Bumper bank holiday weekend of sport

Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker will face off in Cardiff this weekend in front of a sold-out Principality Stadium.

The fight will make British boxing history as the first time that multiple heavyweight championship belts have been put on the line on British soil.

The fastest growing live sport in pubs, licensees have a chance to cash in on what AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn describes as the ‘Joshua effect’ – a phenomenon which saw 1,052,000 punters flock to pubs to watch Joshua’s coming-of-age fight against former champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Read The Morning Advertiser’s​ look ahead to Joshua v Parker here​.

The undercard sees Beijing Olympic bronze medallist David Price in action alongside former world titlist Anthony Crolla, world bantamweight champion Ryan Burnett, and rising star and former Team GB member Josh Kelly.

Top-flight English football​

A fixture still best remembered for Palace’s Dwight Gayle-led ‘Crystanbul’ comeback, which saw the Eagles recover from 3-0 down to derail Brendan Rodgers’ Reds’ title bid with a 3-3 draw and leave Luis Suarez in tears.

A win for Liverpool would keep them in touch with second place Manchester United, while three points for Palace would go a long way to ensure they’re top-flight status next season.

Three points for Manchester City at Goodison Park will leave them just one win away from delivering Pep Guardiola’s first league title in English football. However in Everton, they face one of only four teams who’ve taken points off them this season – when Wayne Rooney cancelled out a Raheem Sterling strike at the Etihad.

City will be hoping to set the record straight on Merseyside after succumbing to their one and only league defeat this season at Anfield in January.

A debut effort from Paris Saint Germain loanee Jese Rodriguez stunned Arsene Wenger’s side when the two sides met at the Potteries in the early stages of this season.

Both Arsenal and Stoke will be desperate for three points – Arsenal as they look to restore some credibility to what looks like Arsene Wenger’s final season in charge in north London by securing Europa League qualification, and Stoke, as they look to extend their current, 10-season, stay in the Premier League by another year.

A feisty London derby made all the more interesting by the fact that Antonio Conte’s ailing blues could yet catch Tottenham in the race for Champions League football.

Chelsea welcome Tottenham to Stamford Bridge this Sunday five points behind Mauricio Pochettino’s side, who will be without perennial goal threat Harry Kane.

European football​

Shock. Horror. Bayern Munich have got the Bundesliga title pretty much wrapped up before Easter weekend having built an 18-point buffer between themselves and second placed Schalke.

However, there’s plenty at stake for Dortmund, who find themselves in a five-way battle for Champions League qualification, with on-loan Chelsea hitman Michy Batshuayi leading their charge off the back of a run of eight goals in 11 games.

A dress rehearsal for next month’s Copa Del Rey final, Manchester United’s Champions League conquerors Sevilla host champions-in-waiting Barcelona sitting in sixth place in La Liga and 14 points adrift of qualification for Europe’s premier club competition next season.

Winners of six Serie A titles on the spin, Juventus find themselves in unfamiliar territory this season.

Embroiled in a two-horse race with Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli, who sit two points behind Juve, this weekend’s match against an AC Milan side desperately scrapping for points under former midfield firebrand Gennaro Gattuso is a must win if they’re to remain favourites for a seventh straight Scudetto.

Despite Paris Saint Germain having all but wrapped up the Ligue 1 title after extending a 17-point lead over Saturday’s opponents, the dominant force in French football will be looking to restore pride after their heavy 6-1 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in this season’s Champions League.

However, given they’ll be lining up against Monaco without Brazilian superstar Neymar, this weekend’s League Cup Final offers Monaco their best chance of adding a silver lining to a difficult season after a handful of high-profile departures – including French starlet Kylian Mbappe to PSG – at the end of last season.

International test cricket ​

The Second Test from Christchurch continues as England look to strike back after a humbling innings and 49-run defeat in the First Test – including being bowled out for 58, their sixth-lowest total in Test history, on day one of the first Test in Auckland.

With Australian cricket under the cloud of a ball-tampering scandal that has seen captain Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft served with lengthy bans – a year each for Smith and Warner, nine months for Bancroft – and criticised by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, it’s easy to forget they still have a Test to play in South Africa.