Manchester City staged a stunning late comeback with three goals in five minutes to beat Aston Villa and win the Premier League as their title chances looked to be slipping away amid dramatic scenes at Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola’s side needed victory to secure their fourth title in five seasons but were facing the prospect of ending the season empty-handed as goals either side of the interval from Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho put Villa 2-0 ahead and in control.

It looked as if Villa manager Steven Gerrard might help his former club Liverpool secure the title – until City turned the game on its head in an atmosphere bordering on hysteria.

Ilkay Gundogan, on as a substitute for Bernardo Silva, gave City hope with a far-post header in the 76th minute, and Etihad Stadium was a wall of noise when Rodri drove a low finish past Villa keeper Robin Olsen two minutes later.

The title-winning recovery was complete with nine minutes left as Gundogan once again arrived at the far post to put City in front, the decisive contribution on this nerve-shredding final day.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.44.15/iframe.htmlGrealish thrilled to win title in ‘perfect way’

City did need those three points as Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers – with City boss Guardiola overcome with emotion and breaking down in tears at the final whistle.

Man City show grit and class of champions

https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.44.15/iframe.html‘We feel legends’ – Guardiola delighted with title win

When Coutinho slid in Villa’s second goal, it looked as if the most unpalatable of storylines was being written for Manchester City.

The notion of this supremely talented side ending the season with nothing was in clear view as City knew they had 21 minutes to score three times.

The headlines were being written in large type with Gerrard, who never won the Premier League title during his long career at Liverpool, directing the trophy to Anfield, helped by his former team-mate Coutinho.

And then, in one of the most dramatic twists of any Premier League title race, City knocked down the door that had been firmly slammed in their face by a supremely well-organised Villa.

City looked crestfallen but showed their class and character once Gundogan gave them hope with that header, and they scented their chance, even though some of their fans still feared this might only be a consolation.

Rodri’s equaliser was the transformative moment, a sense of inevitability sweeping around a fevered stadium, with a mixture of disbelief and elation the result as Gundogan slid home the third.

Villa did not know what had hit them and had no response, supporters flooding on to the pitch when referee Michael Oliver sounded the final whistle amid a deafening din.

City have had their character questioned this season, especially when they let the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid slip from their grasp, but there can be no more doubts after this.

The manner in which they turned this game around with the title – and their entire season – on the line was the perfect answer. They were heading towards the most bitter disappointment but transformed this day into one they and their supporters will remember forever.

It was little wonder Guardiola broke down at the conclusion of a truly remarkable afternoon.

Villa collapse under pressure

For Aston Villa, there was nothing significant riding on the game – but the way they went about trying to win it was typical of the Premier League’s competitive integrity.

Gerrard and Coutinho’s Liverpool connections added the sub-plot. And every part of this storyline delivered.

Villa were solid, disciplined and a real threat on the break, homing in on 37-year-year-old Fernadinho as a defensive weak point for Manchester City.

It worked as City, unusually flat in attack, were vulnerable at the back. When Villa went 2-0 up, it looked as if their season would end in a landmark win – and for Gerrard, the added satisfaction of seeing his beloved boyhood club win the title.

And yet, they were over-run as the City machine suddenly hit top gear, roared forward thunderously by fans whose mood had changed from despair to expectation.

The first 70 minutes at least demonstrated that Gerrard has something to build on. After that, though, Villa were simply swept aside on the tide of Manchester City’s power plus the noise and emotion inside Etihad Stadium.

Number one seed Marylove Edwards defeated number three seed Oyinlomo Quadri on Saturday to win the female singles title at the 44th CBN Senior National Tennis Open Championships.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Edwards defeated Quadri 2-6 6-2 6-4 to extract her pound of flesh.

She had lost to Quadri last weekend in the final of the DavNotch Tennis Open Championship.

Speaking after Saturday’s match, Edwards told NAN she was very happy she won the final match.

“I fought hard to earn this victory, unlike last week when I was defeated by Oyinlomo. I fought to have the victory.

“Quadri played and fought well also but I am happy that I won the match,” she said.

On her part, Quadri said he was not concentrating during the match due to some issues affecting her.

“It was a nice game, but I only won the first set and lost concentration in the remaining sets,” she said.

Quadri added that she would now go back to concentrate on participating in international championships in Europe.

“I played in a major championship in Dubai last year, and that was the reason for my absence on the local scene,” she said.

A total of 64 male and 32 female players participated in the Championships.

The 44th edition of the CBN Senior National Tennis Open Championships which started on May 13 ended on Saturday at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium.

Kylian Mbappe has signed a contract extension with Paris St Germain that will keep the France forward tied with the Ligue 1 side until 2025, the French champions said onSaturday.

“I wanted to announce that I have chosen to extend my contract at Paris Saint-Germain, and I am of course very happy. I am convinced that here I can continue to grow within a club that gives itself all the means to perform at the highest level,” the 23-year-old said in a club statement.

“I am also very happy to be able to continue playing in France, the country where I was born, grew up and flourished.”

Mbappe and club president Nasser Al Khelaifi posed holding a “Mbappe 2025” PSG shirt before the last game of the Ligue 1 season against Metz as the crowd erupted when Al Khelaifi broke the news at the Parc des Princes.

The France forward, whose current contract expires on June 30, had been widely tipped to join Real Madrid.

LaLiga reacted angrily to Mbappe’s contract extension, saying it would file a complaint against PSG to European soccer’s governing body UEFA.

LaLiga said PSG’s new offer to Mbappe “attacks the economic stability” of European football.

“It is scandalous that a club like PSG, which last season reported losses of more than 220 million euros ($232.32 million) after accumulating losses of more than 700 million euros in prior seasons … with a squad cost around 650 million for this season, can close such an agreement,” LaLiga said.

“LaLiga will file a complaint against PSG before UEFA, the French administrative and fiscal authorities and European Union authorities to continue to defend the economic ecosystem of European football and its sustainability.”

PSG declined to comment on LaLiga’s complaint.

Mbappe, one of the game’s finest talents who burst onto the scene as a teenager and helped France win the World Cup in 2018, was set to leave on a free transfer when his contract expired at the end of the season.

PSG signed Mbappe from AS Monaco in 2017 in a deal reported to be about 180 million euros, making him the world’s second-most expensive signing after Neymar, who joined PSG from Barcelona for 222 million euros.

Real’s bid to sign Mbappe last year was rejected by the Parisian club, who appeared prepared to lose him on a free transfer this year.

Reports last year claimed the Spanish champions had offered PSG as much as 200 million euros for the Frenchman.

PSG had no intention of selling their young talisman in their quest for Champions League glory, but the French club fell well short this season when Real staged a dramatic second-leg comeback in the last-16 to knock them out of the competition.

PSG had been reinforced last year with the signing of Lionel Messi from Barcelona to add firepower to a star-studded squad. But apart from reclaiming the Ligue 1 title, the French club failed to win any other trophies.

Mbappe, however, excelled individually, scoring 38 goals and providing 26 assists for PSG in all competitions this season after scoring an early double against Metz on Saturday.

Lewis Hamilton has said he is finding it difficult to get the best out of this year’s Mercedes.

Car upgrades helped Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell to Mercedes’ best qualifying position of the season with fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 0.119 seconds slower than Russell in sixth, said he was “really struggling with the car this year”.

“The car has potential to be third or fourth and I am not able to pull that out of the car,” Hamilton said.

“I just don’t feel that great in the sense of my driving and I’m working as hard as I can.

“I am still way off. I just struggle with confidence in the rear of the car. I don’t know how to get around that.

“I don’t know what I am going to do but I will keep trying to work hard and trying to figure it out. I just have no rear end in the car in the qualifying sessions.”

But Hamilton said he was “seeing hope” for his team at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after a redesigned floor eliminated the most significant problem the the car has had so far – a high-speed bouncing created by aerodynamic disruption on the straights, known as ‘porpoising’.

“We have improved the car and stopped it from bouncing in certain areas,” Hamilton said.

“We don’t have the bouncing in the straight line. We still have some bouncing in Turns Three and Nine [the fastest corners in Spain] but the car’s a lot better.

“The [development] bits that have come have worked, so that means moving forwards more bits will come. I am looking forward to the next upgrades that we get so we can add some performance.”

Hamilton is tied three-all with Russell in their qualifying head-to-head after six races this season.

Russell said that he believed the car was potentially faster in the race than in qualifying.

“That was the best result we’ve had as a team this season,” he said. “We didn’t have the tyres in the right window. We were quickest in sector one and struggling in sector three. Ferrari looked extremely fast this weekend but we have a better race car than a qualifying car.”

The porpoising was preventing Mercedes from running the car as low as they wanted to for optimum performance, but the modifications in Spain meant they could begin to run it lower and access more of the potential they believe the car to have.

Russell said: “Through the corners it wasn’t fundamentally different, but we just had more grip. We could get the car closer to the ground.

“We lost a lot of overall downforce to get rid of the porpoising. The car is not quite as quick as we’d like, to be able to fight the guys in front. But this is our baseline and we can build on that and find a lot more performance.”

Can Mercedes race at the front?

Russell said he was optimistic he could compete with the Ferrari drivers for a place on the podium in Sunday’s race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position, recovering from a spin on his first lap in the final part of qualifying to leapfrog from 10th to first with his final run, ahead of his title rival Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull splits the two Mercedes in fifth place.

Russell said: “Max looks much quicker than the rest but we have a real shot against the Ferrari and unless they have found some gains overnight we will be in the mix with them.”

The 24-year-old’s comments were based on the long runs completed by the teams in second practice on Friday.

Verstappen, who has won the past two races to eat significantly into Leclerc’s championship points lead, had an advantage on average of more than 0.5 seconds a lap over the rest of the field, while the Mercedes were quicker than the Ferraris.

However, after struggling with heavy tyre usage on Friday, Ferrari made set-up changes before Saturday and Leclerc said they had improved the car significantly.

“It is going to be very difficult because Red Bull is very strong in tyre management and it is our weakness since two races,” said Leclerc, who leads Verstappen by 19 points.

“It was a big weakness yesterday. This morning we changed completely the car and the feeling was much better in the long run, but we were the only ones on track doing long runs so we have no [comparison] with Red Bull. The feeling is there but now we still have to see compared to Red Bull during the race.”

He added: “I am in a strong position to start the race but we have been struggling with tyres in the last two races and Max is just behind, and if we don’t manage to use the tyres well we will lose the win.”

Verstappen said he had been impressed by Leclerc’s pace in race trim on Saturday.

“They improved their car quite a bit in terms of tyre management because what I saw from them in P3 was very strong,” the world champion said.

Heat means a tough, unpredictable race

Temperatures are high in Spain, well over 30C, and all the drivers are expecting a difficult race with tyres a major concern and likely at least two pit stops as a result.

“It is going to be one of the most challenging races we face all season,” Russell said. “Multiple pit stops, I expect, and it will be challenging to get the tyres to last to the end, but that offers opportunity. It is not going to be straightforward.”

The cars have been changed this year with the idea of making overtaking easier, but Sainz said the heat this weekend would likely mean passing remained a challenge at a track where it has always been notoriously difficult.

“Following has been a bit more difficult around this track this weekend than lately,” Sainz said. “I think it’s the heat, and the tyres are suffering quite a lot from the heat. Every lap you do behind a car is a lap you overheat the tyres and you have less grip. It’s a very hot Barcelona and it is not going to be easy to pass.”

Although statistics suggest the winner will almost certainly come from the front row, Verstappen said it would be wrong to assume that would be the case.

“It can be important [to lead the first lap], but also not really,” said Verstappen, who took his maiden victory in Barcelona six years ago.

“In 2016, I was fourth after the start. Last year I took the lead but still didn’t win. You need good pace and good tyre management.

“It’s hard on the tyres with the high-speed cornering. If there is opportunity, you go for it, and if not, you don’t. You settle and wait for the opportunity and hope the package you have is competitive enough to fight for the win.”

Verstappen also had to make changes from Friday to Saturday to improve the car’s one-lap pace but he said he did not believe they would have compromised the car for the race.

“What we improved over one lap won’t hurt our long run,” he said. “It was just the way we balanced the car. There was just a bit more potential for the one-lap performance – we definitely didn’t do that well yesterday and this morning, I think.

“It was a bit more tricky for us to really find a connected car and we have that. When you find it in qualifying it’s also better for the long run.”

Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the US PGA Championship after struggling in the third round at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The 15-time major winner had his third worst round in a major, a nine-over 79, that left him joint last on 12 over.

He also made five consecutive bogeys for the first time in a major since turning professional in 1996.

Woods only returned to competitive golf at the Masters in April, 14 months after a life-threatening car crash.

 The severity of Woods injury saw him embark on a long road to recovery and initially raised questions over whether he would even be able to compete again at the highest level.

While he defied the odds to play and then make the cut at the Masters, his physical condition deteriorated on one of golf’s most demanding terrains at the Augusta National as he shot two 78s in rounds three and four – his highest scores at the course.

Woods, who was clearly limping after his opening tee shot in the first round on Thursday, has been undergoing treatment including ice baths to aid his recovery between rounds.

He looked to be in pain towards the end of Friday’s second round, as he shot a one-under 69 to make the halfway cut.

But the quick turnaround for his early tee-time in round three on Saturday appeared to take its toll as Woods struggled in the colder conditions.

He bogeyed the second, dropped three more shots on the par-three sixth and then made another six bogeys in seven holes to find himself 10 over for the day, before a birdie at 15 saw the American sign for a 79.

“I just didn’t play well. I didn’t hit the ball very well,” said 46-year-old Woods. “I’m sore.”

PGA of America President Jim Richerson said: “We admire Tiger’s valiant effort to compete here at Southern Hills and wish him the best as he continues to recover from his injuries.”

Woods has already indicated that he intends to play the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews in July.

The 46-year-old won two of his three Opens at the historic Old Course, which he has described as his “favourite golf course in the world”.