Match reports
Reading 3-1 West Brom:
Watford 1-0 Leeds United:
Las Palmas 1-2 Barcelona:
Updated
And that’s all from me on a mediocre day. Reading defeated an uninspiring West Brom, while Watford did enough to knock out Leeds. In the Championship it was a good day for Burnley and Cardiff, while Northampton continued their mighty charge in League Two. There were wins for Bayern Munich and Barcelona in the Bundesliga and La Liga, while PSG are leading against Reims in Ligue 1. Thanks for reading. Bye!
It is unconfirmed at the moment but West Brom’s Chris Brunt has reportedly been struck by a coin thrown from the away fans at the Madejski.
Updated
Northampton have made it nine wins in a row by beating Wycombe at Sixfields. They will be in League One next season.
Elsewhere in the Championship Preston have beaten Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield have won at home to Wolves and Fulham trounced Charlton.
3 - Three of West Brom's last four FA Cup exits to lower league sides than them have been to Reading (2006, 2011 & 2016). Thorn.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 20, 2016
Full-time: Derby’s bad run has ended. They win 3-1, Chris Martin scoring his 10th of the season in the fifth minute of injury time to put gloss on the win.
Updated
Full-time! Watford 1-0 Leeds
Despite making six changes, Watford have knocked out Leeds at Vicarage Road.
Updated
Full-time: Bolton 1-1 QPR. Heartbreaking for Neil Lennon. Full-time: Las Palmas 1-2 Barcelona. Suárez and Neymar do enough for Barça.
QPR have equalised in the third minute of injury time at Bolton thanks to Matt Phillips. Wigan have stolen a late winner at Walsall courtesy of Yanic Wildschut. And Burnley have doubled their lead against struggling Rotherham through Scott Arfield.
Full-time! Reading 3-1 West Brom
And that is the last piece of action at the Madejski. Reading are in the drum for the quarter-final draw. West Brom bow out and their season is all but over in mid-February.
Updated
Goal! Reading 3-1 West Brom (Piazon)
James McClean’s wedding will go ahead as planned. The Championship team are in the quarter-finals thanks to Lucas Piazon, another on loan from Chelsea.
Updated
Las Palmas are still battling for an equaliser against the mighty Barcelona, who must fear Arsenal after watching this.
Updated
And Derby lead thanks to another Irish international: the defender Cyrus Christie has put them ahead at Brentford and they are on course for a first league win since Boxing Day.
Jeff Hendrick – who is actually Irish – has equalised for Derby against Brentford, it’s now 1-1 at Griffin Park.
Updated
On Sky, their reporter at Yeovil has said François Zoko is from Ireland. He is from Ivory Coast – did he look at the flag upside down?
Cairney has scored his second with rasper, putting Fulham 3-0 up against Charlton who look an increasingly sorry sight.
Updated
In Ligue 1, PSG lead Reims 1-0. And nobody on planet earth displays a modicum of surprise. Van der Wiel put the home team in front.
Updated
Garner has put Preston in front against 10-man Sheffield Wednesday, who have had Forestieri sent off.
The runaway leaders in League Two, Northampton, are in front against Wycombe. Lee Martin tees up Danny Rose.
Bolton lead QPR thanks to Zach Clough. On Sky, Paul Merson says it was the “best goal I’ve never seen” because he was watching something else. A job well done.
Updated
Goal! Reading 2-1 West Brom (Hector)
And it’s the Chelsea player loaned back to Reading who has put the Championship side back in front. Norwood swung a free-kick in from the left and Hector rose to head past Foster.
Updated
Bristol City lead 2-0 at MK Dons, Jonathan Kodjia doubling the lead in the battle of Championship strugglers with an hour played. In League One Millwall now lead 3-0 against Peterborough, while Colchester, from 2-0 up, are 5-2 down at Bury.
Bundesliga full-times
Bayern Munich 3-1 Darmstadt, B Mönchengladbach 1 Köln, Hertha 1-1 Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim 3-2 Mainz, Inglostadt 2-0 Bremen.
Amorebieta has doubled Fulham’s advantage and made Charlton’s picture look even bleaker at Craven Cottage.
Celtic lead 2-0 at home to Inverness now thanks to Leigh Griffiths.
Updated
Goal! Reading 1-1 West Brom (McShane)
The Ireland defender, playing aginst his former club, heads past Foster to cancel out Fletcher’s equaliser a little before an hour in at the Madejski.
Updated
Lewandowski comes off the bench to make the points safe for Bayern, who now lead Darmstadt 3-1 in the Bundesliga. Barça still lead 2-1 at Las Palmas, though Suárez has missed a sitter in the past couple of minutes.
In League One, having led by two goals, Colchester are now 3-2 down at Bury. Oldham have equalised against Gillingham.
In Scotland, Celtic lead against Inverness.
Goal! Watford 1-0 Leeds (Wootton og)
And Watford are in front at Vicarage Road. Ben Watson’s cross is turned into his own net by Scott Wootton
Updated
Goal! Reading 0-1 West Brom (Fletcher)
A sweet half-volley from the Scotland midfielder has Albion in front and James McClean worrying about having to change the date of his wedding.
Updated
A propos of nothing apart from it also being football
This is great: James dislocates his shoulder against Roma and the physio pops it back in within seconds. https://t.co/dY3f3VFWxT
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) February 20, 2016
And Bayern lead. Müller scores again to put Pep Guardiola’s Bundesliga leaders in front against Darmstadt. At Las Palmas, Ivan Rakitic replaces Arda Turan at half-time. Ian Copestake emails: “I think Ivan Rakitić’s absence has more of an effect on Barca’s balance and effectiveness. Talk about underrated players, his absence is not even noted!”
Bristol City have taken the lead against MK Dons in the Championship. That’s three goals in seven Championship games at half-time. Las Palmas are just a goal behind against Barcelona in La Liga and Bayern Munich remain deadlocked with Darmstadt.
Half-time: Watford 0-0 Leeds
Bor-ing!
Half-time: Reading 0-0 West Brom
JR in Illinois emails about Reading 0-0 West Brom, where it is now half-time.
Ah yes, the deadly Irish Connection of Cox to McShane. I’m fairly certain they are going to be O’Neill’s secret weapon to dominate in France this summer. Anyway, as expected, Reading and West Brom seems to be an even match. Unfortunately for the Baggies they also seemed to be evenly matched with Peterborough and Bristol City. The main good news so far is that Anthony Taylor hasn’t ruined the game yet. No worries though, we’ve still got the whole second half to fix that.
Updated
Normal service has been resumed at Las Palmas: Barça are back in front, Neymar smashing home with his left from about four yards after Messi’s initial attempt from a Suárez cross was parried into the Brazilian’s direction. That’s his 18th in La Liga already this season
Updated
In League One, Wigan lead at Walsall.
Bayern are level, Muller making it 1-1 against Darmstadt early in the second half.
In the Championship London derby Fulham lead against Charlton, Cairney finding the net after being set up by the evergreen Parker.
Updated
Millwall lead 1-0 against Peterborough at The Den, former Leeds striker Steve Morison scoring for the home team.
Speaking of Leeds, this from Dave Hill:
You seem disappointed that there are no scores this morning. For us supporters of teams that aren’t expected to win, the fact that Watford hasn’t scored yet is moral victory at least.
An email from Philip Podolsky.
They’ll probably win this but Barcelona are struggling to find their rhythm without the suspended Busquets. After they did so well with Messi out injured, you could make the argument that Busquets is their single most important player.
Is Busquets the most under-appreciated player in the world? Of course that is solely down to the headline grabbers that play in front of him.
There has been a goal in the Championship! Burnley are ahead at home to Rotherham, Vokes scoring from the penalty spot.
Dallas forces Pantilimon into a save at Vicarage Road after Leeds counterattacked menacingly.
To give you an idea of the top, top quality on show at the Madejski, the only chance has come from Paul McShane, who was teed up by Simon Cox.
Watford go close again at home to Leeds: Britos heading wide from a corner.
Twenty minutes in and we are still waiting for a goal in the FA Cup and the Championship.
Updated
Half-time in Bavaria: Significantly Weak Bayern Munich 0-1 Darmstadt
A word of promise for Arsenal: Barça have kept only one clean sheet in their last six away games.
Las Palmas have equalised against Barcelona! Willian José turns Dani Alves after being played onside by Alba. It won’t last, of course, so enjoy it while it lasts Las Palmas fans.
In League One Gillingham have taken the lead at Oldham courtesy of Doug Loft, Rochdale lead at Bradford and a level below Morecambe have scored at nouveau riche Bristol Rovers.
Sheffield Wednesday are enjoying quite a good season, leading to their fans travelling in vast, impressive numbers. This is their turnout at Preston this afternoon.
5,600 Sheffield Wednesday fans at Preston today. #swfc pic.twitter.com/IKAsAMNpSi
— Football Away Days (@AwayDays_) February 20, 2016
It has taken only six minutes! Barcelona lead at Las Palmas thanks to Luis Suárez, beautifully tucking the ball home after a delightful piece of buildup between Iniesta and Alba.
Updated
Blackpool, Chesterfield and Colchester have taken early leads in League One.
Watford have started well at Vicarage Road, Troy Deeney going close with a header, but we are still waiting for a goal in the FA Cup and Championship.
Peep!
Whistles are being blown across the country and beyond – although they went a half hour ago in Germany, where a significantly weakened Bayern Munich trail 1-0 at home to Darmstadt. Barcelona are about to kick-off at Las Palmas, too.
It has finished scoreless in north London and a replay nobody wanted will have to be played, further disrupting an already-packed fixture list. Rob Smyth relived it all.
And what’s going down up there in Scotland this afternoon? Simon McMahon emails:
Afternoon Alan. I’ll spare you all the ‘game of the day is at Tannadice’ nonsense this week. After an abject performance on Tuesday against Motherwell, United are as good as down. We’d need to win at least eight of our last thirteen matches to have any chance, starting against third placed Hearts today, and with just three wins all season, it ain’t gonna happen. A week ago we had two chances, slim and none, and slim left town last Tuesday. But hey, enough of my yakkin’, lets boogie. The other SPFL fixtures I’ll be keeping an eye on because, well, it’s not mathematically certain just yet, are St Johnstone v Motherwell, Ross County v Hamilton and Kilmarnock v Dundee.
In the early Championship kick-off, Cardiff have hammered Brighton 4-1, which is a good result for Hull and Middlesbrough as well as Russell Slade’s team, who are two points off the play-offs..
So both Championship teams, safely in mid-table, name strong teams. And West Brom have put out their strongest side, too. Yet Watford have made six changes despite sitting ninth in the Premier League. Does Quique Sánchez Flores think his team are capable of challenging for the top six and a Europa League place?
It’s still 0-0 between Arsenal and Hull. While we wait for the fun and games to being, why not join the incomparable Rob Smyth as he tries to turn water into wine.
FA Cup team news
Reading v West Brom
Reading: Al-Habsi; Gunter, McShane, Cooper, Obita; Norwood,
Hector; Quinn, Robson-Kanu, Cox; Rakels. Subs: Bond, Vydra, McCleary, John, Ferdinand, Piazon, Barrett.
West Brom: Foster; Olsson, Chester, Evans, Brunt; McClean, Sandro, Fletcher, Sessegnon; Berahino, Rondon. Subs: Myhill Yacob, Gardner, Anichebe, Pocognoli, Lambert, Pritchard.
Referee: A Taylor.
Watford v Leeds
Watford: Pantilimon; Paredes, Britos, Cathcart, Holebas; Capoue, Suarez, Watson; Abdi, Deeney, Amrabat. Subs: Gomes, Nyom, Prodl, Behrami, Guedioura, Anya, Ighalo.
Leeds: Silvestri; Wootton, Bellusci, Bamba, Taylor; Cook, Bridcutt, Diagouraga, Dallas; Doukara, Antenucci. Subs: Murphy, Mowatt, Erwin, Botaka, Adeyemi, Coyle, Peacock-Farrell.
Referee: M Oliver.
Preamble
Hello. How are you? Welcome to live coverage of all of Saturday’s mid-afternoon action. The highlight, of course, is the pair of FA Cup fifth round games. Watford take on Leeds in a battle of Italian owners, while Reading host West Brom in a game that is oh so difficult to predict. In the Championship the highlight is a London derby between struggling Fulham and Charlton, while Derby look for a first league win since Boxing Day at Brentford. We will keep track of Leagues One and Two, too, along with the pick of the action from across Europe. Team news from the Cup games will be along imminently. Kick-off in both of those and the Football League games are, in case you didn’t know, 3pm GMT.
Updated
