The Rebound: Worldwide - ex-Birmingham City man scolded, flying beers and Portuguese wondergoals

Welcome once again to The Rebound: Worldwide, where we at 3 Added Minutes break down the best of the action from the wider world of football into delicious, bitesized morsels. Sort of like a scotch egg, but with continental football inside rather than… well, an egg. Oh, and we’ll share a few of the very best goals from around the globe as well, because we wouldn’t want you to miss out on, for instance, an outrageous hit in the UEFA Youth League.

Anyway, before we get to that, let’s start in Italy. The race to join Napoli in next season’s Champions League has taken more twists and turns than a game of Twister at a contortionists convention already, but now there’s been an especially huge change to the narrative – Juventus have had their 15-point penalty suspended, and that means they’re right back in the mixer.

The points deduction, handed down for allegedly falsifying club accounts, was harsher than the nine-point penalty that prosecutors had initially requested – and during the course of the appeals process, the prosecutors have requested that the points be reinstated pending a new hearing. That isn’t likely to happen before the end of the season, and as a result the Old Lady has been catapulted from seventh all the way up to third, and suddenly enjoy a three-point advantage in the race for a place at Europe’s lucrative top table.

The bad news for Juventus is that a 1-0 home to defeat to almost-champions Napoli has ensured that they won’t be running away with that Champions League berth, and wins for both Milan sides – Roma, currently fourth, play Atalanta tonight – keeps the pressure up. We can safely expect whoever misses out to be more than a bit miffed by developments, and the potential for West Ham 2008-style follow-up court cases is evident. Fans of legal drama should be watering at the mouth. For Napoli, the win leaves them just two wins away from confirming a now inevitable title, and sparked wild scenes of celebration when the team bus returned to Campania in the small hours of the evening – and will probably also spark a new road safety campaign, based on this extraordinary clip…

Another titillating title race has been that of the German Bundesliga, where Bayern Munich once again generously opened the door for the chasing pack – and for once, somebody actually stepped through.

A 3-1 away defeat to Mainz – who have European ambitions – made it two weeks in a row where Thomas Tuchel’s side dropped points, and this time around Borussia Dortmund didn’t blow the opportunity. Jude Bellingham was among the scorers as they blew Frankfurt away 4-0, and that lifts them to the top, one point ahead of the Bavarian big boys. You can enjoy Bellingham’s lovely little turn and finish here:

Union Berlin, five points back, picked up a superb away win against Borussia Mönchengladbach to keep themselves in the conversation and the romantic dream of a shock title winner is still alive. Just.

At the other end of the table, things are only getting bleaker for Hertha Berlin. Having installed club legend Pál Dárdai as manager for a third time, they lost 4-2 at home to Werder Bremen and remain rooted to the foot of the league. To make matters worse, Dárdai was filmed sending former Birmingham City midfielder Ivan Šunjić home from training and yelling at him to “f**k off”. Hertha clearly have no intention of going gracefully into the 2.Bundesliga.

Over in Spain, there were a couple of big results with implications at both ends of the table – and Sevilla’s 2-1 win over Villarreal not only means that they’re starting to finally look safe from relegation, but also delivered a big blow to the Yellow Submarine’s hopes of sailing into the Champions League. They’re now seven points behind Real Sociedad in fourth, with eight games remaining, while Real Betis are a point further ahead. Betis’ defeat to Osasuna means Sociedad have a huge chance of making the top four after they threw away a golden opportunity to do it last year.

There was also a massive three points for Valencia – who are less sleeping giants that comatose ones right now, but managed to see off all-but-relegated Elche 2-0, while the three teams immediately above them – Almería, Getafe and Cadíz – all dropped points. Valencia are still in the bottom three, but only on goal difference now.

Before we go over this week’s weirdness and wondergoals, a quick word from Serbia, where FK Crvena Zvezda – better known to the Anglosphere as Red Star Belgrade – became the first team to secure qualification to the Champions League group stages next season. They’ve dominated the SuperLiga and now have an untouchable 20-point buffer over second-placed Čukarički.

Also wrapping up a very early title win are Tre Penne – although they’ve become the champions of San Marino because their season ends much earlier than most, not because they’ve been utterly dominant. They finish one point above Cosmos, who agonisingly missed out on the rare achievement of winning a league they finished bottom of the year before. Bottom, indeed, with just five points. Quite a turnaround.

Snapshots

It’s been a rowdy week over in the Netherlands, where games were suspended not once but twice due to spectators throwing cups of beer from the stands. New guidelines meant that the match between PSV Eindhoven and Ajax – the home side winning 3-0 to give them the edge in the race for the second spot in Champions League qualifying – was temporarily suspended after a spectator lobbed his pint onto the pitch, while the clash between virtually-relegated Groningen and NEC Breda was halted entirely when a cup of beer struck an assistant referee.

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That game is expected to be completed behind closed doors now, as the Dutch FA try out the new regulations to curb bad behaviour from fans – who are clearly keen to test the limits of the association’s resolve. As if to prove that it’s not a solely Dutch issue, however, a similar incident happened in the German 3.Bundesliga, when an FC Zwickau fan was so enraged by the referee’s decision to send off defender Nils Butzen and award opponents Rot-Weiss Essen a penalty that he threw his drink in the ref’s face. The game – a key match at the bottom of the table with Zwickau in the relegation zone – was abandoned. It all makes it a bit easier to see why we can’t have a pint in the stands at an English stadium.

Anyway, before we let you go, let’s take a trip over to Portugal, where we can enjoy two cracking goals – the first from Brazilian forward Jair for União de Leiria against Alverca in the promotion group of the Portuguese third tier:

And if that hasn’t sated your appetite for Portuguese bangers, here’s Sporting’s Diogo Cabral in the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League. Sadly, it was in a losing cause, as AZ Alkmaar won 4-3 on aggregate and will face Hajduk Split in the final after the Croatians beat AC Milan’s youngsters. Still – pick this one out: