FRANKFURT: Jadon Sancho scored twice as Borussia Dortmund maintained the pressure on Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga with a narrow 2-1 win over Mainz.

The 19-year-old England forward helped Dortmund recover from their five-goal beating in Munich the previous week bnut they  as they were hanging on at the end after Robin Quaison pulled one back in the 84th minute and Roman Buerki made three successive saves from Ridle Baku.

RB Leipzig closed in on Champions League qualification and Werder Bremen boosted their hopes of European football with wins. Leipzig consolidated third place after stretching their unbeaten league run to 11 games with a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg.

Two late goals from Davy Klaassen and Theodor Gebre Selassie gave Bremen a 2-1 win at home over Freiburg. Seventh-placed Bayer Leverkusen ended a run of three defeats with a 1-0 win at Stuttgart, thanks to Kai Havertz’s second-half penalty.

Stuttgart’s Santiago Ascacibar was sent off after allegedlyspitting at Havertz in stoppage time. The Argentine could face a lengthy ban after pushing referee Tobias Stieler when he was shown the red card.

In Spain . . .

Barcelona were held to a goalless draw by basement club Huesca after coach Ernesto Valverde made sweeping changes to his line-up ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester United.

With the title practically assured after last weekend’s 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid, Valverde fielded a radically different side to the team that won 1-0 at Old Trafford in Wednesday’s first leg, making 10 changes and giving three players their league debuts.

Top scorer Lionel Messi was left at home for the game after being struck in the face by United defender Chris Smalling, while Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets were also rested and Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez were suspended.

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was the only player who started at Old Trafford to make the starting line-up against Huesca, although Barca were boosted by the return of France forward Ousmane Dembele after a month out injured.

Midfielder Riqui Puig was one of Barca’s debutants and the 19-year-old produced the best moment of an uneventful first half, picking out Dembele with a wonderful pass but the Frenchman dragged his shot wide.

Brazilian forward Malcom struck the post early in the second half and team mate Carles Alena missed the target from the rebound in Barca’s best spell after the interval, while substitutes Philippe Coutinho, Jordi Alba and Arthur Melo could not improve the leaders’ attacking threat when they came on.

Atletico Madrid, without Diego Costa, who is suspended for the remainder of the season after his red card at Barcelona last weekend,reduced the gap behind runaway leaders Barcelona to nine points by seeing off Celta Vigo 2-0 with goals from strikers Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata either side of half-time.

Celta, hovering above the relegation zone and without top scorer and talisman Iago Aspas, made things difficult for Diego Simeone’s Atletico and forced goalkeeper Jan Oblak to make three impressive saves in the first half

In Italy . . . 

Massimiliano Allegri thinks Juventus “paid for their inexperience” as his young side missed the chance to secure the Serie A title after SPAL staged a second-half comeback to win 2-1.

A draw would have been enough for the table-topping Juventus to record an eighth-successive Scudetto, and they appeared to be on course when Moise Kean took the lead for the visitors in the 29th minute.

But SPAL struck back twice in the second half against a much-changed Juve – who have one eye on next week’s Champions League clash with Ajax – with Kevin Bonifazi heading in before Sergio Floccari cleverly controlled and fired into the net to secure all three points for the home side.

“We wanted to close it today,” Allegri said. “The boys’ performance was good and the young players competed with such authority. On the second goal we made a bit of a mistake, but we had a great first half and a good reaction. Everyone did well, we’re only sorry for the defeat, but we paid for inexperience.”

Allegri made nine changes from the side which drew 1-1 against Ajax on Wednesday, naming debutants, Grigoris Kastanos and Paolo Gozzi in his starting XI, while Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the players to miss out.

Juve host Ajax in the return leg of the Champions League on Tuesday. The Juventus manager said he expects to have Sami Khedira, Blaise Matuidi available on Tuesday, with the latter missing out against SPAL with cramp, while Douglas Costa will be assessed ahead of the Champions League tie.

Juventus’ experienced defender Andrea Barzagli called time on his career after playing 81 minutes of the defeat at SPAL, and announced his decision in the post-match press conference.

Edin Dzeko scored his first home goal in almost a year to seal a 1-0 win for Roma over Udinese. Dzeko struck midway through the second half for Claudio Ranieri’s side to score his eighth league goal of the season, but his first in Rome since notching a brace against Chievo last April.

AC Milan consolidated fourth place with a 1-0 win over Lazio. The result saw Milan move back a point above fifth-placed Roma, after their earlier kick-off. Franck Kessie converted a penalty 11 minutes from time after Mateo Musacchio had been barged over by Lazio defender Riza Durmisi.

That came moments after Milan had a penalty awarded and then revoked when referee Gianluca Rocchi reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor and decided that Francesco Acerbi’s handball was involuntary.

A brawl between both sets of players broke out at the end of the game, with several members of the bench also joining in.

In France . . .

Marseille kept alive their slim hopes of clinching a Champions League qualifying spot when two late goals by Valere Germain and Luiz Gustavo earned them a 2-1 home win against Nimes in Ligue 1.

Gustavo and Germain scored in the space of two minutes to put the hosts up to fourth on 51 points from 32 games, five points behind Lyons, who occupy the last qualifying spot for Europe’s elite competition. Nimes, who reduced the arrears through a Teji Savanier penalty eight minutes from time, are 10th on 43 points.

Guingamp might be starring relegation in the face but they showed good battling qualities to earn a 3-3 draw at Strasbourg. Marcus Thuram and Lucas Deaux twice put Guingamp in front but on each occasion the hosts equalised through Ludovic Ajorque and Sanjin Prcic. Ajorque scored to give Strasbourg the lead but Jeremy Sorbon levelled things up once more four minutes from time.

The points was enough to lift Guingamp off the bottom of the table, where they were replaced by Caen after their 1-0 home defeat by Angers. Jeff

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