Nani, Eder and Andre Gomes were among the big names missing out as Portugal announced their 23 man squad for the World Cup. Other notable exclusions were Ruben Neves, who has had a stellar reason with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship and Nelson Semedo.
A total of 10 players who were in the Seleccao’s Euro 2016 winning squad failed to make the cut, with Danilo, Renato Sanches, Eduardo, Ricardo Carvalho, Eliseu, Vierinha and Rafa Silva also excluded by coach Fernando Santos.
An impressive performance from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim saw them beat Borussia Dortmund 3:1 and book their spot in the group stages of the 2018/19 Champions League. The result means that Hoffenheim will become the 13th different German team to appear in the main CL tournament (only Spain have had as many representatives)
At the beginning of the day, Hoffenheim, Dortmund and Leverkusen were all in with a shout, but TSG took third with their win, while Dortmund also qualified thanks to their superior goal difference, with Leverkusen’s 3:2 win over Hannover going in vain.
The 30.150 fans present at the Rhein Neckar Arena were delighted at the final whistle, as the pic below shows you.
It was a disappointing end to the campaign for BVB, who failed to beat any of their fellow top-six sides in the league. It was also veteran goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller’s final game for the club- he was a late substitute for Roman Burki.
Hoffenheim 3 (Kramaric, Szalai, Kaderabek) beat Dortmund 1 (Reus)
Hamburg’s record of being the only Bundesliga club to have never been relegated from the top flight was broken as they were sent down by Wolfsburg’s 4:1 win over Koln. HSV needed to beat Borussia Monchengladbach, which they did, thanks to goals from Aaron Hunt and Lewis Holtby, but they also needed the Wolves to lose, but the latter triumphed at the Volkswagen Arena to send HSV down. Koln were also relegated while Wolfsburg will play a promotion-relegation playoff against Holstein Kiel.
Hamburg have flirted with relegation in the last four seasons but have always managed to pull a rabbit out the hat, but this time, there was to be no great escape for the northern outfit, who have suffered their first Bundesliga relegation since the competition was formed in 1963.
They had beaten Wolfsburg on the final day of the season to stay up in 16/17, and survived the playoffs in 2015 and 2016. Three managers have been in charge this season- Markus Gisdol, Bernd Hollerbach andChristian Titz.
Hamburg 2 (Hunt pen, Holtby) beat Borussia Monchengladbach (Drmic)
Bobby Wood sent off for Hamburg in the 71st minute of the game.
With Southampton’s win over Swansea at the Liberty last night, two teams are confirmed to go down- Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion. The third team will be one of Saints, Huddersfield or the Swans, but it is likely to be the last of the three mentioned, meaning that we will not get to see a Welsh derby next season. Continue reading The end of the league season- who goes down and who takes the other CL spots?
While Manchester United’s season hasn’t quite gone the way they would’ve perhaps envisaged it to have at the beginning of the season, goalkeeper David de Gea has been a constant reassuring presence for United fans.
Here is the Spanish star again showing his great reflexes, producing a good save to deny Glen Murray Continue reading Video David de Gea save from Glenn Murray effort