Atletico Madrid knocks out Barcelona in Champions League quarterfinals

MADRID — Long after the game against Barcelona ended, Atletico Madrid players were back on the field at the Metropolitano stadium to celebrate.

They chanted along with the fans, and jumped and danced among themselves.

It was a big night for Atletico.

Diego Simeone’s team held on after an early charge by Barcelona to make it back to the semifinals of the Champions League for the first time in nearly a decade.

Atletico lost 2-1 but advanced 3-2 on aggregate after having won the first leg 2-0 in Barcelona last week. It will be the team’s first last-four appearance in the European competition since 2017.

“Extremely happy to eliminate a Barcelona team that has a lot of quality,” Atletico midfielder Koke said. “We struggled in the beginning but we found a way to recover. It was a great effort by the entire team.”

Barcelona, trying to return to the last four for the second season in a row, scored twice in the first 24 minutes to even the series, with Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres finding the net.

Atletico struck back still in the first half with a goal by Ademola Lookman.

The Catalan club played a man down from the 79th after defender Eric García was shown a red card for fouling Alexander Sorloth to stop a breakaway.

“We played a very good match, we gave our lives out there, we tried everything,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong said. “Luck wasn’t on our side this time. When you go a man down it’s always harder.”

Atletico will face either Arsenal or Sporting Lisbon in the semifinals. Arsenal won the first leg 1-0 in Lisbon last week. Their second leg in London is on Wednesday.

In the other quarterfinal on Tuesday, defending champion Paris Saint-Germain advanced past Liverpool, winning 2-0 for an aggregate score of 4-0.

Atletico, seeking its first Champions League title, lost in the 2017 semifinals to Real Madrid. It also lost to Madrid in both finals it played against the city rival in the Champions League, in 2014 and 2016.

The game was stopped for several moments near the 70th minute because Atletico defender Matteo Ruggieri sustained a cut on his forehead after being elbowed by Barcelona midfielder Gavi during a dispute for the ball.

Yamal opened the scoring four minutes into the match at Metropolitano stadium, entering the area free from defenders after Atletico lost possession on a passing mistake by defender Clément Lenglet.

With his goal, Yamal became the top Champions League scorer under the age of 19 with 11, one more than Kylian Mbappé.

The visitors added to the lead on the night — evening the tie at 2-2 — in the 24th, with Torres picking up a through ball by Dani Olmo and finding the top corner by the far post.

Fermín López nearly added the third a minute later but his close-range header was saved by Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso.

The hosts struck back in the 31st with Lookman scoring from inside the area in a breakaway after a low cross by Marcos Llorente.

Barcelona thought it had equalized the series again, but Torres’ 57th-minute goal was disallowed for offside.

Defender Ronald Araujo had Barcelona’s last chance but his close-range header in stoppage time went over the crossbar.

Simeone kept Musso in goal instead of promoting the return of regular starter Jan Oblak, who has recovered from a muscle injury but hasn’t played since March 10.

Atletico can cap its week with the Copa del Rey title on Saturday. It will face Real Sociedad to try to win the competition for the first time since 2013.

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NBA sets 2026 draft dates for late June

With the regular season done and dusted, fans of non-playoff teams officially have a day to look forward to.

The 2026 NBA Draft will take place on June 23 and 24 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., the league announced Tuesday.

This will mark the third time that the NBA Draft is held over two days.

While the order of the draft is not yet set, the lottery will be held on May 10.

The Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets have the best odds at landing the first pick, with each side standing at 14 per cent. They all have a 52.1 per cent chance at a top-four selection.

The 2026 class is considered by many to be a special one, headlined by college standouts Cam Boozer (Duke), AJ Dybantsa (BYU) and Darryn Peterson (Kansas).

Last season, the Dallas Mavericks won the lottery with only a 1.8 per cent chance and selected Duke standout Cooper Flagg with the top pick.

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Maple Leafs sign Landon Sim to two-year entry-level contract

The Toronto Maple Leafs have inked one of their young forwards to a deal.

Landon Sim agreed to a two-year, entry-level contract with the Leafs beginning in the 2026-27 season, the team announced on Tuesday.

Sim originally signed a one-year AHL contract with the Marlies on May 5, 2025.

The 21-year-old appeared in 13 games with the Marlies this season, potting three goals. Before joining the Marlies, Sim played 18 games with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL.

With the Cyclones, he had six points (two goals, four assists) and 44 penalty minutes.

Sim spent four seasons with the London Knights of the OHL before joining the Leafs’ organization. He had 66 goals and 58 assists in 213 regular-season games with the Knights. Sim added 23 playoff points (16 goals, seven assists) in 30 career games en route to two OHL Championships (2024, 2025).

The centre was originally drafted No. 184 overall by the St. Louis Blues in the 2022 NHL Draft.

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‘Not letting shot-making affect us’: Temple on Raptors’ first-round keys

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Another setback for all-star Embiid as 76ers’ playoff plans wobble

PHILADELPHIA — The Joel Embiid medical malady update itself is no longer surprising. There will be one — there always is one, especially around the playoffs — and it’s just a matter of guessing the body part involved.

It could make for a late-night party game.

Throw a dart, hit the part.

Hey, the appendix!

It might be amusing if the situation weren’t so unfortunate for Embiid. One of the most talented, dominant big men of his era, Embiid has a 7-foot-2 frame that’s betrayed him at every step of his injury-ravaged career, setting back potential for reaching all-time greatness.

Again, the Philadelphia 76ers pinned their playoff hopes on the health of a player who is unable to stay healthy.

Again, the same-old 76ers are stuck in the middle-of-the-road come April.

“It’s a big bummer, man,” coach Nick Nurse said. “For him, first. And then everything else.”

Still easing back from knee injuries that shortened his season, Embiid got appendicitis last week and needed an appendectomy in Houston. While the 76ers haven’t given a timetable on his return, the seven-time All-Star is out for the NBA play-in tournament game Wednesday night at home against Orlando and, should the Sixers win, is surely out of action at least for a first-round series against Boston.

“What the hell, appendicitis?” his former coach, Doc Rivers, said over the weekend. “You can’t make it up. You really can’t.”

Nope.

But then again …

“It’s this time of year, right?” Rivers said.

Consider:

In 2024, Embiid played in the playoffs through a bout with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis. He wore sunglasses to the podium after he scored 50 points in the Sixers’ Game 3 win over the Knicks and said at the time he was dealing with various symptoms, such as blurred vision and dry eyes.

A year earlier, Embiid missed a playoff game in each of two series because of a sprained right knee.

How about 2022? The Sixers won 51 games under Rivers and had a great chance at a deep playoff run until Embiid suffered a right orbital fracture and a concussion when he was hit in the face by Toronto’s Pascal Siakam. He also suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb. Embiid missed two games in a second-round series against Miami. The Sixers lost both games and the series, 4-2.

Embiid missed one game in the 2021 playoffs with a torn meniscus in his right knee.

“I still believe if we had one healthy year, probably more the first year, and the last year, we would have advanced,” Rivers said. “I hate saying that. But I think it’s pretty obvious we would have.”

Go back before Rivers’ tenure, and Embiid missed one playoff game in 2019 and two in 2018 with injuries.

Embiid was hampered this season by a strained oblique muscle, a shin stress fracture and continued issues with both knees that limited him to 38 games. He hasn’t played since April 6.

The Sixers had been doing a fine job of managing Embiid’s minutes, and it helped him turn a corner in January when he played in 14 of 17 games (he didn’t play a back-to-back set all season) and capped the month with 40 points and 11 rebounds in a win over New Orleans. He had 34 points against San Antonio in his final game.

The 32-year-old Embiid averaged 26.9 points and 7.7 rebounds this season until he needed the appendectomy.

“All signs are pointing that everything’s going just fine,” Nurse said. “Extremely tough. It’s pretty serious, right? I think that’s the big thing to kind of keep in mind. Obviously, the timing’s not great. I think he was on an uptick as far as where he was going, as far as playing-wise.”

Led by All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and rookie standout V.J. Edgecombe, the Sixers are 1 1/2-point favourites to beat the Magic, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. The Sixers have 15-1 odds to win the NBA title, and while they would not have been the betting favourite even with a healthy Embiid, they surely would have been in the mix as stronger contenders.

Sixers fans can rattle off the sombre statistics by heart.

No NBA championship since 1983. No NBA Finals since 2001. No second-round series win since 2001.

Rivers’ three-season coaching stint in Philadelphia was doomed in 2023 when the Sixers blew a 3-2 second-round series lead to the Celtics with a Game 6 loss at home and dropped Game 7 in Boston.

Nurse hasn’t been any better, suffering a first-round loss to the Knicks in 2024, and they failed to make the playoffs last season when Embiid, Maxey and Paul George (who served a 25-game suspension this season for failing a drug test) all were hurt for the bulk of a 24-win season.

They’ll go at it against Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who would love to attack the rim against the backup centre combination of Andre Drummond and Adem Bona the Sixers are forced to use.

“They’ve been one of the many teams in the league that hasn’t been very healthy this year,” Nurse said. “Really tough game.”

Just one more tough one in the playoffs for the Sixers without Embiid.

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Which prospects are locks for top three picks in 2026 NFL Draft?

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2026 Masters Leaderboard: Final Round

The pieces are all in place for the Masters as the world’s top golfers look to earn the green jacket. Follow the action using our live leaderboard.

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