after feasting greedily on the carcass, the artist will sleep. it will be two days before he hunts again. welcomes a sportday. i'm hugh ferris. the headlines: it is a bit 1984. liverpool meet aroma in the champions league semifinals, a rematch of their famous final and the european cup 34 years ago. gold at last for england's katarina johnson—thompson, claiming the heptathlon title at the commonwealth games. and after a soggy ladies day out aintree, will tomorrow be the day for a lady? three female jockeys in the grand national.

—— at aintree. hello again and thank you for joining us on sportday this evening. liverpool have the tie they might have wanted, facing roma in the champions league semifinals. they will be up against a team who did beyond thinkable to reach the last four. the italians overturned a 4—1 deficit to beat barcelona and will travel for the first leg at anfield on april 24 before the second match in rome on the second of may. that means liverpool avoid defending champions real madrid, who will play by in munich in the other semi—final. for managerjurgen klopp the match against roma provides him with a first. dear and leave place of the three options where i have never played before. —— the only place. that is already exciting. i

think it is how it always is and should be. it is a difficult pair of games, it is a fantastic side, who saw off barcelona. if somebody only saw off barcelona. if somebody only saw those games, you already know pretty much everything about roma. so liverpool avoided the favourites, but arsenal didn't. they will play atletico madrid in the semifinals of the europa league, while the two teams who had big comeback in the last eight, salzburg and marseille face each other in the other much in the last four. aston villa gave their hopes of automatic promotion a boost with a hardfought1—0 win over leeds united in the championship this evening. the only goal came before the half—hour, with louis cronen heading it in from a fine jack really should cross. ——jack grealish. a tough ten days for pep guardiola. two losses to liverpool saw city knocked out of the champions league on either side of the derby defeat to manchester

united, which delayed their premier league title celebrations. pep guardiola will be keen to take all three points in a difficult match against spurs tomorrow night, and he is fully backing his players. they know that i am there. i will support them until the end, until the last moment. because we know it is not over and anything can happen. it is impossible, you know, they have lost and we can win again. the situation is the same. so we lost, 0k, part of the game. in super league, a dramatic night at headingley as wigan warriors beat the leeds rhinos, the defending champions, for the first time there in six years. the home side lead the contest 8—0 until the last ten minutes when the visitors sprang to life and oliver gildart went over the line. shortly after, they levelled, and sam tomkins kicked what proved to be the winning point with less than three minutes remaining.

commentator: sam tomkins goes for it! victory for the warriors at headingley, and a rare one as well. in drug the premiership news, newcastle kept their hopes for the play—offs alive with a thrilling late win over sale. it swung both ways throughout the game at kingston park, there was a nervous wait to see of rod because grounded this try with two minutes left on the clock. it was given and saw the home side win by 35— 30, lifting them to third in the table, sale down to six. glasgow have secured a home semi—final in the play—offs of the pro 14. their 45— 22 win over connacht means that top conference a and have an easy path to the final. also have some work to do to seal a play—off spot, but beat ospreys 8—0 in the night's other match in pool b. off to the gold coast, where for both katarina johnson—thompson and tom daley triumphant adversity has come about. both overcame injury to secure commonwealth games gold. for the heptathlete, it ended a long wait for a gold medal. katarina

johnson—thompson has long been touted as the heir tojessica ennis—hill is thrown. coming into the 800 metres, the final event of the 800 metres, the final event of the heptathlon, she had a healthy lead and gold in her sights. england teammate niamh anderson one to claim bronze. finishing fourth was enough to secure a major championship for katarina johnson—thompson. it should have been a moment for tears ofjoy but it was pain etched all over her face. i was nursing a little injury going into day two. i was talking to my manager, um... it got worse 300 metres into the race, i'm so happy i'm finished now. i had nothing left. i was so devastated for years in glasgow, i really wanted this under my belt. i think it will give mea under my belt. i think it will give me a lot of confidence. tom daley was another who had to overcome pain. it has been a spinning and

somersaulting few days on the gold coast. the englishman feared a hip injury might stop him from competing, alongside dan goodfellow he dives his way to gold at a third consecutive games, and use the moment to highlight concerns over 93v moment to highlight concerns over gay rights within parts of the commonwealth. i've feel extremely lucky to be able to compete openly and truly as who i am, not worrying about ramifications. but for lots of athletes and lots of people living in those countries that is not the case. and, you know, we have to talk about these things and shine light on them in order to get change. byatt birmingham, the next commonwealth games, i hope we see aid decrease in the number of countries that criminalise lgbtq issues. —— by birmingham. grace reid became the first scottish woman to wina became the first scottish woman to win a commonwealth diving medal, taking gold in the one metre springboard. on the green, her compatriot alex marshall was also rewriting the record books. he led a 4—man team to victory over australia. the fifth gold medal of

his career making him the most successful scot in games history. wales surpassed their highest medal tally at an overseas games with laura halford's silver in the hoop. northern ireland claimed theirfirst silver medal in australia thanks to ki rsty silver medal in australia thanks to kirsty barr in the trap. now, tomorrow is the biggest day of the racing calendar, the grand national, of course. 40 horses will set out to win the world's most famous steeplechase over those 30 fences at aintree. this year 3 of them will be ridden by femalejockeys. that aintree. this year 3 of them will be ridden by female jockeys. that is the most in the grand national for three decades. andy swiss has more. a day when the only must have fashion accessory was the trusty umbrella, decidedly soggy going out aintree. as ever, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm. if today is about trendsetting, tomorrow was about trailblazing. the nationalfeatures three female jockeys, including

briony frost. —— frost. herfather jimmy won on little poll they are backin jimmy won on little poll they are back in 1989 and she says the chance to become the first woman to win the race is an extra incentive. you can't stand here and go, i'm just trying to get a place. i would be lying to you and i don't like. we are going with all guns blazing. and iam inspired are going with all guns blazing. and i am inspired to do it more because iama i am inspired to do it more because i am a girl and i want to break the mould and try to be the best i can be for my horses and my team. while forfemale be for my horses and my team. while for female jockeys, just competing over these fences used to be a barrier in itself, women were not allowed to ride in the grand national until the 1970s. hopes of what would be an historic victory have never been higher. casey walsh has come closest so far. in 2012 she finished third on sea bass. now she is among the favourites again on bega zeal, and she told me that on the sport's biggest stage, gender doesn't matter. when i started in

the grand national pull up and say it was great because i was female, i was just happy to be third in the national. i don't look at it as a male and female thing. i can't wait. i hope i do win it, not because i'm female, but because i want to win it. but the female factor is driving the betting. bookies left facing a huge pay—out should national history be made. there is an awful lot of excitement around a female jockey winning the grand national, but bookmakers look at the odds, they arejust bookmakers look at the odds, they are just interested in the numbers. the odds suggest that at a single figure price it is shorter than 10—1 that we have a female jockey winning the grand national. to put that into context, this is the best chance we have ever had. and it is some 41 yea rs have ever had. and it is some 41 years since charlotte brew became the first woman to ride in the national. —— brew. aintree's fences have seen some famous victory since then, but tomorrow's winning post could be a sporting milestone. a match to look forward to one grand

national day, of course. that is all from sportday. from everybody here at the bbc sports centre, good night. well, winds have changed over the next few days. that sun is going to be beating down on us. this weekend is not ideal, but not that bad. they will be some sunshine around but at one point or another some of us will need to use our umbrellas. there are showers and the forecast. after the weekend this is what happens. a big change in that window and the jet stream. a massive kink across the atla ntic stream. a massive kink across the atlantic as it swings towards our pa rt atlantic as it swings towards our part of the world, and that basically means all the air in the southern climes will be pushed in our direction, and those temperatures will be soaring. that means sometime early to mid week next week, temperatures across southern areas of the uk will reach

around 24— 25. even in the north of the country they will be in the low 20s. that is a few days of —— days away. saturday, not ideal, a cloudy start. brightening up later. for the rest of the night it is quiet. not much happening. weather you are in the north for the south, the temperatures are more almost the same, around five or six degrees. let's look at the weather for the early birds. fairly cloudy. missed and murk in places. the cloud will ra ke and murk in places. the cloud will rake up so by the time we get to mid—morning, the sun will be out in most areas. —— and break up. it will be bright enough for most of us. a few showers in the forecast. quite possibly affecting south—eastern areas later in the day. 18 degrees in london. not out. the biggest change you will notice is on the north sea coast. many degrees higher than we have had in the last few days. the grand national at aintree, 14 degrees and partly cloudy skies expected. a look at sunday, low

pressure approaching. normally this isn't great news. what will happen with this low pressure is that it will help to break up the southern cloud we have head across the country. however, it will bring in new cloud of its own and some outbreaks of rain. these blobs of blue, the outbreaks of rain you can see, they will not last long in any one place at any one time. they will swiftly move towards the north. it will be windy out west, so a bit of a blip in the weather on sunday, and those temperatures probably down, 15 in the south. from early next week those temperatures will keep rising. i suspect they will even be underdone in london. we are talking about 24 degrees. even in edinburgh, around 20 degrees or so. let's get through the weekend, with the weather being not so bad, and then next week is looking absolutely fantastic. this is bbc world news. i'm ben bland. our top stories: the united states says it has proof that the syrian government carried out a chemical attack last week in the town of douma, as western countries consider a military response.

at the un, the secretary general says the cold war is back with a vengeance. the situation in the middle east is in chaos. to such an extent, it has become a threat to international peace and security. in his new book, former fbi director james comey calls the president "unethical and untethered from the truth." mr trump says comey‘s a "slimeball."