hello there and welcome along to sportsday with me, gavin ramjaun. a huge blow for liverpool — and a massive dent to their title ambitions after defeat in the merseyside derby to everton. bruno fernandes hauls manchester united out of trouble again against the league's bottom side at old trafford. and ronnie o'sullivan is cruising in his first round match as he looks for a record eighth world snooker crown.

hello there and welcome along to the programme. it was always going to be tense coming into a merseyside derby, with plenty at stake for both teams. everton and liverpool both desperate for victory, and the honours went to everton, who won 2—0 at goodison park, dealing a huge blow to liverpool's title ambitions injurgen klopp�*s last season in charge. sean dyche�*s side went ahead thanks to a scrappy goal from jarrad branthwaite, which trickled in after alisson initially made the save. more relaxed defending in the second half from liverpool allowed dominic calvert—lewin to head home. a much—deserved win for everton as they put more distance between them and the bottom three. for liverpool, though, they missed the chance to move back level with arsenal at the top. and with four games to go, a tall order perhaps to get back in the running. what we need now is better football from our side and bad football from two other sides. so that's how it is now. they have to lose games — not only one, but better, two. historically, they don't do that really a lot, and arsenal didn't look

very weak last night. so is that now my first concern? yeah, i'm very disappointed about it, very frustrated about that, of course. but we have just... we have to play better. a big result against our local rivals, and i said it's a game for the people. i don't understand the depth of these derbies because i'm not from here, but i'm learning quickly about what it's like here, and i think that one is one for the people and certainly for the evertonians, without a shadow of a doubt. and the toffees, i asked them to rise and they are doing, their voice was incredible, the noise was incredible, the reaction to the performance was incredible. so we're very, very, very pleased with them. manchester united were made to work for their three points, eventually running out 4—2 winners over bottom of the table sheffield united. the blades twice took the lead thanks to goals from jayden bogle and ben brereton diaz, which stunned old trafford either side of a harry maguire header. but two goals from captain bruno fernandes put united in front in the second half, with rasmus hojlund rounding off the scoring. the win lifts erik ten hag's

side back into sixth place and chasing a european spot, ending a four—match winless run in the premier league. sheffield united, though, look destined for the drop. many positives today. the resilience to fight back after two times when you are losing. but that is straightforward. also, the negatives — really giveaways and can't happen, this is unacceptable. we have to learn from this. for the rest, i think we... decent performance, good goals, so happy with the win and we move on. yet again, we're sort of a mixed bag for me. you know, a lot of things are pretty good, they're pretty good. a lot of times, we get pretty close. but we are here and we are brought up to win games of football and it's another one that we've lost. crystal palace continued their resurgence under manager oliver glasner. they won for the third time in a row. jean—philippe mateta with both of their goals in a 2—0 win

over newcastle united at selhurst park. the loss for newcastle, though, a blow for their european aspirations. and bournemouth came away with a 1—0 win at wolves. antoine semenyo scoring in the first half. bournemouth had a man sent off too, but managed to hold on. wolves having a goal ruled out by var deep into stoppage time. bournemouth up to tenth with that victory. two goals in stoppage time helped atalanta finally break down ten man fiorentina and book a coppa italia final with juventus. the tie finished 4—2 on aggregate. ademola lookman and mario pasalic with two late stoppage time goals to seal their place in the final in rome on may the 15th. barcelona coach xavi will remain at the club until at least the end of his contract tojune next year after changing his mind that this would be his last season. xavi took charge in november 2021 after leaving qatari club al—sadd and guided barca to the spanish title in his first full season in charge last year.

he announced injanuary he would step down as boss at the end of the current season. but the former barcelona and spain midfielder has performed a u—turn. the former world number one, naomi osaka, has won her first match of the claycourt season at the madrid open, beating belgium's greet minnen. osaka won in straight sets, 6—4, 6—1. it was only her second match on clay since going out in the first round of the french open two years ago, and herfirst win on the surface since then. emma raducanu's progress in stuttgart last week failed to count for much — she collapsed to a straight sets defeat to argentinean maria lourdes carle at the madrid open, having made it to the quarterfinals at last week's tournament in germany. that encouraging form deserted her, as she was defeated 6—2, 6—2. butjack draper is into the second round after beating the australian thanasi kokkinakis on a decisive third set.

it finished 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. he'll now move on to face hubert hurkacz on thursday. some news to alarm rafa nadalfans now — he says he's not sure if he'll be able to play at next month's french open after pushing through the pain barrier in his comeback from injury. the 37—year—old, who's a 22 time grand slam champion, said that he's far from being in top form and that he's only playing in the first round of the madrid open on thursday as a personal sacrifice. nadal, who's said he expects to retire after this season, returned to competition in brisbane in january after almost a year sidelined with a hip flexor injury but hasn't played consistently since. ronnie o'sullivan made a fine start to his bid to win a record—breaking eighth world snooker title as he dominated the first session against welsh qualifier jackson page. o'sullivan is looking to move clear of stephen hendry�*s seven crucible successes and holds an emphatic 8—1 lead over 22—year—old page,

the world number a3. o'sullivan needs to win only two frames when the match resumes on thursday. meanwhile, china's ding junhui is out after losing the deciding frame in a dramatic first round match against the world number 17, jack lisowski. a clearance break of 131 from ding, who was runner—up here eight years ago but has never won the world title, levelled the match at 9—9. but it was the englishman, lisowksi, who came out on top in that final frame to set up a meeting with stuart bingham in the second round. finally, among the sports in which team gb has high hopes of winning gold at the paris olympics in three months is canoe slalom. the team began its preparations with a first training session of the season at lee valley whitewater centre on wednesday. chris slegg went to meet them. team gb�*s paddlers back on the water as olympic training began at a chilly

lee valley this morning. it's very cold out here, still waiting for someone to arrive. but great session on the water this morning. and, yeah, a very exciting year ahead. it's really cool. i guess i hadn't really seen the team together properly until kind of today, and it's really nice to see everyone. this course has helped transform great britain into a leading olympic nation. before london 2012 took place here, we'd never won an olympic gold, but since those games, great britain have claimed two golds and three silvers. and the team heads off in the direction of paris with high hopes of more podium positions. we're there for a reason. we've got athletes that have won world titles last year, 2023, and like you say, we've got a rich history of athletes competing for medals at olympic games in the past. and we want to do our bit to keep that tradition going and we go there with strong hopes. joe clarke won gold at rio 2016 and is current world champion in two events. do you feel the pressure of expectation? yes and no. i think probably

the internal expectation for myself is probably what surpasses the external factors of other people. obviously, i've trained a lot and very hard for this event. so, yeah, that's what kind of puts the pressure on me. oh, sensational! 0.17. did 2016 change your life? yeah, it absolutely changed my life. in so many ways. but i think it kind of came almost too easy in some ways. it was my first olympic games. i was so young. it happened. and i think the experiences since then have really kind of rounded me as a person. mallory franklin spent years campaigning for women to be allowed to race the c1 event, and won silver in it at tokyo. along with all the other c1 women, i think that we've really pushed for that equality in terms of, i think a lot of people kind of said that we weren't that great and the performances weren't good and we weren't strong enough and all these kind of things. and i think really, as a class, we've really driven that on and kind of shown that we are good enough. and that is a fabulous

performance. not wanting to put too much pressure on you, but how realistic would the gold medal be in paris? i mean, it's definitely not super far—fetched. i think being the world champion leading in and i've medalled at every worlds between the two, i think that that is a really positive, like, show of performance. soon it will be all eyes on paris for gb�*s potential paddling prizes. chris slegg, bbc news. and there we go, that is just about it from us. you can, of course, get all the latest sports news, including all the football results, including a blow for liverpool in the premier league, at the usual place, which is the bbc sport app, orfrom our website, which is bbc.com/sport. but for me and the team here on sportsday, thanks very much indeed for watching and we'll see you again next time.

hello there. some really chilly—feeling air for the time of year, and it's going nowhere for the next couple of days. but of course, the sunshine�*s helping to lift the temperature somewhat. lots of blue sky across many parts of scotland, 13 celsius in edinburgh, butjust seven degrees for these north sea facing coasts such as scarborough. lots of clouds, and a brisk a bitter northerly wind blowing, too. and as we head through the rest of tonight, there's a little feature running southwards bringing the threat of some further showers, possibly wintry over the hills of scotland. temperatures dipping very close to freezing into thursday morning. watch out for some icy stretches, perhaps. and it's still blustery for those north sea facing coasts, and across the northern isles as well. a mixture of sunny spells, but also some showers across many northern areas of england, scotland and northern ireland. more cloud and some showers pushing southwards across england and wales. temperatures again towards the east, just 8—10 degrees celsius,

but a little milder again further south and west. now, as we head through thursday night, then there'll be a lot of clear spells around. again, it's another cold feeling night for the time of year, the snow levels again dropping across parts of scotland. another frost for many of us as we head into friday morning. again, watch out for some icy stretches here and there. friday, we'll start to see a few changes. this area of low pressure starts to push in to south west england, affecting parts of the channel islands as well, bringing some more showery outbreaks of rain here. and the winds will fall lighter as well, so it won't feel quite so bitterly cold towards those north sea facing coast. but still, the bulk of the showers will be here. a scattering of showers, also some sunny spells, probably sunniest out towards the north and the west again. but temperatures still very low for the time of year, below the average, 8—12 degrees celsius for most of us. things are set to turn a little less cold, though, as we head through the weekend. some milderfeeling air. and it's going to be quite unsettled, tending to be drier in the north and the west.

so, if we just look at this low pressure system. it's spinning in from the south. it's going to give plenty of wet weather, particularly towards the south and the east, but also some milder feeling conditions. temperatures will rise to more or less the seasonal average. so certainly no heat wave. here's the temperature outlook for our capital cities as we head through the weekend and into the start of next week. so not as cold, but really quite showery. bye— bye.

live from washington. this is bbc news. israel says it's moving forward with preparations for a ground operation in gaza's southenmost city, rafah. i'm in los angeles where pro—palestinian protests led to clashes with police as tensions escalate on campuses across the us. and another showdown over abortion rights goes to the supreme court. hello, i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. israeli officials have confirmed they are moving ahead with plans for a military assault on the city of rafah in southern gaza. israel says it hopes to launch an assault on the several hamas battalions remaining in rafah.

however, aid groups and western allies have warned israel