i'm paul scott at the bbc sport centre. and here's what we've got coming up on the programme. fans and team—mates show support for viniciusjunior, ahead of real madrid's first match since the brazilian was subject to racist abuse at valencia. a photo finish at the giro d'ltalia, as geraint thomas remains in the pinkjersey heading into the final stages. and we meet the nigerian teenager moulded by the uk's nfl academy and tipped to be a star of the future. hello there. welcome along to the programme. real madrid beat rayo vallecano 2—1 in la liga, but viniciusjunior was absent from the squad. the brazilian was subjected to racist abuse at the weekend against valencia, who will now have part of their stadium closed for

five matches as punishment. prior to wednesday's game, the two sets of players demonstrated their support for vinicius, with his team—mates all wearing his number 20 shirt — the banner reading "racists out of football". valencia are to appeal their punishment from the spanish football federation, which also includes a fine of nearly $50,000, while the la liga president issued an apology to the brazilian following his comments on social media, in which he accused vinicius of criticising and slandering la liga. 0n the pitch, karim benzema and rodrygo sealed the win. elsewhere, cadiz are still not safe after a 2—0 defeat at villarreal. 2-0. already relegated elche drew 1—1 with sevilla. atletico madrid slipped to third after a 3—3 draw at espanyol. and getafe boosted their survival hopes with a 1—0 win at real betis. in italy, inter milan have retained their coppa italia title after a 2—1 win over fiorentina at the stadio

0limpico in rome. fiorentina took the lead afterjust three minutes, nicolas gonzalez putting the europa conference league finalists ahead, but inter held their nerve and two late first—half goals from star striker lautaro martinez helped simone inzaghi's side to their second piece of silverware this season, after the italian supercup, and with a champions league final on the horizon as well. in the english premier league, brighton have confirmed their place in next season's europa league after a 1—1 draw with champions manchester city. the seagulls required a point from their final home game of the season, and after phil foden opened the scoring for city, julio enciso equalised for brighton with an absolute rocket from outside the penalty area before half—time. after the break, erling haaland had a goal disallowed by the var for a foul. the point was enough. cue joyous scenes at the full—time whistle as both the players,

staff and fans celebrated their historic achievement. it's a fantastic goal. we achieved an incredible target for the brighton club, for the brighton players, for the brighton coaches, and we are very, very...very happy. it was a good game. congratulations, brighton, for officially being in the europa league. they deserve it 100% for the way they played, the way they do it. and to my team, just like i said to them, today, they showed me the reason why they are the champions in england, so after 40 hours before they were drinking all the alcohol in manchester. one more football line — ruud van nistelrooy has resigned as manager of dutch club psv eindhoven, despite leading them to both the cup and a potential second place finish in the eredivisie. the former manchester united striker has left with a game still to go in the league season.

meanwhile, with four stages to go, britain's geraint thomas remains in control of winning his first giro d'italia title. stage 17 had a finish to remember, as alberto dainese, jonathan milan and michael matthews all crossed the line together — a photo finish showing dainese just edged it. thomas finished in the peloton, meaning he keeps his 18—second lead and retains the leader's pinkjersey. mumbai indians are one game away from the indian premier league final after they thrashed the lucknow super giants by 81 runs in the eliminator. the super giants collapsed to 101 all out in their chase, after mumbai set a target of 183. thanks to a top score of 41 from cameron green. they'll now play gujarat titans for a place in the final against chennai super kings. in tennis, defending champion cameron norrie booked his place in the quarterfinals of the lyon 0pen. the second seed with a 6—3, 6—4 win over david goffin, as he continues his preparations for the french

open, the draw for which takes place on thursday. norrie now faces argentina's sebastian baez for a place in the last four. meanwhile, sweden's mikael ymer was disqualified from the tournament after this outburst in his round of 16 match against frenchman arthur fils. he furiously smashed his racquet to pieces on the umpire�*s chair, after an argument with the umpire over a line call. ymer was 6—5 down in the opening set. fils progresses with a walkover. now, the teams have been announced ahead of sunday's rugby union match between the barbarians and a world xv at twickenham. israel folau will start for the world xv, despite being sacked by rugby australia four years ago for making anti—decay comments on social media. meanwhile, a week after his own international retirement, alun wynjones will captain the bar—bars. 0ur rugby reporter sara 0rchard has been speaking to my colleague hugh ferris. alun wynjones leading out the barbarians —

that was always going to steal all the headlines. the coach of the barbarians, eddiejames, admitted he didn't know about that big retirement announcement and his playing namesake hasn't even spoken to the press today, which a lot of people were disappointed. they really wanted to hearfrom him. but eddiejones described alun wynjones as a player that he hated coaching against but he loves having on his team. he added it was a very easy choice for him selecting the welshman as his captain for sunday. he was one of the first ones we got, so he was always in. it's interesting because when you're coaching england against wales, wales are a fairly traditional rival. and he was the sort of player that you hate when you coach against him, but when he got him on your team, you love him. as far as the world xv is concerned, israel folau is playing and there's been a fierce debate over the last few days, since we knew

that he would be involved in the fixture overall, about his participation. folau was famously sacked by rugby australia back in 2019 for making anti—gay comments on social media. he's actually expected to represent tonga at the fast—approaching world cup later this year after he switched allegiance. and the coach of the world xv, steve hansen, he said yesterday that folau's selection could be seen as a positive thing, because the rugby football union have decided to fly the pride flag over twickenham this sunday. now even today, the rfu chairman, tom ilube, has made a statement online, saying that the rugby football union supports the lgbtq+ community. and we mustn't forget that a number of the england women's players who are part of that community, including their captain, marlie packer. sunday itself will mark the first time eddie jones himself will walk back into twickenham after he was sacked by the rugby football union as the england head coach just last december. i did ask him how he was feeling about walking back

in through the door, and he did tell me he is going to love it. finally, the english town of loughborough might not be the first place you think of when you think of when picking a hotbed of american footballing talent, but the nfl academy there is attempting to provide the sport with players plucked from outside america.. and the latest example, nigerian emmanuel 0koye, is being tipped as a genuine star. dan 0gunshakin reports. the leafy sports grounds of loughborough university are far removed from the nfl's glitz and glamour. but for american football hopefuls, this is where the journey can begin. it is here at the nfl academy that talented players from the uk and beyond come to hone their craft and dream of the united states. dubbed a life—changing opportunity, no one player epitomises that more than emmanuel 0koye. in a few short months, the prodigious nigerian has gone from lagos to leicestershire and is headed to america on a full scholarship. i'd like to say that i'm committing to the university of tennessee.

applause his rise from aspiring basketballer to potential nfl prospect has been meteoric. after impressing at a camp in ghana, itjust took three games at the nfl academy before college football came calling. it happened so fast, ijust have to take it in. i don't want it to take so much surprise i might be knocked down, so ijust keep my head up and do what i do, and it should flow. the speed of his ascent is a surprise to him, but that can't be said for former nfl star 0si umenyiora. the two—time super bowl winner sees true greatness in his protege. i got to be honest with you — there is not a lot of talented athletes like him. he's one of the best people i've seen, even in the nfl. watching him play the game in person, you see flashes. even though he doesn't know what he's doing yet,

you see flashes that will separate him from everybody else. so i'm actually afraid for people. the loughborough—based academy has put 0koye on a supercharged path to success, and its mission is to do the same for others. if you are athletic enough, we find you, we bring you here. we get you refined, we send you there and the sky's the limit. so this is giving people opportunities and chances that ordinarily they wouldn't have. not everyone will make the grade like 0koye, but at the academy, they'll be given every chance to become a runaway success. dan 0gunshakin, bbc news. that's all. more stories on our website. thank you for watching. hello. the weather looks set to stay

mostly fine and settled over the next few days, but there will be subtle differences in the feel of the weather from place to place. on wednesday, parts of south—east wales saw highs of 23 degrees. but on the east coast of england, yes, the sun was shining, but the breeze was coming in off a chilly sea and so it felt a little bit cooler. and over the next few days that will continue to be the case. high pressure will be in charge, but the winds around the high pressure flow in this clockwise direction. and that means that for some of us, at times, that wind will be coming in off the chilly waters of the sea. for thursday, temperatures around some northern and eastern coasts just 11 to 1a degrees. compare that with 22 again with some shelter in the south of wales. this is how the weather looks for the day ahead. quite a lot of cloud at times across parts of england and wales, but not all the time. northern ireland, i think, will tend to see a fair amount of cloud feeding in as well, but there'll be some spells of sunshine. i think the best of the sunshine will be found across the northern half of scotland, but in the far north, it will be windy

and on the chilly side at 11 in lerwick. as i've already shown you, the highest temperatures will be in shelter across south wales, maybe south—west england, up to around 22 degrees. now during thursday night, we'll keep some areas of cloud here and there. there could be a few mist patches and a more generally cloudy weather will spill into the far west of scotland, particularly the western isles, with the odd spot of rain. it mayjust turn a little bit chilly in places, temperatures typically between 5 and 9 degrees, but our area of high pressure still with us as we head on into friday. around the southern flank of that high, particularly across parts of south—east england, we are going to have a noticeable northeasterly breeze which will make it feel actually really quite chilly if you're spending your day on the east coast. but england, wales, northern ireland, southern scotland seeing some spells of sunshine. northern scotland likely to have a bit more in the way of cloud, maybe just the odd spot of rain or drizzle. 1a degrees for stornoway, but 20 for glasgow, for liverpool, for birmingham, and 21 degrees in cardiff. and then for the weekend, well, again, around some of the coasts, if you're exposed to that onshore breeze, it will at times feel rather cool. but where you have some

shelter, inland and down towards the south—west of the uk, temperatures climbing to 22 degrees.

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