west ham's fine european form continues, while leverkusen's unbeaten run remains, thanks to late europa league drama. we'll look ahead to the final weekend of the six nations with ireland in the driving seat to be crowned champions. and ten birdies in his opening round has world number two rory mcilroy in a share of the lead at the players championship. welcome to the programme. let's start with the europa league, where west ham have comfortably beaten freiburg to reach the last eight of the competition. west ham were 2—0 up at half—time, to take a 2—1 lead on aggregate in the tie,

then went on to win 5—0 on the night — mohamed kudus with a brace — to help them on the way to the win. it means david moyes has led the team to a european quarterfinal for the third year in a row. hugely pleased with the goals and a level of the performance and how well the players did tonight. we were really unhappy from the first game. all the staff, the players, we felt we shouldn't have come out with the result we had. we had to live with that and try and put it right and tonight we did. there were remarkable scenes as bayer leverkusen kept their unbeaten season alive late on to beat qarabag. the visitors were 2—0 up, 4—2 ahead on aggregate, but xabi alonso�*s side went on to win 3—2 on the night, thanks to two stoppage time goals from patrik schick.

elsewhere, rangers are out after being beaten 1—0 on the night by benfica at ibrox. liverpool are comfortably through, beating sparta 11—2 on aggregate. brighton's european journey is over — that 4—0 defeat in the first leg against roma too much to overturn. milan also through. so here are the eight teams left in the competition. atalanta and marseille the other teams through that we haven't mentioned. the draw for the quarterfinals will take place on friday — all the details will be on the bbc sport app. aston villa meanwhile will be in the europa conference league quarterfinal draw, after beating ajax 4—0 on the night, following a goalless first leg. ollie watkins scored the first goal for villa, but later came off injured, which will be a worry for gareth southgate after the striker was picked for the england squad earlier. second—half goals from leon bailey, john duran and moussa diaby sealed villa's

progress to the last eight. so watkins is supposed to be a part of gareth southgate�*s england squad for friendlies with belgium and brazil later this month. brentford striker ivan toney is back for the first time since his eight—month ban for breaching fa betting rules. there are also first time call ups for newcastle forward anthony gordon. the 23—year—old has scored ten goals in all competitions this season for his club, and for 21—year—old defender jarrad branthwaite who's impressed for everton this season. we watched him as a back—up in the under 21 finals last year and if you said to me he would play as consistently well at premier league level as he has, i would have questioned that last summer. so he is in on merit and really keen to work with him and find out more about him. the final weekend of the six nations is almost upon us, with a super

saturday of action. wales face italy with the unwanted wooden spoon upforgrabs. while ireland are favourites to be crowned champions in dublin, when they face scotland. however, there's a possible route to the title for england, when they take on france. it would be dependent on ireland losing and then various bonus point permutations, so get the calculators readyjust in case. our correspondent andy swiss is in dublin ahead of it all. ireland might have been tempted to make a few changes after that agonising defeat against england last weekend, but they haven't, their coach andy farrell said in the press conference earlier that when people are disappointed, you tend to get a good reaction. so he has named an entirely unchanged starting 15 to face scotland. that means calvin nash has been included. he had to leave the field at twickenham last weekend after only a few minutes

after he suffered a head injury, but he has since passed a head injury assessment and is therefore available to play. as for scotland, there will be looking to bounce back from the defeat against italy last weekend. they have made two changes to their starting 15. the first six nations start for stafford mcdowall at centre, he replaces cameron redpath. well ben white returns at scrum—half. he was arrested last weekend, but he is back in the starting 15. as for england, they have made one change to their starting 15 as they prepare to face france. elliot daly comes in for emmanuel feyi—waboso, who reported concussion symptoms early in the week so he has not been included. the final day of the cheltenham festival is to come on friday, when the gold cup, the highlight of the festival, takes place.

but on thursday there were wins for some familiar faces from the world of football, like former manchester united manager sir alex ferguson. laura scott can tell us more from a rainy cheltenham. he hadn't had a cheltenham festival winner before today and then he had one with one of the start of the day and then a second in the ryanair chase when protector act won for him. he is a part owner. it is trained by dan skelton. you can see the look on sir alex's face when he celebrated those two winners. it looked like the joy will be used to seeing what he was a football manager and asked dan skelton, if he had ever spoken to sir alex about the impact of being a winning owner and what it means to him and this is what he said. he is a competitor at the end of the day and once he retired from managing, still wanted to be competitive and his horses gave him a chance to be that competitor still. i think he enjoys not having the pressure of preparation, but what a guy to have in your corner, to be able

to spring things off and he gives me life lessons all the time. you just listen to what he has to say, you can pick up an awful lot. sir dan skelton has had a remarkable festival, he has enjoyed four winners, a brilliant day for the british trainers fighting back from two days of dominance for the irish. the other feature race of the day did go to ireland, that was won by gordon elliott because my course. sir alex wasn't the only football manager to have a winner today because harry redknapp also owned a winner, and he likened the nerves of watching his horse try to win when he was climbing up the cheltenham hill to being 1—0 up in a cup final at wembley, he said it was very nerve—racking but he seemed thrilled to have a winner. rather than being the olympics ofjump racing this has been like the premier league ofjump racing today.

tomorrow is of course all about the gold cup, the highlight of the week, celebrating its 100th anniversary and the favourite in that race is last year's winner for willie mullins who yesterday trained his 100th festival winner. rory mcilroy is in a three way share of the lead at the players championship in florida. the world number two shot a seven—under par round of 65 at tpc sawgrass, recovering from a double bogey to birdie the last, to leave him tied with xander schauffele and wyndham clark at the top of the leaderboard. matt fitzpatrick and nick taylor are one shot off them. i didn't really have many expectations going out there today because i was like, 0k, it feels good on the range, feels good in practice but lets see how it is when you have a card in your hand. there is something to be said for that, just sort of lessening the expectations and going out and seeing what happens. but it was obviously a great start. afterfinishing seventh

in his first formula i start in saudi arabia filling in for the absent carlos sainz, british ferrari driver 0llie bearman is targeting a full—time seat in 2025. team—mate charles leclerc believes it's only a matter of time before the 18—year—old is in f1 but for now, bearman says he's fully focused on his formula 2 season. you're only as good as your last race, so i think in a week's time or two weeks�* time this will all be forgotten and i will bejudged on my previous f2 race, so that is my main focus and i have to do great for the rest of the year in f2. i am currently at last having the race weekend jetta, so after some work to catch up but that is my main focus i want to do as good as i can in the f2 championship and see where we are at the end of that. to tennis finally at indian wells, iga swiatek is into the semifinals of the women's singles after her opponent caroline wozniacki had to quit their quarterfinal in the second set due to injury.

in the men's draw, jannik sinner extended his winning streak to 19 matches after defeating jiri lehecka in the quarterfinals. world number three sinner has won 36 of his last 38 matches. you can get all the latest sports news from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website — that's bbc.com/sport. and all the live scores, they are all on the bbc sport website and the app. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. hello. well, the weather has been very mild in the last day or so. in london, temperatures on thursday reached 18.1 degrees celsius, so spring is definitely in the air. how about friday? i don't think it's going to be quite as warm and if anything,

a lot of cloud and a good chance of catching some rain. now, currently, an area of low pressure is crossing us with its weather fronts and that spells a lot of rain—bearing cloud. and in fact, through the night, it will have been a wet picture across many parts of scotland. rain also around the lake district and elsewhere we've got showers crossing the uk. temperatures early in the morning on friday — double figures for london and norwich and many of us around 9—10 degrees. a bit colder there in scotland — 5 for aberdeen. the forecast, then, for friday, and a lot of cloud first half of the day, very few glimmers of sunshine. showers possible through the morning and afternoon across england and wales, cracks of thunder likely, but out towards the west — and in some other areas as well — there'll be some bright spells. temperatures — well, from yorkshire southwards i think we're still talking about the mid—teens, but further north and west, closer to around 10 or 11. and then friday night the skies clear, and into saturday morning with lighter winds, it is going to be a chilly start.

so crisp sunshine early on saturday with temperatures in parts of scotland around —3 degrees celsius. i don't think it's going to be frosty in the south. so saturday, lots of bright if not sunny weather across many northern and eastern areas. but this weather front is approaching — its southwesterlies pushing the rain bearing clouds so there will be some damp weather for the south—west, for wales, the irish sea and into northern ireland. temperatures though, around 10—13 degrees. and then for the rest of the weekend, while weather fronts keep on crossing the uk, notice that the winds are blowing out of the southwest — that's a mild direction. so if anything, despite all the cloud and the early outbreaks of rain, i think on sunday with that even southerly, i think the temperatures are going to rise. we're talking around 15—16, maybe even 17 degrees celsius in one or two spots across the east and the southeast. let's have a look at the outlook. it is going to be a mixed bag, every weather icon you can possibly imagine.

but those temperatures are going to remain on the mild side. mid—teens across the south — around, say, 8—13 in the north of the uk. that's it from me. bye— bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news. democratic senator chuck schumer calls on israel to hold new elections, saying prime minister netanyahu has "lost his way". the un evacuates non—essential staff from haiti

as gangs extend their control over much of the capital. and russians vote in an election where vladimir putin faces no real challengers. i'm helena humphrey, good to have you with us. us senate majority leader chuck schumer has called for new elections in israel, accusing israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu of prioritising his "political survival" above the country. mr schumer, a democrat and america's highest—ranking jewish elected official, said the us should use its leverage to persuade mr netanyahu to change course. while the us remains israel's closest ally and biggest provider of military aid, concerns have been mounting within the biden administration over israel's conduct in gaza as the humanitarian crisis there worsens. now president biden�*s top ally on capitol hill is calling for israel to make "course corrections".