Daily Digest: Barcelona win La Liga - again, Zidane goes humble and drop catches undo Kohli and RCB in IPL

Barcelona claimed their 25th La Liga title on Sunday as a Lionel Messi hat-trick secured a thrilling 4-2 victory at Deportivo La Coruna that wrapped up the league with four matches to spare.

Ernesto Valverde’s men completed a league and cup double after thrashing Sevilla 5-0 in last week’s Copa del Rey final, regaining the Spanish crown from Real Madrid and relegating Deportivo in the process.

Barca extended their unbeaten streak to 41 league matches to seal a seventh title in 10 seasons and keep their bid to go through the season without tasting defeat intact.

Read our player ratings here.

FOOTBALL

Zinedine Zidane may have won two consecutive Champions League titles but he refuses to admit a third would brand this his very own era at Real Madrid.

Real stand on the brink of a trio of finals ahead of their second leg against Bayern Munich in the last four on Tuesday, when they will carry a 2-1 lead, and two away goals, to the Santiago Bernabeu.

It makes them favourites to go through and, for many, heavy favourites to win the tournament after already beating Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus in the knock-out stages.

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile in the Premier League Arsene Wenger was honoured by Manchester United on his final visit to Old Trafford as Arsenal manager, but left beaten once more on the field as Marouane Fellaini‘s stoppage time header handed the hosts a 2-1 win.

Wenger was greeted by former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and current manager Jose Mourinho before kick-off and even presented with a glass momento.

Read our match report here.

However one ex-Man Utd player performed well – Henrikh Mkhitaryan – who showed up the man who replaced him, Alexis Sanchez, on his return to Old Trafford.

Read our In Focus on Mkhitaryan’s performance here.

CRICKET

Two matches in the IPL yesterday.

In the early match Sunrisers Hyderabad continued their impressive run with a thrilling victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur.

Kane Williamson’s men were restricted to 151-7 after some excellent death bowling by the hosts. In reply, Ajinkya Rahane’s men fell 11 runs short of the total despite cruising at one stage.

We look at the key talking points from another low-scoring thriller here.

In the late game Virat Kohli was less than impressed as Kolkata Knight Riders beat his Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets.

Chris Lynn was dropped by Murugan Ashwin off Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling and he went on to punish the hosts with a match-winning 62 off 52 balls.

Kohli‘s knock of 68 had helped RCB post a total of 175/4 but it proved to be insufficient.

Our takeaways from the game can be found here.

REGIONAL

Very sad news yesterday with the tragic passing of RAK Rugby player Nick Young, who passed away at 14.45 local time, following treatment from a serious head injury incurred whilst playing at the Sharjah 10s Rugby tournament on Friday 27th April.

In other regional news Al Ain lifted the AGL title in style after four-goal Marcus Berg puts Al Dhafra to the sword and also in the AGL Abdullah Al Naqbi was the hero for Al Wasl as they beat Shabab Al Ahli finale to secure third.

Denzil Pinto has all the latest from the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship and if you are looking for some motor sport action as we head into summer then the place to be is the Park Inn by Radisson in Motor City for Ramadan Race Nights.

FEATURE OF THE DAY

Will the latest cross-code NFL transfers Jordan Mailata be a rare success or just another failure?

The gigantic 20-year-old is the latest rugby experiment in the NFL after the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, selected the South Sydney Rabbitoh as No233 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, as a projected offensive lineman.

The super-sized Samoan, who hails from Sydney, now follows in the footsteps of other Aussies in the NFL – Jarryd Hayne, Darren Bent, Mat McBriar, Ben Graham, Sav Rocca and current Broncos star Adam Gotsis.

But what are his chances of even playing a game? Read Alex Broun’s insights here.

SOCIAL MEDIA ROUND-UP

WHAT’S ON TONIGHT

IPL: Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils 18:30

Premier League: Tottenham v Watford 23:00

NBA playoffs: Boston Celtics v Philadephia 76ers 04:00 (Tuesday)