In Scotland, in-form Daizen Maeda bagged a goal and an assist as Celtic dispatched Kilmarnock 5-0 to secure yet another Scottish Premiership title while their women’s team became league winners for the very first time with China PR duo Sheng Menglu and Shen Mengyu playing important roles in their historic triumph.
Samurai Blue stalwart Makoto Hasebe brought an end to his illustrious career in Germany while Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi helped FC Porto post a late win against Braga in their final league outing of the season, so join the-AFC.com as we find out how the Asian stars performed in Europe over the past week.
England: Hamano’s Chelsea emerge champions
Maika Hamano and Sam Kerr emerged as the champions of England as Chelsea defeated Manchester United 6-0 at Old Trafford and pipped Manchester City to the Women’s Super League title on goal difference. The Japanese youngster had scored the winner in a 1-0 win against Spurs on Wednesday which helped the Blues match City on points before the final day.
Mary Fowler bagged a stunning goal and an assist in City’s 2-1 win against Aston Villa, but she, alongside Alanna Kennedy and Yui Hasegawa, settled for a runners-up finish while Riko Ueki scored for West Ham United from a Honoka Hayashi assist, but saw her side fall to a 3-1 defeat to Charlotte Grant’s Spurs. Caitlin Foord, Kyra Cooney-Cross, and Steph Catley started for Arsenal in a 5-0 win against Brighton & Hove Albion to finish third.
Takehiro Tomiyasu bagged a goal in Arsenal’s 2-1 comeback win against Everton on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday, but the Gunners fell two points short of Manchester City and the league title. The Japan full-back made 22 appearances for Mikel Arteta’s side and started all five of their most recent outings to wrap up his third season in England.
Elsewhere, Wataru Endo started as Liverpool defeated Hwang Hee-chan’s Wolves 2-0 in Jurgen Klopp’s farewell match at Anfield while Son Heung-min contributed an assist as Spurs defeated Sheffield United 3-0 to secure fifth place.
Scotland: Maeda shines as Celtic lift title
Daizen Maeda bagged a goal and an assist as Celtic defeated Kilmarnock 5-0 on Thursday to win their 12th Scottish Premiership title in 13 seasons. Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Tomoki Iwata also featured for the Hoops as they took an unassailable lead over Rangers with the result. Furuhashi and Hatate then bagged a goal and an assist respectively as Celtic edged St Mirren 3-2 to finish with an eight-point lead.
Kyosuke Tagawa scored a 95th-minute equaliser as Hearts came back from behind to hold Rangers 3-3 with the Japanese winger also on target in a 2-2 draw with St Mirren during the midweek. Socceroos winger Martin Boyle bagged a double as Hibernian beat Motherwell 3-0 on Thursday while Tete Yengi converted a penalty for already-relegated Livingston in a 5-1 defeat to Aberdeen.
Chinese duo Shen Menglu and Shen Mengyu also emerged champions of Scotland as Celtic Women posted a last-gasp 1-0 win against Hibs on the final day to emerge as winners of the women’s league for the first time in their history, finishing above archrivals Rangers on goal difference.
France: Carpenter and Lyon champions again
Ellie Carpenter played the full game at right-back as Lyon emerged the winners of Division 1 Feminine for the third season in a row by defeating Clare Hunt’s Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in the playoff final on Saturday. The 24-year-old has now won three league titles in France and can add a third UEFA Women’s Champions League title to her cabinet on Saturday when she faces Barcelona in the title clash.
Meanwhile, in Ligue 1, Lee Kang-in bagged a goal and an assist as Paris Saint-Germain wrapped up their title-winning campaign with a 2-0 win against Metz on Sunday while Takumi Minamino came on as a substitute in AS Monaco’s 4-0 defeat of Nantes on the final matchday as the Monegasque side finished in second place.
Germany: Hasebe bids farewell
Japanese ace Makoto Hasebe brought down the curtain on an impressive playing career as he appeared as a substitute in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 2-2 draw with RB Leipzig on the final day of the Bundesliga season on Saturday. The 40-year-old, who represented his nation in three FIFA World Cups, spent 17 seasons in Germany after moving to Wolfsburg from Urawa Red Diamonds in 2008.
Elsewhere in Germany, Jeong Woo-yeong came off the bench to bag a goal and assist as Stuttgart, also featuring Genki Haraguchi and Hiroki Ito, defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0 and overtook Kim Min-jae’s Bayern Munich to second place on the final day while Ritsu Doan was on target for SC Freiburg in their 2-1 loss to Union Berlin.
That result meant that Takuma Asano’s VfL Bochum will play in the relegation playoffs as a 4-1 defeat to Werder Bremen meant they finished third-from-bottom despite being level on points with Union. They will now face Ao Tanaka’s Fortuna Dusseldorf over two legs to decide who among them will be in the German top flight next season.
Italy: Kamada stunner against Inter
Daichi Kamada scored with a stunning left-foot strike from 25 yards out as Lazio held champions Inter to a 1-1 draw on the penultimate matchday of the Serie A on Sunday while Eldor Shomurodov started for Cagliari as they beat Sassuolo 2-0 to move three points clear of relegation with one fixture to go.
Meanwhile, Moeka Minami scored the opening goal while Saki Kumagai came off the bench as champions AS Roma finished their Serie A Women campaign with a 5-0 win against Fiorentina on Sunday. The Japanese duo also have the chance to lift the Italian Women’s Cup this week when they face the same opposition in the final.
Spain: Kubo bags assist in vital win
Takefusa Kubo bagged the assist for Andre Silva’s winner as Real Sociedad edged Valencia 1-0 on Friday while he was an unused substitute in their 2-0 win against Real Betis in their penultimate La Liga outing on Sunday which confirmed a sixth-placed finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Europa League for the Basque side.
Portugal: Taremi assists late winner
Islamic Republic of Iran striker Mehdi Taremi provided a defence-splitting pass for Galeno’s 84th-minute winner as FC Porto edged Braga 1-0 on the final day of league action in Portugal. Meanwhile, recently-crowned champions Sporting Lisbon wrapped up their campaign with a 3-0 defeat of Chaves with Hidemasa Morita starting in their midfield.
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Portimonense, featuring Japanese goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura and on-loan Taichi Fukui, defeated Farense 3-1 in their final outing, but finished third-from-bottom and will now face the third-placed finishers from the second division for a place in next season’s Primeira Liga.
Netherlands: Ogawa, Sano net in NEC win
Koki Ogawa and Kodai Sano were both on the scoresheet as NEC Nijmegen defeated Almere 4-1 on the final day of the Eredivisie regular season on Sunday and made it to the playoffs for the UEFA Europa Conference League. They will be joined in the playoffs by Zidane Iqbal’s Utrecht and Koki Saito’s Sparta Rotterdam who finished below NEC in seventh and eighth places respectively.
Ayase Ueda bagged an assist while Alireza Jahanbakhsh also started for Feyenoord as they defeated Excelsior 4-0 to finish in second place while Yukinari Sugawara contributed an assist in AZ Alkmaar’s 3-3 draw with Utrecht. Indonesia’s Thom Haye also supplied an assist in Heerenveen’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Sparta.
Denmark: Suzuki hands Brondby upper hand
Yuito Suzuki scored the sole goal of the game as Brondby edged Nordsjaelland 1-0 in the Danish Superliga on Wednesday before providing an assist in their 2-0 win against Silkeborg on Monday to keep his side at the top of the table heading into the final set of fixtures. Cho Gue-sung’s FC Midtjylland are also level on points with Brondby while FC Copenhagen, in third place, are four points behind with a game in hand.
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کلاس یوس