hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm jane 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 goal from 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 bowl, just 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 abijan. we have had miracles, we had dramas, we had big slices of luxury for this tournament for ivory coast. but this performance was all about quality and control. they were super against the congo. at times it didn't look like their opponents knew how to attack this ivory coast coast. sebastian haller, the striker is the face on all the billboards in abidjan and across ivory coast. he was already a hero. he's a bigger hero now after scoring the goal which has put ivory coast in the africa cup of nations

final, a shot which they 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 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 shootout to make it to the final after drama right on 90 minutes. victor osman thought he made it 2-0 victor osman thought he made it 2—0 for the super eagles right at the end of the game but the video assistant ref vee spot add 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 shootout and this time ronwen williams, the south africa goalkeeper and captain, couldn't be the hero. the winner was scored and in this 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. we deserve, we deserve, many people deserve, it was 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! look, man!

all of our players, we're proud of you. the goalkeeper... you guys were exceptional. you were amazing. you made our country proud. i'm happy. overhappy. in fact, i'm happy. i'm happy for our boys. the match was well won - and we are getting to the end of the match, you know, i was like, god, are - we going to win this match? was panic— and i went by anxieties. so now after the match, and we notice we scored and we get them. - i was so excited and i went by withjoy. l 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 phenomenal strike after just 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 have a young team, but we are growing in a very good way. i think to be in the final of the cup,

and now to be in the next round of the fa cup, we need to keep pushing now in the premier league, but i think playing in this way, yes, we can for sure win more games than lose. tennis now. 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 lviii 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 second half. even looking at the last championship game, we didn't execute at a high enough level in the second half. so for us, firstly to be able to manage the long—time break in it the right way, the coaches have a great plan. when you come out it's all about execution and energy. you can have that execution and energy at the beginning of the game when everybody is intense and it's — it's — the adrenaline is pumping but bringing that again in the second half will be super important especially against a great defence and so definitely something that we have to make sure we're ready to do and something we have to execute at high level. look forward to that. golf now. masters champion john 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 those events were going on. palm springs and tory, those weeks were hard. i have explained how many times how important tory is for me. and driving by phoenix as often as i had to and knowing i wasn't going to play there, is definitely emotional. that's one of the things i'm going to miss and i'm hoping then in the nearfuture 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, yeah, iasked 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 have been a part of england and playing football. so, yeah, it was — 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 felt me feel a bit more relaxed which was nice. lovely to see, isn't it. 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. hello there. 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.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the us secretary of state says there is still space for a deal

with hamas after israel's prime minister rejected the group's ceasefire terms. iraq says a us drone strike that killed a leader of an iran—backed militia in baghdad is a threat to regional security. and donald trump sets his sights on thursday's nevada caucuses where he is running unopposed after nikki haley's stinging defeat in the state's republican primary. hello. thank you forjoining us. we begin in the middle east, where israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, rejected hamas's proposed ceasefire terms on wednesday, saying "total victory" in gaza is possible within months. mr netanyahu added that negotiations with the group were "not going anywhere" and described their terms as "bizarre". hamas laid out a process to release israeli hostages in several phases in exchange for palestinian prisoners and a period of calm

to allow a dramatic increase in aid to gaza.