Zinedine Zidane has said Real Madrid will stay in the La Liga title race whatever happens in Sunday's derby with leaders Atletico.

Madrid go into the match at the Wanda Metropolitano five points behind Atletico, who also have a game in hand.

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"It's a final, but like every other game," Zidane said in a news conference on Saturday. "When we play, we always have to win. Whatever happens tomorrow, we'll be alive in the league."

Madrid have won five of their last six games in all competitions, recovering from a January slump that saw them knocked out of the Spanish Supercopa and Copa del Rey and beaten in La Liga by Levante.

They are yet to taste defeat at the Wanda since Atletico's move there in 2017, and were comfortable 2-0 winners when the teams last met in La Liga in December.

"That doesn't mean anything," Zidane said. "This is another game, another story. The past won't help you at all."

Zidane also confirmed that Madrid's top scorer Karim Benzema is available for selection after being out through injury since Feb. 14.

"He is important to our system of play, above all when we have the ball," he added. "We won't take a risk, if there's a doubt, a player can hurt themselves and be out for longer. You'll see [if he starts] tomorrow."

Benzema aside, Madrid have struggled for goals this season, and their next highest scorer in La Liga is defensive midfielder Casemiro with five.

Atletico had a 10-point lead at the top of the table a month ago -- but that gap has steadily shrunk since then, as Diego Simeone's team drew twice and lost once in February to give both Madrid and Barcelona hope.

"It's a match-up between two teams who are in similar situations, but they're three points," Simeone said on Saturday. "There's a lot at stake, but that's also true on Wednesday and next Saturday.

"10 or 12 games ago we were talking about a huge gap, a season that hadn't been good for Real Madrid and Barcelona, and now they're competing well. It's a long season. We have to keep going."

Full-back Kieran Trippier is expected to return for Atletico after his 10-week ban for breaching Football Association betting rules came to an end.

"He's looking forward to playing," Simeone added. "He's an important player with quality and experience, and he gives us a lot."

The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has suspended March's doubleheader of World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022 amid concern over the COVID-19 pandemic and strict quarantine restrictions.

"The CONMEBOL Council decided to suspend the double date of the Qualifiers for Qatar 2022 scheduled for March," a statement from CONMEBOL said on Saturday. "The decision is due to the impossibility of having all the South American players in a timely manner.

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"FIFA will analyze the rescheduling of the date, in coordination with CONMEBOL and the member associations. Soon, the different options for holding the matches will be studied."

The 10 South American teams were due to play two games on March 25-26 and March 30, but CONMEBOL acknowledged tightening lockdown and quarantine regulations mean many of the European-based players will be unable to travel.

Among the matches affected are Brazil's games against Argentina and Colombia, and the River Plate derby between Argentina and Uruguay.

Each team have played four of their 18 qualifiers.

The top four in the 10-team group qualify automatically for Qatar and the fifth-placed side go into an inter-regional playoff.

The move to postpone the matches comes after prominent managers such as Manchester City's Pep Guardiola and Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp spoke out against releasing players for the games.

"I think it makes no sense if the players go to the national team and then have to isolate for 10 days when they come back. It makes no sense," Guardiola said on Friday. "We've worked incredibly tough for seven, eight or nine months and after the international break comes the real part of the season, and important players, maybe six, seven, eight, nine players cannot play for 10 days, it makes no sense. They are not going to fly. That's for sure."

Klopp questioned the feasibility of players having to isolate upon their return.

"I think all the clubs agree that we cannot just let the boys go and solve the situation when they come back, with our players having a 10-day quarantine in a hotel or whatever," Klopp said.

"That is just not possible. I understand the need of the different FAs, but this is a time when we cannot make everybody happy. So we have to admit that the players are paid by the clubs, which means we have to be first priority. That's how it is."

All 10 South American countries feature on the U.K. government's "red list" travel ban, which does not include exemptions for athletes and sports people. Any U.K.-based players who went to South America would face 10 days in hotel quarantine on return.

Further complicating matters, Colombia on Friday said it would not allow a Brazilian charter flight to land, throwing the March 26 game between the two nations into doubt.

"The chance of receiving any flight from Brazil is very remote, there's no way to justify the arrival of a charter flight," the minister, Fernando Ruiz, said in a statement released on Friday.

Sources told ESPN that one alternative option discussed was playing the qualifiers in a "bubble" in a European city. Recent Champions League and Europa League matches have been played in neutral venues in Athens, Bucharest, and Budapest.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

The PCB is scrambling to find a window to reschedule the curtailed sixth season of the PSL, with June in Karachi as one option. June is not usually part of Pakistan's home season (though they did host the 2008 Asia Cup then) and windows in May and September have been talked about, but in a busy year for international cricket, space is at a premium.

The board is keen to host it in Karachi, and though the UAE has been mentioned as a potential host, the fear is that if they do go that way, it would squander all the groundwork done in convincing international teams to play in Pakistan.

Whenever and wherever the season is completed, the planning and implementation of a biosecure bubble will almost definitely be outsourced to a specialist firm. That will be a tacit acknowledgment by the board of the failures of this season - the board's head doctor and the man in charge of those protocols Dr Sohail Saleem has on Saturday offered to resign - which was called off on Thursday after a spate of Covid-19 positive tests among players and staff.

The outsourcing will be a key factor as they try to move ahead, even as the dust is far from settled on the events of the last week, the impact of which one senior Pakistan international has privately compared to the terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team in 2009.

Whether it becomes as seismic as that remains to be seen, but there is clear concern within the board that it could hit both the PSL and potential touring sides later in the year.

Franchises and boards, meanwhile, are still sifting through the wreckage, the former beginning to detail their experiences inside the bubble and its loopholes.

Though not alone, scrutiny will be on two-time winners Islamabad United, where in Fawad Ahmed, the first positive test after the tournament began was recorded. Three other players from the franchise have tested positive since. The franchise - and the PCB - has already had to defend itself over protocols followed during a social media shoot.

In communication that is expected to be sent to the PCB, the franchise reveals that despite complaining of feeling unwell after the evening game on Saturday, February 27, Ahmed wasn't given a Covid test until the following evening, at 9pm, despite repeated requests. The franchise claims when Ahmed initially consulted the PCB doctor, informing him of a stomach pains, he was told it didn't fit Covid symptoms. The doctor was unable to see him the next morning because of another unrelated medical incident.

Though Ahmed was put into immediate isolation, it isn't clear whether the rest of the squad, as close contacts, went into isolation - and if they did, for how long. There are conflicting reports on this, but both the PCB and Islamabad tweeted only that Ahmed had been put in isolation when they eventually made his result public and that other members had all since tested negative.

The question of isolation becomes especially significant in light of a birthday party held for Azhar Mahmood, fast-bowling coach with the Multan Sultans, on the same evening as Ahmed complained of feeling unwell. Hasan Ali, Ahmed's team-mate, attended that party (in the same hotel) as well as a number of other players from other franchises.

Ostensibly, that party didn't breach protocols because it was only attended by people already within the bubble - as Islamabad reiterated in the same thread. And it is also unknown whether Ali was aware at the time that Ahmed was unwell, or that he had been put in isolation. But as a close contact of a player who did test positive, he was now in a room with a number of other players and officials - some of whom, like Babar Azam, would go on to play a game the next day.

It is the response to this first positive case - and during the build-up to it when Ahmed was unwell - that are likely to bear most focus. In particular, questions will be asked as to why it took so long for Ahmed to be tested after his initial complaint; and why, once it was confirmed he was positive and on the basis of Ali's appearance at the party, the attendees of that party were not asked to isolate or take any kind of precautions.

The responsibility of who was supposed to have conducted that kind of track and trace has slipped through the cracks between league management and franchise management: both have suggested to ESPNcricinfo the other should have been responsible but it is clear that there was no communication to those at the party.

In retrospect, the decision on Monday (the day Ahmed's positive test was made public) to simply reschedule Islamabad's match for the following day, rather than locking down the league for a few days there and then, seems a fatal moment.

In fact, in one franchise's breakdown of that day, communicated to the PCB, they describe a state of panic among players as the match was initially delayed and then postponed. Some international players, in that account, called for the league to be shut down for three days.

The PCB's rationale for going ahead was that all players involved in the game had cleared at least two tests since Ahmed's positive test - one rapid test and then a PCR test for all franchises. Given what is widely known about the incubation period of the virus this seems misplaced - and to some extent borne out by the fact of Ali emerging as one of the positive tests the day the league was called off. He had been at the party only a few nights previous and had even played a game in that time.

Testing, in fact, appears to have been the central - and at times, it has felt, only - plank in the PCB's coping with the effects of the pandemic on cricket. That was evident in the Peshawar Zalmi incident at the start of this PSL when, on the basis of two negative tests in 48 hours, Wahab Riaz and Daren Sammy were allowed to reintegrate into the squad despite breaches of protocol.

Towards the end of last year, the board highlighted that it had conducted nearly 3000 tests across the domestic season. But the fragility of measures alongside it - such as biosecure bubbles and protocols - was evident in, for example, the number of players turning up with positive results in New Zealand; more relevantly, it was evident in the number of cases that emerged from the playoffs of the PSL's fifth season, played last November.

Franchises are expected to highlight a number of complaints about what went on in the Karachi hotel bubble over the next few days: from quarantine periods being considered too short at three days, to daily glitches like elevators not being secured for those inside the bubble alone, to questions about the cutlery being used to serve those in the bubble, or whether the hotel's kitchen and service staff were all part of the bubble and even to how the exit of players was handled. Once again, the PCB has relied on tests cleared to let people leave the hotel and travel back, overlooking the fact that the virus can incubate for several days before it shows up in a test, or through symptoms.

What is emerging is a picture of an operational fiasco above all, where the SOPs (standard operating procedures) and protocols in place were not sufficiently secure and where the implementation of them was worse. Pressure will build for heads to roll - Dr Sohail Saleem looks set to be the first, but is unlikely to be the last.

With additional inputs from Umar Farooq

The second one-day match between Bangladesh Emerging Team and Ireland Wolves will go ahead as scheduled on Sunday, after players from both teams tested negative for Covid-19. Ruhan Pretorius, whose positive test resulted in the abandonment of the first one-dayer on Friday, was among those who returned a negative test.

BCB officials waited till 10pm on the eve of the second game to determine whether both sides can play. Both sets of players were tested orally and nasally as soon as the first match was called off after 30 overs, with the results arriving on Saturday evening.

During the Friday match, Pretorius bowled four overs before he was withdrawn from the field at the first drinks break. Shortly afterwards, the teams were informed of his positive result, which prompted the Ireland Wolves to choose abandonment instead of taking a Covid-19 substitute. The match, which was being aired on the BCB's official YouTube channel, stopped abruptly at the end of the 30th over of the first innings - the Bangladeshis were 122 for 4 at that stage - with the umpires seemingly informing the batsmen of the development even as the Ireland fielders walked off the field.

The BCB's chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said at the time that there was no option but to call off the match because of the timing of the test report reaching the relevant people.

But getting the series back on track will be a boost to the BCB who have so far taken confidence from their smooth handling of bio-secure bubbles during two domestic competitions and West Indies' tour of Bangladesh from January 10 to February 15.

Ireland Wolves have already played their only four-day game of the tour, and this was the first of the five-match one-day series against Bangladesh Emerging Team, with the next matches slotted for March 7, 9, 12 and 14. The two sides are also scheduled to play two T20s on March 17 and 18.

Joe Root has reiterated his call for changes to be made in county cricket to provide players with better preparation for the international game.

Root, England's Test captain, suggested that flatter wickets and a change to the bonus-point system might result in conditions more akin to Test cricket. In particular, he argued that better batting surfaces would bring spinners into the game more and provide batsmen with the experience of playing the sort of long innings that tend to define results in Tests.

At present, the County Championship tends to be dominated by seamers making use of a Dukes ball and helpful surfaces. As a result, low-scoring games have become commonplace and opportunities for spinners are limited.

Root has previously advocated the use of a Kookaburra ball for a portion of the season, and speaking in the immediate aftermath of England's 3-1 Test series defeat in India, he suggested things would have to change if England were to have a better chance of winning such series in the future. "I do think that there are areas of county cricket that can be improved - quite easily as well," he said.

"They need to find ways of making games last four days, giving spinners the opportunity to bowl and learning to bowl at different stages of the game. They need to learn to hold the game in the first innings if it's not spinning and things are not in your favour so they can give the seamers some respite. Then they need to be able to attack and to really deal with that pressure of trying to bowl a side out.

"It's not just spin, it's seam as well, and the batting group. For example, you want guys to come into this environment of Test cricket and have that knowledge of what it's like to go out in the second innings and know the opposition have 450 on the board.

"They need to be able to ignore that scoreboard pressure, put it to the back of their mind and get a score. And to go beyond another team's score to make sure you're massively in the game when it comes to the second innings.

"It's the same with the seamers. You want them to have a range of skills that can exploit flat wickets. Can they change their angles round? Can they go up and down the gears in terms of pace? Have they got a five-over spell in terms of short-pitched bowling?"

While few would dispute the logic of Root's words, there is a major practical obstacle to producing better pitches. In recent years, the County Championship campaign has been conducted disproportionately in the early weeks of the season - in 2021, eight of the 14 rounds of the competition are scheduled to take place before the end of May with four more played in September - when it is tough for groundstaff to provide the type of hard, flat pitches Root mentioned.

Although Root dismissed the suggestion of abandoning the window for white-ball cricket that dominates the fixture list in the weeks of mid-summer - "that's there to stay," he said - which might enable groundstaff a chance to provide better surfaces, he suggested that greater rewards for drawn games might provoke a rethink about pitches at county level.

At present, teams are awarded 16 points for a victory, with drawn games worth five points each. Teams are also awarded up to eight bonus points for runs and wickets in the first 110 overs of the first innings.

"If draws are more appealing, because of the amount of points on offer, it might improve our situation slightly," Root said. "They're all the things that will improve the game and Test cricket for England in the long run if the games go longer."

In the midst of a two-game set against the Sharks, the Vegas Golden Knights had to scramble and switch hotels in San Jose because the league's designated place of lodging suddenly filed for bankruptcy, according to multiple reports.

Citing financial difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fairmont Hotel, a landmark in downtown San Jose, closed its doors, but said it will reopen and resume operations in two to three months, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

That puts a dent in the NHL's plans to house visiting teams in San Jose, and the Golden Knights, not long after their 5-4 overtime win over the Sharks on Friday night, had to gather their belongings and switch their place of lodging.

"It was a surreal experience," Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer told the Las Vegas Sun. "Hopefully this is the end of the COVID year, but it was almost the topping on the cake for what the last year has been for everybody in the world. Just another thing thrown at you, another thing to deal with.

"Not that I'm putting it in the same breath as dealing with COVID, but it was just one of those things we got thrown at us, we dealt with it."

Max Pacioretty scored his second goal of the game in overtime Friday, leading the Golden Knights to the victory, which pushed Vegas' winning streak to five. But the enthusiasm was interrupted not long after the goal.

"That's a first for probably everybody on our team," Vegas defenseman Nick Holden said.

The Golden Knights will take on the Sharks Saturday night to close the back-to-back set before traveling to Minnesota to meet the Wild.

But the lodging issue will remain in San Jose. The Fairmont was the destination for all of the Sharks' opponents, and with the St. Louis Blues heading to San Jose on Monday, a new hotel strategy will need to be drawn up by the league.

The Mercury News reported that the Fairmont, an 805-room hotel, is attempting to find a management partner and extend its existing mortgage debt. The newspaper also reported that the hotel's overall debt is between $100 million and $500 million.

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson will have a hearing with the NHL department of player safety for a hit that sent Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo to the hospital on Friday night.

While there are no "in-person" hearings due to COVID-19, Wilson was technically offered one on Saturday. While phone hearings typically indicate that the NHL is considering a suspension of five games or less, an "in person" hearing means it's considering one of a greater length.

Wilson is the NHL's player safety lightning rod. From September 2017 to October 2018, he was suspended four times for illegal hits in a 105-game span, culminating in a 20-game suspension for a hit to the head of St. Louis forward Oskar Sundqvist that was eventually reduced to 14 games by an arbitrator.

With 90 seconds left in the first period, Wilson delivered a high hit to Carlo in the corner behind the Boston net. Carlo's head slammed against the glass, and he fell to the ice and remained there for several minutes. The Bruins said he was taken from the arena to a Boston hospital in an ambulance.

"Clearly looked to me like he got him right in the head. A defenseless player, a predatory hit from a player that's done that before," Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said of Wilson. "I don't understand why there wasn't a penalty called on the ice. They huddled up, but I did not get an explanation why."

The penalty will apparently come from the department of player safety instead.

Their first test was whether the hit satisfied the criteria for an illegal hit to the head. That wasn't a solid case, given that Carlo's head may not have been the primary point of contact on the hit and that Wilson appeared to attempt a full body check on the play.

The next test was whether this was an illegal hit for boarding. The department of player safety announced on Saturday that the hearing would be for violation of Rule 41 -- boarding. According to the criteria for that rule, Wilson's hit caused Carlo to "impact the boards violently" and that Carlo was "in a defenseless position" that should have resulted in Wilson minimizing contact.

If Wilson is suspended, the length of that ban will be hotly debated. Technically, Wilson is not a "repeat offender" under the department's rules, having gone more than 18 months without an offense worthy of suspension. But that's only used "to determine the amount of salary forfeited" during a suspension, according to the NHL. Wilson's suspension history can absolutely be taken into account when determining the length of his next ban, but so can the fact that his last suspension was in October 2018.

"I think Tom has figured out how to play the game and stay off our radar. I hope it stays that way," George Parros, the head of the department of player safety, told ESPN in March 2019. "We've seen clips of him delivering good clean hits and laying off hits that might have gotten him in trouble before."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid has committed to giving his winnings from Sunday's NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta to several Philadelphia homeless shelters, meaning $100,000 will go to the various organizations.

Later Saturday, the Sixers said they will donate an additional $100,000 to the same groups.

"So many have fallen on such hard times during the pandemic," Embiid said in a statement released by the team announcing his donation. "I felt it was important to provide more support for individuals and families struggling with homelessness and food insecurity. I'm continually grateful for all of the support that Philadelphia and the fans have given me not just around All-Star but all my years in the league. I will continue to help in any way I can."

Embiid, who is playing for Team Durant in what will be his fourth All-Star appearance, is donating to Project HOME, Sunday Breakfast Mission and Youth Service Inc. His donation will provide 15,000 meals; 4,000 essential clothing items; care and treatment for 1,000 homeless people receiving COVID-19 vaccines; support for more than 30 previously homeless families; funding for a six-week summer camp for more than 50 homeless and at-risk youth; and shelter and essential needs for over 300 teens facing either homelessness or home insecurity.

Embiid, who will start Sunday, is in the midst of the best season of his career, averaging 30.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He had 40 points and 19 rebounds against the league-leading Utah Jazz in an overtime win Wednesday.

Philadelphia ended the first half of the season with the best record in the Eastern Conference, a half-game better than the Brooklyn Nets.

Right-hander Jake Odorizzi and the Houston Astros have agreed to a two-year deal with a player option, a source familiar with the deal told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Saturday.

The Astros have already lost starter Framber Valdez for an indefinite period of time after the left-hander suffered a fractured left ring finger during his spring training debut on Tuesday.

Houston also is without ace Justin Verlander, who likely will miss the entire season after having Tommy John surgery on Sept. 30.

Odorizzi will join a rotation that likely includes Zack Greinke, Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr. and Jose Urquidy.

After accepting a one-year, $17.8 million qualifying offer from the Minnesota Twins last offseason, Odorizzi, who turns 31 on March 27, was limited to four starts in 2020 due to bruised ribs and a blister, going 0-1 with a 6.59 ERA in 13⅔ innings.

His lost season began when he was drilled in the side by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City's Alex Gordon in his third start. He returned in September, only to leave after 3⅔ innings with blister issues in what would be his final outing of the season.

Odorizzi went 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA in 30 starts in 2019 as he earned his first All-Star selection. He set career highs for wins and strikeouts (178) as the Twins racked up 101 wins and claimed their first division title since 2010.

He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers with the 32nd overall pick in 2008. He made his debut with the Kansas City Royals in 2012 before being dealt the next season to the Tampa Bay Rays with Mike Montgomery and Wil Myers in the seven-player trade that sent James Shields and Wade Davis to the Royals. He was traded to Minnesota before the 2018 season after logging four solid years as a starter for the Rays.

Odorizzi has gone 62-56 with a 3.92 ERA and 995 strikeouts in 1,042⅓ major league innings.

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Seattle Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic will be sidelined due to a strained adductor muscle in his left knee.

Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said an MRI on Saturday revealed the injury. No timeline was given for the outfielder's return.

"While disappointed that Jarred will be sidelined, we are relieved that the long-term outlook is positive," Dipoto said. "We all look forward to seeing him back on the field in the near future."

Kelenic appeared to be injured during his first at-bat on Friday against the Chicago White Sox. Kelenic reached on an error, but appeared bothered after reaching first base. Kelenic remained in the game and was replaced an inning later.

The 21-year-old Kelenic, who hit Seattle's first home run of spring training earlier this week against the Cubs, has been the center of attention during spring training.

Kelenic's arrival in the majors was part of comments made by former team president and CEO Kevin Mather that indicated Seattle was considering manipulating Kelenic's service time.

Kelenic and his agent lashed out at the Mariners in comments made to USA Today following Mather's resignation last month. After homering earlier this week Kelenic said he's using those words as motivation.

"I'm a competitor," Kelenic said. "I'm a very driven person as it is. Having said that, you know, something like this comes up, and I think you can look at it one of two ways: One, you can sit and pout about it, or you can use it as motivation and let it drive me even more. That's kind of where I'm at. Each and every day I'm letting this drive me."