BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Aston Villa and Chelsea won home games and strengthened their hopes for a top five Premier League finish and a place in next year’s Champions League on Friday.
Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara scored and gave Villa a 2-0 win over an under-strength Tottenham Hotspur, and Chelsea overcame a stuffy Manchester United 1-0 thanks to a second-half goal from Marc Cucurella.
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Manchester United's Casemiro, left, challenges Chelsea's Noni Madueke during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, London, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Chelsea's Marc Cucurella, left, celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, London, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's John McGinn, right, and Tottenham Hotspur's Djed Spence battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Amadou Onana, right, and Tottenham Hotspur's Wilson Odobert battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Marco Asensio (right) and Tottenham Hotspur's Mikey Moore battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Boubacar Kamara, right, celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with team-mates during their English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
The result left Chelsea in fourth with 66 points, and Villa in fifth on goal difference.
The other teams fighting for one of the four Champions League spots after league winner Liverpool all have two games left to play.
Arsenal has 68 points, Newcastle 66, Manchester City 65, and Nottingham Forest 62.
On a tense night at Villa Park, the home side had the better of the play but was forced to wait until the 59th minute to get the opener.
Ollie Watkins steered John McGinn’s corner back across goal and an unmarked Ezri Konsa turned in the ball.
Boubacar Kamara doubled the lead with a low drive from the edge of the penalty area. It was his first Premier League goal in his 69th game.
“We knew today was a must win,” the Frenchman told broadcaster Sky Sports. “We want to play Champions League football again. … We had a taste of it this season and us as players it’s a competition you want to play in.”
Villa's final match is against Man United at Old Trafford on May 25.
Friday’s win was Villa’s eighth in its last nine league matches and extended its unbeaten home run to 21 games in all competitions, its best since 1977.
Meanwhile, at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea woke up after a dull first half when Spanish defender Cucurella headed home Reece James' cross after 71 minutes.
Spurs and Man United went into the matches with one eye on next week's Europa League final.
Both coaches rested some regular starters and got through the night without any new injury worries.
Both of Friday's matches were brought forward by 48 hours to allow the sides more time to prepare for the final on Wednesday in Bilbao.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manchester United's Casemiro, left, challenges Chelsea's Noni Madueke during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, London, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Chelsea's Marc Cucurella, left, celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, London, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's John McGinn, right, and Tottenham Hotspur's Djed Spence battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Amadou Onana, right, and Tottenham Hotspur's Wilson Odobert battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Marco Asensio (right) and Tottenham Hotspur's Mikey Moore battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's Boubacar Kamara, right, celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with team-mates during their English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
