saudi arabia's al hilal held on to deny former barca player xavi and his side al sadd of qatar a placeue final. al sadd won their second match 11—2 in riyadh but they ended up losing on aggregate 6—5 after al—hilal‘s advantage from the first leg. bafetimbi gomis with the second for al hilal who have never won the tournament. they'll face either urawa reds of japan, or china's guangzhou evergrande. game one of baseball's world series starts later. the houston astros, who enjoyed the most successful regular season in their history and the champions two years ago, host the washington nationals in the best—of—seven series. our sports reporter seth bennett is there for us. seth, what has happened so far in the match? it is an incredible atmosphere here in houston and it is the home team the astros who wheat to— the home team the astros who wheat to — one. we are in the bottom of the second inning and there has been plenty of action so far with houston taking a 2—0 lead early on. there was a walk followed by a hit from jose all too vague and yuli gurriel drove the ball to centre field. but s

the champions of 2017 will now face the saudi side al hilal in next month's two—legged final when bothg third tme. staying with football, they've reached conference semi—finals in the mls cup playoffs. in the first of the eastern conference semis, new york city are playing toronto at citi field. it's 1—1 with 15 minutes to go. and coming up later, the first of the western conference semi—finals between seattle and real salt lake. tributes have been paid to the former paralympic champion marieke vervoort who ended her life through euthanasia. she was a0. the belgian wheelchair racer had an incurable degenerative muscle disease. she lived in constant pain, with paralysis in her legs and she suffered seizures, which all limited her ability to sleep. despite that she won two medals at the london paralympics in 2012, including a gold in the 100 metres, and two more medals at the rio games. that was in 2016 when she spoke to the bbc about her life and the decision to end it when she thought the time was right. this morning when the nurse came for helping to wash and dress me everything was s