KLAGENFURT, Austria — Salzburg won the Austrian Cup with a ruthless 5-0 destruction of second-tier Austria Lustenau in the final as the season resumed following the coronavirus stoppage on Friday.
With the victory, Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch, a Wisconsin native, became the first American-born coach to win a major trophy in Europe.
Lucien Favre's Dortmund has been unable to catch a break on the injury front of late.
Having already lost captain Marco Reus to ongoing fitness issues and center back Dan-Axel Zagadou to a ruptured ligament, Favre has now had to rule out midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud for the rest of the campaign as well.
MOSCOW — Russia's Sports Minister said on Friday he welcomed a decision by the authorities to allow spectators into stadiums when matches in the country's top professional soccer league resume next month.
The Russian Premier League halted matches in mid-March because of the COVID-19 crisis and is set to resume action on June 21.
"It's important that the soccer championship resumes in the presence of spectators, even though small in number," Russian news agencies quoted Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin as saying.
MADRID — Spanish soccer's top-flight will resume after a three-month pause due to the coronavirus pandemic on June 11 with the local derby between Sevilla and Real Betis, the government's department for sport (CSD) said in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, president Javier Tebas has outlined LaLiga's plans to offer viewers the chance to hear virtual crowd noise during the matches, which will be played without supporters to prevent further spread of the virus.
European football will continue its cautious return to play following the COVID-19 stoppage over the next week as a number of the continent's smaller leagues restart with some novelties and one team in serious trouble for breaking coronavirus rules.
Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Serbia, Austria, Croatia and Ukraine are among countries which will again be able to enjoy league football, albeit in unusual circumstances with no spectators allowed at games. They join Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia and the Faroe Islands where play has already restarted.
The Austrian Bundesliga could be set for a massive shakeup at the top of the table without a ball having been kicked in months.
Two weeks after 11 of the league's 12 teams accused Valérien Ismaël's side of disregarding rules restricting the size of training groups, LASK have been hit with a six-point deduction. The rules had been set in place by the country's Ministry of Sports as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Italy's top-flight Serie A soccer league has been given the go-ahead to restart on June 20 following the novel coronavirus stoppage, sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora said on Thursday. He added that there was a possibility the resumption of the season, which was suspended on March 9, could be preceded by Italian Cup matches one week earlier.
"Italy is starting up again and it's only right that football can also get going," he told reporters after a conference call with representatives from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
Joshua Kimmich's winner in Bayern Munich's big game against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday not only put the Bundesliga champions on track to retain their title but was a reminder of the midfielder's importance to their success.
The 25-year-old, whose delicate chip over the Dortmund keeper took Bayern seven points clear of their rivals with six matches remaining, will lead the team again against in-form Fortuna Duesseldorf on Saturday.
A crucial game beckons in the 2. Bundesliga's race for promotion as second-place Hamburg takes on third-place Stuttgart on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EST.
Dieter Hecking's Hamburg holds a one-point lead over New Jersey native Pellegrino Matarazzo's Stuttgart in the second and final automatic-promotion spot. Neither side has been in great form of late; stretching back to before the pandemic-enforced shutdown, Hamburg has just one win in six games while Stuttgart is on a winless run of four games.