May 05--With Leicester City having clinched the English Premier League earlier this week, Juventus capturing Italy's Serie A last month and Paris Saint-Germain winning France's Ligue 1 before Easter, titles remain up for grabs in just two of Europe's major soccer leagues entering the penultimate weekend of the season.
One of those could be claimed Saturday when Bayern Munich meets mid-table Ingolstadt needing only a draw to win its fourth consecutive Bundesliga title. That game will be televised live on Fox, beginning with Bundesliga Match Day at 6 a.m. Pacific. Also Saturday on Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes, Mexican national team star Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez leads third-place Bayer Leverkusen against Borussia Monchengladbach while Borussia Dortmund, featuring teenage midfielder Christian Pulisic of the U.S. national team, plays Eintracht Frankfurt on Fox Sports 1. Both games begin at 6:30 a.m. Pacific.
Meanwhile in Spain's La Liga, three teams -- Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid -- remain separated by only a point atop the table with two games to play.
Barcelona, with the best goal-differential of the three, can win the title if it wins its last two games against Espanyol and Granada. Atletico, which is tied with Barcelona at 85 points, plays last-place Levante and sixth-place Celta Vigo while Real Madrid, a point back in third place, meets mid-table Valencia and Deportivo La Coruna.
Barcelona-Espanyol will air Sunday at 7:30 a.m. Pacific on BeIN Sports en Espanol. Real-Madrid-Valencia will be on BeIN Sports at 6:55 a.m. The Atletico-Levante game will not be televised nationally in the U.S. All three teams have already clinched automatic berths in the next UEFA Champions League tournament. Atletico will meet Real Madrid later this month in Milan, Italy in this year's Champions League final.
The Bundesliga's three Champions League invitations have also been awarded, to Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen's best finish in three years was sparked largely by Hernandez, who has had a banner season as well. Going into Saturday's game he is fourth in the league in scoring, with 17 goals in 27 games. He also has a career-best 26 goals in all competitions, putting a bow on a whirlwind 13 months that have seen him play for Manchester United and Real Madrid as well as Bayer Leverkusen.
It's a success he credits largely to playing time.
"That's the only reason," said Hernandez, who will play for Mexico in next month's Copa America. "Because I'm playing a lot. This club makes me feel very important. They put me on the pitch and the only thing that I wanted was to play, to return that confidence and trust that the whole club is putting on me.
"They wanted me to come here to do what the other clubs didn't let me do. I'm very happy for the [time] that I spent in Madrid. And Manchester United, the two seasons we won the Premier League were the two seasons that I played a lot.
"[Bayer] trusted me, they put me on the pitch."
