that made the aggregate score 3—3, with valencia winning the shoot—out 3-2. granit xhaka's second—half goal has taken arsenal through to the english league cup final and a clash with manchester city. the gunners were 2-1 manchester city. the gunners were 2—1winners on the night of chelsea after the opening leg at stamford bridge failed to yield a goal and the bbc‘s in dennis was watching. arsene wenger hasn't won the league cup, only domestic cup he missing, but switching on the defence after half—time gave them control and they deservedly reached the final. pedro had a goal ruled out for offside but hazard scored and then minutes later monreal equalised. an element of good fortune for the winner with lacklustre‘s cutback took a ricochet and granite jacques reacted. it won't be could have wrapped it up but caballero made the save. chelsea, not filing on all cylinders, rarely looked like troubling arsenal. they made us work for it. i felt in the first half there were psychological and tactical reasons for us not expressing the quality of oui’ for us not expressing the quality of our game. we rectified that at half—time. at the end i would say that yes it was a deflected goal on the first and the second one as well was a bit lucky but overall i felt we controlled the game well in the second half. there's big disappointment because when you're at this point you want to reach the final in this competition. we had a great desire, a great will to try to play at wembley. i think we started very well. we scored and then we conceded a strange goal for the deflection. for sure conceded two strange goals and we were unlucky in two circumstances. robin van persie made his first appearance for feyenoord in 13 years on wednesday as he made his return to the club he began his career with. his team, the current champions, were away to utrecht in the dutch eredivisie. it was on its way to becoming a night of celebration as feyenoord, currently fifth in the table took the lead against ther team a place below them when sam larsson opened the scoring, but the home side equalised four minutes before the break. gyrano kerk picked up the ball on the edge of the centre circle and placed the ball past brad jones. although the 34—year—old former netherlands international van persie came on in the 81st minute, he was unable to help geovanni van bronckhorst‘s side to victory. elsewhere, there were two games played in italy's serie a. nani and felipe anderson were among the scorers as lazio beat udinese 3—0 to move three points clear of fourth—placed inter. roma and sampdoria remain fifth and sixth, respectively, after sharing a 1—1 draw. it's day 11 at the australian open in melbourne and in a few hours from now we'll know which two players will contest this year's women's singles final. the order of play for rod laver arena includes the first of the men's semis between maric cilic and kyle edmund and both of the women's semis. the world number one simona halep, who's never won a grand slam title, plays the former champion angelique kerber. before that, it's caroline wozniacki against belgium's elise mertens. wozniacki, the number two seed, is showing the sort of form which took her to the top of the world rankings back in 2010. she's still looking to win her first grand slam, having twice been a runner—up at the us open. she now plays the only unseeded player left in the draw, belgium's elise mertens, who still can't quite believe she's made it to the semi—finals. if someone had said to you last monday that this is where you would be, what would you have said to them? laugh a little bit. of course everything is possible in tennis. i mean, if you believe in yourself anything can happen but of course tennis is, wow. got nothing to lose for sure, i've got no points to defend. i guess i'm the underdog. i have a lot of energy left, mentally, physically good. so i'm just going to give it all and we'll see where it ends. the second semi—final features the former champion angelique kerber who plays the world number one simona halep. kerber, who beat madison keys in the quarter—finals, won the title in melbourne two years ago and also won the us open later that year. after a wretched 2017, in which she dropped out of the world's top 20, kerber is many people's favourite to take the title. i learned a lot, a lot of experience from last year from the years before as well, not only 2016 but also 2014 and 15. i think that also gives me a little bit of confidence that i know what to expect now. i had it tough last year so that's why i think i'm looking forward and i'm proud how i get through all the last weeks and being in the semis again of a grand slams so i'm feeling good. for sure it's going to be a significant moment in this tournament but i'm used to that, i know her pretty well. i know she's a very strong opponent, a very strong player. she likes here. but i'm starting to like this tournament after two years in a road losing in the first round, it's a better result, and i just the first round, it's a better result, and ijust want to go there and give everything i have, like i did in the last matches. the bowlers won out on the opening day of the third and final test between south africa and india in johannesburg on wednesday where 11 wickets fell. vernon philander bowled the most economical opening spell in test match history with figures of 1/1 in eight overs. for the visitors, india, despite half centuries from captain virat kohli and chesteshwar pujara, they were dismissed for 187 having won the toss and elected to bat. south africa were 6/1 at the close and already have an unassailable 2—0 lead in the series. this is one of the toughest pitches i've played on and it was, as you saw, difficult to score some runs, especially initially in the first session. it was difficult to rotate the strike. it has a lot of bounce, it has seam movement and it has enough pace now. so we had to work ha rd to enough pace now. so we had to work hard to score runs but the amount of total we have, i think it is as good as scoring 300 on any wicket. so as we saw, if we bowl well i think we'll get them out. i would say it was a good day for us. i think it's a really good wicket. you've got to be really positive and look to score and you've got to get into good positions otherwise i think there is a ball that has your numberon think there is a ball that has your number on that type of wicket. you've always got to be looking ahead of the game and obviously the total's a decent enough total but at the end of the day i think it's not really part, i think we bowled really part, i think we bowled really well, but i think if you just hang in there and try and get the bowlers into their second and third spells you can really cash in. rory mcilroy says he's got a spring in his step ahead of the dubai desert classic, which starts on thursday. the two—time winner missed last years event because of a rib injury the two—time winner missed last year's event because of a rib injury and hasn't won a tournament since september 2016, but looked in good form finishing in a tie for third in abu dhabi last weekend. mcilroy tees off with defending champion and winner of last week's singapore open sergio garcia, who, in contrast to mcilroy, had a golden 2017 which included a first majors title when the spaniard won the masters. and finally, a spanish goalkeeper has become famous not for saving but scoring. it happened during lugo's game against sporting gijon in spain's second tier. this is the keeperjuan carlos, with the shot from inside his own half. look at the power on that! he beat his fellow keeper diego marinoto to put his side 3—1 up with ten minutes to go. they won and have a goal of the season contender as well. wouldn't he be unhappy? the goalkeeper himself, the other one, happiest man in the world! you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. hello there. after the downpours and gales of wednesday, the weather prospects for thursday look a little bit quieter. this curl of cloud here, that was storm georgina now pushing off to the north—east. what we now have feeding in is this speckled cloud, some showers pushing in from the atlantic, in fact, some heavy showers coming thick and fast into northern ireland through the first part of the morning. also some showers pushing in across the west country into devon and cornwall, some of these could be on the heavy side. seven degrees there in plymouth. there will be some sunny breaks between those showers, and that mixture of sunshine and showers extends across wales and into the west midlands. a cooler, fresher start to the day, four degrees in birmingham. you will notice a lot of showers across northern ireland at this stage, could be some hail and thunder and perhaps some wintryness over high ground. certainly the chance for wintry weather over higher ground in scotland. temperatures in aberdeen, three degrees, four there in edinburgh. some sunny spells. showers into north—west england, but across north—east england, the east midlands, east anglia and the south—east, should be getting off to a dry start to the day with spells of sunshine, cooler and fresher than it was on wednesday morning. through the day will bring this cluster of showers eastwards across just about all parts of the country. some of them could be heavy, could be thundery with some hail mixed in. some wintryness over the high grounds in the north pennines, the southern uplands, but there will be some spells of sunshine too and temperatures of around 5—10 degrees. a fairly chilly feel i suppose, but it won't be as windy as it was on wednesday. now, during thursday night into friday, the showers will take time to fade away, but in western areas particularly they will ease as the winds ease as well. it could turn cold enough for a touch of frost because this little bump in the isobars, this little ridge of high pressure will be toppling in during friday morning. so actually after a frosty start for some, we're looking at a decent day. spells of sunshine, bit of patchy cloud and thickening cloud into the west later on ahead of this weather system, but i suspect it will stay dry until sundown wherever you are. those temperatures of around 4—9 degrees. but those temperatures will start to climb into the weekend, we start to bring in a more south—westerly wind. mainly dry in eastern areas on sunday, a fizzling weather front from the west, but temperatures climbing all the while because we will group bringing mild air from the south—west, so on sunday it will be a pretty mild—feeling day. generally large areas of cloud, some sunshine too particularly down towards the south—east, some outbreaks of heavy rain into northern scotland, a windy day and a mild one too, 9—13 degrees. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: judgement day for a serial abuser. dr larry nassar gets up to 175 years in prison after heart rending testimony from team usa gymnasts. we were ultimately strong enough to take you down. not one by one but by an army of survivors. i will carry your words with me for the rest of my days. donald trump says he'd "love to" be questioned under oath — about allegations of russian meddling in the presidential election. zimbabwe's new president vows to ensure transparent elections — and respect any result. we have an exclusive interview. # i'm still standing after all this time.# and — still standing — but goodbye yellow brick road.