Manchester United received a surprise Champions League boost following their draw with Bournemouth after defeats for Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premier League

It may have been considered a missed opportunity to pile pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool when Manchester United could only draw against Bournemouth on Friday. However United have increased their advantage by a point as time begins to run out for teams to make their final push to qualify for the Champions League.

There remains a strong chance that the Premier League will receive five places in the competition, but finishing fourth is a guarantee. Michael Carrick’s side will be in third place heading into the international break, regardless of how Aston Villa fare against West Ham.

The Midlands club are four points behind United, with Liverpool two further back and Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea another point behind them. As a result, United are seven points ahead of sixth place, and have opened a gap with just seven matches remaining of the season.

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Crucially, following a 3-0 defeat against Everton, Chelsea have won just one of their previous six matches in the division. While Carrick has injected vigour into United’s push, Liam Rosenior is now slightly scrambling to stop a freefall.

Carrick has played it coy over his expectations, but United took another step forward this weekend, albeit a small one. We take a look at how confident the club should feel, looking at their remaining fixtures.

Man United fixtures

Leeds (h)

Chelsea (a)

Brentford (h)

Liverpool (h)

Sunderland (a)

Nottingham Forest (h)

Brighton (a)

Chelsea fixtures

Manchester City (h)

Manchester United (h)

Brighton (a)

Nottingham Forest (h)

Liverpool (a)

Tottenham (h)

Sunderland (a)

Verdict

The two teams share four fixtures and also play each other within their final seven matches. Given that Chelsea face a title-chasing Manchester City and a Tottenham side who may be fighting for their lives in a derby fixture, it’s difficult not to see the Blues as having the more difficult run-in.

Certainly, without beating United, seven points looks a significant gap to bridge or to even strike fear into Carrick’s side. Greater threats lie in wait from teams in better form, such as Everton, or from resurgent sides with a stereotypically easier run-in, such as Newcastle.

United are looking on course, given the advantage they already hold, and those sides will pose a greater threat to the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool. The ability to play Champions League football next term is firmly in United’s hands.

Bjorn Baker might operate without the extensive stable sizes or financial muscle of Australia’s premier outfits, yet he’s poised to compete fiercely on Golden Slipper day at Rosehill.

Baker boasts five entrants across four Group 1 fixtures, highlighted by colts Warwoven and Paradoxium in the $5 million centrepiece, alongside Pericles for the George Ryder Stakes (1500m), Stefi Magnetica in the Ranvet Stakes (2000m), and Green Spaces contesting the Rosehill Guineas (2000m).

Third on the metropolitan trainers’ premiership, Baker trails exclusively Chris Waller and Tulloch Lodge, sustaining his remarkable form from the prior season when Waller alone produced more Sydney winners.

“Compared to the big stables and big bloodstock agents, we’re at a much lower level in terms of numbers and quality, so to get two runners in the Golden Slipper is really a dream,” Baker said this week.

“It’s very much about small steps to get into these races. Even when I came here (from his native New Zealand), you’ve got to start winning races and slowly building quality up.

“Two runners in the race suggests we’re going in the right direction.”

Pericles squares off against the hot property Autumn Glow in the George Ryder Stakes, with the mare favoured at $1.30 in Winx territory, and Pericles listed at $16 in the next betting group.

Baker’s Godolphin gelding boasts consistency, never worse than fourth in five starts, bolstered by a strong return win in the Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield recently.

Baker remains confident and unwilling to concede despite the favourite’s dominance in Pericles’s path.

“You’ve got to back yourself. You’re in the wrong game if you want to put the white flag up every time there is a superstar,” Baker said.

“If there is ever a horse that is capable of knocking off a superstar, it’s Pericles. He’s got an exceptional record.”

The Doncaster Mile titleholder Stefi Magnetica attempts a new voyage at middle distances in the Ranvet, a formidable proposition.

Baker concedes luck is essential to beat Aeliana and Sir Delius, but insists her preparation exceeds her prior seventh in the All-Star Mile (1600m) at Flemington.

“It was hard to get a line in Melbourne. It didn’t work out, it was a very firm track, and second-up she can be a little bit vulnerable as well,” Baker said.

“It’s going to be a tough race with Sir Delius and Aeliana and co, so she is going to need to get a good run in transit and have everything go her way, but she’s in good order.”

Complementing the Group 1 efforts, Baker has four fillies and mares lined up in the Group 3 Birthday Card Stakes (1200m), with Monte Supreme his best shot at $9.50.

Visit trusted racing betting markets to find value in the Golden Slipper.

The pressure of the Big Dance wasn’t the only thing making players from Georgia, Virginia, Iowa and Fairleigh Dickinson sweat on Saturday afternoon. 

Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City does not have air conditioning, and an unseasonably warm day meant the temperature inside the 43-year-old building soared to over 80 degrees with a 26% humidity rate during the first-round games of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. 

Virginia won a thriller in the first game of the day, defeating Georgia 82-73 in overtime to become just the second team to advance to the second round out of the First Four. 

Per U.S. Climate Data, the average temperature in Iowa City in March is 48 degrees, but it got up to 84 degrees on Saturday, which broke the city’s previous record high for March 21 of 78 degrees. The sell-out crowd of over 15,000 only added to the heat inside the arena. 

“That was really cool,” Virginia guard Kymora Johnson said of the Iowa fans cheering for Virginia. “Obviously Iowa gets a lot of fans, and it was really cool to see the stadium fill up, although it was very hot.”

“What I try to focus on, sometimes to a fault, you just control the controllables,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said earlier this week when asked about the weather. 

“I’m glad you brought it up because maybe I better try to talk about it. I’m older, I’m in my fifties right, so I can be like we can’t control that, suck it up. But when you’re younger and it is really hot and it’s been cold in Carver most of the year because it’s winter in the Midwest, might need to chat about it. But I do think the focus will be great. Hydrate up. Both sides will have to have a lot of water if the crowd does heat it up in there. But I think that we’ll be pretty smart about we gotta do what we gotta do whether it’s 80 or 20,” she added.  

This is not the first time that Carver-Hawkeye’s lack of air conditioning has been an issue. Last spring, when the Indiana Fever played the Brazilian national team in a WNBA preseason game in the building, former Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark warned her Fever teammates about the heat. 

“I warned everybody, like, there’s no air conditioning in Carver-Hawkeye, and usually they don’t play basketball games there in May,” Clark said. “So hopefully, hopefully it stays a little cool in there. I don’t know what the humidity is looking like, but we’ll see how it goes. Might be a little toasty.”

Serge Gnabry bagged a brace and Harry Kane inched closer to the Bundesliga single-season goals record as Bayern Munich beat Union Berlin 4-0 at home on Saturday. Michael Olise also got on the scoresheet as Bundesliga leaders Bayern went 12 clear. Borussia Dortmund can return the gap to nine points with a win at home to Hamburg in Saturday’s late game.  Kane’s second-half goal took him to 31 goals this campaign — the same number Union have scored all season — and 10 short of Robert Lewandowski’s mark from 2020-21, with seven games to play.

“It’s still possible, I just have to keep doing what I’m doing,” Kane told reporters about the record. 

“All it takes is a hat-trick or a couple of braces in a row and then it’ll look a bit more likely.”

Bayern now have 97 goals this season, four short of the best mark set in 1971-72, when Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Mueller helped the Bavarian giants tear through the Bundesliga. 

Coach Vincent Kompany made five changes from the side which thumped Atalanta on Wednesday to set up a Champions League quarter-final clash with Real Madrid, but kept Kane front and centre. 

Union had never beaten Bayern in 14 clashes and held out until the 41st minute, when Olise collected a punted Leon Goretzka pass and curled the ball into the top corner. 

Gnabry made it two just before the break, knocking in a rebound at the far post. 

Kane pirouetted and curled in Bayern’s third just after the break, boosting his tally to 48 in 40 games in all competitions this season. 

Gnabry was again in the right place to volley in with 67 minutes gone and add gloss to another big Bayern win. 

Bayer Leverkusen’s top-four hopes took a hit with a 3-3 draw at rock-bottom Heidenheim after leading 2-0 at half-time and 3-2 with five minutes remaining. 

The draw leaves Leverkusen sixth, four points behind RB Leipzig, Stuttgart and Hoffenheim, who are all level on 50 points. Stuttgart have a game in hand. 

“I’m speechless,” goalkeeper Mark Flekken told DAZN. “We talked at half-time about not getting complacent.”

Hoping to bounce back from Tuesday’s Champions League exit at Arsenal, first-half goals to Malik Tillmann and Patrik Schick had Leverkusen on course for a routine win. 

Heidenheim fought back to level the match through a Hennes Behrens goal and a Marvin Pieringer penalty. Schick once again gave Leverkusen the lead with a header but Pieringer levelled things up from a corner with 85 minutes gone. 

Justin Njinmah scored the only goal as Werder Bremen won 1-0 at Wolfsburg to push their hosts closer to a first ever Bundesliga relegation. 

Second-last with just one victory in the calendar year, 2009 German champions Wolfsburg could be six points from safety if St Pauli beat Freiburg on Sunday. 

Elsewhere, Rhine Derby rivals Cologne and Borussia Moenchengladbach played out a 3-3 draw. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

WWE Superstar Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch recently took to social media to drop a massive teaser related to an upcoming announcement. The two shared a collaborative Instagram post.

Both Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch currently perform on Monday Night RAW. The Man is in a heated feud with AJ Lee, and they are expected to clash for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 42. Meanwhile, many reports suggest that Bron Breakker will return soon to set up a match against The Visionary at this year’s Show of Shows.

On the Road to WrestleMania 42, the husband-wife duo has shared a massive teaser. Rollins and Lynch recently took to Instagram to share a collaborative post about an upcoming announcement, teasing that they are launching something major.

Although they didn’t mention the details of this announcement, many fans believe it could be related to their coffee project with Dayglow Coffee, which Big Time Becks teased last month. They also confirmed that the reveal will happen on March 23, 2026.

“ANNOUNCEMENT INCOMING. 03.23.2026. From Us, With Love. R+C,” the post read.

Check out the Instagram post below:

WWE star Seth Rollins dropped a major retirement tease

During a recent interview with the Boston Herald, Seth Rollins admitted that he was “closer to the end” of his wrestling career than when he first started.

The Visionary added that he still had a lot to give back to pro wrestling and was excited that he was a part of the Road to WWE WrestleMania 42.

“I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning, but I still feel like I have a lot to give. I’m excited to be able to do that as we march forward to WrestleMania,” Rollins said.

It remains to be seen what the Triple H-led creative team has planned for the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion at this year’s Show of Shows.