Defending champion Spain and France have needed penalty shootouts to reach the Nations League semifinals and join Germany and Portugal.

Host Germany has opened the European Championship with a confidence-boosting 5-1 win over 10-man Scotland in Munich.

Bayern Munich defender Matthijs de Ligt has said the linesman apologized to him for raising the flag for offside before he scored what would have been a late equalizer in the Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid.

Bayern Munich forwards Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sané have recovered from injuries to start against Real Madrid in the teams’ Champions League semifinal first leg.

Joshua Kimmich’s header powered Bayern Munich to a 1-0 win over Arsenal to reach the Champions League semifinals with a 3-2 victory on aggregate.

Kai Havertz has helped Germany salvage a 3-3 draw with Ukraine in a charity friendly that leaves neither team happy from a sporting perspective.

Erling Haaland has scored for Manchester City to advance to a Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid with a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich in the second leg of their quarterfinal.

Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi was omitted from the 30-man list of nominees for the prestigious award.

The group stage of the European Championship is compete.

Ivan Perišić scored a second-half equalizer to give Croatia a 1-1 draw against the Czech Republic at the European Championship.

For weeks Bayern Munich players had been showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement at games when Jerome Boateng was approached by teammates for a deeper conversation. Before our break, I talked actually to Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka about it, Boateng recalled on a video call. There are some situations of course that are really hard to help, but you can always help in a situation, the defender said. Now the German champions are preparing to take the field again in the Champions League next week, in the round of 16 against Chelsea where they lead 3-0 from the first leg in February. I think about racism you never can do enough as you see how bad it is still in the world right now," Boateng said.

BERLIN Union Berlin striker Anthony Ujah has encouraged his fellow soccer players to be more proactive in the fight against racism. Everybody in the world of soccer knows who Thomas Mller is. I dont know how to explain, but sports has the power to bring people together, Mller said in a video that also showed other Bundesliga players gestures last weekend. Others, including American players Weston McKennie, Zack Steffen and Tyler Adams also expressed solidarity with social media posts and/or on-field statements. If I manage to get just five or 10 people to change their way of thinking about me, then Ive fulfilled my role, Ujah wrote.