There was drama on the final day in the English Premier League as the clash between Manchester United and Bournemouth was abandoned over what turned out to be a fake bomb threat.
The final match of the 2015/16 Barclays Premier League season was called off on police advice before a ball was kicked due to a suspect package being found in the North West Quadrant of the ground.
Army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion of a suspicious package, which was later revealed to be a dummy left behind by a private security company following a training exercise.
Prior to the detonation, the Stretford End and Sir Alex Ferguson Stand were evacuated, before the rest of United’s 75,600 capacity Old Trafford ground was cleared as well, with the Premier League match against Bournemouth called off 20 minutes before Sunday’s scheduled kick-off.
There was another kind of drama on the football pitches of the EPL, with Arsenal blasting relegated Aston Villa 4-0 to secure a Champions League ticket while relegated Newcastle United shocked Tottenham 5-1.
BARCELONA CLINCH 24TH LA LIGA TITLE
Barcelona sealed their 24th La Liga title as Luis Suarez took his tally for the season to 59 goals with a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at Granada to hold off Real Madrid’s late-season surge.
Real registered their 12th consecutive La Liga win, 2-0 at Deportivo La Coruna thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s double, but finished a point behind their bitter rivals.
Suarez’s treble also sees him become the first player in seven years other than Ronaldo and Barca teammate Lionel Messi to win the Pichichi award for La Liga’s top goalscorer with 40.
Real Madrid’s record 12-game winning streak to end the season wasn’t enough to overcome the 12-point deficit they faced to Barca back in March.
However, victory secured second place ahead of Champions League final opponents Atletico Madrid, while Ronaldo moved past the 50-goal mark for the sixth consecutive season.
The three-time World Player of the Year opened the scoring as he swept home Karim Benzema’s mishit effort at the back post.
Ronaldo’s second was slightly fortuitous as his header was deflected past the helpless Stipe Pletikosa by Pedro Mosquera.
However, the Portuguese could have had four before he was replaced at half-time with one eye on the Champions League final on May 28 as he also hit the post and the crossbar before the break.
PIRATES, SUPERSPORT IN NEDBANK CUP FINAL
Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United on Saturday qualified for Nedbank Cup final after two-goal triumphs.
Pirates scored two late goals to complete a 4-2 victory at Free State Stars in central town Bethlehem.
A couple of early second-half goals earned hosts SuperSport a 2-0 win over second-tier Baroka, who eliminated three top-flight clubs to reach the semifinals.
Pirates and SuperSport meet in the final round of the league next Saturday and again seven days later in the Cup final in northern city Polokwane.
The Cup winners will be one of two South African representatives in the 2017 Caf Confederation Cup with the other slot going to the third-place league finishers.
Luvoyo Memela bagged a brace and created another goal for Pirates, who led 2-0 at half-time only to have their lead halved on 55 minutes.
But the Buccaneers struck twice more after 85 and 90 minutes to confirm a place in the final before Stars scored direct from a stoppage-time free-kick.
New Zealander Jeremy Brockie scored the opening goal and created the second as SuperSport proved too strong for Baroka in Pretoria.
HIGUAIN FIRES NAPOLI INTO EUROPE
Gonzalo Higuain hit a hat-trick to set an all-time record of 36 goals in a single Serie A season as Napoli secured second spot and Champions League football with a dramatic 4-0 rout of 10-man Frosinone.
Roma, despite a 3-1 win at AC Milan that has virtually ended the hosts’ hopes of Europa League football, finished two points further adrift in third meaning they will enter the preliminary rounds of Europe’s premier club competition.
Champions Juventus, who secured a record-equalling fifth successive title last month, capped their campaign on Saturday with a 5-0 rout of 10-man Sampdoria in Turin where Paulo Dybala struck twice for the hosts.
ZLATAN BREAKS PSG RECORD
Zlatan Ibrahimovic headed home a minute from time to break Paris Saint-Germain’s single season Ligue 1 scoring record in a 4-0 rout of Nantes on Saturday.
With the title long wrapped up and a French Cup final against bitter rivals Marseille to come a week later, the night was all about Ibrahimovic and his quest to break the record at the Parc-des-Princes.
Having equalled the record of Argentine Carlos Bianchi in the 18th minute with his first goal, Ibrahimovic netted a minute form time from Javier Pastore’s cross to end a match-long quest that had looked set to frustrate him.
It was the perfect end to his last match at the Parc in a PSG shirt before leaving for pastures new and he was immediately substituted, but not before his children ran onto the pitch wearing PSG replica shirts bearing the names King and Legend on their backs — a reference to Ibrahimovic’s Friday tweet in announcing his departure: “I came like a king, left like a legend.”
WHAT THEY SAID
“We all want the same thing,” Chelsea captain John Terry told fans during an on-pitch speech. “I’ve said that. I want to stay. The club knows that, the fans know that.”
“We’re not happy by being second but 18 other teams behind us would be happy to be in our position,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said after the game. “But of course our target was to be first and for a while we believed we could do it.
“I knew our position at the end would depend on us getting through some difficult away games without damage, and on Leicester as well dropping some points.”— Supersport.