Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Barcelona eased to a 3-1 win over 10-man Celta Vigo in a game overshadowed by Ronald Araujo leaving the field in an ambulance.
Araujo clashed heads with Gavi shortly after the hour mark at Camp Nou and, after initially appearing to run off the injury, collapsed to the floor before being attended to by medics.
That incident came shortly after Iago Aspas had struck to give Celta some hope following Memphis Depay's opener and a couple of goals from Aubameyang either side of half-time.
But a red card for former Barca loanee Jeison Murillo ultimately left the visitors, who recovered from three down to draw 3-3 in the reverse fixture, with too much to do in Tuesday's LaLiga contest.
Dembele showed superb trickery to take the ball past two opponents and pull it back for Depay to sweep past Matias Dituro, who got a hand to the shot but could not keep it out.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, returning from illness that ruled him out last weekend, kept out Thiago Galhardo at full stretch and denied the same player from a header soon after.
Barca doubled their advantage before the interval through Aubameyang, who tucked into the bottom-right corner after Nestor Araujo failed to deal with Depay's cross into the box.
Aubameyang took advantage of some more good play from Dembele three minutes after the interval by clinically sweeping home Barca's third.
A poor pass from Ter Stegen to Araujo allowed Galhardo to pounce and play in Aspas, but Celta's momentum was halted when last man Murillo fouled Depay and was sent off.
Barcelona saw Araujo leave the field with a head injury soon after and had a fourth goal for substitute Riqui Puig ruled out for offside, but they had no trouble seeing out the win, despite 11 minutes being added on.
Massimiliano Allegri compared Dusan Vlahovic's recent goalscoring drought to Cristiano Ronaldo's early struggles with Juventus as they prepare for the Coppa Italia final with Inter.
Juve will attempt to salvage silverware from a disappointing season when they face Inter at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday. The Nerazzurri beat Juve 2-1 in the Supercoppa Italiana back in January.
The Bianconeri's hopes of regaining the Scudetto have long since evaporated, with Juve 11 points behind leaders Milan with two Serie A games to play.
They have at least secured Champions League football for next season, despite a run of form from Vlahovic that has seen him fail to score in any of the past four games in all competitions.
But Allegri is backing their marquee January signing from Fiorentina to fire in the final, while drawing a comparison with Ronaldo's slow start to life in Turin, which saw the Portugal star go the opening three Serie A games of his Juve career without scoring.
Asked in his pre-match media conference about Serbia national coach Dragan Stojkovic's prediction that Vlahovic would score in the final, Allegri responded: "I hope he scores two! Not just one.
"Vlahovic is doing well and is serene. Sometimes he asks too much of himself. He is worthy of Juventus and he can improve next season.
"He has been scoring a decent amount of goals. In Italy, it isn't easy to score a goal per game.
"When Ronaldo arrived, he didn't score for five or six games. If Vlahovic looks upset, it means that he cares about what he does."
Luigi Delneri was the last Juve coach to end a season without a trophy, doing so in 2010-11. Allegri is keen to avoid that fate at the end of a season impacted by Ronaldo's departure to Manchester United.
"The team had a bad start, but we reached an important result because playing the Champions League every season is crucial," said Allegri.
"We'll try to improve things and be ready to start again from next season.
"You all know that seeing Ronaldo leave with only three days remaining in the summer transfer window wasn't easy. I had to know the team as well. Then we lost Federico Chiesa.
"We faced a few difficult moments. On the other hand, we have improved and qualified for the Champions League round of 16. The club helped us by signing Dusan Vlahovic in January, but our run was stopped against Inter last month.
"Now I know the players and the staff, I am sure that next season we'll have more chances to win our main target, the Scudetto. It would be nice to win tomorrow, end the season in the best way and prepare for the next one."
Sadio Mane's second-half winner secured Liverpool a vital 2-1 victory at Aston Villa on Tuesday to keep the pressure on Manchester City in the Premier League title race.
After the 1-1 draw with Tottenham on Saturday, Liverpool's championship hopes looked bleak while they were being held to the same scoreline at Villa Park, but the Reds' superior quality ultimately came up trumps.
Much of the pre-match attention focused on how Liverpool legend and Villa manager Steven Gerrard could be the one to further derail his former side's quadruple bid, and Douglas Luiz's early opener suggested a shock could be on the cards.
But Joel Matip swiftly equalised, and from that point Liverpool were generally the greater threat, eventually completing the turnaround just past the hour thanks to Mane.
Liverpool's underwhelming start culminated in a defensive mix-up between Kostas Tsimikas and Matip allowing Douglas Luiz to test Alisson and then smash home the rebound.
But the Reds quickly levelled through Matip in the sixth minute, prodding into the empty net after Virgil van Dijk beat Emiliano Martinez to a loose ball in the Villa box.
While Liverpool struggled to establish any real control in a feisty first half, the better chances continued to go their way as Mane headed just wide and Naby Keita comically mishit an attempt from 10 yards with the goal at his mercy.
It was a tighter affair in the second half, though Liverpool's next clear-cut opportunity proved decisive.
Luis Diaz did well to pick out Mane from the left, and the Senegal forward brilliantly twisted his body to meet the cross with a header into the bottom-right corner, with Villa failing to hit back as Danny Ings had a goal disallowed for offside.
Emma Raducanu retired from her first-round match with Bianca Andreescu at the Internazionali d'Italia because of a lower back injury.
The world number 12 was trailing 6-2 2-1 when calling time on the match against Andreescu in a highly anticipated showdown between two of the past three US Open winners.
Raducanu initially left the court for treatment ahead of the seventh game of the opening set for a medical timeout and completed just four more games.
Speaking after her withdrawal, coming two weeks before the French Open, Raducanu explained she did not want to aggravate an injury sustained at last week's Madrid Open.
"I thought maybe taking one, two days off, it would go away because a lot of the other small niggles I've had, they've kind of gone away after taking, like, two days off," she said.
"Then I got here and I was training, but it just didn't seem to get better. I was training with some limitations. I wasn't moving really.
"I was just playing where I knew where the ball was coming, just staying in one corner. I think I must have underestimated the unpredictability of competition in a match.
"The last few weeks have been really positive. I've learned a lot about myself and my game has definitely improved on this surface but I need to make sure my back is fully right.
"I need to just keep on it. I don't want to play my next match with a feeling of limitation because I think that I learned my lesson from this week, when to push, when not to push."
Ons Jabeur joined Andreescu in the last 32 with a 6-0 7-6 (7-1) victory over Sorana Cirstea to keep her impressive run of form going.
The Tunisian won her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid last week and has now won seven successive main draw matches for the first time in her career
Elsewhere in Tuesday's action, American qualifier Lauren Davis pulled off a shock 6-2 6-3 win against number 11 seed Jelena Ostapenko.
Fellow Americans Jessica Pegula, Madison Brengle and Amanda Anisimova also advanced, beating Liudmila Samsonova, Marta Kostyuk and Tereza Martincova respectively.
Anisimova, who is now the player with the most wins in three sets so far in 2022 with nine, will face Belinda Bencic for a place in the last 16.
Even when Jack Grealish charged into the penalty area in the 87th at the Santiago Bernabeu last week and saw his shot cleared off the line by Ferland Mendy, there seemed no way Manchester City wouldn't be in the Champions League final.
They were already 1-0 up on the night, 5-3 up on aggregate. Real Madrid had three minutes plus stoppage time to turn things around – even for a side that produced some memorable comebacks en route to the semi-finals, turning things around looked impossible.
Yet we all know how the tale unfolded in a matter of minutes, with City's Champions League aspirations dissolving for another season.
Over the course of the two legs, City were comfortably the better team and few would disagree with the idea that they're almost certainly better equipped than Madrid to stop Liverpool in the final.
City's failure served to highlight a key deficiency in their squad. Whether that's fair or not is up for debate, because they look destined to win the Premier League title again and no one would've questioned the legitimacy of them seeing off Madrid, but when the victor is led by the type of figure the loser is lacking, it's an easy conclusion to jump to.
Karim Benzema may not have been at his unplayable best in the second leg last week, but he won and converted the ultimately decisive penalty, and the effectiveness with which he led the line in the first leg ensured Madrid were still in with a shout upon the return to Spain.
City will now hope they have such a goalscoring talisman in Erling Haaland.
The club confirmed on Tuesday that Haaland will join at the end of the season, with City apparently set to pay £51.3million (€60m) to Borussia Dortmund for his transfer. Even when you consider the apparently significant agents' fees et cetera, it's difficult to see this as anything other than a bargain for City.
Of course, while the timing of the signing might frame it as a reaction to Champions League elimination, it's clearly not. Reports have suggested for weeks that the deal was virtually done and Haaland was going to follow in his father's footsteps by signing for City.
However, it's hard not to look at the deal through the prism of Champions League failure because of what will now be expected – rather than hoped for – with a player like Haaland in the team.
When trying to understand what has specifically gone wrong for City in the Champions League since Guardiola was hired, most people seem to have different opinions. Some might point to an apparent lack of on-field leaders, others highlight wastefulness at crucial moments, and of course there are many who have bemoaned Pep's dreaded "overthinking".
The idea of there being a lack of on-field leaders has always seemed wide of the mark, while no one can accuse Guardiola of overcomplicating his selections against Madrid – even if they did try to claim that, City were on course for the final until the 90th minute of the second leg.
Similarly, wastefulness is something most clubs can be accused of at one time or another and, in fact, across all the Champions League ties from which City have been eliminated under Guardiola, they have scored 17 times from 16.99 expected goals (xG). Granted, there were occasions where they didn't score as often as they should have, but over time it evens itself out.
Yet perhaps this is where Haaland can make the difference. Sure, City's xG has evened out over the unsuccessful ties in question, but with a striker as freakishly deadly as the Norwegian, there becomes a greater opportunity to finish chances that maybe you wouldn't generally expect to.
Haaland is a pure finisher unlike any other player in the world. Since his Bundesliga debut on January 18, 2020, he has scored 85 times from 69.7 xG across all competitions. Similarly, when excluding penalties he remains almost as potent, with 75 goals from 60.2 np-xG.
In both instances he has scored roughly 15 more goals than he should have based on the quality of his chances – among players with 30 or more goals over the same period, only Son Heung-min (16.1 and 16.5) can boast better xG differential figures. Again, ordinarily you'd expect this to even out over time, with such form usually unsustainable – but when you make the implausible look routine, this is the output you can produce.
One thing you cannot accuse City of is being ineffective when it comes to controlling football matches and creating chances – they wouldn't be about to claim a third Premier League title in four years if they were.
But in knockout ties when there is such a limited amount of time to respond to setbacks or make amends for certain mistakes, whether that's defensive or in front of goal, the value of the greatest strikers can shine through even more: Benzema showed that against City.
While there are likely to be stylistic compatibility questions to be asked regarding City and Haaland, particularly given the Premier League champions-elect haven't really played with an out-and-out striker for a couple of years now, they suddenly have arguably the finest finisher of his generation in their arsenal.
If Haaland isn't the final piece of the puzzle in City's quest for a maiden Champions League crown, Guardiola might as well give up.
The San Antonio Spurs will not be moving, says owner Peter J. Holt, staying in the city "por vida".
The Spurs moved from Dallas to San Antonio in 1973 and have remained there ever since, winning five NBA titles during Gregg Popovich's hugely successful tenure as coach.
However, fans have grown concerned by the latest rumours of potential relocation, ignited by the team's application to play two home games a season in Austin.
The Spurs reportedly defended the move, saying they want to expand their brand by hosting games at the Moody Center. Their G League team already play in Austin.
Holt sought to set the record straight on Tuesday, when the Spurs posted a statement from their owner on Twitter.
"Dear San Antonio," Holt wrote. "I love you. I love this city. A big city with a casual small-town feel and a great basketball team.
"I want to reassure you that the Spurs are in San Antonio to stay."
He added: "There are no Spurs without the city and the people of San Antonio. Your team, our team, together we are the silver and black.
"Spurs fans – we are here to stay. Por vida [for life]."
Patrick Marleau, the NHL's all-time leader in games played, is officially retiring after 23 seasons.
The 42-year-old Marleau, who spent 21 seasons with the San Jose Sharks while also playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins, announced his decision on Tuesday in a piece he wrote in the Players' Tribune.
"It's bittersweet for sure, but I have so much to look forward to," Marleau wrote. "Who knows what the world has in store for me?
"If you would have told that kid on the frozen pond that he would break a games-played record held by none other than Gordie Howe, he would have thought you were crazy.
"It was never something I aimed for; it was just me loving this game so much that I never, ever wanted to hang up my skates."
Marleau broke Howe's games-played record of 1,767 on April 19, 2021, and finished his career with 566 goals, 631 assists and 1,197 points in 1,779 games.
The second overall pick of the 1997 draft by the Sharks, Marleau is the most decorated player in franchise history, holding club records for games played, goals, points, power-play goals, short-handed goals and shots.
He made his NHL debut in 1997 and spent his first 19 seasons with San Jose before joining Toronto in 2017.
During his time with the Sharks, Marleau helped the club capture six division titles and earn 17 playoff berths, although San Jose lost to Pittsburgh in six games in his only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016. In 195 playoff games, Marleau amassed 72 goals and 55 assists for 127 points.
Marleau played in his final game almost one year ago on May 12, 2021, sitting out the 2021-22 season after not signing with a team.
Gujarat Titans secured their place in the Indian Premier League play-offs with a dominant 62-run win over Lucknow Super Giants.
The two competition debutants have enjoyed sparkling first seasons in the league and each went into this game with just three defeats.
But the Titans comfortably had the upper hand on Tuesday, cruising to victory despite being restricted to 144-4 with the bat.
Shubman Gill's unbeaten 63 got them to that total, before Rashid Khan (4-24) starred with the ball as the Super Giants crumbled to 82 all out in reply.
Gill hit seven fours as his impressive form continued, the opener anchoring the Titans' innings and combining for critical partnerships of 52 with David Miller (26) and 41 with Rahul Tewatia (22 not out).
Lucknow would likely have been confident of a successful chase despite those stands; however, their hopes soon diminished as they lost four wickets in under eight overs.
Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore took a tricky catch to dismiss Quinton de Kock (11) one delivery after he had top-edged Yash Dayal for six. Dayal removed Karan Sharma after Mohammed Shami took the key wicket of KL Rahul, with Rashid then ending Krunal Pandya's brief innings as he was stumped by Wriddhiman Saha.
Saha stumped Ayush Badoni and ran out Marcus Stoinis before Jason Holder and Mohsin Khan fell within an over of each other to Sai Kishore and Rashid respectively.
It was Rashid who finished things off with the wickets of Super Giants top-scorer Deepak Hooda (27) and Avesh Khan (12), who had hit him for successive sixes before being given out caught behind on review.
Shubman succeeds again
Shubman backed up his half-century against Mumbai Indians last time out with another here. It marked the fourth of the tournament for a player who is fourth on the list of top run-scorers with 384.
Gujarat book their place
Gujarat will finish among the final four after moving onto 18 points from 12 games. The only question remaining for the Titans is whether they will secure top spot to ensure they will get two attempts to make the final.
The Portland Trail Blazers are making interim general manager Joe Cronin their permanent appointment, according to reports.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski says Cronin, who has been in the role since December, is being given a four-year contract.
Cronin replaced Neil Olshey, who was fired following an investigation into complaints around the Blazers' "workplace environment".
Although Portland finished 13th in the West this season, missing out on the playoffs, Cronin has already had to make key decisions.
The Blazers traded guard CJ McCollum – a first-round pick in 2013 and key man thereafter – to the New Orleans Pelicans.
But Cronin plans to build around injured superstar Damian Lillard, McCollum's long-term team-mate.
Cuba was victorious in both genders of the recently concluded Varadero Beach Volleyball Tournament in Varadero Cuba, the second stop of the 2022 Norceca Beach Volleyball Tour.
Leila Martinez and Lidy Echeverría were crowned at home as queens of the women's segment. The pair of Martínez and Echeverría prevailed against Canadians Emma Glagau and Ruby Sorra 2-1 (21-12, 19-21, 15-12) in a close duel. USA pair of Iya Lindhal and Alexandra Wheeler won third place after defeating Guatemalans Natalia Girón and Laura Quiñones 2-0 (21-14, 21-19).
Miguel Ayón and Yosvani Carrasco completed the Cuban double victory. Ayon and Carrasco scored a comfortable 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) win over the American duo of Travis Mewhirter and Thimothy Brewster. Third place went to another Cuban pair Jorge Luis Alayo and Noslen Díaz who edged Americans Ryan Smith and Michael Boag 2-1 (18-21, 21-12, 15-12).
The Jamaican pair of Ryck Webb and Noley Ferguson placed 14th of 16 teams. Coming into the tournament the Jamaicans were seeded 15. They played and lost their first two games against the eventual 2nd and 4th place teams USA A and USA B.
General Secretary of the Jamaica Volleyball Association, Audley Weir is optimistic based on the performances of the team.
“Jamaica did well under challenging circumstances. We saw a lot of positives from this trip. The team was very competitive against the Americans who are a volleyball powerhouse in the World. We will regroup and prepare for the next tournament,” Weir said.
Jamaica was the highest placed team from the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) region. The Jamaican women’s team will participate in the next leg of the Norceca Beach Circuit which will be held in La Paz, Mexico from May 13 – 16, 2022.
Lennard Kaemna put in a clever ride to win the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia at Mount Etna on Monday.
The German took the victory after a sprint finish with Juan Pedro Lopez, though there was sufficient consolation for the Spaniard as he now holds the maglia rosa.
It was Kaemna's first stage win in the Giro, and his second Grand Tour victory following the Villard-de-Lans stage at the 2020 Tour de France.
Lopez at 24 years of age is the youngest Spanish rider in the maglia rosa ever, taking the record from Alberto Contador (2008).
After the win, Kaemna revealed his belief of a "tacit agreement" for him to take the stage victory and Lopez to claim the maglia rosa, though that did not appear to be the case as Lopez turned the final corner without allowing much space.
"It was a very tough lap, especially the final climb," Kaemna said. "I thought it was gone when Lopez was signaled at 30. When I took him back maybe there was a tacit agreement, stop with me and maglia rosa with him.
"I'm happy to have won a stage, it takes a lot of pressure off the team too."
A 14-man breakaway had established a lead of over seven minutes as the climb to Mount Etna began, with Alpecin Fenix's Stefano Oldani eventually making a move out in front with six other riders.
However, Lopez took control after that, before Kaemna joined him for the last 2.5km as the duo set up an exciting finish, which the latter took on the final corner.
MOTORBIKE CRASH ALMOST RUINS RACE
The day did not get off to the best start for many riders as a motorbike caused a crash in the early phases of stage four.
The motorbike was part of the race convoy and had moved close to a tightly-packed peloton, before it clipped something at the side of the road and went down, causing several riders to fall with it, while many others were forced to stop.
Roger Kluge of Lotto Soudal seemed to hit the vehicle directly as he was riding behind it, but the German was able to get up and continue his race.
STAGE RESULT
1. Lennard Kaemna (Bora-Hansgrohe) 4:32:11
2. Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) same time
3. Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +0:34
4. Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Soudal) +2:12
5. Mauri Vansevenant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) +2:12
CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS
General Classification
1. Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) 14:17:07
2. Lennard Kaemna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:39
3. Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) +0:58
Points Classification
1. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) 62
2. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) 55
3. Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) 53
King of the Mountains
1. Lennard Kaemna (Bora-Hansgrohe) 40
2. Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) 18
3. Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) 12
UEFA has approved changes to the Champions League format from the 2024-25 season, including an increase to eight group-stage matches.
European football's governing body had already announced in April that the competition would expand from 32 teams to 36 in two seasons' time.
And following talks in Vienna on Tuesday, the UEFA Executive Committee confirmed the number of rounds in the group stage will increase from six to eight.
All group and knockout-stage games up until the final will continue to be staged on midweek days, as it currently the case.
Two of the four additional places in the expanded format will be awarded on the basis of the highest-performing countries from the past season across UEFA club competitions.
If that had been the case this season, an additional team from the Premier League and Eredivisie would have qualified for next season's tournament.
It had previously been reported that those two places would go to clubs on the basis of their historic performance in European competition, but that is no longer the case.
Of the other two spots, an extra team will qualify from the fifth-ranked country in Europe, while another will go to one of the domestic champions who do not qualify automatically.
Commenting on the changes, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, said: "UEFA has clearly shown today that we are fully committed to respecting the fundamental values of sport and to defending the key principle of open competitions, with qualification based on sporting merit, fully in line with the values and solidarity-based European sports model.
"Today's decisions conclude an extensive consultation process during which we listened to the ideas of fans, players, coaches, national associations, clubs and leagues to name but a few, with the aim to find the best solution for the development and success of European football, both domestically and on the international club stage."
Under the new format, the initial phase will contain a single league consisting of all 36 teams, with each side playing four home games and four away games against eight different opponents.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16.
Ceferin added: "We are convinced that the format chosen strikes the right balance and that it will improve the competitive balance and generate solid revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and into grassroots football across our continent while increasing the appeal and popularity of our club competitions.
"I am really pleased that it was a unanimous decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, with the European Club Association, European Leagues and National Associations all agreeing with the proposal made. Another proof that European football is more united than ever.
"Qualification will thus remain purely based on sporting performance and the dream to participate will remain for all clubs."
Similar format changes will also be applied to the Europa League and Europa Conference League, with both also including 36 teams in the initial league phase.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was looking "to find an excuse or alibi" when criticising Tottenham's style of play following Saturday's 1-1 draw at Anfield, according to Antonio Conte.
Spurs became just the second side to stop Liverpool winning in their past 15 Premier League games, and the first at Anfield since Brighton and Hove Albion in October.
Luis Diaz's deflected 74th-minute strike cancelled out Son Heung-min's opener, but the draw inflicted a potentially fatal blow to the Reds' title hopes as they now trail leaders Manchester City by three points with three games to go.
Klopp took aim at Spurs' approach after the game, stating he "could not coach" Conte's defensive style as he implored Tottenham to do more with their talented "world-class players".
The German has since clarified that he intended those comments as a "backhanded compliment", and Conte says he can understand why his opposite number was frustrated at the weekend.
"Honestly, for the coach it's not simple or easy after the game. You have to try to keep a cool head. It's not easy or simple sometimes," Conte said at a news conference on Tuesday.
"If you remember this season it always happened to me, when I was disappointed after a bad result, like against Burnley.
"Sometimes we're a bit frustrated, especially when you arrive at the end of the end of the season and you understand a bad game and result can change the target for you.
"I repeat, I have great respect for Jurgen and I know he respects me a lot. This is a good chance for me and all the coaches to learn that during the game you never speak about your opponents.
"It's important to be focused on your team and the moments you can do better. And your own problems.
"Jurgen is intelligent, he was a bit frustrated after the game. At the same time, for us, for a top coach, it's important to be focused on your team, not your opponents.
"To be focused on your opponents means you want to find an excuse or alibi because it means something in your job was wrong.
Tottenham managed just 35 per cent of possession against Liverpool, who outshot their opponents 22 to three – though the visitors registered as many shots on target (three each).
And while Conte can understand Klopp's frustration at the time, he believes the Reds boss should ultimately be pleased to have come away from the contest with a share of the spoils.
"After the game against Liverpool, the good answer I had like my players was we were disappointed at the end because we had the possibility to win the game," he said.
"We analysed the game the day after, and for sure if there was a team that deserved to win, it was Tottenham not Liverpool. In this game, I think Klopp understood he gained one point not lost two points."
Conte added: "Anyone who knows me, knows very well I want to win every game. I try to transfer this thought to my players. For sure, when I stay in one team, in a club, my aspiration and desire is to fight to win the title.
"To win the league in England is not easy. [Pep] Guardiola said Liverpool won one league in 30 years. It shows it's not simple. Maybe sometimes it's easier to win Champions League or Europa League than the league in England, where you have to face monsters."
While Tottenham were widely praised for their performance against Liverpool, the draw means they have now won just one of their past four matches ahead of hosting Arsenal.
Spurs trail their north London rivals by four points in the race for fourth place, making Thursday's showdown at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium must-win for Spurs.
"We are talking about an important game. Important for many different situations," Conte said. "First we are playing this game for an important target. For a place in the Champions League. This is first, to try to win this game.
"I also know the importance for our fans of this derby, the north London derby. This is the first time they're playing this derby in their stadium with all the fans.
"We have to try to get three points against Arsenal. We are talking about a good team, a really well organised team.
"Mikel Arteta is doing a really good job. He's had the possibility to work and improve his team. In this moment of the season it has to give us a big push."
Conte has won just one of his eight meetings with Arsenal in all competitions (D4 L3), with all of these coming as Chelsea boss between 2016 and 2018.
Of clubs he has faced at least five times in his managerial career, against no side does the Italian have a lower win rate than against the Gunners (12.5 per cent).
Tom Brady will join FOX Sports as an NFL analyst when he brings an end to his legendary career, but he first has "a lot of unfinished business" with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It appeared as though the 2021 season would be Brady's last when he announced his retirement after seven Super Bowl wins.
But the quarterback backtracked on that decision, returning to Tampa, where he has one year remaining on his contract.
While it is unclear whether Brady will again call time on his career in 2023, he has at least confirmed post-career plans.
"We are pleased to announce that immediately following his playing career, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady will be joining us at FOX Sports as our lead analyst," said FOX executive chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch.
"Over the course of this long-term agreement, Tom will not only call our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt but will also serve as an ambassador for us, particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives.
"We are delighted that Tom has committed to joining the FOX team and wish him all the best during this upcoming season."
Brady reacted to the news on his Twitter page, posting: "Excited, but a lot of unfinished business on the field with the @Buccaneers."
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