hello, this is sport today live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: real madrid move to within a point of claiming the spanish league title as cristiano ronaldo scores twice. juventus make it a third successive coppa italia as they remain on course for an historic treble. world number one angelique kerber crashes out of the italian open in the second round hello and welcome to the programme where we start with the news that real madrid are within touching distance of a first spanish league title since 2012, after a 4—1 victory at celta vigo on wednesday. zinedine zidane‘s side need just a point away to malaga on sunday. it was their talisman cristiano ronaldo who was again at the centre of it all with goals in either half that were added to by karim benzema and toni kroos late on meaning anything but defeat on sunday on the costa del sol will see them crowned champions.

and there's confirmation that real are three points clear heading to malaga while barcelona need to win at home to eibar in the hope that their fierce rivals slip up with both matches kicking off at 18 gmt on sunday. he team real will face in the champions league final next month, juventus, are one step closer to potentially winning their first ever treble after they defeated lazio 2—0 to claim the coppa italia title in rome. goals from dani alves and leonardo bonucci inside the opening 25 minutes proved to be enough for massimilliano allegri's side as they made it a third successive trophy in this tournament. if they can add the serie a and champions league titles to their haul they would become just the second italian club, and first since inter under jose mourinho in 2010 to claim the hat—trick of trophies in one campaign. monaco have confirmed their first french title since 2000 with a comfortable 2—0 win at home to saint—etienne. goals from kylian mbappe, his 15th league goal of the season, and valere germain sealing it and thus ending paris st germain‘s four—year domination

last year monaco finished a massive 31 points ahead. they brought in a big—name manager and everybody expected them to coast to a title for a fifth year. monaco proved the pundits wrong not only winning the title winning in style. they picked up title winning in style. they picked up the most wins and add to that the fa ct up the most wins and add to that the fact that they have had and heck tick schedule. brilliant young talents have captured the imagination of the french public. the only worry now for their coach is the big clubs across europe could

poach their big stars but for now they can enjoy what has been a remarkable season. there was one game in the english premier league on wednesday — and it wasn't much to write home about. southampton and manchester united played out a dreary goalless draw at st. mary's where the only noteworthy highlight was a penalty after only six minutes that was saved by the united keeper sergio romero — denying manolo gabbiadini from the spot. i think it was a good game for two teams that are not playing for any big targets. i think it was a good game. they wanted to win, we wanted to win, we made lots of changes, but at the end of the day they had good chances and we had good chances. i think it was good football, so i think i have to be happy with my players, especially because they have one of the biggest matches of their career in one week and they still managed to focus and be professional. in greece, the super league play—off

match between panathinaikos and paok salonika was abandoned after 59 minutes with both teams down to nine men but the incident that proved the tipping point was when the salonika coach vladimir ivic was hit in the head with a full can of beer. after close to an hour's suspension, referee giorgos kominos abandoned the match that will be most likely awarded to paok with a 3—0 decision. the serbian ivic was taken to hospital where its understood two stitches were needed to close his wound. the super league playoffs will determine the country's second representative in the champions league qualifiers after champions 0lympiakos. the shocks of the clay court tennis season continue — women's world number one angelique kerber has gone out of the italian 0pen. the german, who took back top spot from serena williams at the start of the week, was beaten by anett kontaveit from estonia. it was 6—4 in the first set.

but the second saw kerber really struggling forform, as she was beaten 6—0. second seed karolina pliskova had no problems. the czech advanced to the third round after beating the american lauren davis, dropping just one game in each set. third—seeded garbine muguruza fought back to beat latvian qualifier jelena 0stapenko. the 23 year—old who's also the current french open champion came back to triumph 2—6, 6—2, 6—1. simona halep is also through to the third round. the romanian, who won in madrid last weekend, beat germany's laura siegemund. her good form on clay appearing to continue as she came through 6-4, 6-4. in the men's event — well it couldn't have easier for rafael nadal, as he made his way into the third round

of the rome masters. the spaniard was three—love up in the first set when his fellow countryman nicolas almagro retired with a knee injury. nadal, who is coming off the back of victories at monte carlo, barcelona and madrid, is going for a record eighth title at the event. he will play the americanjack sock in the last 16. stan wawrinka needed three sets to beat frenchman benoit paire. the world number three and third seed in rome was a 6—3, 1—6, 6—3 winner and will now face americanjohn isner in the last 16. japan's kei nishikori is through to the last 16. the 7th seed, beat spain's david ferrer in straight sets. it's the second time in a week he's beaten ferrer after victory in madrid and he'll now face juan martin del potro for a place in the quarterfinals. that's because the argentine came through his second round match against britain's kyle edmund in straight sets taking it 7-5, 6-4. fernando alonso continued his push

to becoming a winner of the indianapolis 500 logging more than 6,000 incident—free miles at indianapolis motor speedway on the second day of practice for the 101st edition which takes place later this month. alonso ran the most laps of anyone on the day as he worked to become comfortable racing in traffic. the driver of the mclaren—honda—andretti honda finished 24th on the speed chart. the 35 year—old is looking to become the first driver to win formula 0ne‘s monaco grand prix which he's already achieved along with this race and the 2a hour le mans endurance race it was useful, i think. six cars and we we re it was useful, i think. six cars and we were running together so that teammates were amazing, helping me. i knew they were taking care of me. that was good. first time for me...

they helped me here and there, every lap, i followed them, they helped me here and there, every lap, ifollowed them, see they helped me here and there, every lap, i followed them, see what they do, how they attack, how they prepared to overtake. it was a very deep day. spain's 0mar claimed his first win on a grand tour in wednesday's11th stage of the giro d—italia. frylay held off former world champion rui costa over the 161km ride from florence to bagno di romagna. holland's tom dumoulin maintained the pinkjersey and his overall race lead of over two minutes. in basketball‘s nba play—offs, the eastern conference finals are underway boston celtics host cleveland cavaliers at td garden. it's the 7th time they've met in the play—offs, with boston winning four of their first six meetings. but the cavs came out on top when they met in the regular season — winning 3—1. and in ice hockey‘s stanley cup play—offs, pittsburgh penguins are at ottawa senators in game 3

of their eastern conference finals. the best of seven series is tied at 1—1 and it's currently 4—0 to the senators. bangladesh made 257 for 9 from their 50 overs — and the black caps reached their target with 15 balls to spare, thanks to half—centuries from tom latham and james neesham. home favourite adriano de souza claimed victory on wednesday at the the rio pro after beating australia's adrian buchan in six—to—eight foot conditions in saquarema. after winning on the fourth stop on the world surf league tour, 2015 world champion de souza will now move up to second place on the leaderboard, just 350 points behind world no. 1jothohn florence heading into fiji. to recap our top story: real madrid arejust one point to recap our top story: real madrid are just one point away from winning

the title. this is after a 4-1 win. bye for now. i know many gardeners in england wanted some rain but i suspect some of those gardens may be water—logged now after what happened during wednesday. this is one soggy picture from lincolnshire. soaking rain. all—day rain for some. looking at the totals. a0 millimetres. many of you had 20—a0 millimetres of rain. north—west england stayed dry. a fresher feel to things over the next few days. slightly cooler air. noticeably fresher. humid. sunshine. it will feel warmer. the sun will come out after a cloudy start in east anglia. elsewhere, plenty of blue skies.

looking at things at 8am. sunshine in the channel islands after the wet weather on wednesday. plenty of blue sky in east england. a cloudy start. showers from the word go. you might get one in wales, north—west england. northern ireland, a dry start, but don't be fooled. showers breakout. one or two in western part of scotland to begin the day. thursday. looking at how the weather develops. the risk of catching a slow—moving and possibly thundery downpour. hail as well. beefy the showers in scotland. and isolated shower in the midlands late in the day. a fresher feel to things. pleasant in the sunshine. things cool down as the

showers moved through. some showers continuing through thursday evening. thursday night and friday morning. rain in the east of england. during friday, that could move across more of the uk, the bulk of england and scotland, through the day. uncertainty still about the weather system. keep checking the forecast. elsewhere on friday, sunshine and showers again, with temperatures into the mid—teens. cooler where there is persistent rain rather than showers. wet weather close by during the weekend. rain during scotland's weekend. pleasant in the sunshine. cool with the showers. fresh with the sunshine. a fresher feel to days and cooler nights to come. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories — a special prosecutor, a former fbi chief, is appointed to investigate russian

interference in the us election, as president trump complains about his treatment by the media. no politician in history and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. venezuela steps up its military presence along the colombian border as violent anti—government protests spread across the country. the number of child migrants and refugees travelling alone reaches record numbers as the un warns many are at risk of being exploited. and she's a fierce opponent on the court. but this basketball player had to fight a legal action to play hoops in a hijab.