Pep Guardiola has told Manchester City they must not expect Liverpool to drop any points before the end of the season – apart from when they visit the Etihad Stadium next weekend.

The City manager saw his side win 2-0 at Burnley on Saturday to return to the top of the Premier League, after being deposed for a couple of hours by Jurgen Klopp's Reds.

First-half goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan gave City the points at Turf Moor, with this their third successive 2-0 victory over Burnley.

"We got the points and there are eight games left... 24 [points]," said Guardiola.

"Hopefully Liverpool are going to lose against us, but apart from that I don't think they're going to drop points. We have to feel this pressure, live it and handle it. We have to win eight games, otherwise we will not be champions."

Guardiola's objective is to keep the minds of his players away from the prospects of winning trophies, and drilled to focus on the importance of the next game. For City, the next task now is a Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

"We have to feel the pressure," Guardiola said. "We have to concentrate on the Champions League, then we have five days to prepare for Liverpool."

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss added: "To be honest, we don't speak much about being contenders to be champions this season."

City were always expected to come out on top at Turf Moor against a relegation-threatened side, given they had won their past nine meetings with Burnley in all competitions by an aggregate score of 32-1.

Guardiola lamented City not bolstering their goal difference even further as they failed to put away any of their 12 shots in the second half, while he said Burnley's grass was long and made his team's task a challenge.

Raheem Sterling provided assists for both goals, and his performance pleased Guardiola, as did the fact the forward got to captain England against Ivory Coast during the international break.

"Raheem came back from the national team, with the boost of a goal and being the captain for England," Guardiola said. "We saw today how decisive he was with all the decisions, and he played with the assists from the right side, and showed speed and everything.

“I have the feeling he is arriving in a really good moment.”

It was a win that contained several City landmarks, with De Bruyne becoming the 10th City player to reach 200 Premier League appearances, with only Fernandinho (140) picking up more victories in his first 200 Premier League games for the club than the Belgian (139).

Gundogan's goal was his 34th in the Premier League for City, making him the outright highest-scoring German in the competition's history, overtaking former Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver DeVante Parker is reportedly on his way to New England Patriots.

Sources have informed ESPN's Adam Schefter that Parker will be traded to the Patriots along with a 2022 fifth-round draft pick in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick.

New England are set to receive a compensatory third-round pick next year after losing J.C. Jackson in free agency.

The Patriots are well stocked with wide receivers, as Parker would join Jakobi Meyers, Kendrick Bourne, Nelson Agholor, N'Keal Harry, Ty Montgomery, Kristian Wilkerson and Malcolm Perry in New England.

Parker finished last season with 40 catches for 515 yards and two touchdowns from 10 appearances.

Miami last month pulled off a blockbuster trade to acquire Tyreek Hill from the Kansas City Chiefs.

Keith Yandle's NHL-record consecutive regular-season games played streak is ending at 989, as the Philadelphia Flyers are making the 35-year-old defenceman a healthy scratch for Saturday's meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This will be the first regular-season game Yandle will miss since March 22, 2009, when he played for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Flyers interim coach Mike Yeo said it was an "organisational decision" to not dress Yandle so the team can give ice time to some of its younger players. Philadelphia are 21-35-11 and have already been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"He received it exactly the way you'd expect Keith Yandle to handle it. Obviously disappointed, which you'd expect from a competitor," Yeo said.

"My only hope is that he recognises how amazing it is what he's done. For him, it's disappointing, no question. No way does this diminish what he's accomplished. It is remarkable."

Yandle broke the league's consecutive games played streak record just over two months ago, surpassing Doug Jarvis' mark of 964 on January 25. But in the 24 games he has played in since then, the veteran has just one goal and one assist with a minus-16 +/- rating.

 

Yandle is in the midst of the worst season of his 16-year career with one goal and 14 assists and a league-low minus-39 rating in 67 games.

"I don't really know if it's hit me completely," Yandle said. "I don't know yet, I don't know when it will. It's kind of one of those things during it, I didn't really try to think about it too much just to kind of go out and play. Maybe now the next day or two it might hit me.

"Obviously something I take a lot of pride in. I'm fortunate to play one game in this league. I say it all the time, I've been blessed to be in this league as long as I have. I owe pretty much my whole life to this league. It's been a great journey too.

"You look back and you think about your first game, and then it's one of those things that the last couple days have been a lot of reflecting and I'm not really a guy who reflects too much."

Yandle's streak is in danger of being broken next season by Arizona Coyotes forward Phil Kessel, who passed Jarvis' mark last weekend and has played in 968 consecutive regular-season games.

Bayern Munich could pay a high price for their substitution blunder at Freiburg after briefly playing with 12 men in Saturday's Bundesliga game.

The leaders were 3-1 ahead and on the way to a 4-1 away victory when head coach Julian Nagelsmann elected to make a late double change, removing Corentin Tolisso and Kingsley Coman and sending on Marcel Sabitzer and Niklas Sule.

However, Coman did not realise he was being replaced after his number was not raised, and he did not leave the field immediately, with referee Christian Dingert resuming the game before this was noticed.

The game continued for several seconds before being halted as all concerned attempted to make sense of the situation, and the incident may even see Bayern forfeit the win.

German football association (DFB) rules appear to suggest Freiburg could be declared 2-0 winners.

According to paragraph 17, article 4 of the rulebook: "If a player was not eligible to play or be fielded in a game, the team that culpably fielded this player lost the game 2-0 and the opponent won 2-0."

This rule is only to be deployed if the match is allowed to proceed by the referee, as it was on this occasion. A 12th player on the field would be considered ineligible to take part.

Nagelsmann said of the bizarre incident: "The wrong number was on the board, not Kingsley's 11. Mistakes happen. From the point of view of both teams, from the point of view of a fair sport, there was nothing that speaks against it being fair. You play a good game here and then everyone stands there and asks about the rules."

Freiburg coach Christian Streich, appearing alongside Nagelsmann at a post-match news conference, said rules should not be ignored.

Streich said: "I'm sure there won't be an objection, an appeal, from us, but there are rules to be followed.

"There is a rule and there's plenty of speculation, but we have a rulebook and that's what we have to abide by. Everything else, I'm not going to say anything about it, because there's nothing for me to say."

Referee Dingert, quoted by TZ, said: "It was a totally confused situation: It was a double change from Bayern Munich. An incorrect number was initially displayed, which is why the player Coman did not feel addressed with the number 11.

"That's why a 12th player was on the field for a short time, which shouldn't be. We noticed and then stopped the game.

"It's annoying for us because of course that scene is the focus now. We will note this in the game report. The game had 12 [Bayern] players for 15, 16 seconds. No goal happened. We will note that, everything else will be decided by the DFB."

Leon Goretzka, on his return from injury, scored Bayern's opening goal, with Serge Gnabry, Coman and Sabitzer also on target. Nils Petersen's reply was his 100th goal for Freiburg in all competitions.

Victory kept Bayern sitting pretty at the top of the Bundesliga, taking them nine points ahead of Borussia Dortmund who were not in action until later on Saturday against RB Leipzig.

Thomas Tuchel said Chelsea "stopped defending" as Brentford ran riot in a sensational 4-1 derby victory at Stamford Bridge.

Brentford stunned the European champions on Saturday, emphatically securing a first win over their west London rivals since 1939.

Antonio Rudiger's long-range thunderbolt put the Blues in front early in the second half, but Thomas Frank's side hit back with three goals in the space of 10 minutes.

Vitaly Janelt struck twice either side of Christian Eriksen's first goal for Brentford and Yoane Wissa added a fourth in the closing stages just after coming on.

Chelsea had won five consecutive games since Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale, but they were picked off time and again as rampant Brentford moved 11 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

Blues head coach Tuchel felt his side's performance was out of character ahead of a Champions League quarter-final first leg against Real Madrid on Wednesday.

He told BBC Sport: "Nobody saw it coming, especially after going 1-0 ahead. It was very untypical of us. But we stopped defending. We were not aware of enough of the danger, were sloppy with the defending and got punished.

"They made the most of it in those 10 minutes. Right after their third goal we had 10 minutes where we had big, big chances and we missed them.

"They were lucky and clinical enough to get three goals. We did not defend like it is needed to in the Premier League and got punished."

Tuchel had expected third-placed Chelsea to be vulnerable in their first game back after the international break.

He explained: "The start was not a surprise because we came from all over the world from national duty so I expected it to take time. The first 25 minutes we looked a bit leggy and needed to find rhythm.

"The opponent defended deep with 10 men behind the ball, so you need a shot or action to open the game, which we did. Then we gave the game away very cheaply."

Chelsea will now regroup before doing battle with LaLiga leaders Madrid at Stamford Bridge in midweek.

"It is not about Real Madrid. It is about us. It is one day off now and on Monday we start again," he said.

Mahmudul Hasan Joy scored Bangladesh's first Test century against South Africa to lead the tourists back into contention in the first Test.

Bad light brought a slightly premature conclusion to proceedings on day three, with South Africa 75 runs ahead having bowled Bangladesh out for 298 and started their second innings 6-0.

But this was a day for the Tigers and opener Mahmudul (137) to reflect fondly on in Durban.

Mahmudul had been their one shining light on day two in only his third Test, unbeaten on 44 at stumps with his team a concerning 98-4 in reply to the Proteas' 367.

Nightwatchman Taskin Ahmed departed in only the third over of Saturday's play, but Mahmudul finally found a team-mate able to stick around in Liton Das and the pair put on 82 for the sixth wicket.

Mahmudul was dropped by Sarel Erwee on 64 and reached 90 before he inadvertently had partner Yasir Ali – the next man in after Liton – ran out.

A landmark century kept Bangladesh moving, though, and their innings only ended when Mahmudul's did, with the 31-year-old not quite able to carry his bat after playing with greater ambition alongside the tail, caught by Simon Harmer at slip.

Marvellous Mahmudul makes history

The previous high score from a Bangladesh batsman against South Africa had been Mominul Haque's 77 in 2017, a mark Mahmudul cleared by some distance.

He survived 326 balls and almost seven and a half hours, scoring 15 fours and a pair of sixes. Six of those boundaries came across two overs after Mehidy Hasan Miraz departed late in the innings.

No first five-fer for Harmer

South Africa remain in control of the Test match, but they allowed Bangladesh to retain some hope by failing to follow up their superb early bowling from the previous day.

Harmer finished Friday with outstanding bowling figures of 4-42 from 20 overs, yet he allowed 61 runs for no wickets from his next 20, improbably unable to claim a first five-fer. At least he had his day two efforts to fall back on; Keshav Maharaj finished on 0-65.

Jurgen Klopp knows his team must continue winning to keep the Premier League title race alive after recording a 10th consecutive league victory against Watford.

The Reds briefly went top of the Premier League after the 2-0 victory at Anfield thanks to a first-half header from Diogo Jota and a late penalty from Fabinho.

Klopp acknowledged that any question about moving ahead of Manchester City by two points would be null and void after discovering Pep Guardiola's men had already taken the lead at Burnley before he had even started his post-game media conference. The reigning champions, who host Liverpool nextwent on to win 2-0 at Turf Moor.

Klopp told reporters: "No, you can't give an inch, but it's nothing to do with being on top of the table, I didn't think about that in the moment, I was just happy to win the game and having now 72 points.

"To keep it a title race we have to win our football games, otherwise it will be really tricky. And the next Premier League game obviously is a big one [against City], we do not hide from that. It's all good. But now we have a Champions League game to play, which is as important, and three days' time to prepare that. Then we go from there."

Liverpool were not at their best against the Hornets but secured the three points and another clean sheet, meaning they have now kept five consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League for a second time under Klopp, previously doing so in January 2020 (a run of seven).

Part of the backline today was Joe Gomez, making just his second league start of the season, and Klopp was pleased with the 24-year-old's efforts filling in at right back.

"He did really well and he could have set up a second goal in the second half, the cross was an incredible one as well.

"Defensively we don't have to talk, offensively some really good moments and some not-so-good moments because you see the positioning against a deep-sitting opponent, it is not so easy to find the right position in these moments and we are usually a bit more flexible, but it’s all fine.

"Joe is an outstanding football player and he will play a lot of games during his career, 100 per cent, he will play here a lot of games definitely. This season was tricky so far for him, but who knows how these things can change. He is obviously ready to use the opportunity when he gets it."

Gomez's accurate ball in the 22nd minute found the head of Jota, who grabbed his 20th goal of the campaign.

The Portugal international also had words of praise for Gomez, telling Liverpool's official website: "I spoke with Joey before the game, I said: 'You are going to get an assist today!' I remember against Nottingham [Forest] he had a few crosses that I couldn't get on the end of, but I was confident for today and fortunately for us it happened.

"It's the first time in my career that I reach 20 [goals], so just keep on going because we still have plenty to play for."

No player has scored the opening goal in more Premier League games this season than Jota, with Liverpool going on to win all six games in which he has opened the scoring for them.

The Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago has named their team for the 2022 CARIFTA Swimming & Open Water Championships in Barbados this month.

The Championships will run from April 16-19 at the Barbados Aquatic Centre in Wildey, Christ Church while the open water 5k will take place in Carlisle Bay on April 20.

The team for the pool portion is as follows: Saphire Wong Chong-Achee (Female 11-12), Alejandro Agard, Marcus Alexander (Male 11-12), Zachary Anthony, Giovanni Rivas, Liam Carrington, Liam Roberts (Male 13-14), Nikoli Blackman, Johann-Matthew Matamoro, Zarek Wilson, Aaron Stuart (Male 15-17).

Blackman, Anthony and Carrington will also compete in the Open Water event while that team also includes Irmani Smith (Female 14-15), Zoe Anthony, Amelia Rajak and Jade Foncette (Female 16-18).

 

Cristiano Ronaldo was not part of Manchester United's squad for Saturday's Premier League home game with Leicester City due to illness.

The 37-year-old played both World Cup qualifying play-off games for Portugal during the international break, but he was struck down by flu on Friday and was not ready to face City.

Ronaldo has scored 18 goals in all competitions since returning to United in August, with 12 of those in the Premier League, including a hat-trick against Tottenham in his most recent outing in the competition.

Confirming the reason behind Ronaldo's absence, Rangnick told MUTV pre-match: "He had some flu-like symptoms before training yesterday and didn't feel well enough to train.

"We sent our doctor to his home this morning to check if he felt any better, but he didn't, so he's not in the starting XI as he was supposed to be."

Prior to the visit of Leicester, United had failed to win any of the five top-flight matches they had started without Ronaldo since the five-time Ballon d'Or winner rejoined.

Despite the absence of Ronaldo, and with Edinson Cavani again being ruled out through injury, Marcus Rashford had to settle for a place among the substitutes.

Rangnick instead went with the same system and side that started last month's 4-1 loss to Manchester City when Ronaldo was last absent.

Captain Harry Maguire, jeered by a section of England supporters during a friendly in midweek, retained his place in defence.

As for Leicester, who had won their past three games against United in all competitions, they paired Wesley Fofana and former Red Devils man Jonny Evans together in defence for the first time this season.

Vitaly Janelt scored a classy double and Christian Eriksen opened his Brentford account in a sensational 4-1 derby win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Bees were the better side in the first half, but it was the Blues who took the lead just after the break through an Antonio Rudiger thunderbolt from long range.

Magnificent Brentford responded to that blow by scoring three times in the space of 10 minutes, Janelt on target with two brilliant strikes either side of Eriksen's clinical finish at the end of a devastating counter-attack.

Yoane Wissa added a late fourth goal as the Bees ran riot in a first victory over Chelsea since 1939, ending their London rivals' six-match winning run to move 11 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

Edouard Mendy was fortunate to get away with a terrible pass just five minutes in, with Ivan Toney letting the stranded Blues goalkeeper off the hook when his lob floated over the crossbar.

Toney had a shot palmed wide by Mendy and the wasteful striker headed off target from close range in an impressive start from Brentford.

Chelsea looked short of ideas, but Hakim Ziyech finally called David Raya into action with a rasping left-foot drive after he was picked out by Mason Mount in the penalty area.

Rudiger produced a moment of quality that the Blues had been so badly lacking to open the scoring three minutes into the second half, letting fly with venomous right-foot strike from 35 yards that flashed past Raya.

Chelsea's joy was short-lived, though, as Janelt rounded off a well-worked move by drilling Brentford level with his left foot two minutes later.

The Bees ripped the Blues apart with a brilliant counter-attack to take the lead four minutes after that equaliser, Eriksen applying the finish with his left foot after Bryan Mbeumo spotted his surging run into the box.

Thomas Frank's side continued to knock the ball around with a swagger and they were rewarded with a brilliant third goal on the hour-mark, Toney threading a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Janelt, who coolly dinked the ball over Mendy and into the back of the net with his left foot.

Wissa added insult to injury just after coming on, rifling home with his right foot after a mix-up between Rudiger and Thiago Silva with Chelsea all at sea.

Manchester City will go into next week's huge clash with Liverpool with a one-point lead at the Premier League summit after beating Burnley 2-0 to reclaim top spot.

Liverpool defeated Watford by the same scoreline in Saturday's early game to leapfrog the reigning champions, but the Reds' stay in first place was a short one.

Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan netted inside the opening 25 minutes and City sauntered to a 10th consecutive victory over Burnley.

Gabriel Jesus missed chances to add to City's lead, but there was never any danger of a Burnley comeback as City ensured a narrow advantage ahead of Liverpool's trip to the Etihad Stadium on April 10.

Where Jurgen Klopp's men laboured a little in their win against relegation-threatened opponents, City were in control almost from the outset – although Burnley had the first chance, when Josh Brownhill's third-minute header beat Ederson but dropped wide.

City led just over two minutes later, as Raheem Sterling cushioned Rodri's cross into the path of De Bruyne, who thumped high past Nick Pope.

The same two players combined again for City's second, playing a one-two on the right that set Sterling away to tee up a Gundogan shot, which earned a slight deflection off Kevin Long on its way past Pope.

Burnley enjoyed an improved spell following a succession of Pope saves at the start of the second half, but they failed to trouble Ederson in the same way and could have been in three behind when City substitute Jesus volleyed an awkward effort just over.

Jesus would go away wondering how he had not got on the scoresheet after Connor Roberts deflected another volley against the foot of the post, before the forward shot wide on the rebound.

Leon Goretzka returned from his long lay-off with a goal as Bayern Munich won 4-1 at Freiburg in the Bundesliga – where the leaders briefly had 12 players on the pitch.

Freiburg are in the hunt for a Champions League place and were far from pushovers, despite having won just one of 37 previous Bundesliga clashes between the teams.

Their resistance was broken when Goretzka, back from a hip injury that had kept him sidelined since December, headed a 58th-minute opener.

Freiburg's Nils Petersen scored within moments of coming off the bench to bring Freiburg level, only for Serge Gnabry to do just the same for Bayern in the 73rd minute, and Kingsley Coman drilled in the third before Marcel Sabitzer hit a fourth in stoppage time.

Thomas Muller, Joshua Kimmich, Leroy Sane and Goretzka threatened early on from Bayern half-chances, before Manuel Neuer comfortably saved a daisy-cutter from Roland Sallai at the other end.

It was just the sixth time this season that Bayern had failed to score in the first half of a Bundesliga game, but they had not drawn a blank over 90 minutes.

Therefore, it was hardly a surprise when Goretzka made a 58th-minute breakthrough, heading in Kimmich's free-kick after Mark Flekken made a misjudged charge off his line and failed to claim the ball.

Goretzka came off after 62 minutes, receiving a hug from Julian Nagelsmann, who also removed Robert Lewandowski. But within seconds it was a Freiburg substitute, fresh from replacing Sallai, who stunned Bayern with a fine equaliser.

Petersen made a bright run between Bayern defenders to meet Christian Gunter's clever pass and drill a left-footed strike across Neuer, finding the bottom-left corner.

Gnabry pulled off the same trick of scoring within seconds of entering the action when he restored Bayern's lead, taking advantage of charitable defending from Nico Schlotterbeck to fire left-footed into the bottom-right corner after Lucas Hernandez's cross. Coman struck when Flekken could only push his skidding 20-yard strike into the net.

Play was held up for several minutes when Bayern briefly had 12 players on the field, after an apparent substitution bungle, but the game continued when that was resolved and Sabitzer struck late on to add gloss.

Daniil Medvedev has confirmed he will undergo a procedure to fix a troubling hernia issue, which may keep him out of the French Open.

Medvedev, who enjoyed a short-lived stint as world number one at the start of March before relinquishing the crown back to Novak Djokovic, reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year.

However, the chances of the Russian appearing in Paris now seem slim, given he faces up to two months out of action following the impending operation.

This year's French Open runs from May 22 until June 5.

"Hi everyone," the world number two tweeted on Saturday. "The last months I have been playing with a small hernia.

"Together with my team I have decided to have a small procedure done to fix the problem. I will likely be out for the next 1-2 months and will work hard to be back on court soon. Thanks for all the support."

Medvedev had been hoping to use the clay court swing to reclaim top spot in the ATP rankings.

He could have done so had he reached the semi-finals of the Miami Open last week, yet the 26-year-old lost 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 in the quarters to Hubert Hurkacz.

Medvedev appeared to be struggling in that tie and after the defeat he told reporters: "All the match I was not feeling my best. But, you know, sometimes it happens.

"I don't know the actual reason. Maybe the heat. But I was feeling super, like, dizzy, tired, and there was this long game where I couldn't serve anymore.

"Then in the locker room I was cramping quite much, so physically was not easy. But at the same time, that's part of the game."

Should Medvedev fail to return in time to make the season's second grand slam, the reigning US Open champion will hope to be fully firing by the time Wimbledon comes around in late June.

Jos Buttler's second Indian Premier League century helped maintain Rajasthan Royals' winning start in 2022, setting the stage for a 23-run defeat of Mumbai Indians.

The Indians put their opponents in to bat first but no doubt soon regretted that decision as opener Buttler plundered 100 off 68 balls.

That knock did the heavy lifting in the Royals' 193-8 – a total that proved comfortably beyond Mumbai, despite the best efforts of teenager Tilak Varma (61).

Buttler had 26 runs in a dizzying fourth over alone and later put on 82 with captain Sanju Samson (30) for the third wicket in the biggest partnership of the match.

Shimron Hetmyer (35) played his part and the Royals were moving at a blistering pace up until his departure, collapsing from 183-3 with 11 balls remaining.

That shaky finish looked like it could prove costly when Varma joined Ishan Kishan (54) in the middle, but Ravi Ashwin finally got the better of the 19-year-old.

Yuzvendra Chahal (2-26) then set about tidying up the rest of the middle order, getting Tim David and Daniel Sams from consecutive deliveries before creating a hat-trick chance with his ball to Murugan Ashwin, only for Karun Nair to fluff the catch, if not his team's ultimately routine win.

Bumrah bests Buttler after brilliant show

One of the great limited-overs batsmen, Buttler's tally of a single hundred in 66 prior IPL matches was on the light side. He was well on the way to his second century within four overs, though, with 38 runs off 20 balls at that stage.

The England wicketkeeper hit five boundaries in succession – two fours and three sixes – in that fourth over. Although that pace then slowed a little, it still required an elite bowler to eventually get Buttler, with a Jasprit Bumrah beauty among three wickets in the 19th over as he finished with 3-17.

Victory charge ends with Varma wicket

Varma could not join Buttler on three figures, but this was a first fifty and will surely not be his last. It said a lot for Varma's performance that he earned a send off from Ashwin, having sent him for six with a reverse sweep from the previous ball.

Unfortunately for the Indians, already slightly behind in the game, their next boundary did not follow for almost three overs – during which time Chahal took his two wickets.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.