andre greipel sprints to victory on stage five of the paris to nice race. after all that champions league excitement on wednesday, it's the turn of the europa league to take centre stage. and there was a 6 goal thriller in france as lyon came from behind to beat roma in the first leg of the last 16 tie. the home side had taken the lead after 8 minutes but mohamed salah drew the italians level on 20 minutes, before on—loan spurs defender federico fazio put roma ahead just after the half hour — at this point all one way traffic. the second half though belonging to lyon. they scored 3 unanswered goal, including a rocket from alexander lacazette in injury time to put themselves in the driving seat to reach the quarter finals. 4—2 final score. meanwhile manchester united grabbed a vital away goal as they drew 1—1 at russian side rostov. henrikh mkhitaryan‘s close—range finish after 35 minutes giving united the lead but despite showing very little going forward up to that point the hosts equalized through aleksandr bukharov. it leaves things finally poised for the return leg at old trafford next thursday.

better 1—1 fan zero — zero at the game is open. the result is open and this team have experience of playing big matches, big opponents, big stadiums. i do not think it is a problem for them to go to old trafford and compete. arsenal manager, arsene wenger, says he will take the fans‘ opinions into account when he makes up his mind about whether to stay in the job. the gunners have lost five

of their last seven games, leading to speculation about the future of the premier league's longest serving manager. our sports editor dan roan has more. the humiliation at the hands of bayern munich left arsenal divided, the fans in revolt and the manager facing unprecedented pressure but arsene wenger said today he will decide at the end of the season whether to stay. i love this club. i loyal to this club and i will make the right decision for this club. i do not want to speak about always the same matter. what is for me important is football games. arsene wenger we want you to go. some have seen enough and after the protests, came on admission, the fans will have a bearing on his future. came on admission, the fans will

have a bearing on his futurem came on admission, the fans will have a bearing on his future. it is not the most important factor that you consider it of course. in a statement the chairman saying... arsene wenger‘s future is at the top of the game. this afternoon, football's most powerful figure paying this tribute. what he has done throughout the history is outstanding. he is a legend. he's one of the foot will legend. this stadium and the club both are built in his own image but after the humiliation suffered here earlier this week, there is a growing sense that arsenal's most successful ever manager has taken the club as far as it can and it is time for him to

walk away. after two decades of management and many trophies, it is ha rd to management and many trophies, it is hard to imagine arsenal without arsene wenger but the longest partnership could be nearing the end. england have thrashed the west indies by 186 runs in the third one day international to complete a 3 nil series whitewash. the hosts won the toss in barbados and put england in to bat. alex hales made 110, on his return to the side after breaking his hand at the end ofjanuary, with joe root also scoring a century, as england were all out for 328. in reply the west indies were skittled out for 142. chris woakes taking 3 for 16. it's day three of the first test between new zealand and south africa in dunedin. chasing south africa's first innings of 308, new zealand started the day on 177 for 3. kane williams on went for 130 after lunch. they're now 282—6.

meanwhile hosts, sri lanka, took command of the first test against a struggling bangladesh on a rain—hit day three in galle. the tourists were all out for 312, trailing the sri lankans by a massive 182 runs. england's owen farrell wasn't able to get through thursday's training session ahead of the calcutta cup match against scotland the centre had medics looking at his left knee as he departed the training field but number 8 billy vunipola will make his first appearance in the tournament from the bench. and although head coach eddiejones admits farrell could be a doubt for the game, he made light of the incident. he has got a bad leg so he could not finish training. (inaudible). he ran into my dog. my dog was running

around and he ran into it. he will be all right. he will be all right. did you say he was a doubt? yes at i think you will be all right. is that 0k. he is an exceptional player and we have 12 exceptional players so we will be all right. as for scotland, edinburgh flanker hamish watson will start in place of the injured john hardie. it's the only change to the starting 15 and means their backline stays the same for the trip to twickenham, a venue where scotland haven't won since 1983. our players know we have to be on oui’ our players know we have to be on our best performance on that day, during that 80 minutes we will have the string together a number of excellent place, take the defence on, think clearly to get them to start adapting to our play. they are a very good team. german powerhouse, andre greipel sprinted his way to victory on stage five of the paris—nice cycle race. the lotto—soudal rider used

all his experience to finish superbly narrowly beating arnaud demare of france to the finish line. another frenchman, julian alaphilippe, comfortably retained his overall lead. and britain's geraint thomas held on after breaking away from the peloton to win the second stage of the tirreno—adriatico race. the team sky rider led from four kilometres out to take the victory. belgium's greg van avermaet is the overall leader. now those of you with any knee troubles look away now. we've got some fantastic footage from the freestyle ski and snowboarding world championships in spain. ikuma horishima up against bradley wilsons smashing the moguls and some big air. big 1080 as well but then the japanese ski—er falls and all wilson has to do is canter through to the finish. but no, he goes down as well. and because he had to walk over the jump, the american was marked down and his rival nailing a final flourish got gold, even though he reached the bottom in second.

five time world snooker champion ronnie o sullivan is a man known for not giving predictable interviews. the bbc‘s gareth blainey spoke to him after his quarter—final exit at the welsh 0pen. 0'sullivan wasn't particularly keen to chat but there's never a dull moment with the rocket. he did offerup a rendition of wonderwall, the hit song by the band 0asis. take a listen. how frustrating was that came back so well with that century break the lose that to judd? very. what did you make of your own performance — decent? um, judd, in fairness seemed to pot a lot of balls from distance. what did you make of his performance? usual. i mean, he's a pretty talented player, isn't he? very. he has been in form this season? totally. so how do you reflect on the match as a whole? don't know, really.

um, you seem to take while to get going. maybe. sing: # maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me. and after all, you're my wonderwall...# is that good? how did you look back at the tournament? ronnie and the rockets seller —— serenading the bbc. for me and the rest of the sports today team, see thanks to a ridge of high pressure, thursday turned out to be a glorious day for many.

plenty of sunshine and a top of 17 in england. during the course of the night, central and eastern areas will hold on to the clear skies. friday morning, temperatures quite chilly. further south and west, increasing cloud, light and patchy rain, hillfog, and some mist as well. a bit more of a breeze here, so a mild start in southern areas and further east. this area of low pressure will bring increasingly unsettled weather to western areas. friday morning, an east—west split. cloudy and breezy here across the west with drizzle. chilly and bright in the far east. a bright start in scotland and the northern isles. further west, cloudy with light rain. mist and murk in northern ireland and hill fog. also the case for north—west england and the south—west of england. the east of the pennines and east anglia, it will be a chilly start. at least bright with sunshine. notice the temperature difference.

6—7 degrees in the east, 10—11 in the west. the cloud in western areas will creep eastwards as the day goes on. not reaching the far south—east and east anglia really until after dark. here you should see the sunshine. maybe a high of 13—14 degrees. in the west, mild but rather cloudy with some rain. the six nations rugby. wales against ireland in cardiff. the odd spit of rain in the air. the weekend, a tale of two halves. saturday looking dry into sunday. a weather front bringing cooler and fresher air mainly across northern and western areas. saturday, skies brightening up in northern ireland and scotland behind this weather front which will bring some dreary weather to central parts of the uk. the south—east, a little bit of brightness. very mild indeed.

15, 16, 17. sunday is a messier picture. we lose one weather front to be replaced another one. some drier interludes here and there. to sum up for the weekend, saturday will be the driest of the two days with some sunshine around and feeling quite warm across the south and east. because for sunday, it looks like more rain around. and many people are seeing some rain at times. it will start to feel cooler and fresher. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: south korea in ferment as the country awaits the impeachment verdict on the country's president. more american states join the legal action against president trump's new immigration ban on six mainly muslim countries. the man in charge of protecting america's environment says he doesn't believe human activity is causing climate change. and freed as a result of a bbc investigation, but what happened next

to the chimpanzee stolen by animal traffickers? hello.