Chelsea won the Champions League with a nail-biting penalty shoot-out victory over Bayern Munich.

Didier Drogba, whose Chelsea future is in doubt as his contract its end, proved his side’s hero, scoring Chelsea’s only goal and netting the winning penalty.

Bayern, playing in their own ground, the Allianz Arena, dominated for large portions of the match but were unable to find a breakthrough until Thomas Mueller headed past Petr Cech after 83 minutes.

Drogba headed a goal of his own in the 88th minute, though, setting up a further 30 minutes of extra-time. He nearly became Chelsea’s villain as he gifted Bayern the chance to re-take the lead from the penalty spot by bringing down Franck Ribery in the box but Arjen Robben saw his tame spot-kick saved by Cech.

In the shootout Juan Mata missed the first kick to give Bayern the advantage but Chelsea responded with three flawless kicks and after Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger missed, it was left for Drogba to score the winning penalty in a fairytale ending which may well have seen him kick his last ball in a Chelsea shirt.

It was a weekend of football finals – as well as the Champions League final, the finals of the playoffs in the Championship and Conference were played, as well as the Scottish Cup final.

West Ham bounced straight back to the Premier League at the first time of asking with a 2-1 win over Blackpool at Wembley. Carlton Cole cancelled out Thomas Ince’s opener and, despite Blackpool creating the far greater number of chances, West Ham won it as Ricardo Vaz Te struck in the 87th minute.

Hearts thrashed Edinburgh rival Hibernian in the Scottish Cup Final 5-1 at Hampden Park. Darren Barr and Rudi Skacel put Hearts 2-1 in front and after James McPake pulled one back for Hibs Danny Grainger netted a penalty and Skacel and Ryan McGowan scored a further two.

At Lords, the West Indies produced a fourth-day fightback after three days of England domination to set up a nervy final day for the home side.

England scored 398 in their first-innings response to the visiting side’s score of 243 but Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels’ fifth-wicket stand of 157 helped the West Indies to second-innings score of 345 to leave England requiring 191 to win.

England finished the Sunday two wickets down, though, having lost Andrew Strauss and night-watchman James Anderson, and resume today on 10-2, chasing a further 181 runs.

Leinster won the Heineken Cup final with a crushing 42-14 victory over fellow Irishmen Ulster in what was a record winning margin in Europe’s showpiece final to retain their title.

Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy scored early on for Leinster and they never really looked back. A penalty try was awarded after Ulster illegally dragged down a maul before the posts just after half-time and, after Dan Tuohy restored some hope for Ulster before Heinke van der Merwe and Sean Cronin went over towards the end.

Wigan moved to the top of the Super League after they beat Huddersfield 32-12 in the top-of-the-table clash. Warrington took advantage of Huddersfield’s slip-up with a 42-12 win at Wakefield to move into second.

Widnes remain rooted to the bottom after defeat against Catalan Dragons, who are fourth. London Broncos stay on four points alongside Widnes having lost 14-12.

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The Premier League season reached it’s conclusion on Sunday and this season’s final day didn’t disappoint as Manchester City scored twice late on to win the title. They very nearly surrendered their lead to Manchester United who kept up the pressure on their rivals with a 1-0 win away to Sunderland.

QPR, down to ten men after Joey Barton was dismissed for elbowing Carlos Tevez, had recovered from Pablo Zabaleta’s opening goal to lead City 2-1 thanks to goals from Djibril Cisse and Jamie Mackie

Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero struck in stoppage time to rescue their side and deny United their 20th title.

QPR survived relegation despite the defeat: a dubious Stoke penalty restricted Bolton to a 2-2 draw to condemn Owen Coyle’s side to the Championship along with Blackburn and Wolves.

Arsenal won the race to finish third with a 3-2 win at West Brom. Tottenham finished fourth and will have to wait on the outcome of next weekend’s Champions League final before knowing whether they will play in the competition next season.

Alex McCleish looks set to be the first managerial casualty of the close season as his Aston Villa side finished 16th, just two points above the relegation zone.

Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix to register his first race win; the first for his team Williams since 2004. Some clever pitting enabled him to finish ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and the Lotus of Kimi Raikonnen.

Lewis Hamilton fought back from the back of the grid to finish eighth, while Jenson Button came ninth.

31 Williams crew were injured in a fire in the team’s garage after the race, seven of whom had to be treated in hospital.

Leicester and Harlequins will contest this year’s Aviva Premiership final after beating Saracens and Northampton respectively. Leicester won 24-15, largely thanks to the kicking of teenage fly-half George Ford who had started in place of the injured Toby Flood.

Harlequins came from behind to beat Northampton 25-23. Lee Dickson’s try was converted to give Northamopton a 23-15 lead with ten minutes to play but Nick Evans converted Joe Marler’s try and kicked a goal to give Quins the win.

Wigan will play Leeds in the Challenge Cup semi-final. Leeds beat Leigh and Wigan beat St Helens to set up a repeat of last year’s final.

Huddersfield scored nine tries in their quarter-final victory over London Broncos and will play Warrington in the other semi-final.

Roger Federer won the Madrid Open, beating Tomas Berdych 3-6 7-5 7-5 in the final on the controversial blue clay which had been criticised by Rafael Nadal and novak Djokovic.

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Fernando Torres finally found form in front of goal with a hat-trick against QPR on Sunday. His Chelsea side cruised past local rivals Rangers 6-1, with Daniel Sturridge, John Terry and Florent Malouda scoring the other goals before Djibril Cisse pulled one back for the visitors.

Blackburn gave a poor account of themselves against Tottenham, failing to register a single shot over the 90 minutes in a 2-0 defeat which sees them with three points to make up to avoid relegation with two games remaining.

Wigan’s survival hopes continued to improve with a remarkable 4-0 victory at home to Champions League-chasing Newcastle. Four first half games gave Wigan some breathing space and would have been enough even if Papiss Cisse had scored in a seventh-straight game rather than hit the woodword twice.

Bolton gained a well-deserved point away at Sunderland thanks to a brace from club captain Kevin Davies who showed his worth after being recalled to the starting line-up.

The shackles were off Wolves whose relegation was confirmed last week as they battled back from a three-goal deficit to draw 4-4 with Swansea.

Southampton confirmed their place in next season’s Premier League with a 2-0 win over already-relegated Coventry. West Ham beat Hull but needed Saints to slip up stand any chance of reclaiming the automatic promotion place which they occupied for so much of the season.

They will now face Cardiff in the playoffs semi-final while Birmingham play Blackpool in the other tie.

Celtic beat Rangers 3-0 in what could be the last ever Old Firm derby. They made light work of their rivals and after the match Rangers manager Ally McCoist suggested liquidation was a real possibility, saying after the match that it “looks more of a possibility now than ever”.

Leinster have made it to the final of the Heineken Cup with a 19-15 victory over Clermont Auvergne. The French side led at half-time but a Cian Healy try helped Leinster take the lead before Welsey Fofana was thought to have gone over for the home side only for the try to be ruled out by TMO Geoff Warren.

Ulster will be Leinster’s opponents in the final at Twickenham after an equally close win 22-19 over Edinburgh. A Pedrie Wannenburg try and more points from the boot of Ruan Pienaar put Ulster in control and Jim Thomspson’s try came too late for Edinburgh to mount a serious comeback.

Leeds Rhinos progressed to the quarter finals of Rugby League’s Challenge Cup but didn’t have things all their own way against Salford. They eventually won the match 16-10, but only gained the lead with eight minutes remaining.

Cup holders Wigan will face sterner challenges in their defence than that which was provided by Featherstone Rovers. Wigan ran in six tries to book their place in the next round, winning 32-16.

Leigh scored a vital golden point to beat Halifax 19-18 after they had mounted a second-half comeback and will be the only Championship side in the quarter-final draw.

Reigning champion John Higgins conceded the worst World Championship defeat of his career, losing 13-4 against seven-time winner Stephen Hendry. He will face fellow Scot Stephen Maguire who beat Joe Perry 13-7.

Ryan Day completed a 13-7 victory over Cao Yupeng while 2010 champion Neil Robertson progressed, winning 13-9 against David Gilbert. Ronnie O’ Sullivan has an 11-5 lead over Mark Williams while Matthew Stevens and Barry Hawkins are level at 8-8.

Rafael Nadal’s imperious form on clay continues as the Spaniard beat compatriot David Ferrer to win his seventh title Barcelona Open title 7-6 (7-1) 7-5.

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The race for the Reimer League title took yet another twist yesterday. In the lunchtime kick-off, Manchester United twice gave up a two-goal lead to draw 4-4 with Everton.

They lead 3-1 and 4-2 thanks to a brace form Wayne Rooney and one each form Nani and Danny Welbeck but Everton kept coming back. With seven minutes to play Nikica Jelavic scored his second before Steven Pienaar nipped in to earn his side point.

Manchester City meanwhile kept up the pressure on their title rivals with a 2-0 win over Wolves. Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri netting for city but the defeat for Wolves means they’re the first team this season to have their relegation from the Premier League confirmed.

Roy Hodgson’s West Brom beat his former side Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield thanks to a Peter Odemwingie goal who profited from an error from Glen Johnson after 75 minutes.

Arsenal and Chelsea played out a goalless draw on Saturday with Chelsea making eight changes to the side that beat Barcelona on Tuesday evening. Arsenal had the best of the chance through Robin van Persie and Laurent Koscielny who both saw efforts hit the crossbar.

Blackburn registered a win after five defeats in a row with a 2-0 victory at home to Norwich to give them a much-needed boost in their fight against relegation. Bolton could only muster a 1-1 draw with Swansea, and now sit four points away from safety with two games in hand on Wigan. Blackburn are three behind the Latics.

Robin van Persie was named PFA Player of the Year last night at a ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House. Tottenham’s Kyle Walker took the Young Player of the Year award.

Sebastian Vettel became the fourth different winner of a Grand Prix from four races this season. The world champion overcame the challenge of Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel, who started on pole saw his early lead cut by Raikkonen’s Lotus but he restored his advantage with some efficient pitting.

The other man to make the podium was Lotus’s Romain Grosjean. Lewis Hamilton finished eighth while Jenson Button retired.

In cricket’s County Championship, reigning champions Lancashire suffered their second defeat in their opening two matches against Warwickshire. Keith Barker and Jeehan Patel both took five wickets for Warwickshire.

Hampshire beat Glamorgan with Hamza Riazuddin hitting the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the match. Yorkshire and Essex’s drew their rain-affected match while the poor weather affected the match between Durham and Middlesex at Lords, which also finished a draw.

In the penultimate round of matches in Rugby Union’s Aviva Premiership,

At the top of the table Leicester beat Harlequins 43-33 at the Stoop to go second ahead of Saracens, a single point behind their opponents Quins. Ugo Monye and Nick Easter scored in the first half to give the home side the lead, but tries from George Lowe, Alesana Tuilagi and Thomas Waldrom along with the boot of Toby Flood put Leicester in charge.

Northampton beat Exeter 18-15 to go above their opponents into the fourth and final playoff place. Paul Diggins gave the Saints an eight-point lead and despite scoring through Richard Baxter Northampton held on. Exeter now need Worcester to beat Northampton in the final round of games if they are to stand any chance of making the playoffs for the first time in the club’s history.

Wasps earnt an important bonus point despite losing 17-12 to Bath. They play relegation rivals Newcastle Falcons on the final day of the season and Newcastle must score four tries and win by seven points to overhaul Wasps.

Huddersfield continued their excellent run of form with their fourth straight Super League win – their tenth of the 12-game old campaign – this time against Bradford. Danny Brough scored two penalties and a try in the second half to help his side to a 20-6 win.

Pat Richards scored a hat-trick as second-placed Wigan thrashed Hull 56-12. Warrington registered an equally good win over Castleford. They scored seven first-half tries and a further three after the break.

St Helens thrashed basement club Widnes 62-0 and fellow strugglers London Broncos lost 44-6 away at Hull KR.

Rafael Nadal cruised past Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-1 to win his eight-straight Monte Carlo Open title ahead of next month’s French Open.

Kenyan pair Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany won the elite races in Sunday’s London Marathon. Lee Merrien was the fastest British man, finishing in a time of 2:13:40. In the women’s race, Claire Hallissey finished in 2:28.

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Chelsea will meet Liverpool in the FA Cup final on 5th May after they won their semi-finals at Wembley this weekend.

Andy Carroll scored a late winner for Liverpool against Everton in a 2-1 win on Saturday. His side had initially gone behind to a Nikica Jelavic strike but Luis Suarez levelled things up on the hour after picking up a back pass from Sylvain Distin.

Carroll headed Craig Bellamy’s free kick past Tim Howard with three minutes to play to put his side into their second Wembley final of the season one day before the 23rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

Chelsea beat Tottenham 5-1 in the weekend’s other semi-final but the scoreline was harsh on Spurs who threatened in the first half. They went behind to a sensational Didier Drogba strike just before half time but Chelsea’s second, minutes after the restart, was dubious at best.

Juan Mata’s shot appeared to be blocked in front of the line by Benoit Assou-Ekotto but referee Martin Atkinson awarded the goal to the astonishment of the Tottenham players.

Gareth Bale then scored for Spurs after Emmanuel Adebayor was taken down by Petr Cech for what would have certainly been a penalty and a red card for the Chelsea keeper had the ball not fallen to Bale.

Any hopes of a Spurs comeback were kocked by Ramires’ 77th-minute goal and Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda completed the rout late on.

In the Premier League the five-point gap was maintained between the two title contenders. On Saturday Manchester City thrashed Norwich 6-1 and Manchester United responded with a 3-0 home win over Aston Villa on Sunday.

Carlos Tevez scored a hattrick as City piled the pressure onto their rivals but United responded with goals from Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck.

In the Championship, Reading went top after beating Southampton 3-1 on Friday evening, before West Ham battered Brighton 6-0 to cut the gap between themselves and Southampton in second to three points with three games to play.

Hibernian and Hearts set up the first all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final for 116 years after they beat Aberdeen and Celtic respectively, both by a 2-1 scoreline.

The Grand National was won by Neptune Collonges, but the world’s most prestigious steeplechase was marred by the death of two horses. Synchronised, which was ridden by Tony McCoy to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup just last month, and According to Pete both fell at Becher’s Brook.

Neptune Collonges, trained by Paul Nicholls, won by a nose ahead of Sunnyhillboy in a compellingly close finish.

Nico Rosberg won the Chinese Grand Prix, the first race win of his 111-race Formula 1 career, ahead of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, having started the race in pole.

Harlequins beat Wasps 33-17 to maintain their lead at the top of the Aviva Premiership and push their London rivals one step closer to relegation. Fellow strugglers Newcastle took advantage of Wasps’ defeat with a 29-20 win away to Gloucester.

Leicester and Saracens, Harlequins closest rivals at the top, both registered away wins. Leicester beat Northampton 35-21 and Saracens overcame London Irish 28-19.

The scorer of the Exiles’ two tries, Delon Armitage, has announced his intention to leave London Irish for French side Toulon at the end of the season.

In the Rugby League’s Challenge Cup, Featherstone Rovers upset the odds as they defeated Super League side Castleford 23-16 on Saturday. St Helens held off Widnes to win 40-38. A few Super League sides posted big scores – Wigan demolished Championship 1 side North Wales Crusaders 98-4, Bradford beat Doncaster 76-6 and London Broncos thrashed Dewsbury 77-4.

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Manchester City’s stuttering form continued against in their 3-3 with Sunderland on Saturday, allowing Manchester United the opportunity to open up a five-point gap at the top of the league if they beat Blackburn this evening.

Sebastian Larsson scored either side of half-time for Sunderland to help his side to a 3-1 lead but City rescued a point with two goals in the final five minutes of the match.

Arsenal’s excellent run came to an end at QPR. Theo Walcott cancelled out Adel Taarabt opening goal before half time but Samba Diakite won it for Rangers midway through the second half to leave them only in the relegation zone behind Blackburn on goals scored.

Wigan were impressive in their 2-0 win at home to Stoke, and the only side in the bottom four not to win on Saturday was Wolves who lost their relegation six-pointer against Bolton 3-2 at Molineux.

Martin Petrov scored from the penalty spot to reveal a t-shirt in support of countryman and friend, Aston Villa captain Stilyan Petrov who was announced to be suffering from acute leukaemia. Petrov’s team lost 4-2 at home to Chelsea, with Fernando Torres scoring his first league goal in six months in the final seconds.

On Sunday, Liverpool’s dreadful league form continued as they went down 2-0 away at Newcastle thanks to a goal in each half from Papiss Demba Cisse. An exaggerated reaction from James Perch saw Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina shown a red card in the final minutes for an apparent headbutt.

Tottenham beat Swansea 3-1 at White Hart Lane to stop the rot and win their first league game in seven weeks. Rafael can der Vaart opened the scoring in the first half and Emmanuel Adebayor added two more in the final twenty minutes.

Andy Murray lost in the final of the Miami Masters, going down 6-1q 7-6 (7-4) to world number one Novak Djokovic in a repeat of the 2009 final. Djokovic bossed the match from beginning to end and deserved the win, not even allowing Murray a single break point chance all match.

Harlequins beat Saracens 24-19 in what was billed as the biggest game of the Aviva Premiership season so far. Jordan Turner-Hall, George Lowe and Danny Care all scored for Harlequins and the league leaders resisted a late charge from their opponents.

Third, fourth and fifth-placed Leicester, Northampton and Exeter all won to move ahead of Gloucester who lost at Wasps.

Huddersfield beat Leeds 22-12 to return to the top of the Super League ahead of Hull who have a game in hand. On Friday evening Warrington slipped up at home to St. Helens, losing 28-16, while Wigan beat Salford 40-20. Catalan Dragons thrashed bottom side Widnes 76-6 to keep pace in fifth.

Interim England head coach Stuart Lancaster was given the job on a permanent basis after guiding the national team through what was a successful Six Nations campaign in which England finished second with four wins from five matches.

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Peter Crouch put a dent in Manchester City’s title challenge as his outstanding long-range volley helped Stoke to a 1-1 draw at the Britannia Stadium. However, Manchester United went three points clear at the top after winning 1-0 against Fulham last night.

Bolton won a key match in their fight against relegation, beating Blackburn 2-1 on Saturday. It was clear before the match that emotions were running high in what was Bolton’s first match since last weekend’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham in which Fabrice Muamba collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Chelsea and Tottenham played out a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge. Ashley Cole made a goal-line block in the final seconds of a dire first half to keep the Tottenham out and Gary Cahill slid in to deny Emmanuel Adebayor after he had rounded Petr Cech.

Celtic missed out on the opportunity to win the Scottish Premier League title with seven games of the season remaining, losing the final Old Firm derby of the season 3-2 away at Rangers.

Three players were sent off – two from Celtic and one from Rangers – as well as Celtic boss Neil Lennon. Rangers made their numerical advantage pay as they took a three-goal lead before Scott Brown and Thomas Rogne scored for Celtic in the dying moments.

Fernando Alonso won the Malaysian Grand Prix in stormy conditions on Sunday. Alonso’s Ferrari built a sizeable lead while the track was wet but he was nearly caught by Sauber’s Sergio Perez as the track dried. Lewis Hamilton finished third for the second time in first two Grand Prix’s of the season. Jenson Button, who won last week’s season-opening race in Australia, finished 14th.

Reigning Super League champions Leeds were humbled at St. Helens on Sunday evening, going down 46-6. Saints ran in eight tries in all in their first fixture since the sacking of coach Royce Simmons. Ade Gardner, Gary Wheeler and Jonny Lomax both scored two tries each.

Warrington now lead the Super League table with a tight 22-20 win away at Wigan. Huddersfield dropped into second after losing 40-22 at Hull KR.

Tiger Woods won his first PGA tour title in two and a half years, finishing five shots ahead of Graeme McDowell to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, Florida.

Andy Murray made it through to the last sixteen of the Miami Masters after opponent Milos Raonic pulled out before the match with an ankle injury. He will face Gilles Simon on Tuesday.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic both progressed to the second week of the competition with wins over Ryan Harrison and Marcos Baghdatis respectively. Federer will play Andy Roddick and Djokovic takes on Viktor Troicki.

The world of darts mourns the death of Jocky Wilson, who died on Saturday evening after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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Wales completed a third Six Nations grand slam in eight years after beating France 16-9 at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

Wales took a first-half lead through an Alex Cuthbert try which proved to be the only one of the match. Two second-half penalties from Leigh Halfpenny helped Wales to maintain their seven-point lead with France unable to make a breakthrough.

The result put an end to England’s faint title hopes finished before their evening kick off against Ireland at Twickenham. Despite having nothing to play for, England’s inexperienced side were excellent in a 30-9 victory.

The sides traded penalties in a scrappy first half before England stepped things up after the break. Owen Farrell converted a penalty try and with seven minutes remaining Ben Youngs’ quick thinking from a penalty England a second try.

In the day’s early game, Italy beat Scotland 13-6 to finish avoid finishing bottom of the table for the first time since 2007 and condemn their opponents to an embarrassing whitewash.

Leicester held off Northampton Saints to win the LV= Cup final 26-14. Teenager George Ford impressed at fly-half with an excellent kicking performance.

The weekend’s football was overshadowed by tragic scenes at White Hart Lane, where Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest. His condition is described as “stable”, but critical. The FA Cup quarter-final was abandoned after Muamba left for hospital with the score at 1-1.

Chelsea’s upturn in fortunes under the stewardship of Roberto di Matteo continued in their tie at home to Leicester City. Fernando Torres ended his notoriously barren spell in front of goal, scoring twice in a 5-2 victory to end a run of more than 24 hours without scoring. Chelsea will face the winners of the rearranged tie between Spurs and Bolton.

Liverpool set up a potential all-Merseyside semi-final with victory over Stoke at Anfield on Sunday thanks to Stewart Downing’s 57^th-minute winner. Everton will have to beat Sunderland in a replay at the Stadium of Light if they are to meet their rivals in the semi-final after they drew 1-1 with Sunderland.

Manchester United increased their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points over Manchester City with a comfortable 5-0 win against Wolves at Molinieux.

With the scores at 1-0, Wolves full-back Ronald Zubar was sent off for a second bookable offence and his side crumbled after his departure. Javier Hernandez scored twice in a contest which at times resembled a training match for the defending champions.

A man-of-the-match performance from Kilmarnock goalkeeper Cammy Bell helped his side upset the odds to defeat Celtic 1-0 in the Scottish Communities League Cup final. Dieter van Tornhout gave Kilmarnock the lead in the dying minutes and Celtic’s Anthony Stokes was booked for diving for what looked like a foul in the Kilmarnock penalty area.

The 2012 Formula One season kicked off in Melbourne in the early hours of Sunday morning and the high-profile British drivers had a promising start to their seasons. Jenson Button won ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton who finished in third, with defending champion Sebastian Vettel between the two.

Luke Donald returned to the top of golf’s world rankings with victory in the Transitions Championship in Florida. Donald won a first playoff hole after finishing tied on 13 under with Robert Garrigus, Jim Furyk and Sang-Moon Bae.

Requiring victory to reclaim the number one spot, Donald started his final round three shots behind Furyk and Retief Goosen but registered five birdies in seven holes around the turn to claw back the deficit.

In the Super League, St Helens head coach Royce Simmons was sacked after a 12-8 defeat at Bradford which left them in ninth, with five points from seven games. The entire top half of the table won over the weekend, so Huddersfield retain their position as league leaders ahead of Warrington, Wigan, Leeds and Catalan Dragons with a 32-30 win over Wakefield.

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Wales beat Italy 24-3 to set up a potential Grand Slam-winning match against France at the Millennium Stadium next weekend. Their opponents were stern in defence in the first half, restricting Wales to a 9-3 half-time lead before Jamie Roberts and Alex Cuthbert scored second half tries.

England and France contested an exciting match in Paris and England prevailed 24-22 thanks to tries from Manu Tuilagi, Ben Foden and Tom Croft. England raced into a 14-3 lead early in the first half but a succession of French penalties brought them back into contention.

Tom Croft’s excellent solo try had appeared to secure the win for but an late try from Wesley Fofana put France within touching distance. Francois Trinh-Duc eyed up a drop goal which would have given France the win but his attempt dropped short of the posts.

Ireland registered a comfortable 32-14 win against Scotland in Dublin. Rory Best scored the game’s first try for Ireland after two penalties from Greig Laidlaw had given Scotland a 6-0 lead, and two more tries from Eoin Reddan and Andrew Trimble helped Ireland to a 22-14 lead at half-time.

A further ten points were added in the second half from Fergus McFadden and the boot of Jonathan Sexton.

Wales are in the driving seat as far as winning the championship is concerned. England need to beat Ireland and for Wales to lose to France for them to have any chance of snatching the title from under Welsh noses. Wales’s superior points difference means England would need themselves and France to win by a combined total of 38 points.

In the Premier League, Manchester United returned to the top of the table for the first time since October after beating West Brom 2-0 at Old Trafford. Wayne Rooney flicked in Javier Hernandez’s shot in the first half and he scored a second from the penalty spot after Ashley Young was fouled.

Manchester City slipped up away at Swansea to give United a one-point lead in the title race. Scott Sinclair missed a first-half penalty for the Swans but they continued to cause City problems in what was an open game.

Luke Moore headed in on 83 minutes to give Swansea a well-deserved lead.  Micah Richards thought he had equalised late on but the goal was rightly ruled out for offside.

Liverpool kissed goodbye to any faint hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League with a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland courtesy of a Nicklas Bendtner goal.

Interim Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo made it two wins from two – Didier Drogba scored his game’s only goal against Stoke.

Celtic scored four second-half goals to beat Dundee United 4-0 in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup to set up a semi-final against either St Mirren or Hearts who drew 2-2. Aberdeen beat Motherwell 2-1 and will face Hibs in the other semi.

Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat in his opening match at Indian Wells, going down 6-4 6-2 to world number 92 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Rafael Nadal progressed along with Juan Martin del Potro and Fernando Verdasco.

Justin Rose won the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral on Sunday after clawing back a three-shot deficit to American Bubba Watson. Rose finished 16-under – one ahead of Watson and a further shot clear of Rory McIlroy.

Great Britain’s women’s 4x400m relay team posted a world-best time of three minutes 28.76 seconds in winning gold at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Mo Farah finished fourth in the men’s 3,000m behind champion Bernard Lagat. Edwin Sol, whom Farah had collided with during the race, had been disqualified, moving Farah into a bronze medal-winning position, but the decision was reversed on appeal.

Bradley Wiggins won the Paris-Nice race, finishing just two seconds ahead of Dutchman Lieuwe Westra. Wiggins is only the second Brit to win the race after Tom Simpson’s victory in 1967.

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Andre Vilas-Boas was sacked as Chelsea manager after just ninth months in charge in the aftermath of his side’s 1-0 defeat away to West Brom.

The club’s owner Roman Abramovich lost patience with his man after a poor run of form which sees the side fifth in the Premier League and facing the possibility of missing out on qualification for next season’s Champions League.

Gareth MacAuley reacted to a powerful Chris Brunt cross to give West Brom a deserved lead after 82 minutes.

Two goals from Ashley Young – his second a spectacular strike – helped Manchester United to a 3-1 against Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Despite Tottenham having the better of a first half in which Emmanuel Adebayor had a goal disallowed for handball, United went in at half time 1-0 up thanks to a Wayne Rooney header from a corner. Jermain Defoe came on towards the end of the second half and scored what was just a consolation goal in the final minutes.

Robin van Persie continued his fantastic goalscoring form with two vital goals against Liverpool at Anfield. The Dutchman’s 24^th and 25^th league goals of the season were enough for Arsenal to register a valuable 2-1 win at Anfield to consolidate their position in the qualification places for the Champions League.

In their rearranged Six Nations fixture, Ireland drew 17-17 against France in Paris. Two first half tries from Tommy Bowe – one a exceptional solo effort – had given Ireland a 17-6 lead at half time.

But France responded after the break and a Wesley Fofana try after 51 minutes and two penalties from Morgan Parra levelled things up.

Wales remain the only side capable of a Grand Slam and lead the Six Nations table with France and England trailing.

Rory McIlroy has gone to the top of golf’s world rankings after winning the Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida. McIlroy finished 12-under, two shots ahead of Tiger Woods and Tom Gillis, and four ahead of fellow Brit Lee Westwood.

At 22-years old becomes the second-youngest man ever to reach the rankings top spot behind Woods, who was 21 when he became number one in 1997.

Roger Federer beat Andy Murray 7-5 6-4 in Saturday’s Dubai Championships final. Murray had beaten world number one Novak Djokovic on Friday but was unable to halt Federer’s impressive return to form which has see him win ten straight matches.

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