SPORT

BORUSSIA DORTMUND CROWNED AGAIN

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German side Borussia Dortmund were crowned German league champions for the second consecutive season after a win at home to Moenchengladbach which leaves them eight points clear with two games to go. Jurgen Klopp's team suffered the last of their three league defeats back September and have now extended their record for the longest unbeaten run in a single German league season to 26. Having amassed 75 points, they can still beat the record of 79 for the most league points won in a season which Bayern achieved twice in the early 1970s.

This is the first time for 16 years Bayern have been denied the German title for two seasons running when Dortmund last earned back-to-back titles in 1994/95 and 1995/96 before winning the 1997 Champions League title. Bayern still have the chance for revenge when the teams meet for a third time this season in the German Cup final on May 12 at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

With Bayern on the verge of the Champions League final after their 2-1 first-leg semifinal win over Real Madrid last week, Dortmund's group stage exit proved to be a helping factor in Klopp's team defending their title.

Dortmund failed to make it past the group stages of Europe's top club competition this season, but have won 23 of 32 matches in the German league and will face Bayern in the final of the German Cup on May 12. Croatia midfielder Ivan Perisic opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with a header from Marcel Schmelzer's free-kick, while Japan international Shinji Kagawa settled any nerves of the 80,720 sellout home crowd at Signal Iduna Park with the second goal on the hour mark to seal the club's eighth title since forming in 1909.

PLAYERS STRIP FOR GENOA FURIOUS FANS
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Spotlight for the Italian football for the wrong reasons once more. This Sunday, in Genoa, there were trouble in historical city of Genoa, as home football hooligan fans fire smoke bombs into the pitch and forced the referee to halt the match against Siena side. A large group of Genoa fans accumulated around the tunnel area at Luigi Ferraris Stadium and threatened to invade the pitch early with their side was 4-0 behind. After a break of 20 minutes, the match officials and the Siena team left the field with the furious fans applauding them, but not letting the Genoa players approach.

Home captain Marco Rossi spoke with the group, who demanded the Genoa players took off their shirts before leaving the field. The club's ultras wanted the players to hand their jerseys over on the grounds that they were not "worthy" of the colours.

All of the Genoa players incredibly co-operated, except loan striker Giuseppe Sculli, with tears in his eyes, confronted the supporters, making it clear that he would not cave in to their demands, while wing-back Giandomenico Mesto also broke down in tears.

After several more minutes, Rossi went round and collected his team mates' shirts, but Giuseppe Sculli refused to take his off and, with tears in his eyes, confronted the supporters, making it clear that he would not cave in to their demands.

In the meantime, referee Paolo Tagliavento managed to enter the dressing room, while club president Enrico Preziosi also made his way to the pitch and gathered the players in a huddle.

Sculli then appeared to try to negotiate with his shirt still on, along with Sebastien Frey, who tried to pull his back and was quoted in the Italian media as saying: "This is my shirt, we are all for Genoa."

Frey seemingly played the role of peacemaker between the ultras and players, as he then pleaded Siena to come back out onto the pitch and complete the game, which still had 37 minutes remaining.

Play finally resumed after a 40-minute delay, with the Bianconeri eventually winning 4-1. The home side’s only goal was scored by a Siena player, Grosso, on his own goal. His team mates Brienza (2), Destro and Giorgi score the goals that enraged ultrafans. Many tiffosi abandoned the stadium when Siena reach the fourth goal.