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17-Year-Old Guiu Scores Seconds into Debut to Give Barcelona Spanish League Victory 

Barcelona's Spanish forward #38 Marc Guiu celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Spanish league football match between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona on October 22, 2023. (AFP)
Barcelona's Spanish forward #38 Marc Guiu celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Spanish league football match between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona on October 22, 2023. (AFP)
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17-Year-Old Guiu Scores Seconds into Debut to Give Barcelona Spanish League Victory 

Barcelona's Spanish forward #38 Marc Guiu celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Spanish league football match between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona on October 22, 2023. (AFP)
Barcelona's Spanish forward #38 Marc Guiu celebrates after scoring his team's first goal during the Spanish league football match between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona on October 22, 2023. (AFP)

Another teenager has made history for Barcelona in the Spanish league.

Seventeen-year-old Marc Guiu scored about 30 seconds into his first-team debut to give the Catalan club a 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, becoming the second-youngest player this century to score in his league debut.

“They told me to go out there and give everything I have, that I would have my chances,” Guiu said. “I dreamed about this so many times. I won’t sleep tonight.”

Malaga’s Fabrice Olinga was 16 years, 98 days old when he scored against Celta Vigo in his debut in 2012. Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal became the youngest scorer in the Spanish league in a 2-2 draw against Granada before the international break at 16 years, 87 days.

Guiu, who is 17 years, 291 days, came off the bench and after two touches was celebrating the game-winning goal in the 80th minute that moved Barcelona to third place in the standings.

Guiu sprinted toward the area after a pass by João Félix and found the net with a low shot that beat Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simón for his first goal. The victory gave Barcelona 24 points after 10 matches, one point behind league leaders Real Madrid and Girona.

Barcelona, the only unbeaten team left in the league, got the win despite playing without several regular starters, including Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha, Jules Koundé and Sergi Roberto.

Barcelona has not lost in its last eight league matches against Bilbao, with seven wins and a draw. It has won four straight games against the Basque Country team without conceding any goals since coach Xavi took over.

Barcelona entered a demanding week that includes a Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday and a “clasico” against Madrid on Saturday.

“We have many injured players and today we finished with a titanic effort,” Xavi said. “We are one point behind Madrid and it will be crucial to win the clasico.”

Bilbao dropped to sixth place with the loss, its second in three matches.

Girona at the top

Girona continued its impressive run by coming from behind to beat last-place Almeria 5-2 and join Real Madrid at the top.

The Catalan club scored three goals in a six-minute span toward the end of the first half to erase a two-goal deficit and went on to pick up its eighth win in 10 matches. It has 25 points after 10 rounds, the same as Madrid which was held to a 1-1 draw at Sevilla on Saturday.

Artem Dovbyk scored a pair of goals for host Girona, whose only loss was to Madrid two rounds ago.

Almeria, the only team yet to win in the league this season, surprised with early goals by Léo Baptistão in the second and 24th minutes at Montilivi Stadium.

Iván Martín pulled Girona closer in the 37th and Dovbyk moved the hosts ahead with goals in the 39th and 43rd minutes. Sávio and Cristhian Stuani scored late to seal the victory for Girona, which is partly controlled by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi ownership.

Villarreal held again

Villarreal’s winless streak in the league reached five games after a 1-1 home draw against Alaves.

Samuel Omorodion put the visitors ahead in the 48th and Gerard Moreno equalized by converting a 65th-minute penalty kick.

Both teams are near the relegation zone. Alaves hasn’t won in six straight matches.

Rayo Vallecano ended a streak of four consecutives draws with a 1-0 win at Las Palmas, with Bebé converting a penalty kick in second-half stoppage time.

The victory moved Rayo to seventh place, while Las Palmas — coming off two consecutive victories — stayed 12th. Las Palmas forward Munir El Haddadi missed a first-half penalty kick.

Spanish media said one person was arrested following a fight between fans from both teams on Saturday night.

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Sports

Arsenal, Chelsea Aim to avoid FA Cup upsets

Chelsea's Joao Pedro, center, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Chelsea in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP)
Chelsea's Joao Pedro, center, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Chelsea in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP)
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Arsenal, Chelsea Aim to avoid FA Cup upsets

Chelsea's Joao Pedro, center, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Chelsea in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP)
Chelsea's Joao Pedro, center, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Chelsea in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP)

Arsenal head to Mansfield and Chelsea face Wrexham in the FA Cup fifth round, with the Premier League clubs aiming to avoid embarrassing giant-killings, while Liverpool bid to avenge a painful defeat at Wolves.

AFP Sport looks at three talking points ahead of this weekend's fifth round action:

Wrexham get taste of big time

Owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, Wrexham are no strangers to star power these days, but the Championship club will get a taste of what they hope their future looks like when Chelsea visit the Racecourse Ground on Saturday.

Wrexham are fighting to win promotion to the Premier League to cap an incredible rise since Reynolds and Mac bought the team in 2020.

Currently sixth in the second tier, Wrexham are aiming to make it four successive promotions this term, which would ensure the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City are among the glamourous visitors to the modest north Wales town next season.

With that lofty goal in mind, Phil Parkinson's side can measure themselves against elite opposition in the shape of eight-time FA Cup winners Chelsea.

Wrexham have already beaten Nottingham Forest in the third round this season.

And Parkinson hopes they can rekindle the spirit that inspired the club, then in the fourth tier, to a famous FA Cup win over Arsenal in 1992.

"I think you've got to go into every game believing and if not, you may as well not turn up," Parkinson said.

"We've got to go in with belief but also an understanding of the underdog mentality and what boxes we've got to tick to make it as difficult as possible for Chelsea."

Mansfield

Mansfield boss Nigel Clough has a rich heritage as the son of one of football's most iconic managers, but FA Cup success has been elusive for his family.

Clough's father Brian led Derby and Nottingham Forest to one English title each and won the European Cup twice with the latter, but was never able to get his hands on the FA Cup.

The closest he came was a 1991 final defeat against Tottenham when his son Nigel was in the Forest attack.

Clough senior died in 2004, but Nigel has kept searching for FA Cup glory and the 59-year-old has a chance to spring a stunning upset when Premier League leaders Arsenal visit Field Mill on Saturday.

Clough has guided Mansfield to the FA Cup last 16 for the first time in 51 years after beating Burnley in the fourth round.

Currently 16th in the third tier, it would be an even more remarkable achievement to knock out Arsenal.

"We actually drew them in the Youth Cup here earlier on this season and they won 4-0. There were two or three players playing that night that would cause us problems in our first team, such is the quality that they have," Clough said.

Liverpool must bite back at Wolves

Branded "slow and predictable" by furious captain Virgil van Dijk after their shock 2-1 loss at Wolves in the Premier League on Tuesday, Liverpool return to Molineux on Friday looking to set the record straight.

Arne Slot's side produced one of their worst performances in a dismal campaign as bottom-of-the-table Wolves snatched only their third league win this season thanks to Andre's late strike.

Despite spending £450 million ($599 million) on new signings in the close-season, Liverpool have mounted a woeful title defense, leaving the FA Cup and the Champions League as their last chances for silverware.

Languishing in sixth place, the Reds have been hampered by injuries and the under-fire Slot said: "It's the model that we don't have 25 players over here.

"Then it hurts even more if you have three or four long-term injuries at the moment."

Sports

Formula 1 Opens Its Season at the Australian GP with Plenty of Questions

Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 6, 2026 Haas' Oliver Bearman during practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 6, 2026 Haas' Oliver Bearman during practice. (Reuters)
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Formula 1 Opens Its Season at the Australian GP with Plenty of Questions

Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 6, 2026 Haas' Oliver Bearman during practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Australian Grand Prix - Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne, Australia - March 6, 2026 Haas' Oliver Bearman during practice. (Reuters)

As crowds filtered into Melbourne's Albert Park on Friday for Formula 1’s first day of practice at its 2026 season opener, there were questions. Plenty of them.

The first, and most pressing, at the milestone 40th Australian Grand Prix was the potential postponement or cancellation of upcoming F1 races in the Middle East on April 12 and 19 in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

That's due to the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran which has made travel difficult due to closed air spaces and dangerous to be in the region. F1’s governing body, the FIA, has already postponed the Qatar curtain raiser for top sportscar category, the World Endurance Championship, that was slated to be held on March 26-28.

And while it, and Formula One Management, the sport’s commercial rights holder, are monitoring the situation in real time — with a focus on the safety and well-being of all concerned — an announcement is expected soon.

In the F1 paddock, though, where performance is king, the biggest question mark is the sport’s reshuffled pecking order as a result of new technical regulations, including the position of new American startup squad, General Motors-sponsored Cadillac.

F1 heads into a new era this year, with unprecedented changes across the chassis (car) and power unit, which now feature an almost 50:50 output split between the turbo 1.6-liter V6 engine and electrical energy harvested from the brakes, one that requires a new, often counterintuitive driving style from the drivers.

Leclerc led pre-season testing

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the final pre-season test in Bahrain, just over eight tenths of a second clear of Mercedes young gun Kimi Antonelli. But it’s the Italian’s Silver Arrows team who go into the meeting as favorites, based on an alleged engine advantage that they’ve yet to run at full tilt.

Should Mercedes set the track alight, with searing, dominant pace, it’s expected that it will be George Russell, though, and not Antonelli, who would lead the charge. The British driver has five career wins and has been very relaxed in the lead-up to Friday’s two practice sessions.

“The car is performing as we expected. What was very important is seeing the correlation (between wind tunnel and track) is good, there’s no major scares on the car,” Russell said. “I put it on the ground and both Kimi and I were happy with how it was handling."

Ferrari, though, is expected to be quick — and in contention for its first win on Aussie soil since 2022, thanks to its nimble car and smaller turbo that requires less spooling-up to deliver performance and lighting starts.

“We got great mileage done in winter testing,” said the Scuderia’s rejuvenated seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. “An amazing amount of work has been done from the team back at the factory, but also delivering on those tests, and we’ve learned a lot from last year."

Hopes for hometown boy Piastri

A huge spotlight in Australia, though, is understandably focused on local hero, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Piastri is no doubt in the hunt for redemption after the title last year slipped through his fingers and went to teammate Lando Norris.

A bitter pill to swallow, given the Australian led the series standings for 189 days from Saudi Arabia to Mexico, but lost out after a series of mistakes, his toughest round at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. And then a difficult run through the Americas, where he struggled to manage tires on low-grip tracks.

Piastri believes he and Norris will start behind the front-runners, but the pressure remains from local media, who want to see him become the first Australian to win his home race.

“If I had a dollar for every time I got asked that, I’d be a few dollars richer!” Piastri joked. “Every driver wants to win their home race and that’s no different for me."

The fourth team expected to be in the mix is Red Bull.

But four-time world champion Max Verstappen, with his RB22 delivering impressive energy management, remains in the dark about where he will work out in the mix.

“I think we want to be a little bit faster and naturally everyone always wants to be faster,” Verstappen said. “But from the things that I think we learned in Bahrain, at least we were not the quickest. But yeah, I have no idea, we’ll just see where we are here to start with.”

Aston Martin has no illusions of even finishing the race on Sunday. Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Just another question mark for the season-opening race.

Sports

Ferrari’s Leclerc Fastest in First Practice at Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc drives back on circuit during the second practice session of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc drives back on circuit during the second practice session of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Ferrari’s Leclerc Fastest in First Practice at Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc drives back on circuit during the second practice session of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc drives back on circuit during the second practice session of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on March 6, 2026. (AFP)

Charles Leclerc led a ‌Ferrari 1-2 at the top of the timesheet in the Australian Grand Prix's first practice, while defending champion Lando Norris suffered a gearbox issue as Formula One's new engine era launched with a spate of reliability problems.

Leclerc lapped a sun-bathed Albert Park in one minute 20.267 on soft tires on Friday, nearly a half-second quicker than second fastest teammate Lewis Hamilton, the seven-times world champion. Four-times champion Max Verstappen was third fastest for Red Bull, 0.522 seconds behind Leclerc, with Verstappen's new teammate Izack Hadjar fourth.

Constructors champions McLaren had a sobering start, with Norris complaining his downshifts were "shocking" ‌in his ‌opening lap.

He cut his session short after managing to ‌clock ⁠only the 19th ⁠fastest lap on medium tires.

His teammate Oscar Piastri was sixth quickest on soft tires, but nearly a second behind Leclerc's best.

He also came to a halt, reporting a throttle problem in his first lap before he was able to get going again.

Ferrari and Red Bull rose above the initial chaos, posting clean early laps and setting the pace on medium tires.

Racing ⁠Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad triggered a safety car less ‌than four minutes into the session when ‌he came to a halt in pit lane and needed to be rolled ‌back to the garage by team mechanics.

However, the 18-year-old came back ‌strongly to record the fifth fastest time. Williams driver Alex Albon also lost power and stopped on the track late in the session, prompting the second virtual safety car.

The new hybrid engines, which feature a much larger share of ‌electric power than in the previous era, have proved a steep learning curve for drivers, placing a greater ⁠onus on managing ⁠energy deployment and regeneration.

Having barely clocked any laps during winter testing due to reliability issues, Aston Martin's troubled start continued as Fernando Alonso was unable to leave the garage due to a suspected power unit problem.

His teammate Lance Stroll could manage only three laps on hard tires, the best (1:50.334) more than 30 seconds behind Leclerc. Though strong in winter testing, Mercedes' George Russell was seventh fastest ahead of eighth-ranked Kimi Antonelli.

Rebooted F1 team Audi, formerly known as Sauber, started well, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg ninth and 10th quickest in the session.

New team Cadillac's first session in Formula One was underwhelming, though Valtteri Bottas racked up 24 laps and the 17th fastest lap.

Teammate Sergio Perez was 20th quickest.