Jeremy Sarmiento is benefitting from getting into the penalty area more often as he continues to impress on loan with Championship leaders Ipswich Town.
Sarmiento, 21, scored his fourth and arguably most important goal since heading to Portman Road in January when he netted the winner in the seventh minute of stoppage time in Ipswich's 3-2 victory over Southampton on Easter Monday.
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna explained, “One of the big things about the loan for him in the second half of the season was to be more effective, to get in the box better, to find a way to add to his goal tally and he’s stepped up with some big moments for us.”
Sarmiento appeared to slip before regaining his footing and steering in the winner. “He had a few slips, so he’d probably have been getting criticised about his footwear if he hadn’t toe-poked that in!” added McKenna. "He’s reacted really well and that’s some big goals for him now.”
Deniz Undav made another crucial intervention for Stuttgart to keep their Champions League qualification hopes alive.
The striker, fresh from making his Germany debut against France last week, scored with the last kick off the game as Stuttgart drew 3-3 against Heidenheim to stay seven points clear of fifth-placed RB Leipzig in the race for the Champions League. It was his 16th goal of the season.
VfB Stuttgart's attacking duo of Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav have scored 38 goals together in this Bundesliga season - a club record for a VfB duo. In this match, they surpassed Jürgen Klinsmann and Karl Allgöwer, who scored a total of 37 goals in the 1985-86 season.#VfBFCH pic.twitter.com/xxXLZfGl8x
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) March 31, 2024
Elsewhere in Europe, Steven Alzate played 85 minutes for Standard Liege but they were hammered 5-1 by Ghent in the Belgian League. In Holland, Adrian Mazilu came on for the last ten minutes but couldn’t prevent Vitesse Arnhem from losing 2-0 at AZ Alkmaar.
Back home, Andrew Moran came on midway through the second half to help Blackburn halt their slide down the Championship table with a 5-1 win at Sunderland, their first away from home since 25 November and first in ten games under new manager John Eustace. Yasin Ayari was an unused substitute for Rovers.
📺 All five goals from our biggest league win of the season!#SUNvROV | #Rovers 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/dvO8IoW7nT
— Blackburn Rovers (@Rovers) April 1, 2024
James Beadle was beaten twice as Sheffield Wednesday lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough and remain in the bottom three and another goalkeeper, Carl Rushworth, was also on the losing side as his Swansea City team went down 1-0 to QPR.
In League One, Marc Leonard helped mid-table Northampton beat Port Vale 2-0, for whom Jensen Weir played the second half. Ed Turns had to come off after 34 minutes with an injury as Crewe’s automatic promotion hopes in League Two faded with a 3-0 home loss to struggling Forest Green Rovers.
In Scotland, Libby Bance played the first half of Rangers’ 2-1 win over Hibs which kept them a point clear at the top of the Premier League.
In the English Championship, Lulu Jarvis played 83 minutes of Reading’s 4-1 home defeat against Blackburn Rovers.