable low drive to level.
But Kramaric scored from the spot again in stoppage time, after a handball, to give the hosts the three points. Hoffenheim moved up to fifth place on 54, two behind fourth place, the last spot for a Champions League spot next season.
Hamburg fans lit flares and fires in the stadium and clashed with police at the end of Werder Bremen’s 3-1 win over their visiting northern rivals. With both teams battling to avoid the drop, tensions ran high on and off the pitch and Hamburg finished the game with 10 players. Both Hamburg’s and Werder’s assistant coaches were also sent off in stoppage time.
Straight after the final whistle, Hamburg fans lit flares and fired projectiles across the pitch and into the stands of the home fans, while also lighting fires, before police moved in to clear the tribune, clashing with the visiting fans. Some of the flares flew not far from Werder players still on the pitch at the time.
“When boundaries are crossed, that doesn’t belong on the football pitch,” Werder coach Daniel Thioune, who has also coached Hamburg in the past, said at the post-match press conference. “The risk of injury was very high. I saw that some things hit the players next to us.”
In Italy, Napoli’s slim hopes of defending their Serie A league title all but ended with a 2-0 home defeat by Lazio that left them 12 points adrift of leaders Inter Milan with five games left. Inter, who beat Cagliari 3-0 on Friday, are on 78 points, with Napoli on 66. Milan are three points behind before their game at Hellas Verona on Sunday and Lazio are ninth in the table on 47 points.
Lazio took a sixth-minute lead through Matteo Cancellieri and could afford to spurn a penalty chance, with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic saving Mattia Zaccagni’s spot-kick, before Toma Basic doubled their advantage 12 minutes after the break.
Lazio, managed by the former Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri, never looked like allowing a sluggish home side back into the game and came away victorious from the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the fourth successive season. Napoli were jeered off by their fans.
Roma drew 1-1 against coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s former team Atalanta in a result that does little for either side’s Champions League hopes. Gasperini was reduced to tears when talking about his nine years with Atalanta in a press conference on Friday. It has been a difficult week for Gasperini after a very public disagreement with director, and former Roma coach, Claudio Ranieri.
Mario Hermoso’s fantastic volley on the stroke of half-time canceled out Nikola Krstovic’s opener for Atalanta. Hermoso almost snatched all three points for Roma late on but his header bounced off the top of the crossbar. The result leaves Roma two points behind fourth-placed Juventus, who host Bologna on Sunday.
Massimiliano Allegri, meanwhile, has said he is not interested in the vacant Italy job. The Milan coach was quickly linked with the job, alongside the Napoli coach, Antonio Conte, after Gennaro Gattuso stepped down this month. “My career speaks for itself: changing jobs often isn’t part of my DNA,” Allegri said before Sunday’s Serie A fixture at Verona.
In France, Medhi Benatia, Marseille’s sporting director, attacked the team’s performance after a 2-0 loss at Lorient dealt a damaging blow to their hopes of Champions League football next season. Goals from Panos Katseris and Bamba Dieng secured victory for Lorient in Brittany and left Marseille in danger of losing further ground in the race for automatic Champions League qualification.
Habib Beye’s team are a point behind third-placed Lille, who host Nice later on Saturday, and Marseille could also finish the weekend trailing Lyon and Rennes. Only the top three in France are guaranteed a spot in Europe’s top club competition.
Benatia, who is leaving the club at the end of the season, tore into the players as Marseille lost for the third time in four matches, saying: “I didn’t plan on speaking again until the end of the year because I think we’ve talked far too much over the first six months … but when I see the game we played today, even though I don’t want to talk, I have to come before the press, because it’s a scandal. It’s a scandal.
“You’re playing Lorient, who have nothing left to play for, and you don’t win a single duel, you don’t make a single run forward, you’re not proactive, you don’t try anything, and you just watch them. In the stadium, they’re doing the ‘olé’ because they’re nutmegging you, dribbling past you … Yep, that’s the truth.
“How many [of our players] went into the dressing room afterwards and flipped over the table? Zero, nobody. Everything is spotless, the bottles are right where they belong, all that. So basically, you play for Marseille, you have a game like that, and you just accept it?” Benatia fumed.
In Spain, Real Sociedad goalkeeper Unai Marrero was the hero with two penalty saves in the shoot-out to secure victory over Atlético Madrid in the Copa del Rey final.
