The two semi-final fixtures in this year’s Champions League have been confirmed.

This follows the completion of all quarter-final ties on Wednesday night.

Bayern Munich will play Real Madrid after they beat Arsenal 1-0 at the Allianz Arena to qualify with a 3-2 aggregate.

Madrid drew 1-1 on the night at the Etihad, before winning the penalty shoot-out 4-3.

In the other semi-final clash, Paris Saint-Germain will take on Borussia Dortmund.

PSG sent Barcelona packing with a 6-4 aggregate win on Tuesday, while Dortmund eliminated Atletico Madrid with a 5-4 aggregate victory.

The last-four fixtures have been scheduled for April 30 and May 7, 2024.

Barcelona manager, Xavi Hernandez, has blamed referee, Istvan Kovacs for their Champions League exit.

Despite coming into the second leg of their quarter-final clash against Paris Saint-Germain with a 3-2 advantage, the LaLiga giants were eliminated in front of their fans.

Raphinha gave Barca the lead, before Kovacs sent off Ronald Araujo for a last-man tackle.

From then on, Ousmane Dembele, Vitinha and Kylian Mbappe (brace) scored to send PSG through.

Xavi, who also saw red in the game, said afterwards: “It’s a pity, our Champions League is over due to the referee’s mistake.

“I just told the referee that he’s been a disaster. It’s the reality.”

Wrexham United goalkeeper, Arthur Okonkwo has been named in EFL League Two’s Team of the Season.

The 22-year-old goalie has kept 13 clean sheets in the league this season.

The Nigerian has started 34 of Wrexham’s 44 League Two fixtures.

The Arsenal-owned shot-stopper played a starring role in the Red Dragons wrapping up a top-three finish and back-to-back promotions.

Okonkwo will be available this summer as his contract at Arsenal is about to expire.

There is expected to be a massive scramble for his signature following his exploits with Wrexham.

Arsenal legend, Ian Wright, has accused Gabriel Martinelli of “switching off” during the 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa.

The Gunners’ Premier League title hopes were hit on Sunday, as goals from Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins sealed the win for Unai Emery’s men.

Arsenal were hoping to return to the top of the table following Liverpool’s shock defeat to Crystal Palace earlier in the day.

But they slipped up themselves in a huge boost to defending champions Manchester City.

With six fixtures left, Pep Guardiola’s side find themselves two points above Arsenal and Liverpool, who are only separated on goal difference.

Analysing Arsenal’s defeat for Premier League Productions, Wright criticised Martinelli’s lack of awareness in the build-up to the opening goal.

The Brazilian forward replaced Leandro Trossard in the second half, but allowed Bailey to roam free at the back post and tuck in Lucas Digne’s cross.

He said: “Look at Martinelli, this is what we’ve been saying because Arsenal have been so good defensively this season.

“Everyone has been switched on but in this instance, he switches off. Bailey is his man, that’s his man in this situation. He has to get closer to him, it’s as simple as that.”

Former England women’s player, Eniola Aluko, has become the first black woman to own a club in Italy.

Aluko has acquired a major stake in FC Como’s female team.

The 37-year-old confirmed this in a post on her X page, where revealed she is a part of a $100 million ownership group, known as Mercury 13, which acquired a majority stake.

Como Women was only established in 2020, and they use a 3,700-capacity stadium.

They currently play in the top flight of the Italian Serie A.

Eniola, who is the sister of former Super Eagles player Sone Aluko, was born in Lagos to Nigerian parents in 1987.

But she eventually naturalized to England and played for the Three Lionesses.

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, on Friday announced the appointment of Manu Garba as head coach of the country’s U-17 side, Golden Eaglets.

Garba is making a return to the position having guided the Golden Eaglets to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2013.

The former Nigeria international will immediately resume the role and take charge of the team’s preparations for the WAFU B U-17 Championship, taking place in Ghana.

The competition will take place next month.

The WAFU tourney will serve as qualifier for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

The Golden Eaglets were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the last edition of the competition hosted by Algeria.

At least 11 Chelsea players were absent in training ahead of Monday’s Premier League clash against Everton.

According to Standard Sport, Axel Disasi and Enzo Fernandez have joined the injury list.

Raheem Sterling and Robert Sanchez are listed as ill.

Already unavailable are Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu all on the club’s injury report.

But there is a positive update for Chelsea with defender Ben Chilwell returning to partial training.

The Blues go into the game sitting in 9th place with 44 points.

Manchester United will be without Jonny Evans and Raphael Varane for this weekend’s clash with Bournemouth.

The Premier League club confirmed this in a statement on Thursday.

Varane will be out for “the next few weeks” after sustaining a muscle injury against Chelsea.

Evans also has a muscle issue, but it is said to be “shorter-term”.

United are already without six senior defenders. Tyrell Malacia, Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof are also injured.

With Evans and Varane joining them on the treatment table, Erik ten Hag faces a selection crisis.

Napoli have identified Lille striker, Jonathan David as the top target to replace departing Victor Osimhen.

Despite signing a contract extension with Napoli last December, Osimhen is set to leave the Italian side at the end of the season.

Paris Saint-Germain is leading the race to sign him as a replacement for Real Madrid-bound Kylian Mbappe.

Chelsea are also said to be interested in signing the Nigeria international as their marquee forward signing to take the club to the next level.

La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Jonathan David is the top preference for Napoli.

David has scored 23 goals and provided 7 assists in 39 games so far this season, mirroring his output from the 2022-2023 campaign.

Al-Nassr striker, Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off as his team lost 2-0 to Al-Hilal in a Saudi Super Cup clash on Monday night.

Ronaldo received his marching orders for elbowing Ali Al-Bulaihi.

Al-Nassr thought they had taken the lead when Otavio diverted into the net as the first half ended.

However, the goal was chalked off, because Ronaldo made an attempt to touch the ball from an offside position.

The decision left Ronaldo fuming and he argued with the referee about the decision.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner was given a yellow card for dissent, but he then lashed out at an Al-Hilal player and was shown a straight red card late in the game while his team were 2-0 down.

Ronaldo raised his fist at the referee after the card came out and sarcastically applauded the official as he walked off.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday announced that the Under-15 national football team, known as the Future Eagles, will not participate in the upcoming UEFA U16 Development Tournament starting in Spain on Friday over visa issues.

According to a statement released by the federation on its official X, formerly Twitter account, players and officials of the team were denied visas by the Spanish Embassy to take part in the tournament.

“Players and officials of the Nigeria U15 team, Future Eagles, have been denied visas by the Spanish Embassy and will, therefore, not be travelling to take part in the UEFA U16 Development Tournament starting on Friday,” the statement said.

The UEFA U16 Development Tournament was established by the European football governing body (UEFA) in 2012 with the aim of helping aspiring footballers across the globe participate in international football.

Each tournament consists of four national teams from both UEFA nations and non-UEFA national boys’ and girls’ national teams.

Fulham midfielder, Alex Iwobi has set a new record for the most minutes played by a Nigerian in the Premier League.

Iwobi surpassed the previous record held by former Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi after playing 90 minutes in Fulham’s 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.

Iwobi has now played 16, 289 minutes in the English top-flight, surpassing Mikel’s 16, 218 minutes.

The 27-year-old previously had stints with Arsenal and Everton before moving to Craven Cottage.

The versatile midfielder has scored five goals in 25 league appearances for Fulham this season.

He joined Marco Silva’s side from Everton last summer.

Chelsea boss, Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that the set of players at his disposal are not mature enough to compete.

Following their midweek 4-3 victory over Manchester United, the Blues played out a 2-2 draw against relegation-bound Sheffield United on Sunday.

The Blues conceded the second equalizer in the 93rd minute at Bramall Lane.

“At 52, you identify really quickly whether the team is ready to compete or not,” he told reporters after the game.

“Maybe this group is not mature enough to compete in games every three days.

“It’s a new team and we are still learning about their profiles. The process always takes time”.

Manchester City’s transfer deal for Cavan Sullivan has been revealed.

According to football transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, Sullivan will join Manchester City for a fee close to $1million plus many add-ons.

He disclosed this in a tweet via his X handle on Saturday night.

“American wonderkid Cavan Sullivan to Manchester City, here we go!

“Deal agreed as revealed weeks ago and now all the documents being signed with Philadelphia Union. Fee close to $1m + many add-ons.

“2009 talent will join #MCFC in the next year,” Romano tweeted.

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has admitted he prefers to win the Premier League than the Champions League.

City could still repeat last season’s historic Treble, as they are fighting for the league, Champions League and the FA Cup.

Of all the competitions, Guardiola has been most successful in the Premier League, winning it in five of the last six years and the last three in a row.

But the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has said the league remains his overriding priority.

He told reporters: “Of the domestic trophies, it is the most important — Premier League or La Liga. I’m not going to say the Champions League is not nice, of course it is.“So now we have it and know how it feels in our soul and we are at peace, for the fact we’ve got it.

“[The Premier League] is just the nicest because it’s more difficult, there are more games, you know every week, two or three games.

“The Champions League, of course, is important, but it depends on something you perhaps can’t control. Both are incredibly important, but the Premier League proves a lot. It shows the mentality of the teams, being there all the time for many, many years.”

Chelsea staged a last-gasp comeback to beat Manchester United 4-3, with Cole Palmer bagging a hat-trick to turn a madcap Premier League match on its head.

This was after the Reds seemed to have staged their unlikely turnaround in a thriller on Thursday.

Chelsea’s top scorer Palmer struck twice deep into added time at Stamford Bridge to save the Blues, who were on the verge of a 3-2 home defeat.

United remain in sixth spot and still 11 points behind fourth-placed Villa, with a game in hand.

Timed at 100 minutes and 39 seconds, Palmer’s clincher was the latest winning goal on record in a Premier League game.

Chelsea had raced into a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes with a strike by captain Conor Gallagher and a Palmer penalty.

Alejandro Garnacho’s goal—after a Moises Caicedo error—and Bruno Fernandes’s before halftime and another by Garnacho in the 67th minute turned the tide towards United, who are chasing qualification for next season’s Champions League.

But with the Blues looking beaten, Diogo Dalot brought down Noni Madueke in the box, and after a nail-biting VAR check, Palmer stroked home from the spot for the second time on the night to level the match at 3-3 in the 10th minute of added time.

A minute later, he blasted a shot that deflected off United’s midfielder, Scott McTominay, into the net to claim his 16th league goal of the season and send the home fans into raptures.

The victory moved Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea up to 10th, five points behind United with a game in hand.

Despite their stop-start season, Chelsea is still hoping to snatch a Europa League spot.

Former Manchester United forward, Garth Crooks, has given a piece of advice to Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, over his penalty style.

Crooks, who was speaking on BBC, warned Palmer that he could land in trouble for disrespecting his opponents with his Panenka penalty style.

He went on to say that players know how to handle such audacious finishes.

“The way Palmer dispatched his penalty showed he has supreme confidence in his own ability,” Crooks said.

“But his dinked finish was bordering on ‘taking the Michael’ and players have a way of dealing with that. If he is not careful he may have his wings clipped.”

Palmer scored a brace, including a cheeky Panenka, against Burnley in their recent Premier League match at the weekend.

However, Chelsea drew 2-2 with the Clarets, despite Palmer’s excellent performance, after conceding twice to a 10-man side.

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland says his team can still win the English Premier League (EPL) title in spite of their goalless draw with title contenders Arsenal on Sunday.

The encounter which took place at the Etihad Stadium saw Manchester City and Arsenal handing Liverpool the advantage in the Premier League title race.

Liverpool are now at the top of the table, with two points clear of Arsenal and three ahead of City, after they came from behind to beat Brighton at Anfield.

It was a delight for Liverpool to see their two closest rivals cancelling each other out.

But Haaland took to his Instagram page after the game against Arsenal to confidently claim that City can come from behind to win the title, just like they did last season.

“We’ve done it once. We can do it again,” said Haaland.The Norway international is undoubtedly the best striker in the Premier League and perhaps the world.

He has scored 29 goals with six assists in 35 games, which is a phenomenal return.

However, against William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes on Sunday, Haaland struggled and had zero shots on target.

It was a poor performance that made Roy Keane compare him to a League Two striker.

The draw against Arsenal means Manchester City are still third in the Premier League table and are now three points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have a better goal difference as well, which makes them the favourites to win the Premier League title this season.

Liverpool would have to pay a compensation package to Sporting CP to secure the services of manager Ruben Amorim, the UK Telegraph reports.

Amorim is looking like Jurgen Klopp’s successor ahead of next season.

And if the Reds decide he is the man to lead the team forward, they would have to activate a release clause in his contract.

Amorim can be allowed to leave Sporting for as little as €15 million (£13m/$16m) when a release clause becomes active in the summer.

That fee drops to €10m (£8.5m/$10.5m) the following season.

Xabi Alonso, who was deemed a big favourite for the Liverpool job, on Friday announced his decision to stay with Bayer Leverkusen.