hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: manchester united lose on the night, but are heading to wembley. they beat hull on aggregate to reach the english league cup final. who will face roger federer in the australian open final, rafa nadal or grigor dimitrov? we hear from the two players ahead of their semi—final. and tiger woods makes his long—awaited return to the pga tour, with a round of two halves. hello, and thanks forjoining us here on sport today. we are going to kick off the show in the english league cup, where manchester united are through to the final after beating hull city over two legs in the semis. united led 2—0 from the first leg at old trafford, but tom huddlestone reduced the deficit with the opening goal of the second leg, a penalty ten minutes before half—time. midway through the second half, paul pogba equalised for united, and restored their two—goal cushion overall. five minutes from time, oumar niasse gave the home side hope, to make it 2—1 to hull on the night. but it wasn't enough.

united held on to win 3—2 on aggregate, and they are now through to a ninth league cup final. they will face southampton at wembley on 26 february. he was doing fantastic work, and there were a very good team in both matches. we had more power, we were the best team. we could score lots of goals in the first match. and today, as i was saying, the game was... was under control. so we deserved to be in the final. we have got a very good performance, of coui’se. got a very good performance, of course. very good win for us. it is not enough to achieve our goal, of course, but surely it is a gift of confidence for our players in the

la st confidence for our players in the last three games at home, we have woi'i last three games at home, we have won these three games. it is important to give his confidence for oui’ important to give his confidence for our players, for our fans, for us as a club. in spain, barcelona are through to the semi—finals of the copa del rey. lionel messi and luis suarez were among the scorers, as they beat real sociedad 5—2 in the second leg of their quarter—final. the holders go through 6—2 on aggregate. a former manchester united player has been introduced with his new team. he played three league games forjuve this season. it is seven yea rs forjuve this season. it is seven years since marseille last won the french league title. they are currently seventh in the league. what i think of marseille, is... it isa what i think of marseille, is... it is a club with a big history, and it

was really important for me to join that club. and i spoke with a lot of people, even alex ferguson, and he was really pleased for me to come to marseille. and even when i speak with all my team—mates, when you say marseille around the world, everyone knows marseille. that's why my choice was really easy to do, and that's why i'm very happy to be here. liverpool legend steven gerrard has been speaking to the bbc about his transition into coaching, as he prepares to take up his role at the reds academy. and, as much knowledge as he has picked up with over 500 premier league games and 114 caps for england, he is looking forward to learning more. it's obviously a brand—new role. it is one that i'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into and really learning a lot in trying to develop over the coming months. but there is an excitement that, but also a bit of nerves, and a bit of

anxiety, to see how it is going to turn out, because it is a completely new role and completely different from being a player but in terms of being back at the club i love, and back home with my family, and stuff, iam back home with my family, and stuff, i am really, really happy. how much did an emotional pull, obviously, to liverpool, played a part in that decision? well, i think me and liverpool is always going to be an emotional pull. when emotion is involved, it is the way i am as a player, as i am as a person. but the decision to go in as a player and coach and the role and all it entails, i couldn't really make that decision on emotion, because i would have been doing it for the wrong reasons. i think the key to it is liverpool are prepared to help me an awful lot. they want to help me become a better coach or a better manager, you know, they welcome me with open arms, but at the same time i have got to commit to it and put a lot of hard work in to try and improve as well. it is almost definitely the match—up that most neutral tennis fans will be rooting for.

now that roger federer has booked his place in the australian open final, it is up to rafa nadal tojoin him for what would be a ninth grand slam final contested by the pair. the spanish number nine seed, who won the title in 2009, is favourite to win his semi—final against bulgaria's grigor dimitrov, but isn't taking a win for granted. he isa he is a player that has been on the a lot of years already now, and he isa a lot of years already now, and he is a player that has unbelievable talent, unbelievable potential. and he started the season playing unbelievably. so it's going to be a very tough match for me. i hope for him as well. and i'm going to try and play my best, because i know he is playing with high confidence. and play my best, because i know he is playing with high confidencem is playing with high confidencem isjust pretty is playing with high confidencem is just pretty simple. is playing with high confidencem isjust pretty simple. i come on the court, andl isjust pretty simple. i come on the court, and i am just isjust pretty simple. i come on the court, and i amjust happy to isjust pretty simple. i come on the court, and i am just happy to try to find a way. even if things are not going my way. the other day the first set was... i couldn't have my racquet on the ball, so i had to

find a way to do something else. and when i did, i was proud, and i did. those kinds of moment mean a lot to me right now. the second—highest opening partnership in the history of 0ne—day internationals propelled australia's cricketers to victory over pakistan in the fifth and final 0ne—dayer in adelaide. australia made 369—7 from their 50 overs, with david warner and travis head sharing an opening stand of 284. in reply, babarazam hit a century for pakistan, but the tourists were always behind the run rate. mitchell starc took 4—a2, as pakistan were bowled out for 312 in the final over. australia winning by 57 runs, to take the series 4—1. meanwhile, england may have lost the test series and the 0ne—day series in india, but they have made a winning start to the t20 series, with victory in the first match in kanpur. chasing 148 to win, england's reply was underpinned by a stand of 83 between skipper eoin morgan and joe root, the visitors winning by seven wickets with 11 balls to spare.

i think it was a pretty complete performance. certainly as complete a performance. certainly as complete a performance as we have produced on this trip. to win the toss and ball, there is always a bit of extra pressure on the bowlers to produce exactly what is needed on that particular wicket, especially bowling at a guy like kohli, first up. andi bowling at a guy like kohli, first up. and i thought we handled it really well. chris jordan coming into the side very fresh, showing exactly why they are in the side, and are selected in the first game of the series. they were outstanding, i thought. of the series. they were outstanding, ithought. they deserved to win today. they were better with the ball, smarter, deserved to win today. they were betterwith the ball, smarter, even with the depth, chris hitting some really nice areas. even mills, bowling back at the end, was pretty good himself, with the slower bouncers. so i mean they executed what they wanted pretty nicely, and

you could tell they played more freely. they are not thinking about conceding too many runs, which was evident in the body language. and yes, asi evident in the body language. and yes, as i said, credit to them. the ball we nt yes, as i said, credit to them. the ball went in difficult areas, making it difficult to score off and i would say some loose shots from us as well lead to a spin 25,30 short. —— led to us being. tiger woods made his long—awaited return to the pga tour, by shooting a four—over—par 76 in the first round of the farmers insurance 0pen at torrey pines in california. it was a round of two halves for woods, who has been plagued by back problems and had two operations since his last regular tour appearance 17 months ago. he was only one—over—par at the turn, before it unravelled on the back nine, and he dropped six shots in six holes. but there were few birdies along the way, including one at the last, and woods ended the day on four—over. he was playing in a group that included world number one jason day, and the australian is only three shots better off than woods, on one—over.

he, too, finished with a birdie. leading the way is england's justin rose. the olympic champion came home in 30 on his way to a seven—under—par round of 65, and leads by one shot from the canadian adam hadwin. elsewhere, the welshman bradley dredge leads after the first round of the qatar masters in doha. in the second event of the european tour's ‘desert swing', dredge opened up with an eight—under—par 64, and he leads by one shot from finland's mikko korhonen. dredge is hoping to end an 11—year drought since his last victory on the european tour. two shots off the lead, in a tie for third, is graeme mcdowell. the northern irishman, who has slipped to 9ist in the world, shot a six—under—par 66. but, from me and the rest

of the sport today team, goodbye. hello. well, while some of us were shivering on thursday, for others, for example across the north of scotland, it was remarkably mild. a day of contrasts. we are kind of getting back to normal through this weekend. most of us will turn less cold. a bit of a breeze, some sunshine, but there will be some rain around, too. we are losing the continental feed which brought most of us a very cold day on thursday. we are doing to start to drag air in off the atlantic, and hence that rise in temperatures for the majority. but we start the day with a hard frost, one or two freezing fog patches. and the odd shower as well, which could cause some icy stretches. it should be a dry start across wales, that fog up over high ground, but that will be lifting, and the temperatures will be on the rise, above freezing for northern ireland.

rain knocking on the door of the west of the province. a frosty start for most of scotland. and here i think it is set to be a largely dry day, with some sunshine. heading our way down, across the borders into northern england, cold with a hard frost, some freezing fog patches for sure in the morning, so watch out for those. i mentioned the odd showerjust spilling into eastern counties for a time in the morning, so the risk of one or two icy stretches. but temperatures slowly rising above freezing. down across southern england and into the south—west, we should be above zero. a dry start, but some showery rain lies in wait out west. and this band of showery rain will start to push its way slowly eastwards, across northern ireland and into the far south—west of england, perhaps the far south—west of wales. another little area of showers pushes up across southern england through the afternoon as well. further north and east, it stays dry but that chilly air holding on for one more day. just two degrees there in newcastle. milder, though, across many southern and western areas. as we head through the evening and night, it gets a bit messy.

there will be areas of rain pushing their way northwards and eatwards. some of that quite heavy, actually, so quite wet weather. and a period of snow up over the higher ground of scotland, in particular. but something a little bit clearer will folllow on behind. temperatures could dip late, close to freezing. but for most of us, actually, it will be a frost—free start to the weekend. saturday starts with cloud and some patchy rain, continuing to move northwards and eastwards. behind that, it turns brighter but also with some showers. and one or two of those showers could be wintry up on the high ground. but it will not be anything like as cold as it has been for most of us. double figures in a few southern areas. that milder theme continues into sunday. we could see an area of rain pushing into southern areas. how far north that gets is open to question. best of the brightness on sunday will be further north. across the uk, milder than recently. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe.

my name's mike embley. our top stories: the diplomatic rift over the border wall — president trump wants to tax imports from mexico. president pena—nieto cancels a trip to washington. u nless unless mexico is going to treat the united states fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless. britain's prime minister will meet mr trump on friday, looking to revive the special relationship and talk about a free trade deal. celebrations in the gambia for the first peaceful transfer of power in the country's modern history. and it may not seem much but this rough diamond is the largest uncut stone ever found in rough diamond is the largest uncut stone everfound in north america. we can give you a special close—up look.