Football round up
• Teenager Lamine Yamal has become Barcelona's youngestever player. The winger, aged 15 years and 290 days, came on as a late substitute for Gavi in his team’s 4-0 win over Real Betis
• Karim Benzema netted a hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 4-2 win over Almería. The Frenchman has now scored 236 goals for Los Blancos and only Lionel Messi (474), Cristiano Ronaldo (311) and Zarra (252) have scored more in Spain’s top flight
• Brighton’s recent 6-0 win over Wolves was their best-ever in the Premiership, while for the Molineux club it was their joint heaviest defeat, having lost by the same score at Southampton back in 2007
• This season’s Scottish FA Cup final will feature Inverness Caledonia Thistle against Celtic at Hampden Park on June 3. In the semi-finals ‘Thistle’ beat Falkirk 3-0 while the Celts defeated Glasgow rivals Rangers 1-0. This will be Celtic’s 59th appearance in the final, while in stark contrast it will be Thistle’s second
• Last Sunday Manchester City’s Erling Haaland netted his 50th goal of the season, and his record-equalling 34th in the Premiership, from the penalty spot in his side’s 2-1 PL win over Fulham. Haaland scored again for City in a 3-0 win over Fulham in midweek - his record-breaking 35th Premiership goal of the season, one more than Alan Shearer and Andy Cole. And City's third goal, netted by Phil Foden– was their 1,000th scored under manager Pep Guardiola
The last player to score halfa-century of goals in a UK season was Steve Bull for Wolves, who netted 51 in season 1988-89 - 37 in Division Three, two in the League Cup, 11 in the Sherpa Van Trophy and one for England
• With games fast running out, Pep Guardiola’s in-form City are now firm favourites to win the Premiership title for the sixth time in nine years, and their third in a row. As it stands, Arsenal should finish second in the table, followed by Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool, with Tottenham and Aston Villa not too far adrift, but who goes down (probably with Southampton) is another question, with Leeds United, Everton, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, even West Ham and Wolves, all in danger of slipping into the Championship
• On Monday we have the last 12 matches of the 2022-23
Championship League programme, and there are several clubs who will be out there fighting (not literally), battling and certainly scrapping every inch of the way to secure a play-off spot. The final fixtures are: Birmingham v Sheffield United, Burnley v Cardiff, Huddersfield v Reading, Luton v Hull, Middlesbrough v Coventry, Millwall v Blackburn, Norwich v Blackpool, Preston v Sunderland, QPR v Bristol City, Swansea v West Bromwich Albion, Watford v Stoke and Wigan v Rotherham. Sheffield United and Burnley have already sealed promotion, while Blackpool and Wigan will be playing in League One next season, so too could be Reading. Meanwhile, Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich have officially been promoted from League One; Leyton Orient have been crowned champions of League Two with Stevenage runner’sup, and Hartlepool have been demoted to the National League, to be replaced by Wrexham who return to the FL after a 15-year break!
• Twenty-four hours later, Real Madrid play Manchester City in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. The following night AC Milan face neighbours Inter Milan in the second semi-final. Also coming up next Thursday we have the first legs of the two Europa League semi-finals featuring Juventus against Sevilla and Roma versus Bayer Leverkusen, and the two Europa Conference semi-finals involving Fiorentina and Basel and West Ham versus Alkmaar
• This season’s Women’s Champions League final will feature Barcelona Femenino against Wolfsburg Ladies. Barcelona ko’d Chelsea Women and Wolfsburg ousted Arsenal Women in their respective semifinals, the latter before a record 60,000 fans at the Emirates