hello and welcome to sportsday — i'mjane dougall. huge celebrations as nigeria go through to the final of the africa cup of nations, where they'll play the hosts ivory coast. a wonder goalfrom enzo fernandez puts the icing on the cake for chelsea as they win away at villa in the fa cup. and it's heating up in the usa — with footballs�* showcase game, the super bowljust around the corner. welcome to the programme. it's been a battle for them, but nigeria are through to the final of the africa cup of nations, where they'll play the hosts, ivory coast. nigeria's match was filled with drama, going to extra time and penalties before they put

south africa out. and it's been an incredible tournament for ivory coast, who sacked their manager after the group stages and have scraped through some of their matches. they beat democratic republic of congo i—o. jon bennett has more on two fascinating semi—finals from abidjan. well, we've had miracles, we've had drama. we've had big slices of luck during this tournament for ivory coast. but this performance was all about quality and control. they were superb against dr congo. at times, it didn't look as though their opponents knew how to attack this ivory coast team. sebastien haller, the striker, is the face on all the billboards in abidjan and across ivory coast. he was already a hero. he's an even bigger hero now. after scoring the goal, which has put ivory coast in the africa cup of nations final, a shot which hit the turf and looped over the goalkeeper into the back

of the net. he made his first start of the tournament. he's been recovering from injury. so did brighton's simon dhingra. and they both made a real difference. ivory coast suddenly looked like a brilliant team just a couple of weeks after sacking their manager. meanwhile, nigeria needed a penalty shoot—out to make it to the final after drama right on 90 minutes. victor osimhen thought he made it 2—0 for the super eagles right at the end of the game. but the video assistant referee spotted a foul in the build up all the way in the nigeria penalty area. he awarded south africa a spot kick and it was scored by mokwena. so it went all the way to the shoot—out. and this time ronwen williams, the south africa goalkeeper and captain, couldn't be the hero. kelechi iheanacho scored the winner, and in this stadium behind me, it will now be ivory coast, the hosts ,against nigeria in the africa cup of nations final well, upset for south africa after going out in the cruelist way on penalties, but nigeria managerjose peseiro

spoke after the victory and said his squad would enjoy their hard earned win. the players are happy. they deserve. we deserve. the super eagles deserve. uh, it was a very good victory against a very good team. back in nigeria, fans were celebrating after watching their side go through. these were the scenes in lagos as that last penalty went in. fans — who'd been on the edge of their seats, celebrating the tight victory. they'll be looking forward to that final on sunday where nigeria will surely be favourites to take the trophy. the last time nigeria won the tournament was in 2013. our guys did it.

lookman, osimhen, ourjob and all of our players will be proud of you. you guys were exceptional. you were amazing. you made our country proud. i'm happy. over happy. i can't remember the last time i was this happy. yeah. still hungry. i'm happy for our boys. and they made us proud. well, it was 1—1. and we are getting toj the end of the match. you know, i was like, what are we going to win this match? i i was panic and i was- overwhelmed by anxiety. so now after the match, - where we now play the penalty and we notice that we scored and we beat them, _ i was so excited and i'm overwhelmed withjoy. i it looks like that party will go on for days. we know both the finalists for the asian cup, jordan and defending champions qatar will play each other on saturday. qatar getting through after beating iran 3—2 earlier. iran struck first. sardar azmoun giving his side an early lead with a phenominal

strike afterjust four minutes. but qatar equalised and then went ahead through akram afif, taking it to 2-1. despite a fightback from iran to bring the score line level, qatar's almoez ali scored the winner in the 82nd minute. the last of the fa cup fourth round replays have been taking place, with cheslea beating aston villa 3—1 to go through. there were goals from conor gallacher and nicolas jackson, but the best of the three was from a beautiful free kick from enzo fernandez who gave chelsea their third. they'll now play leeds united in the last 16. chelsea's manager mauricio potchettino says their league form may be shaky but this is a huge boost. we are still a young team but we are growing in a very good way. i think to be in the final of the carabao cup and now to be in the next round of the fa cup. and we need to keep pushing now in the premier league

because we have another game now monday, but i think play in this way. yes, we can for sure. win more games than lose. britain's emma raducanu has lost to tunisia's ons jabeur, in the last 16 of the abu dhabi open. raducanu was 5—1 down in the first set, but fought back to take it to 5—4. however, the two—time wimbledon finalist was too strong and won the first 6—4. jabeur then powered through to take the second easily, winning 6—1. meanwhile, the former world number one, simona halep has begun her appeal against a four year ban from the sport for doping. halep arrived at the court of arbitration for sport earlier, ahead of the three day hearing. the former wimbledon and french open champion denies wrongdoing and blames contaminated nutritional supplements for the failed tests. if the ban is upheld, it would mean the romanian, who's 32, will be unable

to play until ocotber 2026. the russian figure skater kamila valieva has blamed a strawberry dessert for the positive drugs test that led to her four—year ban from the sport. she claimed the food was contaminated when her grandfather prepared it on a board he'd used to crush his heart medication before taking it. she tested positive in december 2021, when she was 15, and before she emerged as a star at the following year's winter olympics in beijing. super bowl 58 draws ever closer with the match up between the kansas city chiefs and the san francisco 49ers on sunday. the chiefs quarterback patrick mahomes says hejust likes winning — and as a two—time super bowl mvp, he knows how that feels. they're chasing a third nfl crown in five seasons — and he's pretty clear on what they have to do.

we have to continue to get better. i think that's at the second half. i mean, even looking at the last afc championship game, we didn't execute at a high enough level in the second half. and so for us first, you have to be able to manage that long half—time break that you have in the super bowl doing that the right way. and i know the coaches have a great plan for that. and then when you come back out, it's all about execution and energy. and so you can have that execution energy at the beginning of the game when everybody is intense and it's the adrenaline�*s pumping. but being able to bring that again in the second half will be super important, especially against a great defense. and so definitely something that we have to make sure that we're ready to do and some that we have to execute at a high level. masters championjohn rahm admits he misses playing on the american tour. he left it to join the breakaway liv golf in december and made his debut in mexico last weekend. he says he hopes there's a way back for the liv golfers in the future, but in the meantime, thinks it's difficult not taking part in his favourite tournaments in the us.

it was a lot harder to be at home not competing and know that those events were going on. palm springs and torrey. those weeks were hard. i mean, i've explained how many times how important torrey is for me and driving by phoenix as often as i had to and knowing that i wasn't going to play there, it's definitely emotional. that's one of the things that i'm going to miss. i'm hoping that in the near future i can i can be back playing some of those events. i would certainly love to go back and play some of them. one of england's former lionesses, ellen white has been presented with an mbe for services to football. the striker — who retired after england won the euros in 2022 — was at windsor castle to receive her honour from prince william, who's president of the fa. white is still england women's top scorer with 52 goals and 113 caps. she said she had a chat with the prince of wales, who's a keen football supporter. we did speak about football.

i asked him about aston villa as well. but yeah, no, he's been an incredible supporter of women's football for so many years since i've been a part of england and playing football. so yeah, it was amazing to receive it from him and obviously to have a bit of a chat about football as well, which definitely put me at ease and make me feel a bit more relaxed. so that was really nice. lovely to see, isn't it? well, just to remind you of our top story. nigeria are through to the final of the africa cup of nations, where they'll play the hosts, ivory coast. nigeria's match was filled with drama, going to extra time and penalties before they put south africa out. and it's been an incredible tournament for ivory coast, you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport.

there is some snow in the forecast over the next couple of days, but it's certainly not going to be everywhere. most of the snow — the disruptive and heavy snow — will be mainly for northern parts of the uk and particularly over the hills, where there'll be some drifting as the easterly wind picks up. and that's going to bring some travel disruption, particularly for transpennine routes. now we're seeing colder air move across most of the uk, but things are a bit milder towards the south and southwest, and where we've got that boundary, we've got this weather front here, and that's bringing wet weather up from the southwest, and as it hits the colder air, so this is where we're going to see it turning to sleet and snow. and the coldest air early on thursday morning is certainly going to be in scotland. we'll have a frost for a while in northern ireland and northern england. and we've got this amber snow and ice warning from the met office for thursday covering north wales, northwestern parts of shropshire, also the peak district and the southern pennines. and you can see it's mainly over the hills, but there could be a lot of snow over the higher ground. it's going to be more likely rain as you head further south across wales, the midlands and southern england.

but as you move that wetter weather into the colder air, so we've got the threat of some snow mainly over the hills of northern england and also northern ireland, perhaps heading into the far south of scotland by the end of the day. could be some sunshine for the rest of scotland. chilly day, of course, with that wet weather, although it does turn much milder across the south, as that first band of wet weather moves through, briefly turning drier, but more rain coming into the south and more snow over the northern hills of england into southern scotland as well. now, this area of low pressure is bringing all the wet weather. it is pushing milder air northwards, but we've still got the cold conditions on friday in scotland. so this is where we're more likely to have some sleet and snow. there'll be a cold easterly wind picking up. could still be some snow over the northern pennines, but on the whole, across the rest of the uk, it's going to be too warm for snow. we're more likely to have some rain from time to time as temperatures are starting to rise. but it's still cold in scotland. but even here, temperatures are going to be rising on saturday. the colder air is really only

in the far north of scotland, so there could be some sleet and snow here. otherwise there may well be some sunshine, may well be some showers. these are more likely to be of rain. temperatures are rising in scotland and reaching double figures across much of england and wales and also northern ireland.

welcome to newsday, reporting

live from singapore, i'm steve lai. the headlines. a us drone strike on baghdad kills a senior leader of a pro—iran armed group. it was launched in retaliation for the attack last month that killed three us soldiers. israel's prime minister strikes a defiant tone saying he'll settle for nothing less than the total defeat of hamas. polls open in a couple of hours in pakistan after two exposions near the offices of election officials killed 28 people. as millions in china make their move to celebrate the lunar new year, freezing rain and snow storms cause travel chaos. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin in baghdad.

a us drone attack which killed