E118 | The Karate Captain : Harry Maguire

THE ENGLISH GAME Podcast

● Cristiano Ronaldo netted his 50th club hat-trick as Manchester United moved to within three points of Tottenham Hotspur in fourth with a battling 3-2 victory over Norwich City.

The Portuguese scored his first on seven minutes, converting a cross from Anthony Elanga, who had nicked the ball off Ben Gibson.

Ronaldo doubled United's lead after 32 minutes, heading in Alex Telles's corner. But Kieran Dowell's header from a Teemu Pukki cross reduced the arrears in first-half added time.

Dowell then turned provider for Pukki with a sublime reverse pass to allow the Finn to slot home Norwich's equaliser seven minutes after half-time.

Norwich were denied a third by David De Gea's superb save from Milot Rashica's shot.

Ronaldo completed his hat-trick to secure the points with a fierce free-kick 14 minutes from time.

Man Utd's first win in three matches takes them above Arsenal to fifth with 54 points. Norwich remain bottom on 21 points, seven from safety with six matches remaining.

●Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of a top-four finish suffered a setback as Leandro Trossard's last-minute goal earned Brighton & Hove Albion back-to-back wins over north London clubs.

Spurs struggled to break down the visitors throughout the contest, although they improved in the second half, with Son Heung-min's goalbound shot was blocked by Joel Veltman.

Graham Potter's side, who had beaten Arsenal last time out, themselves threatened when Hugo Lloris was called upon to deny Tariq Lamptey's effort and a Lewis Dunk header.

The breakthrough arrived in the final minute of regulation time, Trossard pouncing on hesitant defending to turn Eric Dier and poke in from close range.

Substitute Steven Bergwijn passed up a good chance to equalise in added time but Brighton held on for victory.

A first defeat in five keeps fourth-placed Spurs on 57 points, three ahead of Manchester United and Arsenal, the Gunners having played one match fewer.

Brighton are up to 10th place with 40 points.

●Tomas Soucek cancelled out an earlier Wout Weghorst header as West Ham United earned a 1-1 home draw to deny Burnley a big win in their bid for safety.

After a lengthy stoppage due to an injury to Burnley's Ashley Westwood, the Clarets, managed by Under-23 coach Michael Jackson following Sean Dyche's departure on Friday, took a 33rd-minute lead.

Weghorst headed the opener in from close range after Jay Rodriguez had hit the bar.

Maxwel Cornet missed a chance to double the visitors' lead in first-half stoppage time, firing a penalty kick wide after being fouled by Lukasz Fabianski.

They were eventually made to rue that miss 16 minutes from time as Soucek bundled in an inviting Manuel Lanzini free-kick from close range.

West Ham could have won late on, but Nick Pope produced a stunning save to claw out Issa Diop's header and denied Michail Antonio soon after.

The result takes 18th-placed Burnley up to 25 points, three below Everton who have played a match fewer.

West Ham are seventh, five points off the top four.

●Bruno Guimaraes scored his second goal of the match deep into second-half stoppage time as Newcastle United beat Leicester City 2-1 at St James' Park.

The visitors broke the deadlock on 19 minutes when Ayoze Perez flicked a corner into the path of Ademola Lookman to fire beyond Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

Leicester's lead lasted just 11 minutes as Guimaraes beat Kasper Schmeichel to a loose ball to poke in from close range his first home Premier League goal.

The second half started in end-to-end fashion, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Joelinton both flashing efforts wide of the target.

In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Guimaraes won it. Substitute Joe Willock surged forward on the counter-attack and eventually crossed in for the Brazilian midfielder to head high into the net and complete the turnaround.

Having stretched their home unbeaten run to seven matches Newcastle climb to 14th on 37 points, three adrift of ninth-placed Leicester.

●Pontus Jansson's stoppage-time header earned Brentford a dramatic 2-1 win over Watford to hit their hosts' hopes of avoiding relegation.

Christian Norgaard put Brentford ahead on 15 minutes, when he turned in from six yards after collecting Kristoffer Ajer's flick-on from Ethan Pinnock's throw.

Watford improved in the second half and equalised on 55 minutes through Emmanuel Dennis, who powered the ball in from a narrow angle.

The Hornets came close to a second a number of times. Ismaila Sarr tested David Raya, who then tipped Dennis's free-kick on to the bar.

In stoppage time, Watford's Joshua King also hit a post before Imran Louza somehow fired over the rebound.

The final twist came in the fifth minute of time added on, when Christian Eriksen's deep cross was met by Jansson's towering header.

Watford remain 19th and have 22 points, six from safety having played two matches more than the teams immediately above them.

Brentford rise to 11th with 39 points.

●A star performance from Fraser Forster and a goal from Jan Bednarek condemned Arsenal to a third consecutive defeat, going down 1-0 at Southampton, which denied them the chance to close the gap on fourth place.

Forster made two impressive saves inside the opening 20 minutes to deny Gabriel Martinelli's low shot and Bukayo Saka's effort from close range.

Southampton were rewarded for their early resilience, taking the lead on the stroke of half-time when Mohamed Elyounoussi pulled the ball back for Bednarek to score at the near post.

Arsenal put the pressure on in the second half, but Forster continued to thwart them, brilliantly saving from Emile Smith Rowe, Saka and Granit Xhaka.

Southampton's first win in five matches takes them up to 12th with 39 points.

Arsenal drop below Manchester United on goal difference to sixth on 54 points, three behind Tottenham Hotspur, who have played a match more.

The fa cup semi-Finals

●Liverpool hold on to beat Manchester City 3-2 and reach the FA Cup final for the first time since 2012. It was an exceptional first half from the Reds, with Konate heading in just nine minutes into the game. Mane then caught Steffen on the ball and slid in to poke it over the line before volleying in his second on the stroke of half-time. City came out quickly after the break, with Grealish scoring just 71 seconds after the restart. Silva then tapped in from close range in the first minute of stoppage time, but they left it too late in the end.

●A relatively comfortably evening, on the whole, sees Chelsea through to the FA Cup final against Liverpool after goals from Loftus-Cheek and Mount powered the Blues past Crystal Palace at Wembley. A cagey first half was met by similar scenes in the second half, with both sides finding difficulty creating space in the opponent's organised defence. It was Tuchel's side who would take their half-chances however, with Loftus-Cheek's volley coming five minutes after the hour - and 40 minutes after his first-half introduction for an injured Kovacic. Mount would add insurance with a quarter-hour left in the match; a situation which was irredeemable from that point for Palace. Vieira's side failed to trouble Mendy on a frequent enough basis as they fall at the semi-final stage while a show-piece event awaits Tuchel's Blues.

The Dutch Cup final (Erik Ten Hag story)

Erik ten Hag’s Ajax tasted defeat in the KNVB Cup final and the Manchester United bound manager was not happy.
The Dutchman felt his side were the better team and that decisions went against Ajax
Ajax had a goal disallowed in each half and lost the game 2-1, having led 1-0 at half-time.

It’s never nice to miss out on a trophy, and for Ajax it hurt to lose to fierce competitors PSV Eindhoven.x.

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