In LaLiga, Barcelona‘s latest debutante broke a club record while Real Madrid bounced back from their shock loss last week as Karim Benzema scored a hat trick.
ESPN correspondents Mark Ogden, Julien Laurens, Sam Marsden, James Olley and James Tyler break down the most interesting and important stuff you need to know about the weekend.
Roy Hodgson’s return to Crystal Palace as caretaker manager at the end of March appeared to be an act of desperation by the club’s owners, with nostalgia rather than logic seemingly the only justification for asking a 75-year-old to emerge from retirement to save them from relegation.
Former England manager Hodgson had left Selhurst Park in Jun 2021 after almost four years in charge with the club hiring Patrick Vieira to overhaul the squad and turn Palace into a team capable of securing a top 10 Premier League finish.
But by the time Vieira was fired in mid-March, Palace had dropped to within three points of the relegation zone having failed to win a single Premier League game in 2023. The Eagles looked doomed and Hodgson’s return was a surprise considering he had left his last job following relegation at Watford in May 2022 by saying that he would not be “putting my name forward for any more sorties in the world of Premier League football.”
Twelve months on and Hodgson has been Palace’s saviour, guiding the team to four wins and a draw from six games in charge. Saturday’s 4-3 win against West Ham took Palace to 40 points and all but guaranteed survival in the top flight. It has become something of a cliche to suggest that a manager deserves a job because he “knows the club,” but Hodgson is certainly showing that he has some kind of magic touch at Palace.
The only question now is whether he will decide to abandon retirement on a more permanent basis and stick around for another season. If he wants to do so, it will be a big call by the Palace owners to say no. — Ogden
Kimmich puts on a show as Bayern Munich take charge of the title race (again)
Will this stick? Will their lead hold? Will this weekend be regarded as the day the title race ended? Given how this season’s gone so far for Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, this race for the Bundesliga crown will surely run a little longer, but Sunday saw the Bavarians take charge and it was all down to their midfield maestro. Completing 92% of his 120 passes and creating 11 chances, Joshua Kimmich picked up both assists in a nervy 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin that put Bayern back at the top, by a point, with four games remaining.
