Saki Kumagai scored a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 11-1 win over Turbine Potsdam on Sunday which handed the women’s league title to the Bavarian outfit. The 32-year-old Japan captain scored in the fourth, 21st and 52nd minutes to win her first piece of silverware in Germany in her last game for Bayern. 

 

Kumagai joined the German giants in 2021 after an eight-year spell with Lyon where she won seven league titles, six French Cups and five UEFA Women’s Champions Leagues. The veteran centre-back also won the FIFA Women’s World Cup with the Nadeshiko in 2011. 

Meanwhile, in a dramatic final day of the Bundesliga season, Samurai Blue winger Takuma Asano scored once and assisted another to help VfL Bochum avoid relegation following a 3-0 win over Iran striker Sardar Azmoun’s Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday that helped them finish two points above the drop zone. 

 

However, his compatriots Maya Yoshida and Soichiro Kozuki suffered disappointment as they were relegated with Schalke after a 4-2 defeat to RB Leipzig. Stuttgart’s Wataru Endo, Hiroki Ito and Genki Haraguchi will battle second-tier side Hamburg in a playoff for a place in next season’s Bundesliga.

 

Ritsu Doan’s Freiburg missed out on a place in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League after a 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, for whom Daichi Kamada claimed an assist. 

Australia’s Sam Kerr scored her 11th and 12th goals of the Women’s Super League season to guide Chelsea to their fourth consecutive league triumph in England following a 3-0 win over Reading on Saturday. The Blues finished their campaign two points clear of Manchester United who edged Fuka Nagano’s Liverpool 1-0 in their final outing. 

 

Yui Hasegawa and Hayley Raso were involved in Manchester City’s 3-2 win over Everton that saw them finish fourth, behind third-placed Arsenal who lost 2-0 to Aston Villa with Australia’s Steph Catley starting for the Gunners. 

Korea Republic ace Son Heung-min teed up Harry Kane for Tottenham Hotspur’s opener in a 4-1 win over Leeds United on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday while Iran attacking midfielder Saman Ghoddos played his last game for Brentford as the Bees edged champions Manchester City 1-0. 

 

Australia centre-back Harry Souttar’s Leicester, meanwhile, were relegated from the English top division despite a 2-1 win over West Ham United – seven years after winning the title. 

Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi’s 22nd goal of the season in FC Porto’s 3-0 win over Vitoria on Saturday saw him win the Golden Boot in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, but couldn’t help his side win the league title as Benfica emerged champions after finishing two points clear following a 3-0 win over Kento Misao’s Santa Clara on the final day.

 

This is the second time the former Persepolis FC striker has finished top scorer in the Portuguese top flight having previously won the honour during the 2019-20 season when he scored 18 goals for Rio Ave. Porto won the League Cup after beating Sporting Lisbon in January and will face Braga in the final of the Portuguese Cup this week. 

 

Defensive midfielder Hidemasa Morita played the full game as Sporting edged Iraq international Osama Rashid’s Vizela 2-1 to finish fourth and qualify for the UEFA Europa League while attacking midfielder Masaki Watai, on loan at Boavista from Tokushima Vortis, provided an assist as his side beat Chaves 4-1 to finish ninth.

Japan winger Takefusa Kubo’s Real Sociedad sealed their return to the UEFA Champions League despite a 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid in Spain’s La Liga on Sunday. A loss for fifth-placed Villarreal at Rayo Vallecano confirmed the Basque side’s return to elite European football for the first time since 2013.

 

Meanwhile, Korea Republic attacking midfielder Lee Kang-in missed Real Mallorca’s 3-0 defeat to Barcelona, but was in action during the midweek when the 22-year-old provided an inch-perfect cross for Vedat Muriqi’s second-half header that helped them edge visitors Valencia 1-0. 

Iran captain Ehsan Hajsafi starred at the back as AEK Athens overcame PAOK 2-0 in the Greek Cup final on Wednesday and complete a first domestic double since 1978. AEK also won their 13th league title in Greece earlier this month after a 4-0 defeat of Volos helped them finish five points ahead of runners-up Panathinaikos. 

 

AEK had defender Lazaros Rota sent off just six minutes into the title clash, but Hajsafi and his teammates kept a clean sheet to guide AEK to their 16th cup triumph. The defender's Iranian teammate Milad Mohammadi, meanwhile, did not make the squad for the final after playing 90 minutes of the semi-final second leg against Olympiacos. 

Socceroos winger Awer Mabil’s Sparta Prague lifted the league title in the Czech Republic for the first time in nine years as a goalless draw with Slovacko in their penultimate outing on Tuesday made sure second-placed Slavia Prague could not overtake Brian Priske’s men.  

 

The Australian attacker then came on as a substitute in the 66th minute in an inconsequential 1-0 loss to Viktoria Plzen on Saturday after which the Prague club lifted the silverware in front of their home support. Twenty-seven-year-old Mabil joined Sparta in January on loan from Spanish side Cadiz.

Chinese duo Shen Mengyu and Shen Menglu won the Scottish Women’s Cup as Celtic defeated Rangers 2-0 in the final at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Sunday. Celtic Women missed out on the league title to Glasgow City, but ended the season with their second Women’s Cup triumph in as many seasons.  

 

China PR midfielder Shen Mengyu, who became the first women from her country to sign a professional contract in the United Kingdom, also played in last season’s cup final against Glasgow City, while it is a first piece of silverware in Scotland for Shen Menglu who joined her compatriot at the start of the 2022-23 season. 

Meanwhile in the Scottish Premiership, Australian manager Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic wrapped up their title-winning campaign with a 5-0 win over Aberdeen. Japan's Kyogo Furuhashi scored his 26th and 27th goals of the season while Korean forward Oh Hyeon-gyu also bagged a double in the victory. 

 

Japanese winger Yutaro Oda scored in Hearts’ 1-1 draw against city rivals Hibernian, just three days after Australian youngster Garang Kuol netted his first goal for Hearts with a stoppage-time equaliser that secured a 2-2 draw with Rangers.  

Japanese midfielder Koki Saito scored for the third game running in the Dutch Eredivisie as Sparta Rotterdam posted a big 5-0 win over Groningen on Sunday. The 21-year-old, who also netted against Volendam and Cambuur this month, has seven goals and five assists in his loan campaign from Belgian side Lommel. 

 

Saito’s Sparta, who finished sixth in the league, will now take on compatriot Naoki Maeda’s Utrecht in the semi-finals of a domestic playoff for a place in Europe. Australia captain Mathew Ryan and Japan full-back Yukinari Sugawara, meanwhile, were involved as AZ Alkmaar settled for a place in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers after a 2-1 defeat to Ajax.

Japanese defender Moeka Minami scored her second goal of the season in Italy as newly crowned champions AS Roma fell to a 5-2 defeat at the hands of runners-up Juventus in their final league fixture on Saturday. Meanwhile, Mana Mihashi was an unused substitute as her Inter Milan side were beaten by rivals AC Milan 1-0.

 

In Serie A, Korea Republic defender Kim Min-jae and champions Napoli were held to a 2-2 draw by Bologna in their penultimate league fixture. Uzbekistan star Eldor Shomurodov’s Spezia suffered a 4-0 defeat to Torino leaving them level on points with 18th-placed Verona as they head into the final round aiming to avoid relegation. 

Japanese striker Ayase Ueda scored his 22nd league goal of the season as Cercle Brugge posted a comprehensive 4-0 win over Standard Liege in their penultimate fixture in Playoff 2 of Belgium’s top division on Saturday. The 24-year-old has scored four goals in his last four appearances in the play-offs for Cercle. 

 

Korean midfielder Hong Hyun-seok started for Gent as they came from behind to defeat Yusuke Matsuo’s Westerlo 3-1. Gent have already booked a place in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League by topping the Playoff 2 table. 

Japanese winger Keito Nakamura scored a sensational strike as LASK defeated Austria Wien 3-1 in the Austrian Bundesliga on Sunday. The 22-year-old, who joined the club from Gamba Osaka in 2021, curled a shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner to give his side the lead just four minutes after kick-off. 

 

Nakamura has scored 14 goals and provided seven assists in the Bundesliga this season helping LASK, who are in third place in the Championship round of the league with one game remaining, book a berth in the qualifying play-offs for the UEFA Europa League.