French club Marseille will play FC Salzburg, a club backed by soft drinks giant Red Bull, in the other semi-final.

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal will play the first leg at the Emirates Stadium against Atletico, led by French striker Antoine Griezmann, who are favourites to win the competition for the third time.

Wenger, whose side play Man United away in the Premier League between the two semi-final legs, had identified Atletico, Champions League finalists in 2014 and 2016, as the most dangerous side in the draw.

“Everybody speaks about Atletico Madrid that they look the strongest team on paper,” he said, but he also described Marseille as a difficult place to go.

The first legs will take place on April 26 with the second on May 3.

“They are a similar kind of club to us,” Atletico Madrid director Clemente Villaverde said at the draw in Nyon.

“Arsenal are a great team, they’re up there every year fighting for trophies and getting deep into their European competitions,” he said.

Arsenal reached the last four of the Europa League after surviving a scare against CSKA Moscow in Thursday’s quarter-final second leg in the Russian capital.

Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey both scored late in the game for Arsenal to calm nerves after CSKA had raced into a 2-0 lead on the night. The London side won 6-3 on aggregate.

Atletico lost 1-0 to Sporting in Lisbon on Thursday but advanced 2-1 on aggregate.

British bookmakers William Hills make Madrid hot favourites to win the competition, but explained why Arsenal fans still have reason for optimism.

“It could be argued that Arsenal need this more than Atletico as a route into the Champions League next season,” said William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly.

“Their Europa League form has been in stark contrast to their Premier League form during the second half of this season and they have every chance of progressing,” Crilly said.

Marseille overcame a first-leg deficit to beat German side Leipzig 5-3 over two legs in their quarter-final, while 1994 finalists Salzburg produced the shock result of the night by defeating Italian side Lazio 4-1 at home to win 6-5 on aggregate.

Salzburg have already beaten Marseille once in the competition this season, a 1-0 victory in Austria. The teams also drew 0-0 at the Velodrome.

“But this time it’s the semi-final so it’ll be different,” Marseille director Andoni Zubizarreta told beIN Sports.

The former Spain goalkeeper refused to accept it was an easy draw however.

“The four clubs have worked a lot to reach the semi-finals and yesterday Salzburg was very strong against Lazio,” Zubizarreta insisted in reference to the four goals Salzburg hit past the Romans on Thursday.

The games will be played on April 26 and May 3.//AFP

The five-time LPGA winner fired a six-under 66 in the second round for a two-round 10-under 134 total at the Ko Olina Golf Club in Oahu, Hawaii.

“Today was a lot of fun, I got off to a really fast start,” said Henderson. “I made a lot of clutch par saves to keep the momentum and keep it bogey-free.

“I feel like I’m in a great spot and I’m hitting the ball really well and I can depend on my putting right now.”

World number one Feng Shanshan, of China, and American Mo Martin are tied for second after shooting 69 and 67 respectively.

Pernilla Lindberg, Park Inbee and Lindy Duncan are tied for fourth at six under.

Henderson made four birdies on her first six holes and needed just 24 putts on Thursday. The longest putt Henderson made on Thursday was a 21-foot birdie on the par-three eighth hole.

“The wind wasn’t as strong early today and there were softer conditions,” said Henderson. “Fortunately it didn’t rain too hard and it helped with the softness of the course.”

Henderson is wearing a yellow and green ribbon on her shirt to honour the 16 players and team members killed in the Humboldt Broncos fatal bus crash. The Canadian junior hockey team was on their way to a playoff game in Saskatchewan when the bus collided with a semi-trailer.

“It was pretty terrible what happened. They’re in my thoughts and prayers,” she said.

First-round leader Feng rolled in three birdies in her bogey free round, while defending champion Cristie Kerr had a 75 to reach two-over 146, six shots back of Henderson.

Hawaii native Michelle Wie shot a 73 and is tied for 31st.

City have suffered their worst week since Guardiola took charge with three successive defeats for the first time under the Catalan coach.

Liverpool romped into the Champions League semi-finals 5-1 on aggregate win by winning both legs of their quarter-final, whilst City also blew a two-goal lead and the chance to win the title against local rivals Manchester United in losing the Manchester derby 3-2 last weekend.

The champions-elect still boast a 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League with six games remaining.

And they could even be crowned as early as Sunday with victory at Wembley allied to defeat for United at home to West Brom.

City thrashed Spurs 4-1 when the sides met earlier in the season in the midst of a record 18-game winning run that amassed their commanding lead at the top of the table.

However, by conceding eight times in three games, Guardiola’s men unveiled a weakness that hadn’t been exposed by their Premier League rivals for the vast majority of the season.

Liverpool’s bold approach has contrasted to most when faced with the might of City’s attacking arsenal and Jurgen Klopp has been rewarded with three wins in four meetings with the runaway Premier League leaders this season.

Likewise, United scored three times in 16 minutes once forced to attack by a half-time deficit that could have been far greater had the hosts taken their chances.

City also looked like a side running out of gas as they let half-time leads slip away twice in the past week after blistering first-half performances.

“The exceptional thing has been 10 months winning, winning, winning and losing just one game,” said Guardiola, whose side need two wins to guarantee themselves the title.

“Now we have a mini-league for six games and we are going to try and close it.”

– Premier League ‘more important’ –

Elimination at the quarter-finals of the Champions League in particular soured a hitherto stunning season from City as their wait to conquer Europe continued despite amassing a squad worth an estimated 853 million euros (£747 million, $1 billion) in transfer fees alone.

However, Guardiola believes delivering the first Premier League title of his reign was the priority for his second season in charge.

“After Tottenham we have one week long week to Swansea, one long week to West Ham just to win the two games to win the most important competition. The Premier League shows how good you are every three days.”

Whilst Spurs were torn apart at the Etihad in December, Mauricio Pochettino’s men have also shown no fear in their previous meetings with Guardiola’s City.

Spurs inflicted Guardiola’s first defeat in English football in a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win at White Hart Lane last season, and can solidify their place in the top four by inflicting more pain on City.

Pochettino’s men hold a 10-point lead over fifth-placed Chelsea, but insists his ambition is to succeed City as champions next season.

“We are in the race for top four and that for Tottenham is a massive achievement to finish in the top four for the third season in a row,” said Pochettino on Thursday.

“That is so important, but the ambition is to win titles and one day the Premier League or Champions League.”

Fixtures (1400GMT unless stated)

Saturday

Southampton v Chelsea (1130), Swansea v Everton, Burnley v Leicester, Crystal Palace v Brighton, Huddersfield v Watford, Liverpool v Bournemouth (1630), Tottenham v Manchester City (1845)

Sunday

Newcastle v Arsenal (1230), Manchester United v West Brom (1500)

Monday

West Ham v Stoke (1900)

Fedor Chalov and Kirill Nababkin scored for CSKA to set Arsenal nerves jangling in the Russian capital, but Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey both netted late on for the Premier League side as they won the quarter-final 6-3 on aggregate.

It was another night of comebacks in a crazy midweek in Europe, with Marseille and Red Bull Salzburg producing stirring performances to overturn first-leg deficits.

Atletico Madrid are also through, and remain the favourites, despite losing 1-0 on the night away to Sporting Lisbon.

Arsene Wenger was without Granit Xhaka and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in Moscow so Mohamed Elneny and Welbeck came in as the two changes to the team that won the first leg 4-1.

Clinging to the Europa League to rescue their season as they languish well out of the running for a top-four finish in the Premier League, the Gunners came close to suffering a humiliating defeat at the CSKA Arena.

The hosts, spurred on by a 29,000 crowd, went ahead six minutes before the interval when Chalov followed in to score after Petr Cech had saved low down from Nababkin.

CSKA hopes were raised further as Nababkin made it 2-0 in the 50th minute after Cech had beaten away Alexander Golovin’s long-range strike.

But Arsenal ended any doubt with quarter of an hour left as Welbeck played a brilliant one-two with Elneny before finishing sweetly into the corner to reduce the deficit on the night and extend their lead in the tie.

Elneny then sent Ramsey — scorer of a brace in the first leg — away to score Arsenal’s equaliser on the night in stoppage time.

“Maybe we were a bit surprised by the intensity of the game and we were not in the races in the first half. We were a bit on the ropes, but we had a good response,” Wenger told BT Sport after Arsenal secured a first European semi-final appearance since 2009.

“It should be every year. It’s never enough. You could see this week in Europe that you had a lot of turnarounds and you need to be completely focused, so let’s be prepared and see who we play.”

“Everybody speaks about Atletico Madrid. They look a very strong team on paper.”

He added: “We’ve played against a good team tonight. I knew that after the first game and they’ve shown that again. They were mobile and technically good and they gave us many problems.”

– More stunning comebacks –

CSKA head coach Viktor Gancharenko added: “We looked very good for 75 minutes and deservedly led. We were close to a comeback but we were not close enough.”

After Roma’s stunning comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, and Juventus’s heroic effort against Real Madrid on Wednesday, Marseille and Salzburg came up with stunning fightbacks of their own in the last eight of Europe’s second-tier competition.

Marseille, the 1993 Champions League winners, needed to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit when they hosted RB Leipzig at the Velodrome.

The evening started badly for the French club as Bruma swept home for the visitors inside two minutes, leaving Marseille needing three goals to turn the tie around.

But they did that before the interval in front of a huge Velodrome crowd, via a Stefan Ilsanker own goal, Bouna Sarr and Florian Thauvin.

Jean-Kevin Augustin scored to swing the tie back Leipzig’s way 10 minutes after the break, but Dimitri Payet made it 4-2 on the night in some style five minutes later.

With the Germans sending everyone forward for a corner in stoppage time, Marseille made sure of the victory as Hiroki Sakai netted on the counter-attack to complete a 5-3 aggregate win.

Salzburg lost 4-2 to Lazio in Rome last week but won 4-1 in the return in Austria, despite Ciro Immobile giving the Italians a second-half lead on the night.

The hosts proceeded to score four times in 20 minutes, through Munas Dabbur, Amadou Haidara, Hwang Hee-Chan and Stefan Lainer, to advance 6-5 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, Atletico held on in the rain in Lisbon to win 2-1 on aggregate against Sporting, despite losing on the night to a Fredy Montero header in the first half.

The draw for the semi-finals will take place on Friday.

Victory will take Klopp’s men another step closer to sealing a return to the Champions League next season just days after they booked their place in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in a decade.

The five-time European champions thrashed runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate in two thrilling quarter-final performances.

Liverpool lead fifth-placed Chelsea by 10 points, although the reigning Premier League champions do have a game in hand, in the fight for a place in the top four thanks to a run of just two league defeats in 24 matches.

However, one of those reverses came a shocking 1-0 loss at Swansea just eight days after a memorable 4-3 win over City at Anfield, something Klopp is keen to avoid a repeat of.

“We mature constantly. The boys get more and more used to situations like that,” said Klopp after beating City for a third time in four meetings this season.

“If you could say something bad about us in the past few months, it is on a good day we can beat everybody and on a bad day we lose, (we) concede cheap goals. We work on that. We are still in a development phase, that’s how it is but already we are a good team.”

Vital to Liverpool’s greater consistency has been the presence of centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

The Dutch captain cost a world record £75m ($106 million) for a defender in January, but has lived up to his price tag in marshalling a defence that has conceded just seven goals in their past 13 matches in all competitions.

Van Dijk has brought a leadership previously lacking in Liverpool’s back line and has helped accentuate huge improvements in those around him such as goalkeeper Loris Karius, centre-back partner Dejan Lovren and inexperienced full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Liverpool rode out what Klopp called a “whirlwind” first 45 minutes from an all-out attacking approach from Pep Guardiola in midweek, conceding only once when Van Dijk claimed he had been fouled before Raheem Sterling set up Gabriel Jesus.

Of City’s 20 shots on Tuesday night, 12 were blocked as Liverpool protected Karius’s goal and showed another side to the fast-flowing attacking football led by Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane that has characterised their season.

Salah and Firmino were on target to turn the second leg around in the second-half and take the prolific front three’s tally for the season to a combined 79 goals.

Klopp must decide whether to field all three again on Saturday or hand some of his weary squad a rest with the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals just over a week away.

Salah in particular could be left out after only completing one full training session on his return from a muscle injury before playing 89 minutes at the Etihad.

Bournemouth enjoy a 10-point cushion above the relegation zone and winger Ryan Fraser believes they have nothing to lose from their trip to Anfield.

“Against the top teams, you need to forget about the relegation battle and enjoy it,” said the Scot. “We went to Old Trafford earlier in the season and in the second half we battered them, but lost 1-0 which wasn’t nice. You have to relish these moments.”

Two of Thailand’s goals were generated by Kanjana Sung-Ngoen who also helped the Kingdom reach the FIFA World Cup Final in Canada four years ago. The other goal was scored by Silawan Intamee.

Thailand, with one defeat (0-4) to China and two wins including a 6-1 victory over Jordan, finished second in the group and joined pool leader China in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time in 23 years.

Thailand will take on the winner from Group B while China will face runner-up in Group B on April 17.

The World Cup Final slot also earns the Thai team a Bt 20 million incentive money from team’s manager Nualphan Lamsam. Thailand finished third in Group B in their first historic Final in 2015.

Nualphan Lamsam

China’s Feng fired a five-under 67 in windy conditions at the Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Hawaii.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson, Sweden’s Martina Edberg and Kang Hae-Ji of South Korea are tied for second at four-under 68.

After making her only bogey of the round on the first hole, Feng drained six birdies in the final 17 holes.

“I saved pars early in my round and then I got my confidence back,” said Feng. “My putting was really good and I’m happy about that because it hasn’t been good.”

Feng has finished in the top 30 in all five of her starts this year, including two top 10 finishes. She said a lot of hard work went into getting to number one in the world.

“I was like, ‘you know what? I’m 27 years old already’, if I want to get to No. 1 this is the time. So that was my goal and I did it,” she said.

Lizette Salas, who lost a playoff here in 2013, had a chance to join the other three in second place but made bogey on her final hole. She is tied for fifth at three-under 69 in a large group that also includes Canada’s Alena Sharp.

Sharp and fellow Canadians Brooke Henderson, Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Maude-Aimee Leblanc wore green and gold ribbons in memory of those killed in the Saskatchewan bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

Defending champion Cristie Kerr shot 71. She played with Hawaii-native Michelle Wie, who double-bogeyed her 15th hole to finish at even par 72.

Bankrolled by Qatari owners, PSG smashed the world transfer record by signing Brazilian star Neymar for 222 million euros ($264 million) in August and committed to completing another 180 million-euro deal for French teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe this summer when agreeing a one-year loan deal from Monaco a few weeks later.

Introduced by European football’s governing body in 2010, FFP limits clubs to making losses of no more than 30 million euros over three seasons.

“Preliminary investigations show that sponsorship contracts worth about 200 million euros have been ‘overstated’ at the Qatari-owned football club,” said the Financial Times report.

“Unless UEFA can be persuaded to assign a higher value to the sponsorship deals, the French club is on course to breach FFP rules, according to people familiar with the process.”

PSG issued a response to the report in a statement on Wednesday evening in which they hit out at “erroneous information… directed against the club in the British media”.

The statement added: “The procedure is ongoing. Paris Saint-Germain are in permanent contact with representatives from UEFA and will appear with complete equanimity before European football’s governing body on April 20.”

UEFA opened an investigation into PSG’s compliance with FFP just weeks after the deals for Neymar and Mbappe were completed.

“The investigation will focus on the compliance of the club with the break-even requirement, particularly in light of its recent transfer activity,” said a UEFA statement in September.

PSG have already fallen foul of FFP. The club were fined 60 million euros in prize money earned from playing in the Champions League in 2014.

Back then UEFA deemed PSG had artificially inflated their income using a sponsorship deal with another Qatari state-owned enterprise, the Qatar Tourism Authority.

“The contract between PSG and the Qatar Tourism Authority has been carefully considered and a fair value, significantly below that submitted by the club, has been assigned,” UEFA ruled at the time.

The sanctions could be far tougher for a second offence, with the possibility that PSG could even be excluded from competing in the Champions League unless they balance their accounts by the end of the club’s financial year in June.

“If the club is found in breach, anything less than the imposition of onerous sanctions is likely to lead PSG’s rivals, indeed the footballing world, to question the validity of Financial Fair Play,” Karish Andrews, a partner in the Sports Business Group at leading London law firm Lewis Silkin, told AFP.

With Neymar sidelined by injury, PSG’s attempts to win the Champions League for a first time fell flat again last month as they were dumped out 5-2 on aggregate by reigning champions Real Madrid in the last 16.

“Football is an unpredictable game and that’s why we love it so much,” Wenger told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, after watching Barcelona crash out of the Champions League from a similar position on Tuesday.

“Now we just need to keep ourselves concentrated and to show our best on the pitch to keep (our lead).”

The Gunners are sixth in the Premier League, a huge 13 points off fourth-placed arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Only the top four sides in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League. That means Arsenal’s only realistic route back into Europe’s most prestigious and lucrative tournament is by winning the second-string Europa League.

It is also the only trophy the Gunners can lift this season.

“Europa League is our top priority this season as in the league things aren’t going really well,” said Wenger, mindful that CSKA cannot be written off just yet.

“CSKA have a very strong midfield. Probably the strongest midfield in the Russian league. (Alan) Dzagoev and (Alexander) Golovin have proved their high level in the match in London.

“We’re currently in the last eight and we still need to show our best to advance into the semi-finals.”

Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal since 1996 but has yet to win any European trophy with the club, although they were beaten on penalties in the 2000 UEFA Cup final, the forerunner of the Europa League, and lost to Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final.

– ‘Never relax’ –

Arsenal centre-back Shkodran Mustafi believes Roma’s 3-0 defeat of Barcelona, a result that sent the Italian side through on away goals, should serve as a note of caution for his team-mates.

“I think that the match between Roma and Barcelona should become a really good lesson for us ahead of the match with CSKA,” Mustafi said. “You should never relax otherwise you can crash out of the tournament. We shouldn’t repeat these mistakes.”

CSKA face a monumental task to flip the tie in their favour against a team coach Viktor Gancharenko called one of the favourites for the Europa League title.

“If you play without faith, nothing will happen,” Gancharenko said. “We should come onto the pitch (Thursday) with a belief that we can change the situation.

“We also need to make some tactical changes but there’s no guarantee that our play will become much better.”

Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who hurt his knee in the first leg, is out injured but Gancharenko knows his absence won’t lessen the size of the challenge that stands in front of CSKA.

“Arsenal have a big number of players. They can substitute Mkhitaryan with a very skilled player though it’s very hard to make a worthy replacement,” he said.

“But anyway it will not make our task easier. Arsenal and Atletico (Madrid) are the main Europa League favourites.”

Bayern progressed to the last four of the competition for the seventh time in nine seasons as they prevailed 2-1 on aggregate following their first-leg victory in Spain last week.

“Sevilla are a good team – for a long time we couldn’t get a grip on the midfield, but we stopped them scoring – that was important,” said Bayern winger Arjen Robben.

Sevilla’s bid for a first semi-final appearance fell short in spite of shutting out Bayern’s attack and restricting the hosts to just 51 percent possession.

“I’m proud of my team, they showed great personality and character against a very strong opponent, it wasn’t easy,” said Sevilla boss Vincenzo Montella.

“We can be proud of what we’ve done here, and all throughout this Champions League.”

The Spaniards’ defence constantly thwarted Robert Lewandowski, who was unable to add to his 35 goals this season, although Bayern had twice as many shots on goal.

Sevilla finished a man down after Joaquin Correa, who had earlier hit the crossbar, was sent off in the closing stages for a clumsy foul on Javi Martinez.

After Barcelona and Manchester City — the runaway leaders in Spain and England respectively — crashed out on Tuesday, Bayern are the only team left in Europe who can still win the treble.

They wrapped up a sixth straight Bundesliga title last Saturday and are into the semi-finals of the German Cup.

– Rough treatment for Lewandowski –

Lewandowski endured a bruising night and Sevilla centre-back Gabriel Mercado was booked after just two minutes for bringing down the Poland international just outside the area.

The Bayern striker then forced Sevilla goalkeeper David Soria to palm over the bar on seven minutes.

Sevilla, needing to score at least two goals, started pushing forward themselves as Pablo Sarabia fired wide on a rare forage behind the Bayern defence.

Franck Ribery wasted the best chance of the first half when he created space inside the area on 37 minutes only to fire straight at Soria, who punched away the Frenchman’s powerful drive.

At the other end, Rafinha’s perfectly-timed tackle denied Sarabia, who was through on goal and shaping to shoot.

Bayern again struggled to kill off Sevilla after the interval with Lewandowski nodding agonisingly wide from a deep Ribery cross.

Soria produced another good save with his foot to block from James Rodriguez at his near post.

Sevilla’s best chance came just shy of the hour mark when Argentine winger Correa hit the woodwork after connecting with a Jesus Navas free-kick, the ball bouncing to safety with Sven Ulreich well beaten.

Robben then cut back inside with a trademark run that resulted in James’ shot being comfortably saved by Soria, as Bayern’s frustration at their inability to put Sevilla to bed grew.

Lewandowski was replaced by Sandro Wagner on 77 minutes, the former departing sporting a plaster on his left cheek after several battering tussles with the Sevilla defence.

Tempers flared late on when Correa was dismissed for clattering Martinez just before the final whistle.

Bayern will learn their semi-final fate at Friday’s  draw in Switzerland featuring defending champions Real Madrid, Liverpool and Roma.