Europe

Liverpool is within touching distance of its first top-flight title in three decades.

Following are the records Liverpool has broken this season:

* Liverpool's 3-2 win against West Ham United in February marked its 21st successive home victory, eclipsing Manchester City's record of 20 between 2011-12. The result helped Jürgen Klopp's side equal City's tally of 18 consecutive league wins.

A plane carrying a banner declaring “White Lives Matter Burnley” flew over Manchester City's Etihad Stadium on Monday at the start of the Premier League game against Burnley.

The plane appeared shortly after players from both teams took a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. There was no indication who had organized the plane and banner.

In the summer of 2016, Bruno Soriano was representing Spain at the Euros while appearing in two group stage matches. He followed that up with another inspirational season as Villarreal’s captain, appearing in 45 games across all competitions while scoring five goals and adding three assists from his defensive midfield position.

Then, for effectively three seasons, nothing — not a single appearance for his beloved Yellow Submarine.

The Bundesliga should earn some $4.95 billion from domestic broadcast rights for the four years from 2021-22 onwards, the German Football League said on Monday, with Sky awarded the prime package of all Saturday games.

The deals announced on Monday are slightly less lucrative than the existing four-year deal that ends next season. Worth $5.18 billion, that was an 85% jump from the previous agreement.

The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system is not being used correctly in LaLiga, Barcelona manager Quique Setién said on Monday following Real Madrid's controversial win at Real Sociedad.

Madrid beat Sociedad 2-1 to climb above Barcelona at the top of LaLiga but the home side were aggrieved because they had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside and Karim Benzema's winner stood after he appeared to control the ball with his arm.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said he was disappointed that he was only asked about the referee's decisions after his side earned a 2-1 victory at Real Sociedad on Sunday to climb above Barcelona and top LaLiga.

The day before the game, Zidane had been forced to defend his team against a suggestion from Barça defender Gerard Piqué that decisions were going Madrid's way after their 3-0 win over Valencia, in which Rodrigo had an opening goal ruled out.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard praised Christian Pulisic as the American forward scored an equalizer five minutes after coming off the bench to help Chelsea earn a 2-1 comeback win at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday.

Pulisic leveled on the hour after Kortney Hause had given Villa a 43rd minute lead and Frenchman Olivier Giroud netted the winner two minutes later, tightening Chelsea's grip on fourth place.

Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri has rubbished suggestions of a falling out with midfielder Miralem Pjanic and is confident Cristiano Ronaldo will quickly bounce back from his disappointing restart to the season.

Sarri has quickly found himself under pressure after Juventus were beaten on penalties by Napoli in Wednesday's Coppa Italia final.

The only other game they have contested since the three-month stoppage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the Coppa semifinal at home to AC Milan five days earlier, which also ended 0-0 after Ronaldo missed a penalty.

Liverpool may have to wait a little longer for their Premier League title celebrations after they were held to a 0-0 draw at Everton in the behind closed-doors Merseyside derby on Sunday.

But it could have been worse for the leaders after Tom Davies hit the post in the 80th minute for Everton, who will feel a little disappointed they didn't take full advantage of a below-par peformance from the European champions.