• County Championship updates from day one’s action
• And you can post BTL or mail Tanya with your thoughts

My son, “doing” Georgraphy revision, tells me there was a 2.5 magnitude earthquake in Derbyshire last night. Perhaps that rattled the slip cauldron, as reported BTL. Leicestershire 22-0

Durham have won the toss and will bat. Looks brisk.

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• News, Premier League previews and European reaction
• Barney Ronay: City fail to deliver as Madrid’s power tells

Meanwhile in the Championship, a host of former Premier League sides are nervously peering down rather than optimistically looking up. Here’s Will Unwin on how short-term approaches are holding clubs back.

Those FA Cup semi-finals and this weekend’s round of Premier League matches are all under the microscope in everyone’s favourite double digit looking-ahead column.

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Eight teams are fighting to avoid two relegations spots with short-term approaches holding them back

It is tough at the bottom of the Championship as a collection of former Premier League teams fight to avoid the ignominy of being relegated to the third tier. Six points separate eight clubs, with three games to play and two places below the red line up for grabs.

There have been numerous routes taken to this point: some clubs had woeful starts, others dipped in the winter and one never got going. What they have in common is the use of the manager conveyor belt. Few have found any degree of philosophy or style, instead overhauling squads to suit the latest dugout dweller, leaving them gasping for air. The bottom nine clubs have had 24 managers between them – give or take a caretaker or two – and are reaping what they sowed.

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The manager has given fans memories for life over the last nine years. Keeping them up on Saturday would be a perfect end

By Steven Pye for the Guardian Sport Network

All good things must come to an end. After nine years at the helm, Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard takes charge of his last match for the club on Saturday. There will be a few crying eyes at Meadow Park. Hopefully there will also be tears of happiness and relief after the club’s final game of the season against Ebbsfleet. At the end of a tough campaign, the Wood face 90 crucial minutes to stay in the fifth tier. Win and they stay up. Anything else and it’s the drop.

A win would neatly bookend the reign of the man who has brought so much joy to the Hertfordshire club. When chairman Danny Hunter appointed Garrard in October 2015, the 30-year-old became the youngest manager in the top five divisions. Keeping Boreham Wood in the National League was going to be a tall order. A former Wood player, Garrard had been assistant to Ian Allinson as the club were promoted after a Conference South playoff final win over Whitehawk. The club had never played at this level before and, just to make the job a little harder, Allinson resigned a few months into the season.

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San Jose have goalkeeping problems, the Whitecaps are defending in a unique way and Miami are given a helping hand

Welcome back to the Guardian’s MLS Power Rankings, where I have a beef with your specific team and your specific team alone.

MLS roster rules might be changing in the middle of the season, but as for this column? It’s following the same format as it has all season. We’re still ranking teams from worst to first. But along with the rankings, we’re diving deep into a handful of teams from around the league who are doing particularly interesting things.

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Our writers pick the winner, key players and dark horses as the NBA postseason gets into full swing

Golden State Warriors. It feels flat-out wrong to have a postseason without Stephen Curry, but regardless of how good he still is, that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you don’t give him an adequate supporting cast. Hopefully the Warriors will take the summer to retool a clearly insufficient roster. CDL

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With just the final two rounds to come, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh Domaraju share the lead while the world No 2 , Fabiano Caruana, is half a point behind

With 12 rounds complete and just Saturday’s and Sunday’s final two rounds to come, the Candidates in Toronto could hardly be closer. Three players share the lead, another is just half a point behind. The €500k tournament will decide which of its eight contestants challenges China’s Ding Liren for his world crown later this year.

Leaders after 12 rounds (of 14) were : Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), Hikaru Nakanmura (US), and Gukesh Dommaraju (India) all 7.5; Fabiano Caruana (US) 7; Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India) 6. Three others follow. Key games to come are: Saturday’s round 13, Nepomniachtchi v Nakamura; Sunday’s round 14, Nakamura v Gukesh and Caruana v Nepomniachtchi.

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• Owner of British Cricket Balls warns over ECB rash decisions
• Kookaburra has been used in early Championship matches

The maker of Dukes balls has entered the debate on the trial use of the Kookaburra ball in county cricket and invited Rob Key, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s managing director of men’s cricket, to talk to him about the type of ball he wants to see.

Dilip Jajodia, the managing ­director of British Cricket Balls Ltd which has owned the Dukes imprint since 1987, was ­responding to a story in the Guardian this week in which Key hailed the trial use of the Kookaburra in the County ­Championship and called for it to be used permanently.

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Have you been paying attention to the big stories in football, athletics, cricket, basketball, snooker and golf?

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• Anti-doping agency now requires two experts to assess result
• Australian’s ban was lifted after analysis of second sample

Athletes who record inconclusive initial doping test results for synthetic EPO may be saved from public shaming, following World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) reforms prompted by the Peter Bol saga.

The Australian Olympian was provisionally suspended from competition in January 2023 after an out-of-competition test showed he had elevated levels of synthetic EPO, which can stimulate the formation of bed blood cells and aid recovery. Subsequent testing exonerated him.

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Two big Wembley meetings await in the Cup, while a desperation derby looks to be in store at Goodison Park

There was a distinct end-of-season vibe at the Gtech Community Stadium after Brentford’s win over Sheffield United, with Thomas Frank and his players performing what amounted to a lap of honour as they took plaudits from fans relieved that the spectre of relegation had finally been banished. Of course only time will tell if the Bees become the first Premier League team to decamp to the metaphorical beach and Saturday’s match at Luton will provide a fair indication. Ravaged by injury with up to 11 players likely to be unavailable, Luton were on a hiding to nothing in their game against Manchester City but still emerged from the rout with their heads held high having restricted the champions to a one-goal lead until their capitulation after the hour mark. It is increasingly difficult to compliment Rob Edwards’ side without sounding condescending, but if it transpires that the Brentford side that turns up in Bedfordshire has mentally tapped out, the Premier League’s most dashing manager, his players and their fans are unlikely to have any complaints whatsoever. Barry Glendenning

Luton v Brentford, Premier League, Saturday 3pm (all times BST)

Sheffield United v Burnley, Premier League, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Chelsea, FA Cup semi-final, Saturday 5.15pm

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• Striker criticises refereeing after aggregate loss to Leverkusen
• David Moyes laments lack of ‘fresh legs’ but hails ‘terrific effort’

Michail Antonio hit out at the refereeing and said that it was like “playing against 14” after West Ham lost their Europa League quarter-final to Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on aggregate.

David Moyes’s side made a spirited attempt to recover from their 2-0 defeat in the first leg and were dreaming of knocking out the newly crowned Bundesliga champions after Antonio scored early on at the London Stadium.

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• Salah scores penalty but misses big chance against Atalanta
• Klopp: ‘We didn’t lose the tie tonight, we lost it at home’

Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool squandered their Europa League chances at Anfield last week and insisted Mohamed Salah’s wastefulness was not the cause of their quarter-final exit against Atalanta.

Liverpool were unable to overturn a 3-0 first leg deficit in the quarter-final despite dominating the first half and Salah scoring an early penalty. A 1-0 win signalled the last European game of Klopp’s Liverpool reign. The Liverpool manager admitted the failure to add a second goal was crucial in Bergamo but refused to pin the blame on Salah, who was guilty of the biggest miss.

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• Liverpool and West Ham exits likely to mean no fifth spot
• Germany well set to join Italy in claiming extra place

The Premier League’s hopes of securing an extra spot in next season’s expanded Champions League are hanging by a thread after the exits of Manchester City and Arsenal from this season’s competition on Wednesday were followed by those of West Ham and Liverpool from the Europa League on Thursday. Germany are the strong favourites to pip England to the prize.

The situation has ramped up the pressure in the battle between Aston Villa and Tottenham for a fourth-placed Premier League finish. Villa are fourth, three points ahead of Spurs, who have a game in hand.

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• Domestic double the target after Champions League exit
• FA Cup tie against Chelsea a chance to ‘do something special’

Kyle Walker says Manchester City must channel the anguish of their Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid into the pursuit of a domestic double. The 33-year-old spoke of the cruelty of Wednesday night’s penalty shootout defeat by Madrid, which followed a second leg at the Etihad Stadium that City dominated from the start of the second half of normal time.

The Premier League champions face Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday and are two points clear of Arsenal and Liverpool at the top of the league with six matches to play.

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Jurgen Klopp has taken Liverpool to four European finals, one Champions League trophy and places that players and fans alike may never have imagined possible but a journey that enriched his reign is over. There will be no fairytale ending in Dublin after one more feat of escapology proved beyond Klopp’s team against Atalanta.

The 91st European game of Klopp’s nine-year Liverpool tenure was also his last despite a much-improved display and victory against Gian Piero Gasperini’s shaky, nervous but ultimately euphoric side. “If we fail, then let’s fail in the most beautiful way,” Klopp had said on the eve of the Europa League quarter-final second leg. Liverpool could not quite deliver. Mohamed Salah converted an early penalty that decided the game but could not transform the tie, however much Liverpool threatened to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit during a dominant first-half performance.

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Bayer Leverkusen will be waking up with sore heads again. Their treble hopes remains alive, as does their sheen of invincibility, but only just. After the beer-stained celebrations that followed their regal charge to the Bundesliga title, Xabi Alonso’s side looked groggy on a pulsating night at the London Stadium and can count themselves lucky to be in a Europa League semi-final against Roma after beating West Ham 3-1 on aggregate.

The home fans responding to Jeremie Frimpong’s late equaliser extending Leverkusen’s unbeaten run to 44 matches with rueful applause spoke volumes. West Ham gave everything in their pursuit of a comeback and had the chances to turn the tie around after taking an early lead through Michail Antonio.

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• Briton wins 6-0, 7-5 to set up quarter-final with Iga Swiatek
• Raducanu ‘not surprised’ by her fine recent run of form

Emma Raducanu says the best is yet to come as she continued her excellent form by making it through to the quarter-final of the Stuttgart Open. The 2021 US Open champion beat Linda Noskova 6-0, 7-5 in Germany to set up a mouth-watering last-eight tie with the world No 1, Iga Swiatek, on Friday.

Raducanu is making her way back after a torrid 2023 but looked excellent in winning her two ties in the Billie Jean King Cup at the weekend and then followed that up by swatting home favourite Angelique Kerber aside in Wednesday’s first round.

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Long before Emiliano Martinez was booked for time-wasting 39 minutes into this tempestuous knockout tie, there was an air of inevitability that the Aston Villa goalkeeper would prove the hero. So he was, with Martinez saving superbly from Nabil Bentaleb and Benjamin Andre in a 4-3 penalty shootout victory after Matty Cash’s speculative late strike prevented Lille from advancing and took the game to extra time. Martinez was mobbed by his teammates, Morgan Rogers jumping for a piggyback as Villa’s players charged towards their delirious supporters stationed high in the stand at the opposite end. That, however, is only half of the story.

The whole game boiled down to a ludicrous crescendo, Martinez the centre of attention. Of course, he relished being the pantomime villain as he took on a French team for the first time since his World Cup heroics for Argentina in Qatar, when he thwarted Kingsley Coman from 12 yards, and he was up to his old tricks. His every touch was jeered from the off by the locals and, already on a booking, he was cautioned again by the referee, Ivan Kruzliak, during the spot-kicks after being warned for gamesmanship – another dollop of shithousery, you could say – but avoided being sent off and leaving Villa in the unprecedented scenario of being without a goalkeeper for the rest of the shootout because cautions are not carried forward into penalties. At the time, nobody seemed too sure.

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• Club ‘disappointed’ and now risk losing personnel to rivals
• Heather Knight says cricket will be more viable career option

Richard Gould, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has stressed that Yorkshire initially missing out on the revamp of the professional women’s game is not a case of the club being “punished for past sins”.

From next year the current eight-team regional women’s system will switch to 15-strong full-time squads run directly by eight ­counties. ­Durham, Essex, Hampshire, ­Lancashire, Somerset, ­Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Surrey were those selected this week, before an expansion to 10 counties by 2027 and up to 12 by 2029.

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Madrid being cast as underdogs is a grotesque measure of where we are but absorbing tie was a telling clash of contrasts

It turns out Pep Guardiola was right after all. Manchester City’s pursuit of the double-treble will now remain “a hypothetical dream”.

This was Pep’s own excellent phrase before Wednesday’s second leg against Real Madrid, a formulation that suggests even Guardiola’s dreams are full of theory, algebra, hypotheticals, like a footballing version of Evelyn Waugh’s professor Silenus, the modernist architect who doesn’t sleep but instead lies in the dark for eight hours with his eyes shut doing high-speed calculations, before rising at dawn to design another machine-age masterpiece.

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• Investigation found FBI mishandled abuse allegations
• Agents had knowledge of allegations a year before arrest

The US Justice Department has agreed to pay approximately $100m to settle claims with about 100 people who say they were sexually assaulted by disgraced doctor Larry Nassar, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations has told The Associated Press. The deal has not been finalized and no money has been paid, the source said.

An internal investigation found that FBI agents mishandled abuse allegations by women more than a year before Nassar was arrested in 2016.

The settlement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Nassar was a Michigan State University sports doctor as well as a doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. He is serving an effective life sentence for assaulting athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts, under the guise of treatment.

Lawyers filed claims against the government, focusing on a 15-month period when FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against Nassar but apparently took no action, beginning in 2015. The Justice Department inspector general confirmed fundamental errors.

Nassar’s assaults continued until his arrest in the fall of 2016, authorities said.

The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

“I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” the FBI director, Christopher, Wray told survivors at a Senate hearing in 2021. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”

The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in western Michigan filed a child sexual abuse images case against him.

Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500m to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee agreed to a $380m settlement.

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• Richard Hannon’s horse romps home yet trainer remains coy
• Stablemate Rosallion labelled ‘a horse with an awful lot of speed’

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when a three-and-a-half length success in the Craven Stakes over the same course and distance as the 2,000 Guineas in 16 days’ time would have fast-tracked the winner to the top of the Classic betting. Haatem, by contrast, can be backed at 20-1 for the Guineas on 4 May, despite powering well clear of his field in Newmarket’s traditional Classic trial on Thursday.

This was still a race that offered some clues ahead of the Classic meeting, however. The difference is that they were to be found in the unsaddling enclosure rather than out on the track.

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• Club’s owners ready to back Mikel Arteta in transfer market
• Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres has also been heavily linked

Arsenal are targeting a striker and winger in the summer to strengthen Mikel Arteta’s squad after their hopes of reaching a first Champions League semi-final since 2009 were ended by Bayern Munich.

Successive defeats against Aston Villa and Bayern have left Arsenal’s chances of silverware this season relying on Manchester City slipping up in the Premier League title race with six games to play after Arteta’s side finished as runners-up last year. There have been signs of ­progress since more than GBP200m was spent last summer on Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber but the owner, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), recognises that Arteta’s squad needs significant strengthening to help them take the next step.

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• Ethiopian eyes 2hr 10min mark – but not necessarily in London
• Assefa will run London Marathon in GBP450 Adidas super shoe

Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa has set her sights on further lowering her women’s marathon world record to under two hours 10 minutes – but admits her only goal in Sunday’s London marathon is to win.

Achieving that time sounds like a staggering ambition but the 27-year-old is clearly confident after running 2:11:53 in Berlin last September – a time that obliterated the previous mark of 2:14:04 set by Brigid Kosgei in 2019.

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Maybe Fede Valverde, Real Madrid’s man of the match at the Etihad, said it best: “Against all odds. Acting like dead people. THIS IS FOOTBALL HERITAGE REAL MADRID.” Yes, Manchester City are out, Madrid are through, water is wet. Stick your xG, bookies’ odds, possession stats, and moral victories. Liam Gallagher, Ricky Hatton, Jason Manford, your boys took one hell of a beating. So Madrid continued their inevitable march towards another Big Cup semi-final, their 12th in the last 14 years. Sometimes over the years they have bullied and swaggered their way to victory, through Sergio Ramos headers or Gareth Bale bicycle kicks. Sometimes, as on Wednesday, they have grafted, ridden their luck, found a goal or a pass or a tackle from nowhere, watched as their opponents have inexplicably squandered their chances – like a Bond villain missing a point-blank shot with an automatic weapon, only to see 007 cling on for dear life and triumph at the last. Madrid always find a way. Carlo Ancelotti always finds a way. How do they do it?

Seeing Pompey’s John Mousinho referred to as the ‘Pro Evo version of the Special One’ ( yesterday’s Football Daily) got me wondering: what would the Football Daily Pro Evo equivalents be? Mack Russian and Barney Greatending have a nice ring to them” – Tom Murray-Rust.

Re: yesterday’s Memory Lane (full email edition). Footballers do actually still run pubs, even in the modern era. I’d like to nominate Newcastle United’s former French left-back Olivier Bernard and give a big shout out to The Masons Arms in Blyth. It’s always worth name-checking Ollie for an excuse to watch this again and again” – Jason Rohan.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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Promo images show youngsters looking excited – but possibly more for the task ahead than the clothes they are wearing

Designing the kits for Olympic and Paralympic athletes to compete in is hardly a simple task. It’s one that takes in the demands of multiple, wildly different sports, as well as comfort, performance and some kind of unifying aesthetic that shows a gymnast, a sprinter and a breakdancer are on the same team. So it’s no surprise that this level of juggling quite often leads to kits like the Adidas one being worn by Team GB for the Paris Olympics – one that feels a little generic, and “designed by committee”. If you asked Midjourney to design a British Olympic kit, it might look something like this.

Included in the press images are taekwondo practitioners Bianca Cook and Caden Cunningham, long jumper Jazmin Sawyers and sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake for the Olympics, which start in July, and Olivia Breen and Zak Skinner, who both take part in long jump and sprints, along with their sprint counterpart Thomas Young for this year’s Paralympics, which begin in August. There’s no doubt they look great but look closer and it’s possibly more from the fact that these are young people full of hope and excitement for an upcoming multi-sport event than the clothes they are wearing.

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Fifa is considering a policy change that would allow leagues to play domestic matches overseas, reopening one of football’s most squalid ideas

The dream – or nightmare – of a 39th Premier League match in America has drawn a little closer. After reaching a settlement with US promoter Relevent Sports, Fifa last week signaled it will consider changes to its policy of blocking league matches from being played outside the league’s home country. The indication that Fifa’s thinking on the issue may be evolving in a more flexible direction will be welcomed by Europe’s top clubs and deplored by football traditionalists.

For clubs, the commercial case is clear. This is an argument anchored not in culture but money. The work of evangelizing soccer is already done; the sport is not like American football, say, or rugby league, or basketball, or even cricket, which are still trawling the globe for converts and regularly hold matches overseas. In the world of professional sport, football is No 1 and probably always will be. Taking chunks of the European domestic season on the road represents a juicy financial opportunity, potentially unlocking valuable revenue to help weather the storm of a newly restrictive regulatory environment and bringing teams closer to the millions of football fans who live outside Europe.

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More in South Australia are seemingly able to turn the other way and view the Saudi-backed rebel golf tour’s presence as a boon for the sport

As LIV golf returns to Adelaide next week, Australia’s appetite for the breakaway tour appears stronger than anywhere in the world. The South Australian capital has been the most successful venue in the short history of the tour, and there are few signs that any ethical misgivings about the tour’s Saudi backers have diminished that popularity.

The manner of the challenger brand’s ingratiation of Australian officials, players and spectators serves as a model for LIV, particularly as the mooted merger with the PGA Tour shows little sign of delivering a united sport. The 2024 event, which gets under way on Friday 26 April, is therefore significant.

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• German club could demand huge fee for 21-year-old
• Other City targets include Lucas Paqueta and Eberechi Eze

Manchester City are planning a big push to sign Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala this summer. Pep Guardiola wants more options in attacking midfield and Musiala is emerging as his top target.

Bayern will not want to lose the Germany international, who has two years on his deal, and could ward off suitors by demanding a huge fee. The 21-year-old, who can play in a variety of positions in attack, has made impressive strides since leaving Chelsea five years ago and is a key player for the Bundesliga side.

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Prize money at the Olympic Games is in the spotlight after a move by World Athletics to reward their track and field athletes from Paris 2024 onwards. The move from Sebastian Coe broke with 128 years of tradition by becoming the first sport to give athletes prize money if they are victorious in Paris this summer. Champions will come away with $50,000 (GBP39,360) if they reach the top of the podium. The decision blindsided the International Olympic Committee, which has never awarded money for participating or winning a medal, as it believes that to compete at a Games is reward enough. World Athletics has drawn some criticism from the controversial announcement, with the head of the British Olympic Association, Andy Anson, among others to question the decision.

• World Athletics’ cash for Paris Olympics winners creates problem, says BOA chief

• Coe defends World Athletics’ move to award $50,000 to Olympic gold winners

• Gold medal for politics: why Olympic prize money is a smart move by Seb Coe

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• Mercedes driver says he remains unfazed by ‘people talking shit’
• Seven-time champion has 10 points going into of Chinese GP

Lewis Hamilton has insisted his decision to join Ferrari in 2025 does not need any vindication, as he bemoaned the continued discussion over whether it is the right choice.

Before the start of the 2024 ­Formula One season, the 39-year-old shocked his Mercedes team by announcing he would be switching at the end of this year. The team’s slump is now entering its third year and they remain far from the leaders, Red Bull, and have also been outpaced by ­Ferrari this season. Hamilton is enduring the worst start of his career, without a finish in the top six and having scored only 10 points.

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• Team GB and ParalympicsGB kits navy with red and white trim
• Fashion verdict: short on imagination as function wins out

Bland, blue, and designed to avoid any brouhaha – or hoo haa. That is the formula for the official British kit for this summer’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which was unveiled in Paris on Wednesday.

According to Adidas, the manufacturer of Team GB’s kit, the athletes will wear “a design DNA that celebrates the unique aspects of Great Britain, while encapsulating the fire of passion that burns within every athlete”.

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• Gregg Doyel had drawn criticism for awkward comments
• Clark was selected No 1 overall by Indiana Fever

A columnist for the Indianapolis Star has apologised after an uncomfortable interaction with Caitlin Clark at a press conference on Wednesday.

Gregg Doyel was selected to ask a question at Clark’s introductory news conference with the Indiana Fever, who selected her No 1 overall in Monday’s WNBA draft. Before Doyel asked his question he made a heart sign with his hands, a gesture that Clark was known for during her record-breaking college career with Iowa.

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe as Real Madrid and Bayern account for Manchester City and Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: you can never write off Real Madrid. Manchester City dominated them for almost the entire 120 minutes, but they stayed in it and ultimately went through on penalties to exorcise the demons from their collapse at the Etihad last year.

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Caleb Williams will almost certainly be the No 1 overall pick this month. But there are plenty of interesting players lower down the board

In recent drafts, we’ve seen players selected from Australia. We’ve had a tight end with no experience picked out of Germany in the sixth-round, thanks to Mike Mayock demanding it on the draft broadcast – that really happened! What we haven’t seen is an American-born player selected out of Canada. And we haven’t seen an American-born player drafted who played no college football.

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Mikel Arteta said Arsenal 'lacked that magic moment' after losing to Bayern Munich and missing out on a first Champions League semi-final since 2009. Joshua Kimmich’s second-half goal was enough to secure a 3-2 aggregate win. 'I thought we had the capacity and the quality to win the semi-finals because the margins have been very small,' Arteta said. 'But those margins are coming from something else that maybe we don't have yet and we have to learn it.'

• ‘Small margins’: Arteta says Arsenal have plenty to learn after Bayern defeat

• Arsenal knocked out by Bayern after Kimmich header secures last-four spot

• Hardened Bayern show true colours and hand Arteta biggest challenge

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Manchester City came from behind in their quarter-final second leg at the ­Etihad Stadium, after Kevin De Bruyne’s 76th-minute strike cancelled out Rodrygo’s opener early in the first half. Despite the holders dominating ­possession, Real held on until the end of extra-time and eventually prevailed following a penalty shootout. 'We did everything, I don't have any regrets with what we have done,' said Guardiola.

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Holders still played like champions of Europe for long periods but a lack of decisive end product proved their undoing

Pep Guardiola had talked about the need to suffer before this game. OK then. It’s a deal. This was a gripping, gruelling, sky blue migraine of a football match, one that Manchester City really didn’t deserve to lose, but which somehow always felt like it was slipping from their grasp even during a second half when City seemed to be very slowly, carefully, methodically pulling the legs off this Real Madrid team.

There will be no double-treble now after Madrid’s victory on penalties. But City still played like champions of Europe for long periods. They took Madrid into a horrible place. These are not footballers accustomed chasing and covering, waiting for the blow to fall. At times it felt as though Real spent the last hour of this game desperately trying to take it to a replay back at their tiny ground with a corrugated roof.

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Where was the most happening place on Tuesday night? With Mbappe’s boys in Barcelona? Among a stream of yellow flags in Westphalia? No, as much as we love Big Cup, the game does exist outside of it. The most exuberant celebrations were on the south coast at Fratton Park, where Portsmouth, after 12 years of lower-league shenanigans, sealed their return to the big-time (Championship). Theatricality marked the occasion, too. A point was required for promotion; three to win League One. After 82 minutes they were heading towards none, trailing 2-1 to visitors Barnsley. A Colby Bishop penalty and Conor Shaughnessy header later, they were champions. Cue the final whistle, your bog-standard pitch invasion, and a party like no tomorrow for a fanbase that has been put through the wringer; for a while there, tomorrow didn’t seem to be on the cards.

The bit about penalty arguments in yesterday’s Football Daily reminded me of Steve Nicol’s miss in the 1984 European Cup final shootout. With senior squad members arguing over the order the penalties were going to be taken (after the 1-1 draw against Roma in their own stadium) they turn round to see Nicol, then 22 and on as a sub, has taken matters into his own hands and is striding towards the penalty spot with the ball under his arm. As Nicol tells it: ‘For the only time in my career, I don’t feel in full control. I start my run-up. Then, midway through, I lift my head and look where I want to put the ball. A classic mistake. The ball soars over the bar.’ While some of the members of the team sympathised with the youngster, the ever-forgiving Mark Lawrenson walked up and said: ‘Unlucky Nico, you d1ckhead!’ Fortunately, the Italians’ own penalty blunders and Bruce Grobbelaar’s spaghetti legs got the lad out of trouble” – Martin McGrath.

Tony Adams revealed he was due to take the penalty that made Gareth Southgate infamous, against Germany in the Euro 96 semi-final, but the current England manager stepped up instead as he felt confident that ‘he had this’. Oh Gareth!” – Alex Metcalfe.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack remains a bestseller and headline-grabber, because it acts as the conscience of cricket

The commission came by post, which was unusual even in 1994. We don’t pay very well, it said, but we can offer you “a sliver of immortality”. Only the editor of Wisden could have written that.

The editor was Matthew Engel, whose waspish wit had (unwittingly) lured me into sports writing. Five years earlier, when I was mulling an unexpected offer to switch from arts and features editing to being the cricket writer for the Independent on Sunday, what swung it was rereading an anthology of Matthew’s sparkling spell in the same role at the Guardian. So I jumped at the chance to work with him and spent long hours sweating over the Almanack’s media roundup. Only in Wisden could this appear on page 1,359.

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Rafael Nadal made a winning return to the court with victory over Flavio Cobolli in the first round of the Barcelona Open. The 37-year-old was playing his second tournament in 15 months after suffering another hip injury at his comeback event in Brisbane in January. Nadal eased to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over the 21-year-old Italian Cobolli in his first match on clay since he won his 14th French Open title in 2022.

• Rafael Nadal makes winning return in first round at Barcelona Open

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As a rising crop of young stars lead their teams into the NBA postseason, the league’s old guard are thriving past their sell-by dates – and none more than the Lakers’ ageless superstar

The second-youngest team in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder, just clinched the top seed in a feverishly competitive Western Conference. A Minnesota Timberwolves squad, led by 22-year-old phenom Anthony Edwards, are hot on their tails. But on the bottom end of the bracket, and the other end of the age spectrum, await surefire first-ballot Hall of Famers like Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and LeBron James.

Yes, their respective teams had up-and-down seasons that left them with unfavorable seedings entering the NBA postseason, which soft-launches on Tuesday night with the play-in tournament. And no one would argue that the future isn’t looking bright in the association with stars like Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in full bloom. But the youngsters in Oklahoma and Minnesota would be the first to tell you: the NBA’s old guard is still waiting in the wings, cleaver in hand.

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In a ceremony held amid the ruins of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Games 2,800 years ago, the flame was kindled by performers dressed as priestesses, though this year because of weather conditions the torch was not ignited as usual in a parabolic mirror – which focuses the sun’s rays – but from a flame. The flame was then handed to the first of hundreds of torchbearers who will carry it on an 11-day journey around Greece. This year, that honour fell to the country’s Olympic gold medallist and rowing champion Stefanos Douskos. IOC president Thomas Bach also addressed the crowd, relaying a message of unity in a time when war is raging saying 'it is possible to compete fiercely against each other and at the same time live peacefully together'

• ‘A message of peace’: Olympic flame begins its journey to Paris

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The County Championship is yet to ignite this season. Thankfully summer and the Dukes ball will be here soon

By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog

You may think that bowlers had it tough with a ball that looked ill-suited to its job. Normal service resumes on Friday with the Dukes ball restored to grateful bowlers’ hands. You may think spectators had it tough, with just enough sunshine to tempt them into believing that summer was here and that the fourth layer might not have been necessary, before winter blew angrily through the land on Monday.

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Caitlin Clark’s professional basketball career has begun after she was selected by the Indiana Fever as the No 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft. The former Iowa star became a household name among basketball fans during her record-breaking college career, and she will now try and help revive the Indiana franchise along with last season’s No 1 pick, Aliyah Boston, who previously played with Clark on the USA Basketball Under-19 team

• Indiana Fever select Caitlin Clark at head of ‘generational’ WNBA draft class

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Of all the myriad campaigns to save the sport we love, not one has come up with a solution to the inherent risk of brain injury

Governing bodies the world over can be certain of one thing only – they will be the subject of endless criticism. No half-serious journalist will write for long without taking the authorities to task over something, and journalists are the sensible ones. The public do the same but – how to put this – with extra feeling. All the time.

World Rugby is as assailed as any governing body. Its own players are taking it to court, after all, with the not insignificant claim World Rugby ruined their lives. That lawsuit may or may not be sitting at the top of an in-tray that creaks under the weight of grievances, most of them irreconcilable.

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‘Deadly’ was the antithesis of the international superstar sportsman – until he set off on his run-up

Derek Underwood once described himself as a “low-mentality bowler”. It was a typically self-effacing remark from England’s most prolific spinner in Test cricket (with 297 victims). Underwood was a hero from another age but you would never have guessed so when wandering into the bar after playing against Kent. He would be there with a beer in one hand and a fag in the other and that self-deprecating smile on his lips. He would happily talk cricket – and spin bowling – often seeking the opinion of others as if they knew better than him (which was ridiculous). Here was the antithesis of the international superstar sportsman until, with his feet splayed at 1o to two, he set off on his run-up.

That reference to his “low mentality” partially explains his success. Underwood was, in fact, a free thinker. It was natural for him to bowl quicker than his peers but crucially he had the nous not to change his style. Generally he shunned the fancy variations that the armchair pundits and a few old coaches craved. Instead the human metronome trundled up to the crease and landed the ball on a length around off-stump at his pace time and time again. And so the strangulation process began.

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The race’s ability to adapt to changing attitudes over the course of nearly 200 years has been one of the secrets of its survival

For the first time in a while – since April 2018, in fact – Grand National day at Aintree on Saturday was, for this spectator at least, an almost entirely positive experience. It was a race with all the drama and spectacle that got many of us hooked on racing in the first place, but no fallers, no serious injuries and a winner, I Am Maximus, whose breathtaking turn of foot on the run-in will live long in the memory.

The contrast to the frenetic scenes over the first circuit last year could scarcely have been more complete. Three of the four fallers 12 months ago came as 39 horses surged over the first two fences at high speed, and the knock-on effects were significant. Five more runners were badly hampered by a faller, and two unseated their riders as a result, while in all, eight horses were seriously impeded at some stage, either by a faller or a loose horse.

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Despite vindication over police and media lies that followed the disaster, families and survivors lament lack of accountability

• Hillsborough: the 97 people whose lives were cut short

On this spring day, 15 April, the clocks move round to 35 years since that terrible afternoon in 1989, when 97 people were unlawfully killed attending a prestige football match at Sheffield Wednesday’s home ground, Hillsborough.

English football will remember its deepest shame as a different age, the appalling crush on unsafe terraces with fenced-in “pens” for supporters, at a stadium nevertheless deemed suitable to host an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. A last disaster, after which clubs were finally forced by law – and given public money – to make their grounds safe, then sold their TV rights to Sky and grew rich on supporters’ subscriptions.

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The 33-year-old Russian, a defeated world title challenger in 2021 and 2023, is in line for a third attempt as he leads in Toronto at halfway

Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi leads at halfway in the €500k Candidates in Toronto, Canada, whose winner qualifies for a world title match later this year with the holder, China’s Ding Liren.

Scores after round seven (of 14): Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 4.5; ­Fabiano Caruana (US), ­Praggnanandhaa R and Gukesh D (both India) 4; Hikaru Nakamura (US) and Vidit Gujrathi (India) 3.5; Alireza Firouzja (France) 2.5; Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan) 2.

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