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Football - There will be two massive ‘local derbies’ in both the English and Scottish FA Cup finals next month, with City taking on United in the all-Manchester encounter, while Celtic play Rangers in the big one in Glasgow.
With games fast running out, the race to become EFL Premiership champions is certainly hotting up, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City all chasing the title. It’s the same in the Championship with Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds hoping to win the top prize. And it’s likewise in Scotland with either Celtic or Rangers set to become champions and here in Spain, Real Madrid (11 points clear of Barcelona) are favourites to take LaLiga crown.
This weekend’s vital PL games are West Ham v Liverpool (Saturday) and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City and Spurs v Arsenal on Sunday. In Scotland, Rangers visit
St Mirren while Celtic face Dundee. Coming up in midweek we have the first legs of the semi-finals in the Champions League, Europa Cup and UEFA Conference competitions, and tomorrow it’s the semi-finals of the women’s Champions League with Chelsea Ladies already 1-0 up on Barcelona females.
Three players were sent-off in added time in the recent Serie A derby in Italy, which saw Inter beat rivals AC Milan 2-1 to clinch their 20th league title.
Rugby union – In the latest three games in the women’s six Nations, England hammered Ireland 88 points to 10, Scotland beat Italy 17-10 and France walloped Wales 40-0. Meanwhile at club level, Northants Saints, Bath and Saracens stand -1-2-3 in the men’s Gallagher Premiership.
Motor racing – Max Verstappen won last Sunday’s Chinese F1 Grand Prix in Shanghai. GB’s Lando Norris was second with Sergio Pérez third. Verstappen now has a 25-point lead over Pérez in the driver’s championship.
Cricket - There have been recent county wins for Durham, Essex (Division 1 leaders), Middlesex, Sussex (Division 2 leaders), Warwickshire, Northants and Leicestershire.
Athletics - A record 50,000 runners took part in last weekend’s London marathon. Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in a record time of 2 hours 16 minutes, while Alex Munyao was first over the line in the men’s event. Third in the men’s race was Emile Caress who finished in a record time for a British runner of 2 hours, six minutes and 46 seconds.
Snooker – In the Snooker World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield, former champions Mark Selby and Robert Wilkins are out, but as we head towards the second week, the imperious Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Jak Jones, Stephen McGuire, Dave Gilbert
and Stuart Bingham are all looking strong.
Horse racing – Willie Mullins currently heads the 2024 National Hunt trainers’ money title race with £3.08 million in winnings to his name. Dan Skelton (son of Nick) is second with £2.90m to his name, while Paul Nicholls is third with £2.83m.