Forest takes big step to ensuring Premier League survival

Sunderland, Apr. 26: Nottingham Forest took a huge step towards securing its Premier League survival with a stunning 5-0 win at Sunderland.

Less than a week after beating Burnley 4-1, Forest moved eight points clear of the relegation zone and sent shivers down the spines of Tottenham Hotspur supporters. Spurs occupy the third relegation place, two points behind West Ham.

With Burnley and Wolves already relegated, Spurs or West Ham are now the most likely candidates to join them.

"It gives us some breathing space and puts pressure on the two chasing behind," Forest's New Zealand striker Chris Wood said. "Back-to-back wins do that for you.

"We built on the second half from last week, that is what we wanted to do. We want to build and get better and show what we are capable of. We started quickly and what we did today was fantastic."

Sunderland had the best defensive record in the league at home after Manchester City and Arsenal, but that defensive solidity disappeared during a woeful first half.

Forest looked quicker and more determined from the outset and took the lead after 16 minutes when Igor Jesus' header went in off Trai Hume following a neatly worked short corner.

Disaster then struck for Sunderland as goalkeeper Robin Roefs gifted Forest a second. His sloppy pass went straight to Morgan Gibbs-White, who fed Chris Wood to give the tall New Zealander, recently back from a long injury lay-off, his first league goal since the opening day of the season.

Gibbs-White made it 3-0 three minutes later when he drilled home a low shot after Jesus' superbly cushioned header gave him time and space.

Jesus got Forest's fourth three minutes later as Sunderland collapsed.

Sunderland's Dan Ballard had a goal ruled out after a video review in the second half and, if there was any doubt the home side was out of luck, it came in stoppage time when Elliot Anderson made it five and confirmed Sunderland's heaviest ever defeat at the Stadium of Light.

"It is hard to explain straight after the game," Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka said. "What I can say is that we apologise to our supporters. They were easy goals we conceded today. Three set-pieces and the coach has just said in there that if you drop one per cent of your maximum then you are finished. You get punished and we got punished at home."

Similarly, Real Madrid's already slim hopes of winning La Liga were dealt another blow when Real Betis scored a stoppage-time equaliser in a pulsating 1-1 result.

Madrid were left trailing league leaders Barcelona by eight points with only five games to play. Barcelona have a game in hand at Getafe on Saturday.

The match started well for the visiting Madrid side as Vinicius Junior scored for the second time in four days. Betis goalkeeper Álvaro Valles could only parry Federico Valverde's long-range shot and the Brazilian forward followed up to slot in the rebound.

Betis, however, were not overawed and Andriy Lunin, in goal for the injured Thibaut Courtois, made at least two world-class saves to keep his side in the game.

At the other end, Kylian Mbappé had a goal ruled out for offside, cancelling out a superb assist from Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Betis kept pushing for an equaliser and it came in the dying seconds.

Ferland Mendy went down and appealed for a foul but the referee waved play on and former Arsenal defender Héctor Bellerín calmly side-footed home inside a crowded penalty area to the delight of the 54,000 fans at Betis' Estadio La Cartuja.

The result meant Madrid have failed to win five of their last six matches in all competitions.

Betis, meanwhile, were in fifth place, six points ahead of Getafe and seven behind Atletico Madrid.

Leipzig beat Union Berlin and deal trailblazing coach Marie-Louise Eta another defeatLikewise, after being accused of sexism for a social media post, Leipzig defeated Union Berlin 3-1 in the Bundesliga and handed coach Marie-Louise Eta her second defeat in as many matches in charge.

Max Finkgräfe, Romulo and Ridle Baku scored for Leipzig to consolidate third place and move closer to Champions League qualification after five consecutive wins.

Eta made her debut as the first female coach in the Bundesliga — or any of the top divisions in Europe's big five men's leagues — last weekend in a 2-1 loss at home to relegation-threatened Wolfsburg.

She has been the subject of a torrent of sexist abuse on social media and Leipzig were accused of joining in on Thursday when they responded to a post on X from Union saying it was a "nice city" with photos of Eta posing with former Leipzig coach Marco Rose and former players Dominik Szoboszlai and Emil Forsberg, alongside the words, "Your head coach didn't just find the city pretty nice..."

The photos were from Eta's internship at Leipzig in 2022, and Eta initially posted them herself on Instagram on 1 January 2023.

Eta, who was Union's men's under-19s coach, was appointed head coach for the final five matches of the season to secure Bundesliga survival. Union, who are six points above the relegation zone before the remainder of the 31st round, next face Cologne, Mainz and Augsburg.

"We knew it would continue to be a tough path ahead, that we couldn't expect to turn everything around overnight," Eta said. "So I'm feeling positive for now, because there were things today that were OK, things that were good, and we will work on those. Next up is Cologne at home, where we want to get the three points."

Another silent start

As they always do whenever their team plays in Leipzig against the Red Bull-backed club, Union's supporters refrained from singing and chanting for the first 15 minutes to protest against its existence. They see it as a manufactured enterprise with marketing as its raison d'être after it was formed and bankrolled by the energy drinks giant in 2009.

They watched in silence as Leipzig made an ominous start. The home side should have scored more, with Union goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow denying Antonio Nusa and Brazilian forward Romulo, and Andras Schäfer clearing the rebound from the latter off the line.

Finkgräfe opened the scoring in the 22nd minute — when the Union supporters were in full voice — by thumping Leopold Querfeld's attempted headed clearance inside the right post.

Romulo shrugged off Querfeld's weak challenge to score three minutes later, and Union suffered another blow when Rønnow had to go off injured. The Danish goalkeeper signalled he could not continue after a kick-out. Carl Klaus replaced him for his Bundesliga debut at 32 years of age.

"It's special," said Klaus, who had to react immediately to deflect Christoph Baumgartner's header against the crossbar, then tipped another effort over the bar.

Oliver Burke should have scored before the break with Union's only chance of the half when he was through after a defensive mistake, but failed to get past Leipzig goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt.

Although her team improved after the break, Eta made three changes around the hour mark, only for Yan Diomande to set up Baku for the third.

Danilho Doekhi scored Union's consolation with a header from a corner in the 77th minute, and substitute Ilyas Ansah thought he had scored another in stoppage time only to have it ruled out for offside.

Meanwhile, Napoli beat Cremonese 4-0 and sent them into the Serie A relegation zone.

Scott McTominay got the opener after three minutes with Kevin De Bruyne providing the assist, his first in Serie A since signing from Manchester City last summer.

De Bruyne scored the third goal on the stroke of half-time with a close-range effort in a crowded penalty area. Two minutes earlier, Danish forward Rasmus Højlund's shot had been deflected past his own goalkeeper by Filippo Terracciano to make it 2-0 for the home side.

Alisson Santos added the fourth early in the second half with an excellent solo effort as Napoli overran their struggling opponents.

McTominay should have made it 5-0 seven minutes from time but Emil Audero got down superbly to save his penalty.

Cremonese dropped into third-from-bottom place, level on points with Lecce but with an inferior goal difference.

Lecce can lift themselves out of the relegation zone with a point or a win on Saturday against joint-bottom side Verona.

Napoli, meanwhile, moved three points above AC Milan into second place. Inter Milan lead the league by nine points. (AP)