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Barcelona, who play Celta Vigo this afternoon, have released a statement criticising the scheduling of their fixtures.
We consider … that governing bodies of Spanish Football should be more considerate with teams, such as ours, who are taking part in all three competitions in the final part of the season.
This is not a new problem, and without making light of the difficulty of organised a fixture list with so many matches, FC Barcelona will continue to defend its interests in front of the national and international organising bodies of football so that the sporting calendar makes more sense.
As such, FC Barcelona will make a form complaint to the regulatory bodies of football with the aim of avoiding situations that may be to the detriment of the real stars in the world of football, the players.
Full time: Arsenal 1-2 Lyon
Arsenal’s hopes of a first Champions League final since 2007 are fading after they lost the first leg of their semi-final at home to Lyon. Melchie Dumornay’s late goal gave Lyon a big advantage going into the second leg next weekend.
Full time: Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen
Yep, the semi-final is going to extra-time at Hampden. Hearts, down to 10 men since the 44th minute, defended really well to keep Hearts out.
Barcelona (4-2-3-1) Szczesny; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Martin; Pedri, De Jong; Raphinha, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.
Subs: Araujo, Christensen, Fati, Fort, Garcia, Gavi, Kochen, Olmo, Pena, Torre, Victor, Yamal.
Celta Vigo (3-4-2-1) Guaita; Rodriguez, Lago, Alonso; Duran, Beltran, Moriba, Carreira; Losada, Swedberg; Iglesias.
Subs: Alvarez, Aspas, Cervi, Dominguez, Gonzalez, Jailson, Lopez, Mingueza, Rustic, Rodriguez, Sotelo, Villar.
86 min: Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen James Penrice, one of the two non-Old Firm players in that PFA team of the year, almost puts Hearts ahead with a terrific curler that whistles just wide of the far post.
Champions League: Arsenal v Lyon
There’s been a third goal at the Emirates. If you want to know who’s scored it, you know what to do.
82 min: Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen The ten men of Hearts have defended admirably in the second half at Hampden. Extra time is looming like BOB in Twin Peaks.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1) Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz,
Wharton, Hughes, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Mateta.
Subs: Turner, Lerma, Nketiah, Franca, Clyne, Kamada, Esse, Chilwell, Devenny.
AFC Bournemouth (4-2-3-1) Arrizabalaga; Smith, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez; Scott, Adams; Semenyo, Kluivert, Ouattara; Evanilson.
Subs: Dennis, Cook, Senesi, Brooks, Tavernier, Soler, Jebbison, Araujo, Hill.
Referee Sam Barrott (West Yorkshire)
There’s been another goal in the Champions League semi-final at the Emirates. Xaymaca Awoyungbo is following that one.
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Harrison, Doucoure, Ndiaye; Broja.
Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, McNeil, Beto, Young, Coleman, Alcaraz, Iroegbunam.
Man City (4-2-3-1) Ortega; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Gundogan, Gonzalez; Silva, De Bruyne, Savinho; Marmoush.
Subs: McAtee, Lewis, Foden, Khusanov, Akanji, Doku, Grealish, Kovacic, Carson.
Referee Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
West Ham (4-2-3-1) Areola; Coufal, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson Palmieri; Soler, Ward-Prowse; Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Kudus; Fullkrug.
Subs: Fabianski, Cresswell, Mavropanos, Luis Guilherme, Rodriguez,
Soucek, Ferguson, Irving, Scarles.
Southampton (3-5-2) Ramsdale; Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens; Walker-Peters, Downes, Fernandes, Ugochukwu, Manning; Onuachu, Sulemana.
Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Smallbone, Stewart, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Archer, Dibling, Welington.
Referee Andrew Kitchen (Durham)
Brentford (4-2-3-1) Flekken; Kayode, Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter, Norgaard, Yarmolyuk; Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Schade; Wissa.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Mee, Ajer, Konak, Janelt, Nunes Gomes.
Brighton (4-2-3-1) Verbruggen; Hinshelwood, van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan; Wieffer, Baleba, Minteh, O’Riley, Joao Pedro, Welbeck.
Subs: Steele, March, Gruda, Adingra, Cashin, Mitoma, Gomez, Ayari, Tasker.
Referee Tim Robinson (West Sussex)
Apologies, I was so busy peddling my dubious wares that I forgot to list the full PFA Scotland team of the year.
SPFL XI (4-3-3) Schmeichel (Celtic); Johnston (Celtic), Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Souttar (Rangers), Penrice (Hearts); McGregor (Celtic), Hatate (Celtic), Rankin (Rangers); Kuhn (Celtic), Maeda (Celtic), Dalby (Dundee United).
67 min: Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen
“Still all square,” writes Simon McMahon. “A Celtic v Aberdeen Scottish Cup final would result in fifth place in Scotland getting a European spot, which means that it would be likely that Dundee United finish their first season back in the top flight with a European ‘adventure’, if that’s what you can call a Conference qualifying round defeat in some European outpost in July. I’ll take it though. Oh, and ‘Big’ Sam Dalby has made the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, one of only two non Old Firm players to do so.”
Talking of Dundee United and European adventures, this podcast on the events of 25 April 1984 was so much fun to do.
Dundee United’s European adventure of 1983-84 came to a bitter end in Rome. Photograph: REUTERS/Reuters
It’s finished goalless in Dagenham, a result that surely ends Man Utd’s hopes of winning the title. They are five points behind Chelsea having played a game more.
Heidenheim (3-1-4-2) Muller; Busch, Gimber, Mainka; Schoppner; Traore, Beck, Dorsch, Kratzig; Pieringer, Conteh.
Subs: Eicher, Fohrenbach, Keller, Kerber, Niehues, Schimmer, Scienza, Siersleben, Wanner.
Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1) Urbig; Laimer, Dier, Stanisic, Guerreiro; Kimmich, Pavlovic; Gnabry, Olise, Coman; Kane.
Subs: Boey, Karl, Kim, Kusi Asare, Muller, Palhinha, Peretz, Sane, Vidovic.
A bit of news from the Championship: Cardiff, who are second bottom of the Championship, have sacked their manager Omer Riza and put Aaron Ramsey in charge for the crucial final three games of the season.
WSL: West Ham 0-0 Man Utd (71 min)
Manchester United are having a frustrating afternoon at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, where the match remains goalless going into the last 20 minutes. Rachel Williams is about to come on for Man Utd.
Scottish Cup: Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen (HT)
The first Scottish Cup semi-final is level after a highly eventful first half at Hampden. Aberdeen went ahead through an unfortunate own goal from Hearts keeper Craig Gordon; Lawrence Shankland smacked the equaliser but the match changed just before half-time when Michael Steinwender was sent off for the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity. A Dogso, in the peculiar parlance of our time.
Hello, hello and welcome to an elite Saturday clockwatch. The E-word refers not to the quality of what you may read on this page over the next four hours, but the fact we’ll be focussing entirely on top-flight football. That’s because the EFL fixtures were all played yesterday, more of which here.
There are four 3pm kick-offs of the Premier League, three of them involving the race for European places. And Barcelona and Bayern Munich, leaders of La Liga and the Bundesliga respectively, are also in action.
Barcelona lead Real Madrid by four points with seven games to play. Bayern need 10 points from the last five games to end their drought and win a first Bundesliga title since 2023.
These are our featured games:
Premier League
- Brentford v Brighton
- Crystal Palace v Bournemouth
- Everton v Manchester City
- West Ham v Southampton
Not the Premier League
- West Ham 0-0 Man Utd (WSL, 12pm)
- Hearts 1-1 Aberdeen (Scottish Cup semi-final, 12.30pm)
- Heidenheim v Bayern Munich (Bundesliga, 2.30pm)
- Barcelona v Celta Vigo (La Liga, 3.15pm)
We also have a dedicated liveblog for the first leg of the Women’s Champions League semi-final between Arsenal and Lyon. Join Xaymaca Awoyungbo for the latest.
Explore more on these topics
