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MANCHESTER – Manchester City are set up to land Real Madrid a knockout blow at the Bernabeu next week and earn a place in the Champions League final, Joe Hart said after his saves helped earn a 0-0 draw in Tuesday's first leg.

The England goalkeeper produced two incredible late stops at the Etihad Stadium to leave the tie hanging in the balance for next week's second leg in the Spanish capital.

Ten times winners Real have won six out of six at home in this year's competition, racking up 18 goals without conceding, but Hart said he was relishing the challenge.

"We've set it up for a good, old-fashioned rumble at the Bernabeu," said Hart, who made a superb point-blank save from Pepe late on shortly after sticking out a foot to block a goalbound Casemiro header. "Bring it on."

"We are not disappointed with the result. We are ready. We have a brilliant squad who are coming to fruition.

"Big game next week, simple as."

City have already won at Sevilla in the group phase and in Kiev in the last 16 and also drew at Paris St Germain on their way past the French champions into the semifinals.

Real, who should have their injured top scorer Ronaldo back next week after he was forced to sit out Tuesday's opener with a thigh strain, will be a formidable hurdle, but City captain Vincent Kompany said the Spanish giants will be wary.

"0-0 is a very dangerous scoreline. From the moment we manage to score in Madrid, it will be very different," he said.

Real manager Zinedine Zidane said he felt his side deserved to be heading home with their noses in front.

"It was difficult. We defended well, we had more of the ball in the second half and we had chances to score," he said. "I'm a bit disappointed because in the second half we deserved to win."

Explaining why Ronaldo was not even on the bench, the Frenchman said the Portuguese had aggravated a thigh strain during a training session.

With striker Karim Benzema failing to come out for the second half, Zidane has some striking worries.

"Benzema's situation was different, he got worse the more the game went on and we didn't want to risk him. I hope they both are in the next game," Zidane told reporters.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Visa Inc. is forecasting 400,000 to 500,000 international visitors to Rio de Janeiro in August, a projection one of its top marketing executives called "reassuring" given economic and health issues swirling around the August games in Brazil.

Chris Curtin, Visa's chief brand and innovation officer, said those figures are based on an "enormous amount of transactions" in Visa's network in the region ranging from hotel nights, entertainment to transportation, as well as third-party historical data.

Visa's projections are higher than a 2014 prediction from Brazil's tourism agency of 380,000 foreign visitors while they are lower than the 590,000 foreign visitors who went to the United Kingdom for the last summer Olympics in 2012, according to UK government statistics.

The Rio Games run from August 5-21. Brazil was awarded the Olympics in 2009 when it was enjoying a period of strong economic growth, but has since fallen into its worst recession in decades, dragged down by a collapse in commodity prices.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is also almost certain to be forced from office well before the Olympics, after losing an impeachment vote which has paralysed her government.

At the same time, the country is waging a battle against the Zika virus, which is linked to birth defects in newborns.

It is the first time that Visa is projecting Olympic travel attendance. The company has a unique vantage point on such plans because, as a sponsor of the International Olympic Committee since 1986, it is the only form of payment accepted besides cash for Olympic tickets and travel packages.

Its data, combined with historical attendance and spending, shows "a lot of demand for getting to Brazil" to participate in or watch the Olympics, Curtin said in an interview.

About 45 per cent of travellers will come from Latin America and the Caribbean, 30 per cent from Europe and only 15 per cent from North America, Visa predicts.

Based on data from the 2012 Summer Olympics, travellers to those games were younger, more male and come from more emerging markets than average travellers.

Travel to Brazil will increase by 1.2 million travellers in 2016 compared with the average amount of tourists between 2010 and 2015.

Visa did not make a prediction of how much an average visitor to the games will spend. It said, however, that travellers to the London 2012 Olympic games spent an average of $1830, twice as much per visit as a typical tourist to the United Kingdom that year.

"[The Olympics] will bring the best of the world to Brazil at a time when Brazil could clearly use support and assistance," Curtin said. 

RIO DE JANEIRO — If the Rio de Janeiro Olympics were held today, the US would win the most medals — and the most golds. And American swimmer Michael Phelps would collect five more gold medals and a bronze, bringing his overall total to 28 with a career gold-medal haul of 23.

Simon Gleave has been crunching the Olympic numbers for four years, putting them through a data-processing programme as the head of analysis for US-based Gracenote, a sports and entertainment data provider.

"In terms of medal-count and order, it's going to be close to what we have," said Gleave, who in 2012, using a less sophisticated programme, predicted within four medals the results of 16 of the top 20 teams.

Gleave will issue updates again in June, July and August, just days before the August 5 opening. He expects a few minor changes, but nothing major.

Gleave is picking the United States to top the table with 42 gold and 102 overall. China will be second with 31 gold and 78 overall, which is the same 1-2 order as London four years ago. The next teams in order of gold are: Russia (22), Australia (18), Britain (17), Germany (15), Japan (12), South Korea (12), France (10) and the host-country Brazil (9).

"You could look at this as if these are the stories before they happen," Gleave said in an interview with The Associated Press.

For years, Italian Luciano Barra has predicted the medal count, basing his results on world-championships results leading up to the games.

Gleave has gone several steps beyond. He tracks world championships, Grand Prix events, Grand Slams and even some continental championships — then gives more weight to the most recent events, and the most important events.

Although Gleave has Russia placing third in the gold-medal and overall standings, some Russian athletes could be banned from the games over a doping scandal.

"It's a bit difficult to know with Russia at the moment," Gleave said. "We don't know the sports they are going to be competing in with all the stuff that's been going on around Russia."

Gleave also has Phelps down for six more medals — five gold. He's picking him to win gold in the 100- and 200-metre butterfly and the 200-metre individual medley. He's had to guess on which relays Phelps will swim, but he picks him for gold in the 4x100 medley and 4x200 free-style. And he figures he'll get bronze in the 4x100 free-style.

"We are speculating to an extent on the relays," Gleave said. "But I don't think that it's a wild thing to guess."

BARCELONA –– Bayern Munich destroyed Atletico Madrid’s dreams of winning the European Cup in 1974 and are out to wreck their hopes of reaching a second Champions League final in three years when they visit the Spanish capital for the semifinal first leg.

In the final in Heysel 42 years ago, an equaliser from defender Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck in the final minute of extra time cancelled out Luis Aragones’ opening goal and forced a replay, in which Bayern ran out 4-0 winners.

That outcome led to contrasting fortunes for both clubs — Bayern went on to win three consecutive European Cups and are now bidding for their sixth triumph in manager Pep Guardiola’s last season in charge before taking over at Manchester City.

Atletico are still haunted by the memory of Schwarzenbeck’s goal, which prompted the nickname “el pupas” (the cursed ones).

History repeated itself 40 years later when Atletico led Real Madrid 1-0 in the Champions League final and Sergio Ramos headed in a 93rd-minute equaliser to force extra time before going on to thrash the Rojiblancos 4-1.

Four decades after Schwarzenbeck robbed them of glory, Atletico are still chasing their first European Cup, yet are emboldened in their bid to go all the way this year after knocking out holders and favourites Barcelona in the quarter-finals.

They beat Malaga 1-0 on Saturday thanks to substitute Angel Correa’s second-half strike to stay level on points with Barcelona, who top La Liga due to their superior head-to-head record.

Bayern maintained their seven-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga by winning 2-0 at Hertha Berlin with second-half goals from Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa. A victory at home to Borussia Monchengladbach next week will see Bayern clinch a third successive title under Guardiola.

Bayern have also reached the German Cup final yet many believe the former Barcelona coach will have under-achieved at the club should he fail to win the Champions League.

Midfielder Xabi Alonso rejected that suggestion, however, highlighting the Catalan’s positive influence.

“I’ve no doubt his time here will leave an important base, independently of whether we have a fantastic end to the season or not. Our memories of him will be brilliant, and he won’t be a failure if we didn’t win the Champions League,” said Alonso.

Atletico are the third Spanish team Bayern have met in as many years in the semifinals, having been knocked out by Real Madrid in 2014 and Barcelona last year.

Atletico are without influential centre back Diego Godin due to a hamstring injury, while Bayern will be missing forward Arjen Robben and defender Jerome Boateng.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Clippers did not just lose Game 4 of their first-round play-off series with the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday at the Moda Centre. They lost their point guard, leader and best player, too.

Chris Paul left the game in the third quarter of the Trail Blazers’ 98-84 victory with a right hand injury and did not return. X-rays showed a fractured third metacarpal.

He might be sidelined for the remainder of the play-offs.

Al Farouq Aminu scored 30 points — a career high for both the regular season and the playoffs — as the Blazers evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece. Aminu made 11 of 20 shots from the field, including six of 10 from 3-point range.

The 6-foot-9 forward also had 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

CJ McCollum scored 19 points, and Mason Plumlee contributed two points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists for Portland.

Clippers forward Blake Griffin had 17 points and seven rebounds before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with a sore left quad. Jeff Green added 17 points off the bench for Los Angeles, and Paul scored 16.

Aminu scored 13 points and Plumlee had two points, nine rebounds and five assists to stake Portland to a 47-43 half-time lead.

Paul scored 14 points and Green added 10 for the Clippers, who shot 33.3 per cent from the field and were outrebounded 31-21 in the half. He left with his injury with the Clippers trailing 58-52.

Green nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to narrow Portland’s advantage to 66-64 after three quarters.

The Blazers outscored the Clippers 11-4 to start the fourth quarter go ahead 77-68. The difference was 84-72 with 5 1/2 minutes to play. The Clippers got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Portland jumped to a 12-4 lead, with Aminu scoring eight of the points. The Blazers led 20-12, with Paul scoring all of the Clippers’ points.

To that point, Paul was 6-for-6 from the field, his teammates 0-for-13. The first non-Paul field goal by the Clippers came on a DeAndre Jordan dunk with 1:43 left in the first quarter.

The Blazers took a 24-20 advantage into the second quarter despite 6-for-22 shooting and four combined points from Damian Lillard and McCollum.

Allen Crabbe’s 3-pointer gave Portland a 34-26 lead midway through the second quarter. The Clippers countered with a 10-3 run to get to within 37-36. The Blazers intentionally fouled Jordan, who airballed both free-throw attempts.

Portland scored the next five points to go on top 42-36, and the Blazers carried a four-point advantage into the half.

BARCELONA — Real Madrid head to Manchester City for Tuesday's first leg of their Champions League semifinal with one major concern: the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

Both star strikers, who have scored 74 goals between them this season, are nursing right-leg injuries.

Ronaldo strained a muscle in a win over Villarreal on Wednesday, ruling him out of Saturday's match at Rayo Vallecano — that Benzema exited before halftime with a leg injury of his own.

Coach Zinedine Zidane said that Ronaldo, who trained on Sunday, will travel with the squad to England. Benzema is a bigger worry for the former France great.

"We're going to assess Benzema," Zidane said after Saturday's match. "All I can say is that it's not a knock. I hope that it's nothing serious and that he'll be available for Tuesday."

While fitness is the focus for Madrid, crosstown rival Atletico Madrid is preparing their defence to handle Bayern Munich's impressive attack in Wednesday's other semifinal.

Here is a closer look at this week's Champions League matches:

Manchester City-Real Madrid

The 10-time champions have already found their savior in case Ronaldo and Benzema have not fully recovered to face City.

Gareth Bale rose to the occasion when both his strike partners were out on Saturday, scoring two goals to lead a 3-2 comeback victory at Rayo that kept Madrid in the fight for the Spanish league title.

For Bale, Madrid has the "psychological" advantage of playing the second leg back in Spain.

"If we get a good result in the Etihad Stadium, back at the Bernabeu our fans are always going to help us," Bale said. "As long as we don't lose there, we'll be very confident at the Bernabeu."

Under former Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini, City is in fine form domestically in April. Besides a draw against lowly Newcastle, high-scoring wins — 3-0 over Chelsea and a 4-0 rout of Stoke on Saturday — are a reminder of City at its best.

Kevin de Bruyne has been the inspiration behind the revival, as a dynamo in midfielder since returning after two months out. The Belgian was rested against Stoke in preparation for Madrid.

"Now almost everybody is back and it gives us a different feeling," De Bruyne said.

Atletico Madrid-Bayern Munich

The match at Vicente Calderon Stadium promises to be an intriguing clash of styles between two of the game's most respected managers.

While Pep Guardiola has remade Bayern on the model of his attractive Barcelona sides, Diego Simeone has forged Atletico into one of the best defensive teams in Europe and has it on the cusp of a second final in three years.

Atletico have already proved strong enough to suffocate Barcelona's trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar in the last round.

Goalie Jan Oblak anchors a defence that has kept seven clean sheets in 10 Champions League matches, in addition to 22 clean sheets in 35 rounds of the Spanish league — keeping it level on points with leader Barcelona with three matches left.

Atletico will likely be without injured centreback Diego Godin. That leaves youngsters Jose Gimenez and Lucas Hernandez to hold down its back line against Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller's combined 16 goals in the competition.

"The tie against Bayern is going to be as hard or harder than the one against Barcelona," Gimenez said. "They have different weapons, but play a similar kind of football. We hope that they don't have a good night and we can get a good result."

In their only prior meeting, Bayern needed a replay to beat Atletico in the 1974 final for their first of five European Cups.

One win away from clinching a third Bundesliga title in as many years under Guardiola, Bayern is focused winning the Champions League to cap the Catalan manager's last season in charge before taking over at City next season.

AMMAN – Jordan's Faisali will seek to come out triumphant and advance while compatriots Wihdat have a tougher task in Tuesday's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup matches

 Wihdat will play Bahrain's Hidd and await other group matches to try to secure one of two qualifying slots from Group A as they are third after they managed only a 0-0 draw with  Turkmenistan's Altyn Asyr. The Jordanian league champs started off the competitions with unstable performances that saw them hold the Turkmen team 1-1 lose 3-2 to Lebanon's Al Ahd after their opening 2-0 win over Bahrain's Hidd.

Wihdat team officials urged the team to put local league results behind and focus on the next match. Wihdat were held 0-0 with Ramtha this week, putting them under pressure to win their last match against Jazira to retain the title as they are being chased by Faisali and Ahli close behind.

"We need to give it our best and play for a big win," Wihdat's Ziyad Shilbayeh told the team ahead of departure. "We need to work as one to win locally and regionally," he added.

 Faisali on the other hand are second in Group B ahead of their match against Turkmenistan's Istiklol Dushanbe. In their last match, they beat Lebanon's Tripoli 3-1. In Leg 1, they held Tripoli 1-1, beat Iraq's Naft Al Wasat 2-1 after their opening  0-0 draw with Dushanbe. 

Coach Rateb Awadat noted the team had the opportunity to make local and regional history this season. He urged the team to make use of the home game advantage and advance from the group. Faisali have improved in their last league matches and are now two points behind leaders Wihdat ahead of their match against Baqa'a.

BEIJING –– Since Guangzhou Evergrande started the new wave of spending in Chinese football in 2010, the club have enjoyed constant success — until now.

The title-holders were last week dumped out of the Asian Champions League with a game still remaining in the group stage.

Guangzhou have spent over $200 million on players and coaches in the past five years including almost $50 million in January on Colombian striker Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid.

The club has not only won the past five Chinese Super League titles, it has, under World Cup winning managers Marcello Lippi and Luiz Felipe Scolari, won two of the past three continental crowns.

Two points from the first four group games this season meant that the 2-0 midweek win at South Korea’s Pohang Steelers could not prevent the early exit. For the first time since arriving to China in June 2015, Scolari finds himself under pressure from the media.

“It has been a difficult week for us,” Scolari admitted on Saturday. “We obviously had ambitions in Asia but now we have to focus on winning the Chinese Super League. The standard are getting higher and we face a challenge every week.”

Guangzhou are going well in the domestic league and captain and two-time Asian Player of the Year Zheng Zhi has wants to ensure that Guangzhou qualify for next year’s Champions League.

“Unfortunately, we failed to get to the second round for many reasons,” said Zheng. “We now have to face the reality and start thinking about the league and FA Cup. We want to be champions and then get into Asia once again.”

Guangzhou have long identified its stature with Asian success. In their four previous appearances, the club reached the semifinal and quarterfinal as well as its two wins.

In December, then Guangzhou president Liu Yongzhou told The Associated Press how important the competition is to the club.

“For Guangzhou, we have won the trophy two times now and it is important for the club to win it again and make it three,” said Liu. “We will do everything we can to defend the trophy we won.”

Liu was relieved of his duties earlier this month partly, according to Chinese media speculation, because of the poor results in Asia.

To makes matter worse, Guangzhou has had to watch as domestic rival Shanghai SIPG progressed to the second round, helped by two of Guangzhou’s former stars.

In January, Guangzhou surprisingly sold striker Elkeson for around $22 million to the 2015 Chinese Super League runner-up.

The Brazilian scored 16 goals in the Asian Champions League in 26 starts in three successful seasons with Guangzhou, including the only goal of the 2015 final.

The more expensive Martinez has yet to score in Asia. It has not gone unnoticed by Guangzhou fans that Elkeson scored his fourth goal of the current continental competition on Tuesday to help Shanghai win and progress to the second round with a game to spare.

“He [Elkeson] is a top-class striker and scores consistently,” said Shanghai manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, who was delighted at securing a place in the last 16.

“Last year Shanghai were dreaming about winning the AFC Champions League title and up till now we’ve been doing pretty good. Everyone at the club and all the fans are all very happy.”

Dario Conca, who starred for Guangzhou in its 2013 Asian triumph before returning to South America and then signing with Shanghai, also scored.

Perhaps almost as pleasing for Eriksson is that he has often ended up as second best in past meetings with Scolari. The Brazilian knocked Eriksson’s England out of the 2002 and 2006 World Cup and the 2004 European Championships, all at the quarterfinal stage.

Scolari also triumphed in the 2015 Chinese Super League, finishing first above Eriksson’s Shanghai in second.

Shanghai felt they should have taken the title instead. With six games remaining Eriksson’s team was top but never recovered from losing 3-0 at home to Guangzhou with Elkeson getting among the goals.

BARCELONA – Luis Suarez became the first La Liga player to score four goals for the second game in a row as Barcelona, helped by three penalties in the second half, stayed top by hammering Sporting Gijon 6-0 on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Gareth Bale made up for the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo by scoring twice as Real Madrid came back from two goals down to win 3-2 at Rayo Vallecano, while Atletico Madrid kept up their title hopes with a 1-0 home victory over Malaga.

Atletico coach Diego Simeone could be facing a three-game touchline ban after being sent off at halftime when a ball was thrown on to the pitch from the technical area.

Suarez moved ahead of Ronaldo as the league’s top scorer on 34 goals after netting four times, twice with penalties, in the space of 25 second-half minutes.

Sporting had defender Ognjen Vranjes sent off in the 85th minute after picking up a second booking for fouling Neymar who scored the subsequent spot kick

The league leaders and Atletico have 82 points, with Barca top because of a superior head-to-head record. Real are third on 81 points with three games remaining.

Lionel Messi’s stooping header put Barca ahead on 12 minutes but Gijon, who are third from bottom, missed two chances to equalise before halftime.

Suarez eased Barca nerves by tapping home Andres Iniesta’s low cross in the 63rd minute before converting twice from the spot.

The prolific Uruguayan, who also scored four times and provided three assists in Wednesday’s 8-0 thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna, grabbed another goal in the 88th minute, drilling in a pass from Messi.

DALLAS — The testy first-round series between regional rivals Oklahoma City and Dallas got a little testier as the Thunder took a 3-1 series lead with a 119-108 win on Saturday.

Kevin Durant got ejected, Russell Westbrook was part of a shouting match in front of his bench and Serge Ibaka drew a technical for throwing an elbow in the final seconds with the result decided.

Going into Game 5 on Monday night in Oklahoma City, Durant, who was given a technical foul a day after Game 3, doesn’t think things are getting out of hand despite several tense moments that included Dallas team security making sure he didn’t leave the court in front of the Mavericks bench after his ejection.

“I don’t believe they’re trying to hurt us, and we’re not trying to hurt them,” Durant said, also emphasising that he wasn’t trying to hurt Justin Anderson when he swung his arm across the Dallas guard’s head. “We’re going to do some talking. We’re going to do some shoving here and there because that’s how competitive both teams are.”

After Dallas coach Rick Carlisle called out Durant while complaining during the off day over what he essentially said were dirty plays by the Thunder in Game 3, the teams had a confrontation in front of the Oklahoma City bench early in the second quarter. 

That flare-up started when Anthony Morrow, sitting on the bench, refused to give the ball to Salah Mejri after the Thunder threw it out of bounds.

Dallas guard J.J. Barea confronted Morrow, a former Maverick who then shoved Barea. Westbrook and Mejri ended up nose-to-nose in a shouting match before all the players were separated by coaches and officials.

Westbrook and Mejri got double technicals, and the Thunder were called for delay of game.

In the second half, Westbrook appeared to shout an expletive towards the fans after getting tangled up with Mejri on a drive. Mejri, who left the game in the fourth quarter with a right hip injury, was called for a foul.

Durant’s hard foul on Anderson came with 50 seconds left. And 30 seconds later, Ibaka got a technical for throwing an elbow at Charlie Villanueva.

“The name of the game is come out and play basketball and that’s what we’ve done the last two games, especially here,” Westbrook said. “We know a lot of their game is to kind of muck up the game and I think we’re doing a great job of staying above it.”

Besides calling out Durant during the off day for the elbow that led to the NBA’s technical foul on Friday, Carlisle said there were three other “non-basketball physical escalations that were initiated by them”.