A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday.
Juventus fell behind to a first-half penalty before scoring three times after the break to beat Bologna 3-1 on Saturday and close in on their seventh successive Serie A title.
The Turin side capitalised on dreadful defending by the visitors as they moved seven points clear at the top and will clinch the title without playing on Sunday in the unlikely event that challengers Napoli lose at home to Torino.
Otherwise, they would need three more points from their last two games which include a home match against a Verona side who were relegated earlier on Saturday in a 4-1 defeat at AC Milan.
Bologna, comfortably sitting in midtable, took a shock lead in an incident which raised more questions about the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) which is being trialled in Serie A and other domestic leagues this season.
Lorenzo Crisetig was pushed over by Daniele Rugani as he intercepted a weak pass out of goal by Gianluigi Buffon and the referee pointed to the spot amid Juventus protests.
Simone Verdi stepped up for the penalty but had to wait for three minutes as the referee checked the incident with VAR officials.
There appeared to a communication problem as the referee went over to look at the pitchside monitor himself before confirming the decision. Verdi kept his cool and virtually rolled the ball into the goal as Buffon went the wrong way.
Juve were gifted an equaliser seven minutes into the second half when Bologna's Sebastien de Maio turned Juan Cuadrado's cross into his own goal.
Emil Krafth hit the post for Bologna but the visitors were sunk by more bad defending.
Sami Khedira headed Juve in front after goalkeeper Antonio Mirante flapped half-heartedly at a long looping Douglas Costa cross from the left and Paulo Dybala swept in the third from another Costa cross after the Brazilian won an aerial battle with Vasilis Torosidis far too easily.
Hakan Calhanoglu, Patrick Cutrone, Ignazio Abate and Fabio Borini shared the goals as Milan comfortably dispatched Verona in the early match at San Siro while Lee Seung-woo scored a consolation for the visitors.
Verona were left seven points adrift of safety with two matches to play and went straight back down after being promoted last season.
Simeone calls on UEFA to change away-goals rule
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has called on UEFA to change the away-goals rule, suggesting sides playing the second legaway have an unfair advantage under current regulations.
The Argentine, who was sent off in the first leg of Atletico’s 2-1 aggregate Europa League semi-final victory over Arsenal, received a four-game suspension from European soccer’s governing body for the incident which led to him being sent to the stands.
Simeone, 48, has served the first match of the ban and local media reported that he will contest the punishment, which if upheld would mean he cannot sit in the dugout during the final against Olympique de Marseille on May 16 in Lyon.
“UEFA needs to have a look at how difficult it is to play a second leg at home, with your opponent having 30 extra minutes in which one of their goals counts double, when as the home side you don’t have this advantage," Simeone told a news conference on Saturday.
“I invite those within sporting justice to have a look at this. There’s no reason that the side playing the second leg away from home should have 30 extra minutes and the chance to score a more valuable goal.
“I’m sure they’re very capable of seeing it and it’d help it be more even for everyone, because if not, injustices start to appear.”
Kadhe finishes runner-up in Abuja ITF Futures
India's Arjun Kadhe emerged runner-up at the ITF Futures event at Abuja, Nigeria, after losing to Brazil's Joao Menezes the final.
Playing his fourth final on the ITF circuit this season, the 397th-ranked Kadhe lost 3-6, 1-6 to an opponent three places above him in the ranking chart.
"First set was pretty close and he played really well. It was tough for me to break him. In the second set, I lost the first few games which I should have won on deuce," Kadhe told PTI from Abuja.
It was a third runner-up finish for the 24-year old from Pune after similar results in Kolkata and Trivandrum early this year.
"It's a learning process and being consistent with performance is key too, especially when you are playing doubles and singles both," he said.
Kadhe had won the title in Bhubneswar in February.
Ostapenko, Venus suffer shock Madrid exits
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko's preparations in the run-up to the claycourt major hit the skids in the first round of the Madrid Open on Saturday as she was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by unseeded Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu.
The Latvian has failed to scale the same heights she reached last year when she emerged out of nowhere to conquer Roland Garros.
But if the 20-year-old harbours any hopes of repeating that run in Paris later this month, she will have to make a vast improvement on Saturday's error-filled performance.
Joining her at the exit was American Venus Williams, a runner-up in Madrid in 2010. She was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 by Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
World number four Elina Svitolina and former world number one Karolina Pliskova, however, eased to victories.
Ukrainian Svitolina, the fourth seed, struck 28 winners and lost her serve just once as she brushed Alize Cornet aside for a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Svitolina is aiming to win her third title of the year but the 23-year-old has never progressed past the second round in Madrid.
Sixth seed Pliskova, coming off a Stuttgart Open title win last month, extended her winning run to six matches after striking 29 winners and seven aces to sweep past Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-2.
The duo will be joined by French seventh seed Caroline Garcia and Russian Daria Kasatkina in the next stage.
American 12th-seed CoCo Vandeweghe's defeat by unseeded Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic was the other upset of the day.
World number one Simona Halep, Race to Singapore leader Caroline Wozniacki and Spaniard Garbine Muguruza will take to the courts for their first round matches on Sunday.
Zverev to meet veteran Kohlschreiber in Munich final
Defending champion Alexander Zverev advanced to the final of the Munich Open after a hard-fought 7-5, 6-2 victory over South Korean's Chung Hyeon on Saturday.
World number three Zverev will take on compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber in Sunday's all-German final.
Next Gen ATP Finals champion Chung was quick off the blocks in the semi-final clash and took a 3-0 lead but top seed Zverev responded by winning five straight games.
The Korean levelled the scores but Zverev was not affected by the attempted comeback and broke Chung's serve for a third time en route to clinching the set.
Zverev continued his high-intensity approach in the second set and piled the pressure on his 21-year-old opponent, breaking Chung's serve on two more occasions as he progressed to his second ATP final this year.
The German, who won his first title on home soil in Munich in 2017, will face Kohlschreiber in the final after the veteran eased to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Maximilian Marterer in the other semi-final.
Marterer, 22, had not lost a set en route to the last four but was no match for Kohlschreiber, who used his experience to cruise to victory in little over an hour.
Kohlschreiber, who is 34th in the world rankings, was slow to get off the mark as Marterer took a 2-1 lead in the first set but the 34-year-old settled into his stride to win 20 of the next 23 available points and eventually, seal the set.
The three-times Munich Open champion took a 5-2 lead in the second set before Marterer attempted a comeback. Kohlschreiber was unfazed by his opponent's spirited efforts and closed out the match by winning four straight points.
Zverev, who was defeated by American John Isner at the Miami Open final in April, and Kohlschreiber will be targeting their first ATP title of the year.