hello, i'm gavin ramjaun — with your update from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme. the race for the premier league top four hots up — as manchester united beat brentford — but stay behind newcastle — who thrash west ham — and pile the pressure of manager david moyes an emphatic el classico in the copa del rey — karim benzema's hat—trick does the damage for real madrid, to knock out barcelona. and on the eve of one of golf�*s biggest tournaments — we'll be at augusta — to preview who will marvel at the masters this year? thanks forjoining us on the programme. lots to get through — but we start with football. on a busy night of action around europe.

in the premier league — there's been two huge matches — with implications at both ends of the table. manchester united moved back into the top four, after a 1—0 win over brentford at old trafford. marcus rashford with the goal in the first half... it's a victory that lifts united back above tottenham in the race for champions league places. i think we played very good football, especially first half. it's not easy against this very good brentford team to create chances. i think we did it. we dominated first half, especially second half. it was more better. but then we saw what i missed on the sunday determined passion and desire and we drove it over the line. and manchester united are level on points with newcastle — who stay third — but improved their goal difference even further with a 5—1 demolition of west ham at the london stadium. callum wilson and joelinton had them two up, before kurt zouma pulled one back for west ham at half time to give them some hope. but mistakes cost the home side in the second half — wilson with his second, alexander isak, and joelinton again, capping off a stunning

win for newcastle. the loss for the hammers, piles the pressure on david moyes — they're only above the drop zone on goal difference. we have to win more games and to be fair, reform at home has recently been pretty good, right? you'd have been aware of evacuation of the stands towards the end. the fans left a long way before the end. yeah, i would have as well probably if my team wasn't wasn't wasn't doing so well. but, you know, the one thing i would say, the players went right to the end. they kept trying to do it. they kept working as hard as they could. so, you know, their attitude and their commitment, it's been fantastic. elsewhere in europe, it's been a night of cup action — most notably in spain as barcelona took on rivals real madrid in the latest el clasico instalment. this time — it was in the copa del rey semi finals — and barcelona, who led 1—0 from the first leg were left humilated in front of their home fans. karim benzema was real�*s star — scoring a second half hat—trick as his side ran out 4—0 winners on the night, 4—1 on aggregate. carlo ancelotti's side will now

play osasuna in the final. it's semifinal time in the coppa italia too — and fiorentina have taken a big step towards the final. that's after they beat cremonese 2—0 in the first leg of their semi final. the winner of the tie will face either inter milan orjuventus — who drew 1—1 in theirfirst leg on tuesday. from spain to france, where defending champions nantes are one match away from defending their coupe de france title. they're into the final after beating lyon i—o. and in germany — rb leipzig are into the final four of the german cup after beating borussia dortmund 2—0 — willi orban sealing the win in stoppage time — cue the celebrations! stuttgart are also into the semi finals, they beat nuremberg i—o. away from football, world tennis number one iga swiatek says she won't stop showing her support for ukraine, until the war with russia is over. the polish player has spoken publicly to back ukrainian players on the wta tour and has also worn a yellow ribbon on her hat — in previous matches.

swiatek was speaking to my colleague yalda hakim. i want to kind of use my impact on people and remind people all over the world wherever i play, that the word wherever i play, that the war is still out there and that we should do a little bit more to support ukrainians. and we as athletes, i feel like we have a pretty strong voice and we're public persons and we can we can use that the proper way. would your preference be that wimbledon, for example, would justjust there'd be one solid sort of decision on it that they would just be banned? i feel like this kind of thing would kind of show the russian government that maybe it's not worth it. i know it's a small thing because we're just at least we're like little peace in the world, you know? but i feel like sport is pretty important. you know, many polish people

are kind of approaching me even on the street and saying that they really respect what i'm what i'm doing and that there should be more people doing something like that. so these are the comments that i get for sure. there's going to be a little bit of hate on social media, but, you know, i don't really care. for example, she like openly said that she's against the war at the beginning and it would be her dream for the war to finish. so i really respect that. on the other hand, i want i want to help and i want to i'm always going to be, you know, the ukrainian side, because i can't imagine how it is for them to compete at the highest level. and if, like my country would have a war, i don't know if i would be able to do that. so i really respect them. bangladesh are on course to claim victory inside three days, in the one—off test against ireland in mirpur. after dominating day two. after starting on 34—2 in reply to ireland's 214 first innings, mushfiqur rahim's 126 helped the hosts to 369 all out.

ireland were teetering on 27 for four at close , still 128 runs behind. it's getting closer. on thursday, golf�*s first major of the year — the masters — is set to get under way in the us at augusta national. competition for the famous green jacket is perhaps more intense than ever, with golfers from the two rival tours — the pga and the saudi backed liv tour and the saudi backed liv tour — taking part. it's not the only story though . with that all too familiar question of whether rory mcilroy can finally complete a career grand slam. our sports correspondent andy swiss reports: not much tends to change at augusta. it is a place of tradition, of tranquility, but it's now at the centre of golf�*s civil war. it's golf, but louder. this is the first masters since the lucrative liv golf tour split the sport

and its players. 18 of the rebels are here competing against those they left behind, including rory mcilroy, who says the hostility between them for one week at least is on hold. it's a very nuanced situation and there's different dynamics. but this week and this tournament is way bigger than any of that, i feel. and it's just great that all the best players in the world are together again for the first time and what for the first time in what seems to be quite a while. among the fans here, though, support for the liv golfers is in limited supply. i boycotted the live tour. i don't watch it. i think they're just a bunch of greedy. you know what? how would you feel if a liv player won, how would you feel? 0k. oh, not good. well, you know, they have skill and they practice, so they deserve that. i think it's good for the sport that the players with that league get to participate in this tournament. if somebody's going to give you $100 million, i think. the end result is a bad product and and i hope every one - of them don't make the cut.

for mcilroy, though, winning, the one major title that so far eluded him is now the focus. well, this is only rory mcilroy�*s practice round, but you can see the crowds following him. he is one of the favourites this week. so can he finally become masters champion? well, he's been practising with a man who knows all about winning here, tiger woods. but after his car crash two years ago, this masters might be his last. it's been a tough road. i don't know how many more i have in me. so just to be able to appreciate the time that i have here and cherish the memories. the toughest opponents here could be the weather. heavy rain is forecast in golf right now. the storm clouds, it seems, are never far away. andy swift, bbc news, augusta. so there's plenty of opinions and thoughts over who will get their hands on the famous green jacket — but former british professional golfer trishjohnson says mcilroy is the man to beat. i think the words of tiger woods yesterday was interesting. you know, is he going to win this year? he will eventually. and that's almost the way to me. he's got to look at it. i'm going to win it eventually.

try not to put too much pressure. he's got to go out tomorrow and shoot a decent round. his first round average here is appalling, in all honesty, for someone of that calibre. so i think all these fans are looking forward to it. interesting. yesterday, i know a couple of my colleagues were out on the golf course when he was playing with tiger. there were bigger cheers for rory than tiger. that's how much these people want him to win. so it's going to be a fascinating week and obviously it's a glorious day here today. but the weather forecast is not great. you have to say there's a lot of rain forecast thunderstorms. yeah. whose hands do you think that will play into? who could that favour? oh, i think it favour the longer hitters. no question. if a lot of rain comes down on thursday, then, you know, the longer this goes on, the tougher. i mean, this is not a short golf course. they've actually made it longer as well. they've made 13 longer. so it's going to favour the longer hitters, no question about that, which of course, mcilroy is one of those. but it's a mindset that, that's all about mindset really more about than the games of the players who who wants of the players who wants to go out there and battle. and really because it's

going to be and it's also a physical battle this week. so i think, you know, it's going to favour someone who actually says, ok, i'm literally i'm going to do whatever i need to do this week to get thejob done. and i must admit, scottie scheffler, you know, that's someone that has that mindset because he doesn't put too much pressure on himself. golf is not the be all and end all to him. so i'm kind of going back on what i've said. i still think for me that rory is the one to beat that might be in my heart rather than anything else. but yeah, it's going to be a great tournament. can't wait for it to get started. trishjohnson there. and one final line from augusta — on the eve of the tournament. we'll show something that should hopefully whet your appetite, for what's to come over the next four days. it's the traditional par—3 tournament on wednesday — there were five holes—in—one! seamus power hit two back to back!!! while america's tom hogee also got one on the way to winning the event. that's it from us — all the latest on the bbc sport website. see you soon.

hello there. the easter weekend just around the corner, a heads—up for what to expect coming shortly, but first of all, let's take a look at wednesday's weather. best of the sunshine was certainly across eastern england. yes, it clouded over into the afternoon, but most of us had skies like this — fairly grey with outbreaks of rain at times. now, that rain is pushing its way east and it will clear over the next few hours and allow this ridge of high pressure to build and quieten things down. so, first thing thursday, it's a rather grey, damp, dreary start across the east, but it's a mild one with the cloud around, temperatures holding up above freezing, so that early rain will ease away. mist and fog patches lift to sunny spells and scattered showers into the afternoon. maybe some of those showers filtering down

through the cheshire gap could be quite heavy, maybe with the odd rumble of thunder mixed in there as well. so, by the middle part of the afternoon, it's sunny spells and scattered showers. highs of 11—14 degrees, slightly drier, brighter skies into northern ireland and western scotland as that ridge of high pressure takes over. but there will be some showers across the northeast of england and eastern scotland here, highs of 9—12 celsius. so, by the end of thursday, the high pressure is building and quieting things down quite nicely. a spell of really wet weatherfor a time, moving away through east anglia and southeast england. but under those clearer skies out to the west, once again, those temperatures fall away low enough for a touch of frost to form first thing on friday morning. but good friday is going to be a reasonable day — dry, settled and sunny. these weather fronts trying to push in from the atlantic, but they will take most of the easter weekend before they arrive. so, on the whole, we could just see a little more in the way

of cloud just pushing in off north sea coasts, unfortunately for eastern england. but most of us dry with some sunshine coming through and light winds. it'll be pleasant enough — highs of 10—14 celsius. similar story as we go into saturday, but there's a greater chance of seeing more cloud developing from the north sea with that easterly flow. there's our weather front, trying desperately hard to push in from the atlantic. it takes its time to do so, perhaps not arriving until sunday, with more significant rain for some of us by easter monday. take care.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: the speaker of the us house of representatives meets taiwan's president, in california — despite threats of retaliation from china. i believe our bond is stronger now than at any time or point of my life. and of course, president tsai is a great champion of that bond. western leaders are on a state visit to china — as they try to get beijing to play a bigger role in ending the war in ukraine.