Owen Phillips

Image source, PA

BBC Sport's Owen Phillips in Sheffield: "All eyes will be on Ronnie O'Sullivan for today's afternoon session at the World Championship but in the meantime the focus will be on Chinese superstar Ding Junhui.

"Ding was far from his best yesterday but looked relaxed and happy after fighting back from 4-0 down to 4-3 against Mark Davis. He was all smiles as he mingled briefly in the press area briefly after his opening session, fulfilling a few of his duties. Maybe the relief has relaxed the world number three.

"The other morning match sees Northern Ireland's Mark Allen face Welshman Ryan Day. On the 30th anniversary of THAT final, could Allen emulate his countryman Dennis Taylor?"

Image source, AS

The front page of Spanish sports newspaper AS suggests Javier Hernandez, on loan from Manchester United, is set to start Real Madrid's vital home Champions League tie against City rivals Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.

The first leg of the quarter-final ended goalless but Hernandez is likely to play in the second leg because Karim Benzema is struggling with a knee injury.

The paper also reports that Manchester City are interested in signing 20-year-old French centre-half Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao.

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From question marks to top marks - captain elect Jordan Henderson has had quite a turn around during his four years at Liverpool.

So let's hear your stories of flops to favourites.

Get involved on Twitter with the hashtag #FlopstoFavourites, external or on BBC Sport's Facebook page. , external

Image source, A Bola

They are getting excited in Portugal. And they have every reason to as Porto hold a 3-1 lead over Bayern Munich going into tonight's Champions League quarter-final second leg in Germany.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola quotes Porto boss Julen Lopetegui, who says his side have prepared for every possible Bayern team, including the threat of Franck Ribery, even though the midfielder is expected to miss out because of an ankle injury.

Happy birthday Brian Phelps. The British diver, who won two Commonwealth gold medals in 1962 and 66, and an Olympic bronze in 1960 - and pictured below in a very bright pair of green shorts - celebrates his 71st birthday.

Image source, Getty Images

Other sporting figures celebrating birthdays today include Indian spinner Srinivas Venkataraghavan, 70; former Hull and New Zealand full-back Richie Barnett, 43; and Real Madrid and Spain midfielder Isco, 23.

James Ward plays Marsel Ilhan of Turkey in the first round of the ATP event in Barcelona at lunchtime today.

Image source, Getty Images

Ward has already won two rounds of qualifying on his return to the tour after four weeks out with a knee injury.

Ward's match gets under way at 11:45 BST.

Image source, LEquipe

French newspaper L'Equipe is not confident Paris St-Germain can overturn a two-goal deficit when they face Barcelona away from home in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

PSG, who welcome back midfielder Marco Verratti and former Barca striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic from suspension, have to forget about their performance in the first leg, says the paper.

Image source, Getty Images

Manchester City are likely to miss out on Wolfsburg midfielder Kevin de Bruyne after the 23-year-old, who is rated at £45m by his club, indicated he wants to stay in Germany, reports the Daily Telegraph, external.

Image source, Sport

Spanish newspaper Sport calls on Luis Suarez to continue his good run of form as Barca aim to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League for the eighth time in 10 seasons.

Ex-Liverpool striker Suarez says he is happy to be contributing to the team, who hold a two-goal quarter-final advantage before tonight's clash at the Nou Camp.

Now then, with no British teams left in Europe it's easy to forget there are four huge Champions League games taking place over the next couple of nights.

Let's focus on tonight for the time being.

Bayern Munich host Porto, aiming to overturn the Portuguese club's two-goal advantage from the first leg. Munich, though, are likely to be without Franck Ribery, who has missed the last six weeks with an ankle injury. Full preview here.

Image source, Getty Images

Over in Spain, Paris St-Germain's enigmatic top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic will return for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Barcelona. Lionel Messi and co lead 3-1 from the first leg and are hot favourites to progress. Preview here.

Kick off in both games is 19:45 BST, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.

Image source, Scottish Daily Mail

Two days on, and Celtic's anger at losing in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup continues.

The Scottish Daily Mail reports that the club wants the Scottish Football Association to tell them why Inverness Caledonian Thistle's Josh Meekings was not sent off when he appeared to block a goal-bound shot with his arm. Inverness CT went on to win the game 3-2 after extra-time.

The headlines this morning:

Football: Jordan Henderson is set to sign a new five-year deal at Liverpool.

Image source, Getty Images

Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan begins his quest for a sixth World Snooker Championship title, 18 years to the day since he made the fastest every 147 break.

Cricket: England prepare for the second Test against the West Indies in the Caribbean. The action starts at 15:00 BST.

All these 147's eh? But have you ever wondered about the maths behind it?

There's a brilliant feature on the BBC website (if we do say so ourselves) which tells you everything you need to know about achieving snooker's holy grail.

You'll find it here.

Meanwhile, today's action at the Crucible begins at 10:00 BST, with the resumption of Ding Junhui v Mark Davis (Davis leads 4-3) and the start of Mark Allen's match with Ryan Day.

And because we're all suckers for a bit of nostalgia, here, for your delight and delectation, is the first ever maximum 147 break at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.

Image source, BBC Sport

The honour went to Canada's Cliff Thorburn, who made snooker history during his second round match against Terry Griffiths in 1983.

Thorburn sank to his knees after potting the final black and the moment caused such a commotion that it brought play on the adjoining table to a halt.

Watch it here.

Image source, BBC Sport

Recognise this chap? A rather youthful Ronnie O'Sullivan, who, as chance would have it, on this day in 1997 made the fastest 147.

It took five minutes 20 seconds - an average of 8.8 seconds per shot - and it won O'Sullivan £147,000 in prize money.

O'Sullivan, of course, begins his quest for a sixth World Snooker Championship at the Crucible today at 14:30 BST.

If you want to get yourself in the mood, you can relive O'Sullivan's mega-fast maximum right here.

Before we leave Liverpool alone for the time being, if you want to read what former players like Mark Lawrenson and John Scales think of the situation at Anfield, may we be so bold as to direct you to this rather fine feature by BBC Sport's Neil Johnston?

Image source, Getty Images

"The absence of Daniel Sturridge to injury has hurt them," says Lawrenson, while Scales says "Liverpool are way short of where they want to be and where the team wants to be."

The other news from Liverpool - or so the papers suggest - is that Brendan Rodgers will be forgiven for not landing a trophy in his first three years and be given the go-ahead to continue next season.

Image source, Getty Images

But, according to the Daily Mail, external, there will be a mass clear-out at the club this summer, with as many as 10 players potentially leaving.

Defenders Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure are among those likely to depart.

The big news emerging from Anfield this morning concerns midfielder Jordan Henderson, with the Liverpool vice-captain close to agreeing a new £100,000-a-week five-year deal with the club.

Image source, Getty Images

The former Sunderland player, 24, is expected to sign the new contract this week - ending months of talks.

The England international joined Liverpool from the Black Cats in 2011 in a deal worth around £20m.

Henderson's current contract would have expired at the end of next season but with Gerrard moving to the United States in June, the former Sunderland midfielder is seen as the future.

Image source, The Sun

Interesting tale in The Sun. It reckons Serie A giants Juventus will sell midfielder Paul Pogba in the summer - possibly to Manchester United or Chelsea - and offer £50m for Liverpool's Raheem Sterling. And speaking of Liverpool, they're certainly in the headlines a bit this morning...

Image source, The Mirror

Despite three trophy-less seasons, Brendan Rodgers will be given the thumbs up to continue as Liverpool manager, according to The Mirror, external They also report on a possible takeover at Villa by a consortium of businessmen from China.