atletico madrid hold on for the advantage, in their tie with dortmund, but the germans make a good go of it. and it might be time to say a prayer and hope for the best, the unique challenge of augusta, and its amen corner, prepare to host the first major of the golfing year. hello there, and welcome along to sportsday, and we start in the european champions league. one of the standout ties of the quarterfinals didn't disappoint as barcelona got the better of p56, in a topsy—turvy game, which saw them take the lead, then come from behind to win 3—2. a huge victory for xavi's side, with a home second leg to come next week. charlie slater was watching. barca in front before half—time through rafinha locked in full control. but that went out the window

with two psg goals in the first five minutes of the second half. one from dembele, one from vitinha. goal of the night, though, was barcelona's equaliser, just pure finesse from pedri, who chipped the ball over the p56 defence for raphinha's delicate volley. he'd never scored in the champions league before tonight. he got a brace, all of that before andreas christensen scored the winner with 15 minutes, left his first touch off the bench on a week of brilliant football. atletico madrid held off a late fightback by borussia dortmund, to secure the upper hand ahead of their second leg tie in germany. atletico came out of the blocks fast and took control before halftime. but dortmund found their feet, and put themselves back in it, towards the end and came close to finding an equaliser. john acres reports. well, this was another thrilling quarterfinal tie. rodrigo de paul got atletico off to a fast start as dortmund were trying to play out from the back to make it 1—0. on 32 minutes, leno made it two after a lovely ball from griezmann, and they had other chances as well.

leno again, correa and riquelme to wrap things up atletico. but back came dortmund, alas, scoring on as a substitute in the second half. then they hit the frame of the goal twice, including brandt seeing his header rattle off the bar with virtually the last touch of the game. it'll be tight in the second leg in front of the yellow wall. finished, atletico — two. dortmund — one. john acres there. not long to wait now until the first major of the golf calendar gets under way — the masters — famous for its stunning azaleas and greens. there really is no other course like augusta national. the biggest names from the pga tour and liv series will be competing against one another with the title being defended by a player who just moved from one to the other, asjoe lynskey reports. april at augusta, golf�*s greatest spectacle, one man's greatest hope. for 15 years, rory mcilroy has tried — this is the one major he's still yet to win. last time out, he missed

the cut, a year on from being runner up. it's almost a decade since his last major title, but the best in this sport still think it will come. look, no question he'll do it at some point. he'sjust, rory�*s too talented, too good. and he's going to be playing this event for a very long time and he'll get it done. it's just a matter of when. and it could be this week. you never know. it's flattering. it's nice to hear, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game, say something like that. so does that mean that it's going to happen? obviously not. but, you know, he's been around the game long enough to know that i at least have the potential to do it. and i mean, i know i've got the potential to do it, too. mcilroy is one ofjust six uk players here. the lowest figure this century is partly down to this sport's modern split. on the saudi—backed liv tour, it's hard to qualify for the masters.

lee westwood and ian poulter are two who won't be here this week. liv in the pga are still in talks on a merger. until then, last year's champion is still one of the rebels. jon rahm won the masters, then moved to liv last december in a deal worth more than £400 million. but no prize fund can buy what they win at augusta. having the jacket, i kept it on my closet on a spot where i would walk by it every single day. and obviously, inevitably, every once in a while you put it on. you know, it is the biggest tournament in the world, with no offence to anything else, but it's probably the most followed one by people that don't even play golf. that's, ithink, what makes the difference. your notoriety goes up quite a bit. is there still any tension or does everybodyjust happy to see each other? you guys love to kind of try to make it sound like, you know, like we get in the locker room and we're fighting each other and stuff like that. it's nothing like that. whichever tour they play on, there's no easy navigation.

augusta's set up to test out the mind. it can be consuming. mcilroy�*s first rounds will be with scottie scheffler, the world number one. it is quite the start to golf�*s stand out show. joe lynskey, bbc news. yeah, can't wait for all of that. athletics will become the first sport to introduce prize money at the olympics in paris this summer. the governing body, world athletics, is breaking 128 years of olympic tradition, becoming the first international sport to give athletes money for winning a gold medal at the games. $50,000 will be the prize for those that win on the track orfield. this in contrast to the international olympic committee, which does not award prize money. this isjust a recognition that the athletes are the stars of the show. we increased the prize money in our own championships a few years ago, and ijust wanted the athletes to recognise that we don't sit here hermetically sealed, assuming their performance as an olympic games doesn't have a, you know, a beneficiary knock on, for the growth

of our own sport. at monte carlo masters, the defending champion andrey rublev is out — beaten in straight sets by alexei popyrin. the 46th ranked popyrin beat rublev 6—4, 6—4 to reach the third round for the first time. sending the russian out in his opening match of the tournament. the australian will now play of alex de minaur. second seed jannik sinner reached the last 16 sweeping past american sebastian korda in straight sets 6—1, 6—2. the 22—year—old will next play jan—lennard struff after the german defeated borna coric on tuesday. and now britain's most successful gymnast max whitlock has told the bbc that the olympics in paris this summer will be his last before ending his career. the three—time champion

is stepping up preparations as he aims to defend his pommel horse title for the last time, he's been speaking tojohn watson. max, great to see you again. we gather you have some news. i'm excited to say it. i suppose it feels still feels a bit weird. i've made a decision and it's the right time for me that paris 2024 olympics, will hopefully be my fourth olympic games, but will also be my final olympic games. i've done the sport for 2h years. i'm 31—years—old now. ifeel like in my gut. and i think you've got to listen to that. yes, it's the right time for me. how have you arrived at this decision then? ever since, i suppose, rio olympics, where i was at my peak age, i think i've had questions thrown at me about like, when am i retiring? i think when you get that constantly for about eight years of the last bit of my career here, you do naturally think about it. i've wanted to prove people wrong a lot of a lot of my way through my journey. and i've always had the mindset of trying to do this for as long as i possibly can.

take us back to the beginning. why was it gymnastics for you? i loved it from day one. the amount you can learn from a young age in this sport is crazy. and then i almostjust gradually took to the pommel, took to it, loved it, was massively, massively determined to just try and progress and progress. and when you do that from seven—years—old up till now to 31, that compounds massively. take us back to that moment when you returned from tokyo. your family couldn't be there with you, which was obviously very tough. it was a games like no other under covid restrictions. especially after olympic games like tokyo, the previous one being a covid games with no audience. i cannot wait for for everyone to be able to come out to paris and watch. i think it'll be an amazing olympic experience, but also like for willow to get the opportunity, i always, always said i want to try

and have children younger while i'm competing at this level. and now i've given myself for the opportunity for willow to come and watch olympic games, because of she couldn't in tokyo. when i'm in arenas competing and will i wait for it to go quiet and she calls for me and we do this double thumbs up. i think i'd love to do that in paris olympics. did you ever think you would be heading into what will be your final olympic games already placed as britain's most successful gymnast? never. but going for my final olympic games feels feels very, very strange talking about it. and it's almost hard to articulate what it's like — trying to get my words out in the right way, because it's still fresh, i suppose. i think it's a really nice mindset to be in. i think ijust give it what i got. and see if he can do it. some history for british basketball to celebrate tonight. the london lions women team have beaten besiktas to become the first british team win a european basketball trophy, with victory in the eurocup. the lions won by 81 points to 70 on the night

at the copperbox arena, but were trailing from the first leg against their turkish opponents. holly winterburn with a huge three points inside the final 20 seconds, as the lions took the crown by the finest of margins, winning byjust four points on aggregate. but there we go. a great win for them. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello. well, some of us are in for a fine day. thursday's expected to bring warm, sunny spells to many northern and eastern parts of the country. certainly won't be like it everywhere — in fact, farfrom it in the morning across many western and southern areas of the uk. right now, a lot of

cloud shrouding the uk. weatherfront is crossing us, bearing rain and dribs and drabs possible anywhere through the night and in some areas even quite heavy for a time. but this weather front is caught in a current of very mild air streaming in from the southern climes, quite a breezy end to the night is expected as well. but i think by the time we get to around 6:00 in the morning, you can see the skies are clearing across many eastern and some western areas of the uk as well. temperatures will be in double figures in most major towns and cities. so here's the morning, then, the forecast. you can see still a fair amount of cloud across some southern and western areas, dribs and drabs of rain, but already sunshine across, say, many northern and north—eastern parts of the uk. the temperatures very pleasant indeed — widely, i think, into the high teens or 20 degrees across england, eastern scotland, around 18 and out towards the west, around 1a to 17 degrees celsius. but the west will always be more cloudy. now into friday, the south

of the country is closer to an area of high pressure. so i think brighter skies here, but i say brighter, not necessarily all that sunny, because we still have that relatively mild and murky current south—westerly wind, in fact, bringing some outbreaks of rain to north—western areas. so the sunny, brighter skies will always be further towards the east and south and every bit as mild or warm, 20 degrees widely in some areas — mid or high teens. now, that warmth isn't going to stick around. in fact, saturday night into sunday, we're expecting this slightly cooler air mass or much cooler air mass drifting in out of the west and the north atlantic and brought also by this area of low pressure, which is expected to sweep in some rain to many north—western areas of the uk. so yes, we've got three days of relatively mild if not warm weather given some sunny spells, but by the time we get to sunday and certainly into monday, it's all change — colder and outbreaks of rain from time to time.

live from washington.

this is bbc news. an israeli airstrike kills the sons of hamas�*s political leader — but he says, that won't change his group's position in ceasefire negotiations. the us and japan announce �*a new era of strategic cooperation�*, with the building of a joint air and missile defence system. the upcoming paris summer olympics plan to use the river seine — after a massive investment in cleaning up the water, but has it worked? hello. i'm carl nasman. an israeli airstrike in gaza has killed three sons and four grandchildren of hamas�*s political leader ismail haniyeh. this video is believed to show him receiving the news in qatar, where he lives in exile. israel has confirmed the strike, describing the sons as "hamas military operatives". he's been actively involved

in negotiations to broker a ceasefire with israel,