Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri is urging his team to take advantage of their Serie A points deduction reprieve as they host leaders Napoli with second place in sight.

The Bianconeri were hit with a 15-point deduction in January after an investigation into a capital gains case, with the club found guilty of alleged breaches in relation to historical transfers.

Former chairman Andrea Agnelli, ex-director Pavel Nedved and one-time managing director Fabio Paratici, who joined Tottenham in 2021, were all suspended from football by the Italian Football Federation (FICG), along with eight other individuals.

Juve's initial appeal to have the deduction revoked proved successful, with the Collegio di Garanzia referring the case back to the FIGC following Thursday's announcement. Nedved and some other former directors have been cleared, although Agnelli and Paratici had their suspensions upheld.

The FIGC could yet punish Juve again after re-evaluating the case, but for the time being the 15 points they lost in January have been reinstated, hoisting them back up third in the table.

It is timely for the Bianconeri as they bid to qualify for the Champions League, and Allegri appreciates the magnitude of the boost.

"We did what was possible after the penalty. It's normal that there was some conditioning but there shouldn't be any excuses. What happened, happened. Now we have to think about what must happen from today until June 4," he said.

"It would be too easy to think about what if... It could be said that [the deduction] brought us together, but maybe we would've won 10 points more than we have without what happened, because maybe in terms of mental conditioning it's difficult to explain.

"I'm happy with what the boys have done, it's something important.

"We had to reset everything, make a mental effort to readjust to what the rankings were and try to get back on track.

"In the meantime we had the Europa League, the Coppa Italia. What we've done has been done well, now we have to do better from here to the end of the season. We have the possibility of going to the final of the Coppa Italia and the Europa League, and we try to go and get Lazio in second place."

They could usurp Lazio as early as Sunday if they do beat Napoli, though even after the Partenopei's Champions League disappointment in midweek, Luciano Spalletti's side represent a huge threat.

Serie A's runaway leaders crushed Juventus 5-1 earlier this season, meaning they are aiming to do the double over the Old Lady for only the fourth time in the top flight.

Napoli's form has become a little patchier in recent times, failing to win three of their previous six games in the league, as many as in their first 24 of the season.

But those disappointments have all been at home. On the road they have been irrepressible, winning each of their past seven away games in the league and 12 of 13, the exception being a 1-0 defeat at Inter in January.

While Napoli were knocked out of Europe by Milan this week, Allegri recognises Napoli's standing.

"There is no desire for revenge. There is just a desire to beat the league leaders who have won seven times in their last seven away games," he said.

"They are strong, they have shown it in Italy and in Europe. Sometimes you lose games that you don't deserve to lose, but in the end the results count.

"Napoli are doing very well. They killed the championship by keeping an impressive away record.

"This is a Napoli that's on its way to winning the Scudetto. They've had an extraordinary season and are deservedly winning [the title].

"It will be a difficult match against a strong team, who came out of the Champions League despite playing a good game and who will try to score as many points as possible to get to the Scudetto as soon as possible."

Diego Simeone is no stranger to defensive organisation, and the Atletico Madrid boss has been impressed by Xavi's work in making Barcelona difficult to break down this season.

Barca are closing in on their first league title since the 2018-19 campaign, sitting 11 points clear of Real Madrid at the top of LaLiga with nine games of the season remaining.

While Xavi's side have been criticised at times for a perceived failure to employ an entertaining style, they have conceded just nine goals in 29 league games this term.  

The Blaugrana have kept a remarkable 22 clean sheets in LaLiga this season, at least four more than any other team in Europe's top five leagues (Lazio are second with 18).

At Saturday's pre-match press conference, Simeone was asked whether Atleti and Barca had become stylistically similar as a result of Xavi's work.

"I like this Barcelona," Simeone said. "It's a different Barcelona style. They have been growing and have had a great season. 

"They have improved in defence thanks to the characteristics of their players, and improving the defensive part has added more value to Xavi's work."

Atleti have won six successive league games to move within two points of second-placed Real Madrid, and Simeone believes their displays have not been met with the credit they deserve.

"When we started the season we were not in the best way. But if we go back a bit, to when we won LaLiga, we did it by playing very well," Simeone added.

"Sometimes a stigma is generated. Sometimes people don't watch the games and they give their opinion just to give their opinion. 

"Like Barca improving defensively, or Manchester City – who have given a very good defensive performance – we have improved, we have grown."

Simeone has overseen 15 trips to Camp Nou without winning as Atleti boss, more matches than he has taken charge of at any other venue since taking over Los Colchoneros in 2011. 

Opposing boss Xavi, meanwhile, has won both of his league games against Atleti since taking the reins at Camp Nou, and he could become just the second coach in Barca's history to win his first three meetings with Atleti in LaLiga (after Luis Enrique).

Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder applauded Trae Young for finding his "rhythm" after a wretched run to inspire Friday's win over the Boston Celtics.

The Hawks won their Eastern Conference first-round Game 3 clash 130-122 to prevent Boston going 3-0 ahead, which would have left them needing just one more win for a series sweep.

Young had previously shot a combined of 14-of-40 (35 per cent) from the field across the first two games of the series.

But on Friday he scored a team-high 32 points on 12-of-22 shooting, adding nine assists, six rebounds, two blocks and a steal, while his All-Star backcourt teammate Dejounte Murray chipped in 25 points (11-of-21 shooting), six rebounds and five assists.

Although it was arguably the Hawks' bench who got them over the line – with Onyeka Okongwu, Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson and Bogdan Bogdanovic combining to shoot 16-of-22 (72.7 per cent) from the field for 44 points – much of the post-game focus was on Young and Murray, who finally seemed to flourish together.

Young in particular has had a difficult time of it, especially in the playoffs – for Snyder, there was an element of just sitting back and letting things unfold as the two-time All-Star and Murray took matters into their own hands.

"First of all, [it was] kind of figuring out what they were thinking together playing off each other," Snyder said when asked about Young and Murray's on-court chatter.

"At one point, I was like, I should just be quiet. Usually when that's happening, as a coach, if you feel that and you respect those guys and they are communicating like that and if they're on the same page, people will play off of them. That's what happened us.

"That's when we're going to be playing our best basketball."

That certainly seemed the case on Friday, with the hard work appearing to pay off for Young.

"Those two guys, over the course of the game, not just with the other guys on the team, but with one another, were connecting and pushing one another," Snyder added.

"You could tell [Young] found a rhythm, and it was good to see that because he's been working on it. He's been watching [film] and trying to figure out how he can attack somebody.

"The message, as much as anything for him and the whole group, is just to stay aggressive and trying to make the right play.

"[Young] got a little down when he turned it over one time and he was shaking his head, and I just said, 'Let’s get to the next play.' I don't want him thinking about what just happened. Every mistake can make you better if you just process it the right way. You can tell he found his rhythm tonight."

Murray was in no doubt about it being his and Young's best performance as a duo.

"Absolutely. I don't want to talk about Boston a lot but I look at Jayson [Tatum] and Jaylen [Brown] a lot, two guys who were going through it a lot, just to get to the level they're at. Great things don't happen overnight. Great things take time."

Young seemingly disagreed to an extent but acknowledged there being a timeliness to his and Murray's link-up.

"You don't want to live in the moment too much," he said. "I mean, we won a game in the playoffs, it's big, but we've had some really good games together.

"I don't consider this our best game together. It's definitely one of them, but it came at the right time and we needed it."

The Hawks can level the series with a win in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Denver Nuggets are focusing all of their efforts on completing a series sweep over the Minnesota Timberwolves after taking a 3-0 lead on Friday.

Nikola Jokic inspired Denver to a 120-111 win at Target Center in Minnesota to take a huge step towards the Western Conference semi-finals, where the Phoenix Suns or Los Angeles Clippers will await.

Reigning back-to-back MVP Jokic posted 20 points (nine-of-13), 12 assists and 11 rebounds in a comprehensive effort against three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.

It was the seventh triple-double of Jokic's career and played a major role in the Nuggets opening a huge series lead, which they will now hope to turn into their first playoff sweep in franchise history.

That is certainly the aim, though coach Michael Malone accepts the Timberwolves are not going to make it easy on their return to Target Center in Game 4 on Sunday.

"Up 3-0, our mindset right now is – no disrespect to the T-Wolves because this is about us – but we don't want to go back to Denver," he said.

"We know to close out a series a lot of times can be the hardest game. I'm hoping that we can find a way.

"We don't have a mindset of, 'Hey, we can just go back and close it in Denver.' Our mindset should be to close it in Game 4."

It was put to Jokic afterwards that the Nuggets' performance was impressive in part because they did not "need to win", though this mindset clearly did not resonate with the center.

"That's a funny question. We needed to win, we didn't want to give them life, if that makes sense," Jokic said.

"We wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to punch them first. They need to react to us. That was our plan. I think we did a good job.

"Of course, we expected them to be aggressive and play really good, they were attacking the paint, attacking, attacking. That was their plan, we kind of knew it."

Denver head into Game 4 3-0 up in a series for only the second time, with the first being the 2009 semi-finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

While they could not clinch the sweep on that occasion, they did manage to get the job done in Game 5.

Malone and Jokic will be hoping to go one better this time.

Arsenal recovered from two goals down late on to draw 3-3 with bottom side Southampton, though the Premier League leaders ultimately dropped points for a third game running.

After squandering 2-0 leads to draw 2-2 in their past two games, Arsenal found themselves behind by that same scoreline inside 14 minutes in a thrilling contest at Emirates Stadium on Friday.

Carlos Alcaraz took advantage of an Aaron Ramsdale error inside 27 seconds and former Gunner Theo Walcott added a second, before Gabriel Martinelli pulled one back before half-time.

Duje Caleta-Car added a third for Southampton, but Martin Odegaard's strike was followed up by Bukayo Saka's 90th-minute leveller, leaving Arsenal five points ahead of Manchester City – who they face on Wednesday – having played two games more.

Kylian Mbappe scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain edged out Angers 2-1 at Stade Raymond-Kopa.

Moving 11 points clear at the Ligue 1 summit despite a generally below-par display, the runaway leaders did the damage in the first half against the division's bottom side, whose relegation could be confirmed this weekend.

Mbappe's pair of well-taken goals inside the opening 26 minutes took his tally for the season to 34 in all competitions, though the visitors were denied a clean sheet by Sada Thioub's late strike.

Nevertheless, PSG registered their 14th successive league win over Angers, equalling their own record for consecutive victories over a single opponent in the French top flight (against Nantes).

Angers had the first opportunity when Batista Mendy's throughball released Ibrahima Niane, but Gianluigi Donnarumma was quickly out of his goal to deny him.

PSG broke the deadlock just four minutes later. Juan Bernat cushioned Lionel Messi's delicious diagonal ball into Mbappe who, despite fluffing his first attempt, recovered to eventually scramble home.

Messi was instrumental again as the visitors doubled their lead in the 26th minute, playing a sublime throughball for Mbappe to latch onto and round Angers goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni before slotting in.

The visitors pushed to stretch their advantage, with Achraf Hakimi firing over nine minutes into the second half, while Mbappe went close to completing his hat-trick when Bernardoni tipped over his dipping 35-yard effort.

Angers rallied and halved the deficit three minutes from time when Abdallah Sima cushioned Yan Valery's cross for Thioub to tuck home. But PSG held out to edge a step closer to yet another Ligue 1 title.

It was a day for comebacks at the Stuttgart Open, with number one seed Iga Swiatek recovering from a set down to beat Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals.

Swiatek made a disastrous start, going 4-0 down, and though she broke back once, was unable to find the second as Pliskova took the opening frame 6-4.

The determined Pole stepped up a level though to take the second 6-1, before breaking early in the third.

It was still an improvement for the Czech player, who lost 6-0 6-0 to Swiatek in their only previous meeting in Rome in 2021.

Pliskova kept her opponent honest on her own serve, but Swiatek had too much for the world number 17 as she clinched the decider 6-2.

Aryna Sabalenka also showcased her powers of recovery as she beat Paula Badosa despite going a set down.

The second seed won 4-6 6-4 6-4 in an even contest that saw nine breaks of serve, before the Belarusian eventually got over the line.

Sabalenka is now the player with the joint-most comeback wins over the last two seasons (13) level with Caroline Garcia, though the French star was actually the victim of a comeback herself on Friday.

Garcia won the first set against Anastasia Potapova, before the Russian came back to take it 4-6 6-3 6-3 to set up a semi against Sabalenka.

There was no need for such drama from Ons Jabeur, who eased to a 6-3 6-0 victory against Beatriz Haddad Maia in just 68 minutes to confirm a clash with Swiatek.

Gary Smith is hopeful the goals will soon start to flow for Nashville SC as they prepare to face Los Angeles FC this weekend.

Nashville have scored just seven goals through their opening eight games this campaign and have fired blanks in half of those matches.

At the opposite end of the field, Smith's side have the best defensive record in the entire MLS with only four goals conceded thus far.

On the back of a 2-1 loss at New York City FC last time out, Smith wants to see his side turn chances into goals, starting against the reigning MLS Cup champions on Saturday.

"It's always frustrating when you get beat, particularly when you have some difficulties in finding the back of the net and not being a bit more clear-cut with chances," Smith said. 

"I've said before that I have every faith in the guys and I have no doubt they'll come good. It'll be nice to see a game where we hit the back of the net three or four times. 

"That could be the shot in the arm the group need, but there is no cause for concern at this point – there is plenty of other good things going on."

LAFC won the Supporters' Shield last season are unbeaten so far this campaign, winning five and drawing two of their matches to sit second in the Western Conference.

But despite Nashville's scoring issues, LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo is expecting a difficult contest at Geodis Park.

"They're a team that's tough to beat," he said. "We've seen they're a well-coached team who prides themselves on keeping clean sheets and concedes few chances. 

"On the other side, they don't score a lot. They create chances, are dangerous from set-pieces and on the counter, but they're not scoring a lot at the minute. 

"But especially in Nashville, they're extremely difficult to beat. Points at this stage of the season are points – every team has the same attitude right now."


PLAYERS TO WATCH

Nashville - Hany Mukhtar

Mukhtar has scored two and assisted three of Nashville's seven goals this season, including a late consolation strike at New York City last time out.

However, his past three goal contributions have come on the road – never before has he played three straight MLS home matches without scoring or assisting a single goal.

LAFC - Carlos Vela

Vela continues to be a key player for LAFC, with the former Mexico international scoring back-to-back braces in all competitions.

The 34-year-old was involved in all three of his side's goals in their win over LA Galaxy last week – the 10th time he has contributed to three or more goals in an MLS game.

 


MATCH PREDICTION - NASHVILLE WIN

Los Angeles FC's 17 points from their opening seven games is their second-best return at this stage, bettered only in 2019 when collecting 19.

Their unbeaten streak spans 10 matches stretching back into last season, though that run has to come to an end eventually.

LAFC were victorious on their only previous trip to Nashville last year, but Smith's side have not lost multiple home games against a single opponent on home soil.


OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Nashville - 42.1 per cent
LAFC - 29.6 per cent
Draw - 28.3 per cent

Tottenham's experience from last season will count for nothing when they face Newcastle United on Sunday, according to Cristian Stellini.

Spurs head to St James' Park looking to stay in the chase for Champions League qualification.

Stellini's side are fifth, three points behind Newcastle in the top four, having played a game more and possessing an inferior goal difference.

Defeat to Newcastle would leave Tottenham six points adrift and facing a huge uphill battle, but they can at least recall how the previous season ended.

Spurs chased down Arsenal, aided by a Newcastle win over the Gunners, to finish in the top four.

Meanwhile, Newcastle have not been in contention for a European finish in more than 10 years.

However, Stellini does not see that being a factor, explaining: "No, there's no advantage in this type of game.

"We have to play the game mentally and both teams are going strong. I don't think during the game when you are into the pitch you think about something mentally like an advantage.

"You have to play strong, you have to beat your opponent, win the duels, and this is the power you have to create into the pitch."

"Power" was the word of the day on Friday as Spurs suffered a power outage at their training ground, while Stellini described St James' Park as "one of the worst stadiums to play in for the atmosphere's power".

Newcastle coach Eddie Howe certainly hopes that will be the case this weekend.

"We're pleased to be at home, and hopefully we can feel the force of the crowd," Howe said.

"This week we certainly need everyone united in the game, which I'm sure we will be, and hopefully we can respond to last week's disappointment [at Aston Villa]."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Newcastle United – Callum Wilson

Newcastle will surely make changes after losing 3-0 at Villa last week, so might one of those see Wilson return to the XI? He has six goals and two assists in his past nine league starts, and he opened the scoring both in the reverse fixture and in the corresponding game last season.

Tottenham – Son Heung-min

After netting against both Brighton and Hove Albion and Bournemouth, Son is looking to score in three straight league games for the first time this season. In fact, prior to netting three in just past five outings, the winger had scored only twice all season. Spurs need him firing as they struggle to stay in contention.

MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW

Newcastle are looking to complete a double over Spurs for the first time since 2015-16, but that was also the last time they won this fixture at St James' Park.

 

The Magpies will at least hope to respond to the Villa defeat, with the past two examples of them losing back-to-back matches coming against Liverpool and Manchester City.

A draw would not do a great deal for Tottenham, who are winless in four away from home and last won outside of London in the league in October.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Newcastle – 32.1 per cent

Tottenham – 39.1 per cent

Draw – 28.8 per cent

Jurgen Klopp has no interest in looking beyond Saturday's Premier League game against Nottingham Forest, knowing Liverpool must realistically win every match to have a hope of qualifying for the Champions League.

The Reds are nine points behind fourth-placed Newcastle United with only eight games to play.

Although they have a favourable schedule, time is running out for a team who have been wildly inconsistent.

Klopp acknowledged that inconsistency on Friday as he described Liverpool's "average season" that has included "a couple of the highest results in this club's history".

Ahead of the first of five remaining home matches, Klopp's full focus was on Forest.

"When you are in a super moment in a season, the only game you have to worry about is the next one," he said. "If you are not in a super moment, you also only have to worry about the next one.

"I could not care less about where we are playing after tomorrow, to be honest. 

"Whatever we can do this season, the only thing that gives us any chance is to win our games. All our focus is on Nottingham."

Forest are on a 10-match winless run but won the reverse fixture, even if Steve Cooper recognises this is a very different task.

"Playing Liverpool at Anfield is different and we know everything that comes with that, but the moment we stop believing we can win games that's when it becomes really difficult," Cooper said.

"It's a big challenge but a great challenge as well and one we're really tackling."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Liverpool – Trent Alexander-Arnold

Alexander-Arnold is thriving in a new hybrid midfield role, tallying three assists across his past two games, including the 50th of his Premier League career against Leeds United on Monday. He is the third-youngest player to hit that mark and is coming back into form at a key stage of the season.

Nottingham Forest – Taiwo Awoniyi

Awoniyi returned to the line-up against Manchester United last time out, making just his 10th start of the league season three months on from his ninth. He has been restricted to just four goals, but three of those have come in 1-0 wins, including against Liverpool. Now would be a good time to come up with another.

 

MATCH PREDICTION – LIVERPOOL WIN

Both the form book and the history books are quite clear on this one. Liverpool have lost only one of their past 37 home league games, while they are unbeaten in 23 home league games against Forest.

That last Forest league win at Anfield was back in 1969, and to end that barren run would mean becoming only the third promoted team to do the double over Liverpool in the Premier League era.

Including in the reverse match at the City Ground, Forest have only won this season when keeping a clean sheet, yet they have now conceded in 10 consecutive games, hence their winless run.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Liverpool – 76.7 per cent

Forest – 7.1 per cent

Draw – 16.2 per cent

Barcelona must rediscover their firepower when they attempt to keep in-form Atletico Madrid's waiting for an elusive win at Camp Nou on Sunday.

A goalless draw at Getafe last weekend meant Barca have failed to find the back of the net in three games.

Xavi's side remain well on course to win the LaLiga title, leading Real Madrid by 11 points with nine matches to play, but have stuttered in recent weeks.

The Blaugrana have not been beaten at home by Atleti since back in 2006, but Diego Simeone's third-placed side head into the game on a six-match winning run in LaLiga.

Using the standout Opta data, Stats Perform preview a huge game in Catalonia.

 

Barca must rediscover cutting edge

The leaders have not scored a goal since a 4-0 hammering of Elche on April 1, firing a blank when they were consigned to a 4-0 drubbing by Madrid in the Copa del Rey before back-to-back stalemates against Girona and Getafe.

Barca had 44 shots in those three matches, hitting the woodwork twice against Getafe. On only three previous occasions have they failed to score in four successive games, most recently in April 2008 under Frank Rijkaard.

The return to training this week of Ousmane Dembele, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong should give them a lift.

Defensive records make goal-fest unlikely

With so many classy attacking players on show, you might think surely another goalless draw will not be on the cards this weekend.

It would be no great surprise, though, given the defensive records the two sides have, with Barca keeping 22 clean sheets in the 2022-campaign and Atleti 12.

Marc Andre Ter Stegen has only let in an incredible nine goals this season in 29 games in the Spanish top flight, with Atleti goalkeeper Jan Oblak second on the list of the fewest conceded with 21.

Camp Nou an unhappy hunting ground for Simeone

Simeone has had more games without a win at Camp Nou as a boss than any other venue, failing to come out on top on 15 occasions.

Atleti secured back-to-back away victories over Barca in 2005 and 2006, but the Catalan giants are unbeaten in 16 home matches against the Rojiblancos since their last loss 17 years ago.

Simeone's men are on a roll, though, reeling off six successive LaLiga wins – the joint-best current run in Europe's top five leagues along with Manchester City – and they are unbeaten in 13 games in the competition. 

Griezy does it

Antoine Griezmann will return to face his former employers in impressive form.

The France forward has scored five goals in his past eight LaLiga games, just one less than in his previous 36 games in the competition.

Griezmann scored both goals in a 2-1 victory over Almeria last weekend, taking his tally for the season to 12 to go with 11 assists.

The Colorado Avalanche came from two goals down to beat the Seattle Kraken 3-2 in Game 2 and crucially level their series, rediscovering their "swagger" along the way.

The defending Stanley Cup champions had been upset in the series opener and looked set to remarkably fall two games behind when the Kraken were 2-0 up at the end of the first period on Thursday.

Seattle were on course to become the first team in NHL history to win their first two playoff games while playing both on the road.

However, quickfire goals from Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin in the second period levelled the game, before Devon Toews came up with the winner for the Avs.

Colorado have only won one of their past nine playoff series after losing the first game, but they at least head to Seattle all square and with some confidence restored.

"We played tight [in the first period]," said coach Jared Bednar. "No one wanted the puck, no one wanted to skate with it in the pocket.

"That was a message [in the first intermission] – that we had to build our swagger back, shift-by-shift, that we have to get more assertive and more engaged competitively.

"I think [Seattle] held the competitive advantage for the first four periods of the series, and I felt like we had another level that we needed to get to that they were already at.

"In the second period, you could see we started to free ourselves up a little bit. Now, you get guys fighting through checks and being more assertive, more engaged.

"We really started to see what our team could do once we scored the first goal. Then we played, and it was still hard-fought for the next 40 minutes."

"Swagger" was the word defenseman Bowen Byram used, too.

"That's something that we're trying to build towards," he said. "We finally broke through there and got some confidence and started playing with some swagger.

"When we're playing like that, I don't know many teams that can beat us. We just had to go out there and prove it, and we did that.

"Now, it's just about putting our best foot forward on Saturday night [in Game 3]."

The Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost to the Avs last year in their third straight Stanley Cup Finals, were pegged back on Thursday as they lost 7-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The series between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Winnipeg Jets is also tied after a 5-2 home win for VGK.

However, the New York Rangers have control of their matchup against the New Jersey Devils after taking both games on the road, the latest a come-from-behind 5-1 win.

Just as Premier League managers toy with their options for crucial run-in games, fantasy bosses are weighing up who should slot into their teams this weekend.

Some will be looking to consolidate lofty positions, but many will be eyeing a gamble in a late attempt to shuffle up the standings.

It comes down to analysing form, whether recent or over a longer course of time.

Using Opta data, Stats Perform selects four players you might consider for the latest set of matches.
 

Jose Sa (Leicester City v Wolves)

In a midlands battle between hosts in the relegation mire and visitors who are creeping clear of trouble, Wolves may need goalkeeper Jose Sa to be at his sharpest.

Only three teams have recorded more Premier League shutouts than Wolves in 2023 (5), while Sa is the eighth different goalkeeper to have recorded at least 20 clean sheets since the start of last season.

He is targeting a third successive clean sheet this weekend, and since the start of last season, only Alisson (14.2) and Bernd Leno (9.9) have prevented more goals than Sa (6.4), based on Opta's xG model.

Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace v Everton)

We've seen an April shower of goals from Crystal Palace this month, and now lowly Everton are the visitors to Selhurst Park.

Since the start of April, only Manchester City (11) have scored more goals in the Premier League than Palace (9), with Eberechi Eze netting three of those.

With seven goals and three assists this season, he has already equalled his best tally for goal involvements in the Premier League season (also 10 in 2020-21), and under Roy Hodgson's leadership he is clearly thriving again.

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool v Nottingham Forest)

Setting penalties to one side, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah has been showing some serious form of late, hitting a double last time out at Leeds United.

Only Ollie Watkins (14) and Erling Haaland (13) have been involved in more Premier League goals in 2023 than the Liverpool forward, with Salah totting up 11 involvements (8 goals, 3 assists), nine of which have come since the beginning of March.

In his last 10 Premier League games against teams that have come up from the Championship, as Forest did at the start of this campaign, Salah has been involved in nine goals (6 goals, 3 assists).

Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth v West Ham)

When Dominic Solanke gets hot, the opposition soon know about it.

He has become just the fifth different player for Bournemouth to record at least five goals and five assists in a Premier League season, achieving that by scoring once and providing two assists last time out against Tottenham.

The 25-year-old former Liverpool player had a stunning 2021-22 campaign in the Championship with the Cherries, and while he has not consistently hit the same heights in the top flight, the Tottenham game was the third of the Premier League season in which he has both scored and assisted. Nobody in the league has done so on more occasions, heading into this weekend's round of games.

Manchester United again gifted Sevilla two goals as they crashed out of the Europa League following a 3-0 defeat in the away leg of their quarter-final.

Two late own goals at Old Trafford had seen Thursday's match at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan kick off with the tie all square at 2-2.

And another desperate defensive display saw United eliminated, with Youssef En-Nesyri helping himself to a brace after errors from Harry Maguire and David de Gea.

Loic Bade was also on target as Sevilla cruised through courtesy of a 5-2 aggregate success, with Juventus next in the semi-finals.

United had been quick out of the blocks at home last week, but they contributed to their own early downfall this time as Sevilla broke through in the eighth minute.

De Gea fed the ball into Maguire, who was quickly surrounded by three attackers on the edge of the penalty area and saw his attempted pass intercepted by Erik Lamela before En-Nesyri calmly slotted home.

Sevilla continued to pose the greater threat, and the VAR came to United's rescue five minutes before the break when Marcos Acuna strayed offside before Lucas Ocampos brilliantly fired past De Gea.

It was only a temporary reprieve as Ivan Rakitic's corner looped up off Bade's shoulder and over De Gea at the start of the second half.

Ocampos somehow failed to add a third in a goalmouth scramble, allowing United to attempt their own two-goal comeback as Casemiro and Christian Eriksen went close.

But any hopes of a United recovery were ended nine minutes from time when De Gea raced out of his box and failed to make clean contact with a clearance, giving En-Nesyri the opportunity to curl his shot around the stranded goalkeeper.

Juventus reached the Europa League semi-finals as a 1-1 draw against Sporting CP at Estadio Jose Alvalade sealed a 2-1 aggregate triumph.

Buoyed by learning prior to Thursday's second leg that their 15-point deduction in Serie A for financial breaches had been suspended, Adrien Rabiot struck early on to double Juve's lead in the tie after Federico Gatti had given them a slender advantage in last week's reverse fixture at Allianz Stadium.

Marcus Edwards quickly pulled one back for Sporting from the penalty spot after Rabiot's foul on Manuel Ugarte, but resilient defending saw the Bianconeri through.

Juve will feature in a European semi-final for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign and will do battle with Sevilla for a place in the final after they knocked Manchester United out.

Juve took the lead after only nine minutes as Rabiot was first to a loose ball in the box from a corner and lashed into the bottom left-corner.

Sporting were offered a way back into the tie when Rabiot brought down Ugarte in the area, with referee Francois Letexier pointing to the spot and Edwards firing the ball straight down the middle as Wojciech Szczesny dived to his left.

The hosts nearly drew level on aggregate when Ousmane Diomande nodded just wide before half-time, and they nearly fell further behind after the interval when Dusan Vlahovic failed to get his header on target.

Sporting pressed for a goal that would force the game into extra-time and nearly found one when Ricardo Esgaio blazed just over the crossbar, but Massimiliano Allegri's men held on to reach the last four.

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