• Spain to deploy 2,000 officers at Real Madrid v Manchester City
• French interior minister says IS ‘specifically targeted’ stadiums

Police in Madrid and Paris have stepped up security before this week’s Champions League quarter-finals following an apparent threat from Islamic State (IS).

Although Spain’s interior ministry stressed the country’s terror alert remained at level four of five, it said 2,000 officers from the National Police and Guardia Civil forces would be deployed to help municipal police patrol Real Madrid v Manchester City on Tuesday and Atlético Madrid v Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, which will both be played in the capital.

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Spain is hit by strong winds and rain from Storm Nelson and four drown on storm-battered coasts

Easter processions in southern Spain have been cancelled after heavy rain from Storm Nelson, as the country was hit by strong winds and four people drowned on its storm-battered coasts.

All of the big processions in Seville on Holy Thursday were cancelled because of the rainstorms that were otherwise welcome in a region that has been experiencing a severe drought.

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Jonathan Wilson answers your questions on Xabi Alonso, Gareth Southgate and whether penalties are the right way to decide knockout games

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If you were Xabi Alonso, would you pick Bayern Münich , Liverpool or Barcelona – or wait for the Real Madrid job to come open? Natalie

Reports in Germany at the end of last week suggested that Munich is now Alonso’s preferred destination , which feels a little disappointing. He’s almost certainly going to lift the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen this season and I’m not entirely clear why, having won the league on hard mode, he would now try to do it again on an easier setting. Yes, the way the Uefa coefficient works means that there’s likely to be a relatively straightforward passage into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and experience in that competition is the one thing still missing from his CV, but it still seems an unambitious step. Leaving Leverkusen makes sense given his stock cannot really climb any higher there and repeating this season’s feat is so unlikely, especially with players probably going to be sold this summer. Barcelona seems an improbable destination given his Madrid connections and his assumed desire at some point to become Madrid manager. While there’s probably a little trepidation at being Jürgen Klopp’s successor. Liverpool looks ideal – and, unlike Bayern or even Madrid, it’s not necessarily a job that’s going to be available every couple of seasons.

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Trial project aims to drive colonies causing a nuisance at Camp Nou football stadium to nearby parks

Barcelona has recruited a new weapon in its fight to keep the urban pigeon population under control: Harris eagles and falcons.

As part of a trial, teams of three or four birds of prey have started patrolling an area around Camp Nou , FC Barcelona’s football ground, between 8am and 4pm. Pigeons nesting in the ground have been driven out by building works and have relocated to nearby blocks of flats whose residents have demanded action.

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New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight years

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.

The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.

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• Brazilian footballer was convicted of raping woman in 2022
• Alves ordered to surrender passports and pay €1m bail

A Spanish court decided on Wednesday that Dani Alves could leave prison if he pays a bail of €1m (£850,000) and hands over his passports while awaiting the appeal against his conviction for raping a woman in Barcelona.

The former Brazil and Barcelona player was found guilty of having raped the woman in a nightclub in 2022 and sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He denied wrongdoing during the three-day trial.

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It had to be him. Barcelona inflicted Atlético Madrid’s first league defeat at the Metropolitano in over a year and João Félix was the man who hurt them because, well, because of course he was.

The most expensive signing in Atlético’s history, the forward who still belongs to them but is desperate never to go back and who wouldn’t be welcomed back either; the man went to Barcelona on loan and scored the only goal when these two teams last met, leaping on to the advertising boards at Montjuic and blowing his former fans a kiss; the man who was whistled every time he touched the ball on his first trip back, scored the opening goal to set up a painful night.

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The best footballer Finland has ever produced reflects on the highs and lows of his career and his anonymous life today in Estonia

There are not many people who can get away with a leather jacket. Especially a fur-lined, double-breasted leather jacket. But Jari Litmanen, now 53, is definitely one of those people, as he strolls through the Old Town in his adopted home city of Tallinn. It would be impossible in Finland or Amsterdam but here he walks freely, seemingly just another middle-aged man trying to stay out of the cold. But between 1994 and 1996 he was the best footballer at Ajax, then the best male team in the world. Of course, he was loved for his talent. But he was also loved for the way he kicked the ball, the way he looked. Nineties Litmanen was a vibe, and it turns out the 2024 version isn’t far off.

The Finn doesn’t grant many interviews, certainly not in person. His aloofness has fed the image that he is shy, reserved, mercurial, perhaps even a little arrogant. This is the opposite picture of the person who comes bouncing into the room, who beams comfortably at the camera. Litmanen is generous with his time, polite to all those around him, meticulous with his details. He is also surprisingly funny. Not laugh-a-minute funny, but there is a mischief in his face, a sparkle in those dark eyes. We talk about his recent appearance on the Finnish version of Top Gun, his new Instagram account (in which he shares positive news of Edwin van der Sar’s recovery from serious illness ), his acting as an Amsterdam diamond jeweller and comedic timing in Finnish children’s films as a Dutch art dealer and an Italian pizza delivery man .

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• Premier League clubs to meet in semi-finals if they progress
• Atlético v Dortmund, plus PSG v Barça completes last eight

Manchester City and Arsenal will meet in an all-Premier League Champions League semi-final should the former beat Real Madrid and the latter overcome Bayern Munich in their respective quarter-finals.

Friday’s draw for the quarter and semi-finals of Europe’s premier competition pitted City against Real for a third successive year, the previous two occasions having been in the last four. In 2022, the Spanish giants defeated Pep Guardiola’s side on their way to a record 14th triumph. Last season City prevailed en route to beating Internazionale 1-0 in the final to claim the treble.

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