Category sport-news

Ollie Watkins inspired Aston Villa’s 4-1 rout of Newcastle on Saturday, reviving their bid to qualify for the Champions League just days after they bowed out of this season’s tournament.

Villa’s Champions League adventure came to an end on Tuesday after they narrowly failed to complete a spectacular comeback in the quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain.

But Unai Emery’s side had no intention of feeling sorry for themselves as they chase a return to Europe’s elite club competition next season.

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Newcastle arrived at Villa Park after five successive wins, only to be blown away by the inspired Watkins.

He put Villa ahead in the first minute and set up Ian Maatsen to restore the hosts’ advantage after Fabian Schar’s equaliser.

Dan Burn’s own goal and Amadou Onana’s blistering strike put the seal on Villa’s emphatic victory as they climbed to sixth in the Premier League.

Villa, winners of their last five league games, are just two points behind third-placed Newcastle in a gripping battle to secure one of the top five positions that guarantee Champions League qualification.

With a crucial trip to fourth-placed Manchester City looming on Tuesday, Emery’s men sit level on points with fifth-placed Nottingham Forest, who visit Tottenham for their game in hand on Monday.

Jason Tindall remained in charge of League Cup winners Newcastle in the absence of Eddie Howe, who was still absent after suffering from pneumonia.

After winning their first two games without Howe, the Magpies came back down to earth with a bump.

Emery had urged Villa fans to provide a spark of electricity with an atmosphere the equal of the PSG tie.

The decibel levels around Villa Park reached ear-splitting volume after just 33 seconds.

Sandro Tonali’s miscued clearance went straight to Youri Tielemans and his pass sent Watkins through for a drive that deflected in off Schar.

Rampant Villa

It was Villa’s fastest goal in the league season and Watkins, replaced by Marcus Rashford in the starting line-up against PSG, was playing with a point to prove.

The England striker went close to netting again moments later with a ferocious strike that smacked back off the underside of the crossbar with Newcastle keeper Nick Pope rooted to the spot.

Schar hauled Newcastle level in the 18th minute, the Swiss international rising at the far post to meet Harvey Barnes’ cross with a header that went through the legs of Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez.

Villa were unfazed. Watkins met Marco Asensio’s free-kick with a header that thumped against the post from 10 yards.

Tonali’s long-range blast forced Martinez to scramble as the Argentine saved at full stretch.

Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers had acres of space for a thunderous shot that was repelled by Pope.

Youri Tielemans’ glancing header from Asensio’s corner was cleared off the line by Tonali early in the second half.

Villa’s pressure was finally rewarded in eye-catching style in the 64th minute.

Asensio’s sweeping crossfield pass and Watkins’ astute ball into the Newcastle area teed up Maatsen, who capped his lung-bursting run with a composed finish past Pope from 12 yards.

Villa struck again in the 73rd minute when Jacob Ramsey’s cross towards Tielemans was turned into his own net by Burn.

Emery’s men were rampant. Onana put the seal on their dynamic display two minutes later when he blasted into the top corner from the edge of the area.

Scott McTominay headed Napoli level on points with Inter Milan at the top of Serie A with the only goal in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Monza, but coach Antonio Conte lashed out at owner Aurelio De Laurentiis with angry post-match comments.

Scotland midfielder McTominay nodded home his 10th goal in all competitions this season from Giacomo Raspadori’s cross in the 72nd minute to save Napoli’s blushes after a drab display in northern Italy.

McTominay’s third goal in a week boosted Napoli’s bid for a second league title in three seasons and piled pressure on reigning champions Inter who are at high-flying Bologna on Easter Sunday.

Beyond that goal, Antonio Conte’s team created little against the division’s worst team in Monza, who are 12 points from safety with five matches remaining and set to be relegated.

“It’s a match that seems like it should be easy but the prize up for grabs is so important that there is a lot of pressure,” said Conte.

“A lot of these boys are in a head-to-head (for a league title) for the first time. And it’s an unexpected head-to-head… Just to be there is unexpected and extraordinary. ”

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Conte continued to fuel rumours of his departure at the end of his first season as Napoli coach after raising eyebrows on Friday with his open frustration at the January sale of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

– ‘Not stupid’ –

De Laurentiis then said that he should have waited until the end of the season before making those comments, causing a visibly irritated Conte to hit back while talking to broadcaster DAZN.

“You have to live in the present… the people want to win and are ambitious. I’m open to everything, but we need to see where we are,” said Conte when asked about his future.

“I’m happy in Naples and I’m working for fans who give me something emotionally. That’s very important. But you know that whoever hires me knows that I bring with me expectations.

“People hire me and think ‘you have to finish first or second, even if you finished 10th the year before, and you have to fight for the title, qualifying for Europe isn’t enough’.

“I can handle all of that, but I’m not stupid if there aren’t the resources in place to achieve that. ”

Conte also complained about the pitches at Napoli’s Castel Volturno training ground, saying that they were supposed to be relaid and suggesting the club’s failure to do so was behind recent calf injuries — the latest for Kvaratskhelia’s replacement David Neres.

Regardless of where Conte is next season, he and Napoli have a great chance to win the Scudetto as after Easter they face only one team in the top half of the table — 10th-placed Torino — and have no other commitments.

– Como eye safety –

Meanwhile, Inter have a packed schedule, with the second leg of their Italian Cup semi-final with AC Milan coming up on Wednesday, while Barcelona await in the last four of the Champions League.

Inter will lead Napoli on goal difference even if they lose at Bologna, who are chasing Champions League qualification, but should the pair finish the season level on points the title will be decided by a play-off.

Earlier, Assane Diao fired Como towards safety with a brace in his team’s impressive 3-0 win at struggling Lecce who are one place and two points above the relegation zone.

Como are 13th on 39 points, 15 above the bottom three with five fixtures remaining in their first Serie A season in over two decades.

Diao has been one of the key reasons for the club’s near-certain top-flight survival, scoring eight times since arriving from Real Betis in January, when Como invested heavily in new players in order to avoid the drop.

Later Roma take on Verona hoping to move to within two points of Juventus who sit fourth and are at Parma on Monday.

Harry Kane scored his 24th league goal of the season as Bayern Munich romped to a 4-0 win at Heidenheim on Saturday, moving the German giants ever closer to the Bundesliga title.

Kane joined Konrad Laimer, Kingsley Coman and Joshua Kimmich on the scoresheet.

The victory took Bayern nine points clear of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen, who play at St Pauli on Sunday.

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“It was a very important step towards the title,” Kimmich told Sky Germany.

“We’re now nine points ahead — and Leverkusen have to win. But we’re not really looking at them. We have to win at least two more games to secure the title. ”

Stung by Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final elimination at Inter Milan, Bayern were ruthless. Kane, still seeking a first team trophy of his career, took the ball on the turn and lashed home with 12 minutes gone.

The England captain, who joined Bayern in the summer of 2023, now has 60 goals in his first 60 Bundesliga games.

Seven minutes later, Laimer latched onto a clever Serge Gnabry pass and clipped the ball past Heidenheim goalkeeper Kevin Mueller.

Coman was on hand to tap in after Mueller saved a shot from Raphael Guerreiro on 36 minutes. Kimmich then cut the ball into the corner from a Guerreiro pass with 56 minutes gone, sealing the result with just his second goal in his 46th game for Bayern this season.

Bayern could clinch what would be their 34th German title as early as next week if results go their way.

Eight-goal thriller in Berlin

In Saturday’s late game, Union Berlin guaranteed first-division football for next season in a 4-4 home draw against Stuttgart.

All eight goals were scored in the opening half, the first time in Bundesliga history so many goals had been scored before the break.

Union went two goals up when Andrej Ilic and Diogo Leite scored from set-pieces, but Stuttgart hit back to level at 2-2 through Deniz Undav and Enzo Millot.

Union again hit the lead thanks to a stunning long-range strike from Leopold Querfeld, before Stuttgart’s Jeff Chabot and Chris Fuehrich scored two in three minutes and Ilic struck again in first-half stoppage time to level the scores.

No goals were scored after half-time, meaning the all-time German record of 12 goals in one game remained intact.

RB Leipzig’s top-four hopes took a hit with a 1-1 home draw against last-placed Holstein Kiel.

Japanese striker Shuto Machino put the visitors in front a minute before half-time, with Leipzig equalising from the spot through Benjamin Sesko with 74 minutes gone when Lois Openda was felled in the box.

Openda looked to have scored with a curling, long-range effort with 13 minutes remaining, but the Belgian was flagged for offside.

Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi collided with Kiel’s Steven Skrzybski midway through the second half and was stretchered from the field.

Mainz however failed to take advantage of Leipzig’s struggles, drawing 2-2 at home against Wolfsburg despite leading for most of the match.

Wolfsburg veteran Maximilian Arnold gave his side the lead after just three minutes but Mainz wrestled control back with two goals in four first-half minutes through Lee Jae-sung and Dominik Kohr.

Denis Vavro headed Wolfsburg level in the final minute, denting Mainz’s chance of a first-ever Champions League qualification in their history.

Freiburg also boosted their European hopes with a 3-2 win over Hoffenheim, with Lucas Hoeler scoring a brace.

Freiburg sit fifth, a point behind Leipzig and one ahead of Mainz, in sixth.

Werder Bremen beat Bochum 1-0 thanks to a goal from Mitchell Weiser, helping their own European chances while deepening their opponents’ relegation woes.

Bochum, who have beaten Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund this season, sit second to last and are nine points from safety with four games remaining.

Manchester City bolstered their bid to qualify for the Champions League with a dramatic 2-0 win at Everton, while Southampton’s last-gasp equaliser at West Ham ensured they will not have sole possession of the lowest points total in Premier League history.

City were heading towards a damaging draw before Nico O’Reilly’s 84th minute strike put them on course for a vital victory that was sealed by Mateo Kovacic’s goal in the final seconds.

Pep Guardiola’s side climb to fourth place, four points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea, who face Fulham on Sunday in their game in hand.

Fifth-placed Nottingham Forest, who travel to Tottenham on Monday, are one point adrift of City.

At a stage of the season when they are usually embroiled in a battle to win the title, City — champions in six of the previous seven campaigns — have been reduced to scrapping for a Champions League berth after a dismal season.

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They remain on course to achieve their bare minimum target after a hard-fought success on Merseyside.

In the 84th minute, Matheus Nunes’s low cross into the six-yard box was met by the 20-year-old O’Reilly, who got in front of Michael Keane to poke home from close range.

O’Reilly has emerged as an unlikely hero for City after the Manchester-born midfielder scored last week in the win against Crystal Palace and netted twice against Plymouth in the FA Cup.

Kovacic wrapped up City’s victory on their last visit to Goodison Park before Everton move to a new stadium next season.

The Croatian guided Ilkay Gundogan’s pass into the bottom corner to give City a third win from their last four league games.

“To win here at Goodison Park, where Liverpool and Arsenal couldn’t, is massively important,” Guardiola said.

“Now it is in our hands. Three games at home, two away and hopefully we can achieve this big success to qualify for the Champions League. ”

– Saints Consolation –

Relegated Southampton rescued a 1-1 draw at West Ham to guarantee they won’t have the indignity of being the lone club with the Premier League’s worst ever points tally.

Jarrod Bowen struck for the Hammers in the 47th minute, holding off Ryan Manning before lashing a fierce finish past Aaron Ramsdale.

But Lesley Ugochukwu equalised three minutes into second half stoppage-time as he lashed past Alphonse Areola.

Bottom of the table Southampton are now on 11 points — the same number Derby managed in 2007-08 — and have five games left to leave the Rams with the lowest total ever recorded in the Premier League.

Brentford beat 10-man Brighton 4-2 to damage the Seagulls’ prospects of qualifying for Europe with their first home win since December.

Thomas Frank’s side took a ninth minute lead when Lewis Keane-Potter’s precise pass through the heart of the Brighton defence picked out Bryan Mbeumo and he confidently slotted home

Danny Welbeck hauled Brighton level in first half stoppage-time with a powerful header from Mats Wieffer’s cross.

Mbeumo restored Brentford’s advantage three minutes after half-time, his strike taking a hefty deflection off Brighton defender Lewis Dunk on its way past Bart Verbruggen.

Yoane Wissa bagged Brentford’s third in the 58th minute, running onto Mbeumo’s pass and finishing with the help of a deflection off Jan Paul van Hecke.

Brighton striker Joao Pedro was sent off in the 61st minute for a needless kick at Nathan Collins.

Japan forward Kaoru Mitoma reduced the deficit in the 81st minute, but Christian Norgaard headed home in stoppage-time to end Brighton’s hopes of a late escape.

Crystal Palace held on for a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth despite playing half the match with 10 men.

Palace were reduced to 10 men just before half-time at Selhurst Park when Chris Richards was sent off for a second booking after the defender fouled Justin Kluivert.

Third-placed Newcastle will look to step up their Champions League qualification surge when they travel to Aston Villa in Saturday’s late game.

Step by mechanical step, dozens of humanoid robots took to the streets of Beijing early on Saturday, joining thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in a world-first half marathon showcasing China’s drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology.

The 21-kilometre (13-mile) event held in the Chinese capital’s E-Town — a state-backed high-tech manufacturing hub — was billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions.

At the crack of the starter’s gun, the robots began taking their first tentative steps as the Chinese pop song “I Believe” blared out from loudspeakers.

Curious human runners lined the roadside, phones in hand ready to photograph each machine as it began the race.

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One smaller-sized android fell over and lay on the ground for several minutes, before getting up by itself to loud cheers.

Another, powered by propellers, veered across the starting line before crashing into a barrier  and knocking over an engineer.

Crossing the finish line first despite a mid-race fall was the tallest droid and one of the heaviest in the competition. At 180 centimetres (5. 9 feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (114. 6 pounds), the metallic black “Tiangong Ultra” finished in two hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

The men’s and women’s winners, both from Ethiopia, finished in one hour, two minutes and 36 seconds, and in one hour, 11 minutes and seven seconds respectively, according to state media.

Tang Jian, chief technology officer of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center which developed “Tiangong”, told reporters the company was “very happy with the results”.

“We had set three goals for ourselves: first, to win the championship; second, to complete the entire half marathon with a single robot — a very important goal for us; and third, to finish the race in under three hours,” he said.

“We collected real-world running data from professional athletes and trained the robot so that its gait, cadence, stride length, and various postures could match those of professional runners as closely as possible. ”

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, first established by the government, is now owned by Chinese tech firms Xiaomi Robotics and UBTech Robotics as well as two state-owned companies, according to business data provider  Tianyancha.

Enthusiastic onlookers cheered the robots on from the sidelines.

“My daughter… got up really early and asked to come watch the robot marathon,” spectator Huang Xiaoyu told AFP, holding her child.

“It was quite a breathtaking experience — we were able to see some of the most cutting-edge robots in our country. ”

Tech race

Around 20 teams from across China participated in the competition, with robots ranging from 75 to 180 centimetres tall and weighing up to 88 kilograms.

Some jogged autonomously, while others were guided remotely by their engineers. Robots and human participants ran on separate tracks.

“Getting onto the race track might seem like a small step for humans, but it’s a giant leap for humanoid robots,” Liang Liang, Beijing E-Town’s management committee deputy director, told AFP.

Engineers said the goal was to test the performance and reliability of the androids — emphasising that finishing the race, not winning it, was the main objective.

“There are very few opportunities for the whole industry to run at full speed over such a long distance or duration,” Cui Wenhao, a 28-year-old engineer at Noetix Robotics, told AFP.

“It’s a serious test for the battery, the motors, the structure — even the algorithms. ”

Kong Yichang, a 25-year-old engineer from DroidUp, said the race would help to “lay a foundation for a whole series of future activities involving humanoid robots”.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has sought to assert its dominance in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics, positioning itself as a direct challenger to the United States.

In January, Chinese start-up DeepSeek drew attention with a chatbot it claimed was developed more cost-effectively than its US counterparts.

Dancing humanoid robots also captivated audiences during a televised Chinese New Year gala.

Carlo Ancelotti will discuss his future with Real Madrid at the end of the season, the coach said Saturday, following the Champions League holders’ elimination by Arsenal.

After the record 15-time winners lost on Wednesday in the quarter-finals, thrashed 5-1 on aggregate, speculation grew that Madrid would dismiss the Italian coach in the coming weeks.

“At the end of the season we will speak about (my future) with the club,” Ancelotti told a news conference, batting away various questions on a similar theme.

Ancelotti’s contract is due to end in 2026.

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“I have spoken with the players and the club, we all agree, we have to fight for the titles there are on the line,” continued the 65-year-old, ahead of Sunday’s clash with Athletic Bilbao in La Liga.

Spanish champions Real Madrid trail leaders Barcelona by four points and will also face the Catalans in the Copa del Rey final on April 26.

“Obviously we are all hurt, and the fans, after going out of maybe the most important competition, or at least the one Madrid has had the most success in, in recent years,” said Ancelotti.

“We are all in the same boat, in the good and the bad times… the president (Florentino Perez) has always shown me the most affection in these moments than in the moments when we have won. ”

Ancelotti has been linked with coaching the Brazilian national team after Dorival Junior was sacked following a heavy defeat by Argentina.

“I don’t have to say anything at all, as I said already, at the end of the season we will speak about this,” said Ancelotti.

The coach said he did not know whether the “end of the season” came before or after the Club World Cup, which Madrid are participating in from June 14 in the United States.