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Leeds claimed a precious victory that takes them six points clear of Tottenham whose plight darkens further after Daniel Farke’s men pulled off a first league win at Old Trafford since February 1981 and in the process inflicted a first home defeat for Michael Carrick as Manchester United interim manager.

His team lacked control throughout, a state not aided by Lisandro Martínez’s silly 56th-minute red card for yanking Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s ponytail, and he is now suspended for three matches.

Marie-Louise Eta has been tasked with saving Union Berlin from Bundesliga relegation in a groundbreaking appointment

For Marie-Louise Eta, it may feel like another day at the office. The wider significance will be greater, though, when she oversees Union Berlin in their crunch Bundesliga match against Wolfsburg this weekend. History will be made and another barrier broken: it will be the first time a woman appointed as head coach of a men’s team has taken charge of a fixture in one of Europe’s top five leagues.

Eta was given the reins on an interim basis after Steffen Baumgart, her predecessor, was sacked on Saturday. Union had just lost 3-1 to bottom-placed Heidenheim and, with five games left, could not be sure of a late-season dalliance with the drop zone. They are seven points clear of the relegation playoff spot but a run of two wins from 14 games has equated to freefall. Union needed the best person to arrest it, some form of continuity was key, so the 34-year-old Eta, a richly exciting prospect, was an obvious choice.

• Defender thought to have medial knee ligament damage

• Argentine may still recover in time for World Cup

Tottenham’s deepening relegation concerns appear to have been heightened by the loss of their captain, Cristian Romero, for the remainder of the season.

Romero was reduced to tears as he left the pitch after 70 minutes of Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Sunderland, following a coming together with the striker Brian Brobbey that led to the Argentinian clattering into his own goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky. Romero, it is believed, has sustained medial knee ligament damage that will take around eight weeks to heal.

• Former executive chairman received £5.76m

• Pay exceeded combined wage bill of women’s team

Daniel Levy, the former executive chair of Tottenham, was paid more during the 2024-25 season than all 64 players and staff at the club’s women’s team combined, the publication of their latest financial accounts has shown.

The highest-paid director, widely understood to be Levy, received £5.76m in remuneration for the year ending 30 June 2025, a significant uplift of around 54% to what he was paid in 2024 and, according to the football finance expert Kieran Maguire, ensured Levy was the Premier League’s highest-paid director last season. He departed Spurs in September after almost 25 years in charge.

• Slot: ‘There is a belief we can do special things’

• Luis Enrique tells his players to beware ‘pitfalls’

Arne Slot has said Liverpool do not face an impossible task against Paris Saint-Germain but must produce the perfect performance to overcome the European champions in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Liverpool require another stirring Anfield comeback in Tuesday’s second leg to salvage their hopes of silverware having lost 2-0 at Parc des Princes last week. PSG were vastly superior in the first leg and should have won more comfortably, although their head coach, Luis Enrique, described such talk as “a trap” and claimed there will be “pitfalls” for his team at Anfield.

As his side look to overturn a two-goal quarter-final deficit against Atlético Madrid, the teenager is ready to give his all

No pressure, kid. Lamine Yamal took the stage here and, he hoped, not for the last time. The 18-year-old, wearing glasses, sat in the press conference room at the Metropolitano where he said he would take inspiration from the basketball legend LeBron James and from Neymar on Wednesday night. He insisted that he welcomes the weight of expectation that has been loaded upon him from the beginning as he tries to lead Barcelona back from a 2-0 first-leg defeat against Atlético Madrid and into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

When Barcelona were knocked out by Inter in last season’s semi-finals, Lamine Yamal promised that he would take them back. A year on, scorer of five goals and provider of four assists in Europe, described by Hansi Flick as “the best in the world one on one”, he is their great hope as they seek to return and try again, his appearance in front of the media a prelude to him leading on the pitch. “Ever since I was little I have had the fortune to have to take on more responsibility than I should,” the teenager said. “I am used to it. All I think about is enjoying it, not taking it as a problem but a virtue. I’m grateful for everything.”

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They say that if you’re expecting a kick in the swingers but only receive a punch in the face, you can probably consider it a good result. Because he probably wasn’t expecting his Arsenal players to ship a hoof to the collective crown jewels from Bournemouth on Saturday, Mikel Arteta understandably failed to find any positives as he told one post-match interviewer after another that his listless side’s thoroughly deserved defeat felt like “a big punch on the face”. Whatever about their toothlessness up front, devotion to sideways and backwards passes and an at times almost comical inability to beat the Bournemouth press, the manner in which Arsenal’s players seemed genuinely paralysed by terror will be of the greatest concern to their equally terrified fans. Whether the sight of an extremely agitated Spaniard bouncing around his technical area like Basil Fawlty thrashing his Austin 1100 with a tree branch does much to alleviate the cloud of anxiety that has descended upon the Emirates Stadium is open to extremely one-sided debate.

Manchester City’s luminous monstrosity of a kit at Stamford Bridge made them look like 11 operatives in search of their missing bin lorry. Maybe Chelsea thought the same too, which would explain why they were rubbish in the second half” – Phil Taverner.

Roberto De Zerbi has reportedly said he’s going to stay with Spurs until they win the Premier League. Maybe he should share his secret on eternal life” – Andrew Bryant.

Has the Spurs/Brighton game next Saturday been given a nickname yet, or is ‘Ze De Zerbi Derbi’ still an option? Assuming he’s still in charge by then, of course!” – James Vortkamp-Tong

Re Friday’s Memory Lane (full email edition): I’m sure many readers will have fretted away the weekend wanting to know more. Marks & Spencer played Invictas twice in June 1933. The first game, a trial match on 21 June, was played at Oakley Road and the Invictas won 4-0 ‘but did not necessarily prove themselves the better team’, according to the Bromley and West Kent Mercury. A week later at Queen’s Mead, M&S took revenge with a 1-0 win in the Broom-Day Gala match. The goalscorer, L Hallam, is second from the right in Friday’s photo” – Jon Gregory.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Reigning champions have a new coach and some new faces when they face the Lionesses in Women’s World Cup qualifier

Eight-and-a-half months after they locked horns in the final of Euro 2025, England and Spain meet again on Tuesday night in front of more than 70,000 at Wembley. This time it is in qualifiers for the Women’s World Cup, another tournament in which they met in the final last time out.

Despite the relatively brief period since the game in Basel, Spain have a noticeably fresh look with a new head coach and a crop of emerging young players. They have already won a trophy under Sonia Bermúdez, who led them to the Nations League title after replacing Montse Tomé, and, unlike England, are unbeaten since the Euros with five wins and a draw in six matches.

Teenager’s landmark night delivers derby win that confirms what has been clear for weeks: this title race has been over in spirit long before the maths agrees

Lamine Yamal had not crossed the line yet but he was celebrating already, everyone else following him. It was not over, not officially, but it was done: the derby and the whole damn thing. The nights Barcelona took their last two league titles, they did so against RCD Espanyol, heading beyond the city limits and coming back as champions; the evening they took their third in four years, they faced the same opponents: the rivals Barca’s goalkeeper had grown up with and so many of them had grown up against. Chased from the Cornella pitch in 2023, cycling up Avinguda Diagonal in 2025, this time it was the 18-year-old with the symbolic escape.

There were three and a half minutes left on Saturday night when it happened. Marc Casadó slipped the ball through, Lamine Yamal ran on to it and Marko Dmitrovic ran out to it. The Barcelona forward blocked the Espanyol goalkeeper’s clearance, the rebounded setting him up and leaving Dmitrovic and everyone else to watch the inevitable. Alone, running free into the area, an open goal before him, Lamine Yamal slowed, smiled, maybe even laughed a little, took in the moment, and raised his arms, Usain Bolt contemplating Richard Thompson and Walter Dix. He had not finished, his team had not either, but he knew. They all did.

Expansion and political influence have made soccer’s showpiece too big for one region to handle responsibly

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In retrospect, the 2018 World Cup in Russia looks like a gentle genuflection, a dainty little bow before its strongman leader. Vladimir Putin and his Russian project of gradual conquest were most definitely centered and validated eight years ago: the tournament showcased his nation and awarded its leader prominence of place.

This summer, we will see something altogether different, as the runup to this edition of the world’s biggest and most popular sporting event has become a monument to Donald Trump.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond, helmed this week by Leander in Jonathan’s absence. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a Guardian US contributor whose book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.

Midfielder has again been Napoli’s star but ageing squad has taken club backwards and Conte’s future is uncertain

Was this the end of the Serie A title race? On a weekend when the last two teams pursuing them both slipped up, Inter delivered another statement victory, recovering from two goals down to win 4-3 away to a Como side who had been playing some of the best football in the division.

When the final whistle went, manager Christian Chivu celebrated like a man who knew exactly what it meant, hugging an assistant so hard he lifted them off the floor. Inter were nine points clear now in first place, with six games to go. But when the cameras arrived for post-game interviews, he played coy.

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• Midfielder faces seven charges of rape in total

• Judge says trial may be delayed until early next year

The former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has pleaded not guilty to two new allegations of rape.

The 32-year-old appeared at Southwark crown court on Monday to deny raping a woman twice in London on a single day in December 2020. Partey, who left Arsenal for Villarreal last summer, was charged in July last year with five counts of rape and one allegation of sexual assault, dating back to 2021 and 2022. He previously pleaded not guilty to those charges and a trial was set for November this year.

• Armed men fired at Berekum Chelsea bus on Sunday

• Frimpong dies of wounds at hospital

Berekum Chelsea winger Dominic Frimpong was killed in an armed robbery on his team’s bus as they returned from a match on Sunday, the Ghana Football Association said.

Berekum Chelsea said six “masked men wielding guns and assault rifles” had blocked the road as the team returned from their Ghana Premier League match against Samartex.

• Points penalty would affect this season’s total

• West Brom are 20th, two points above relegation zone

West Bromwich Albion insist they have complied with the EFL’s financial rules despite fears of a points deduction for the relegation-threatened Championship side.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that the EFL’s Club Financial Reporting Unit (CFRU) filed a compliance report to West Brom over a breach of the loss limits for the 2024-25 season under profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). Under guidelines, sanctions would be applied in the season after breach. That would mean if a points penalty were imposed, it would affect West Brom in the current campaign, with the club 20th in the Championship, two points above the relegation zone.

Flamengo footballer previously accused pop star’s security of aggressive behavior to his 11-year-old stepdaughter

• The Chappell Roan security incident raises a bigger question: what do celebrities owe their fans?

The Flamengo footballer Jorginho has clarified his comments on last month’s incident between his 11-year-old stepdaughter and a security guard in Brazil, calling his previous claims against Chappell Roan “a misunderstanding”.

“I made my initial statement in the heat of the moment, after hearing that my child and wife had been approached by an adult male security guard in an intimidating way,” Jorginho wrote on Instagram. “I reacted as any father would. My priority is, and always will be, protecting my family, and that is exactly what I did.”

• 1-0 defeat at Sunderland leaves Tottenham in bottom three

• ‘Win a game, everything will be different,’ De Zerbi says

Roberto De Zerbi diagnosed a lack of confidence as the root cause of Tottenham’s ills after his first match as manager ended in a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland. The result leaves Spurs in the relegation zone, two points adrift of 17th with six games remaining.

“We didn’t deserve to lose,” said De Zerbi after a match decided by Nordi Mukiele’s deflected second-half winner. “We played a good game, but maybe not good enough to win.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jacob Steinberg and Seb Hutchinson after a dramatic weekend in the Premier League.

On the podcast today: Manchester City draw nearer to Arsenal as the nervy Gunners lose at home to Bournemouth, whilst City brush Chelsea aside at Stamford Bridge. Worrying times for Spurs fans as the Lilywhites replace West Ham in the drop zone after a limp defeat at Sunderland, in the wake of the Hammers thrashing Wolves at home. Elsewhere, Forest get a crucial point against Villa, and Liverpool consolidate fifth place.

In the Football League, Ipswich won the East Anglian derby at Carrow Road – now second and two points clear of Millwall – but with two games in hand. A huge weekend in League Two as the top four played each other, leaders Bromley losing 2-1 at second place MK Dons, Cambridge leapfrogging Notts County after hammering them 4-0. Also a big weekend in Scotland, with the top three teams winning, Hearts staying ahead by a point.

Thierry Henry loves him. Didier Deschamps made him a France player at 17. And Luis Enrique says he is ‘spectacular’

By Get French Football News

When Warren Zaïre-Emery ran the show as a 17-year-old in a 3-0 win against Milan Thierry Henry said “the sky is the limit” for the midfielder. His stratospheric rise led him too close to the sun, though, and the crash back down to Earth was a rude one. But he has since dusted himself off.

Beeswax was Icarus’ undoing; a mild ankle sprain did it for Zaïre-Emery. Not quite the stuff of legend, but far from inconsequential. Having started six of PSG’s eight games in the league phase of the Champions League last season, he missed their playoff tie against Brest and would not start another game in the competition all season. Luis Enrique had found his formula and Zaïre-Emery was not part of it. Fabian Ruiz joined Vitinha and João Neves in the midfield and they started every knockout game as PSG won the competition for the first time. The PSG midfield was dazzling without Zaïre-Emery.

Kara Nortman talks Monarch Collective’s sports ownership portfolio and potential investment in England

Many Women’s Super League clubs are treated as “an afterthought” by their owners according to Kara Nortman, the co-founder of the women’s sport investment fund Monarch Collective and Angel City FC.

Monarch last month became the first women’s multi-sport group by buying a minority stake in Cleveland WNBA, the basketball franchise joining an ownership portfolio that includes the NWSL teams San Diego Wave and Boston Legacy, and the German club Viktoria Berlin.

De Zerbi looks past Simons, Arsenal fans are not helping their team and Ngumoha can give PSG something to think about

Football is such that, when you’re down, there’s a good chance the game boots you in the solar plexus, and that’s exactly what happened to Tottenham at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland’s winner coming by way of a deflection. But you can also take steps to help yourself and, though Roberto De Zerbi’s midfield setup made some sense – he picked three hard-runners in order to compete with Sunderland’s physicality – even pre-match, it wasn’t clear who would create their chances. It’s true that Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Mohammed Kudus are out injured, but in that context, it is surely even more important a place in the XI, whether in midfield or out wide, be found for Xavi Simons, left on the sidelines until the 85th minute. Simons is not perfect, but of the players De Zerbi has available he is the only one with the imagination and technique to make things happen. He may lack physicality, but what Spurs need more than anything is quality. Daniel Harris

Match report: Sunderland 1-0 Tottenham

Match report: Arsenal 1-2 Bournemouth

Match report: Chelsea 0-3 Manchester City

City improve in good weather, says Guardiola

Manchester City’s unbeaten April record in the past four years bodes well for their end-of-season pursuit for glory

“I have a particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. I may stumble a little in the autumn. I may get a little caustic with a TV camera crew or sarcastically applaud a referee. But I will pursue you. I will hunt you down. I will, in all likelihood, narrowly pip you to the line in an agonising title chase.”

Welcome to Pep in April, the franchise. In which a furiously intense, bald, skinny man becomes a serial springtime league title avenger. At the finish of what was by the end a celebratory, one-hand-on-the-wheel 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge, Manchester City’s record in April in the past four years reads: played 23, won 19, drawn four across all competitions.

The MLS weekend saw the Timbers capitalize on a rotated LAFC and Bruce Arena continue his second-season magic in San Jose

When the then-Montréal Impact rebranded as Club de Foot Montréal in 2021, their fans weren’t shy about showing their disdain.

“It is the dismantling of a dream,” one supporters’ group statement read in part. “We are becoming a bland club, just as many others have become.”

Mikel Arteta urged fans to bring ‘your lunch, bring your dinner’ but when the set pieces fail to fire his side are short of a full plate

It was another one of those games where Arsenal had found it necessary to rouse the troops beforehand. Mikel Arteta, in his occasional, unusual jokey mode, had urged Arsenal fans to “bring your lunch, bring your dinner” and make this 12.30 kick-off an occasion.

The players, meanwhile, had been training under the eye of a big screen broadcasting footage of Arsenal in happy, successful moments, presumably to encourage the creation of more. “Every game, we have to be there,” Arteta said. So were they?

• Bucharest hospital confirms his death after heart attack

• Coach led team to Euro 84 and won multiple club titles

Mircea Lucescu, the Romanian football great who was a serial trophy winner as a player and a coach, has died aged 80.

Lucescu’s death was confirmed by Bucharest university emergency hospital on Tuesday. He had been taken to hospital after reportedly having a heart attack on Friday morning.

“This is why you guys come to these games,” Vincent Kompany had said, and especially here. For the quality, the chaos and the goals, the edge, the drama and the history that invades every moment. Another wild Champions League night had this place believing in another crazy comeback, the noise level rising towards what appeared destined to be one, last thunderous crescendo as Real Madrid rose again and went for their biggest European rivals. In the end, though, Bayern Munich held on for a win that sets up another, definitive battle at the Allianz Arena next week.

Strikes from Luis Díaz and Harry Kane either side of half-time had given Bayern a 2-0 lead, underlining an incontestable authority in the opening hour. But a Kylian Mbappé goal 16 minutes from the end began a rebellion that could have left the tie on even more of a knife edge than it is, Madrid finding chances for a draw or even another victory. They also found Manuel Neuer rolling back the years, aged 40, with nine saves.

• Conte says he should be considered to succeed Gattuso

• Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri also linked with role

Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, has said he would not stand in Antonio Conte’s way if the coach asked to take the vacant Italy job, after Conte said he ought to be under consideration to succeed Gennaro Gattuso.

Gattuso resigned as the Azzurri’s coach on Friday after Italy failed to reach the World Cup for a third straight time. Conte’s deal at Napoli runs until 2027 and the Italian champions are seven points off the Serie A leaders, Inter, with seven matches remaining.

Two ‘factory’ teams of German football proved that there is plenty at stake in the Bundesliga after a 6-3 win for Leverkusen

They said nobody cared enough for the stakes to be this high. If discussion over the destination of the title (and second place for that matter) has been and gone, there is plenty more in the Bundesliga tank and for Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, two clubs who will never hold universal approval despite producing teams to thrill us and break the Bayern monopoly in the last two decades, that is truer than for most.

Before RB Leipzig were around to corral all the disapproval of German supporters at large, there was El Plastico. As the two ‘factory’ teams of German football, grown from Bayer and Volkswagen respectively rather than from a fanbase, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg have endured a lifetime of rival fans looking down their noses at them, judging them as not organic or real enough.

Conversely this fixture, if derided by some, has produced a string of memorable games; the 5-4 win for Wolfsburg at the Bay Arena in 2015 during current coach Dieter Hecking’s successful first spell, sealed by Bas Dost’s four goals, or the typically later-than-late Leverkusen 4-3 in September 2024 dusted by Victor Boniface’s stoppage-time winner. So when Bild’s headline called this “the wildest plastico of all time,” they really did mean it was something special.

Tension and huge potential consequences can often make for a stilted, cautious spectacle. Not here. For Wolfsburg, there was an element of predictability in that it was a 20th successive game without a clean sheet – and they didn’t look like keeping one for an instant. Still, the record – the worst defensive run in the club’s history since a previous Hecking side did the same in 2014 – wouldn’t have mattered at all had Die Wölfe held the 3-1 lead with which they approached half-time, having seemingly found some nerve to help their desperate situation at the bottom of the table.

In that first half, Hecking would have been delighted. If there had been a thick volume of hard luck stories over recent weeks, Wolfsburg had no time to listen to them here. After Jonas Wind’s opener, they were unhappy with the penalty awarded to Leverkusen when Joakim Mæhle feathered a slight touch on Ibrahim Maza in the penalty area – converted for the hosts by Alejandro Grimaldo – but literally seconds later Mæhle himself stepped up to blast Wolfsburg back in front with a rocket from long range. When Christian Eriksen converted a Wolfsburg penalty shortly after it was 3-1 and finally the strugglers were showing real fortitude. There was light, at last, at the end of the tunnel.

Instead, the inevitable Grimaldo brought Leverkusen back into the match by finishing a smart move just before half-time, enabling his coach, Kasper Hjulmand, to make the changes at the break to turn the match, and perhaps to change his own fate at the helm. For if we look at Wolfsburg’s moment of crisis, the home side were facing one at 3-1 down. “A change of coach is not a scenario we are considering,” Leverkusen’s sporting director, Simon Rolfes, had said before the game but losing at home to a team in the bottom two – to severely compromise Die Werkself’s chances of a return to the Champions League – would have sorely tested that stance. It wouldn’t have been the first time Rolfes has been forced into an abrupt pivot this season.

That, incidentally, is what Hjulmand used to really change the momentum; taking off Equi Fernández, bringing on Patrik Schick to join Christian Kofane up front and really attacking in a season where Leverkusen have often looked too tentative. Schick equalised from another spot-kick before Edmund Tapsoba put the hosts in front. The excellent Maza added another and substitute Malik Tillman made it six after a brilliant slalom along the byline by Ernest Poku.

Another Anfield miracle in the second leg will be talked up, but the gulf in class between the two sides was undeniable

These are strange times for Liverpool Football Club, still, and until anyone specifically says otherwise, the champions of England. It is a mark of where the team is that on an oddly tension-free night in Paris there were reasons to be pleased, but also not to be pleased about being pleased.

Pleased that Liverpool’s players didn’t give up or stop trying. So that’s a tick. Pleased that they only lost 2-0 against a Paris Saint-Germain team who were able to approach this first leg carelessly, to showboat a little, to approach the scoring of a goal in the style of a temperamental high-end Parisian pastry chef, always trying to create the perfect deconstructed mille-feuille tour de vanille infinite, when all you really need is a biscuit.

Petr Vlachovsky’s non-contact sexual abuse has had long-term effects and could finally be the catalyst for safeguarding policy change for women and girls in the sport

Kristyna Janku answered the phone to a police officer, not sure what she was going to hear. She had heard the rumours, the gossip, and was not sure what was true and what was not.

The defender’s former coach Petr Vlachovsky, who coached women and girls at FC Slovacko for almost 15 years and was once voted the best women’s football coach in the Czech Republic, had been arrested and she was about to find out why.

Mikel Arteta discovered that playing your best goalkeeper can be a good idea as his side recovered from cup exits with late win in Lisbon

There was a temptation to fixate on the moment when Arsenal won this game with a goal that could change their season. Mikel Arteta had urged his players not to panic, not to sink away with hopes of a quadruple long gone, and Kai Havertz got the memo. Gabriel Martinelli crossed from the left and, as the ball dropped, Havertz caught the Sporting defence napping at last, controlled with a feathery touch, took a breath and rolled a finish past Rui Silva to give Arsenal victory in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

It had been a slog at Estádio José Alvalade. Arsenal attempted 488 passes and it was not until the first of two added minutes that they made one really count. Before then it was a grind. Arsenal were often constipated in open play. Although they controlled the game, at least until allowing it to become ragged during a fraught finale, there were long spells when the best the Premier League leaders offered was set-piece wrestling. Noni Madueke, mostly ineffective as he deputised for Bukayo Saka on the right wing, curled an early corner against the bar. Viktor Gyökeres was recorded as being on the pitch. Leandro Trossard tried to score from 40 yards. Leandro Trossard did not score from 40 yards.

Most of what has gone wrong this season can be put down to poor recruitment – but the manager must share the blame

Even when the fixture list was revealed last summer, it was perhaps predictable that the middle of March would represent the crisis point for Newcastle. If they had reached the Champions League quarter-finals and won the Tyne-Wear derby at St James’ Park, a lot of other frustrations could have been forgotten. Even better, that game against Sunderland would have had to be postponed had Newcastle reached a third Carabao Cup final since 2023.

Those days of celebration a year ago feel a long time ago now, but the mood could easily have been very different. Newcastle were the better side in the home leg against Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League. Only the concession of a daft late penalty denied them victory and they were a persistent threat on the break in the first half of the away leg. Only in the second half of the second leg did the game get away from them: a 7-2 defeat made the difference between the sides seem much greater than it actually was.

Our cartoonist on humiliating exits for Arsenal and Liverpool, low-hanging fruit and Hugo Ekitike’s shirt swap

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During my 43-year adventure I saw pubs close, standing on terraces return and big flags fly all over the country

By When Saturday Comes

It was bound to end like this: a long and arduous odyssey that started in 1982 on a crumbling terrace culminated on a grey, drizzly afternoon in December watching my team get hammered 3-0 in a brand spanking new stadium named in conjunction with an international commercial law firm. A glorious away win thanks to a last-minute winner would have been somehow too poetic. This was how it was meant to be, when I finally completed the 92.

As with that game at Everton, most games were as an away Nottingham Forest fan; others as a neutral. There is much I witnessed and learned from this ludicrous yet wholly fulfilling enterprise and the many miles travelled. For one thing, it used to be that one displayed allegiances by carefully trapping a scarf in the window, so it fluttered outside all the way. This has been replaced by the executive car sticker or personalised number plate and our society is much the worse for it.

The sportswear giant says it’s aware of the strange seam on some of the new shirts, and is looking into how to address it

When Nike rolled out its collection of World Cup kits in late March, fans and pundits alike largely approved. The US men’s national team got arguably their most distinctive pair of shirts in decades, while other federations – France, England, Canada and Uruguay among them – earned strong reviews.

Over the last international break, when players took the field in the kits for the first time, many fans couldn’t help but become fixated on one singular detail of the new shirts: a somewhat unsightly bulge along the shoulder seam.

Sublime stint at Bayern Munich has made home audiences appreciate a man who isn’t flash or twinkly but is his country’s best footballer

Everyone has their favourite mental comfort food, the stuff that makes you feel good in troubled times. Maybe you like baking bread and listening to history podcasts about Nazi atrocities. Maybe it’s watching Notting Hill in a Hugh Grant mask.

Perhaps you love to unwind by sitting in your walnut-panelled library and reading Catullus, naked, covered in Doritos crumbs, with a plastic bag over your head. Or enjoy nothing better than doomscrolling in a state of late-night brain-death, before accidentally subscribing to a mystery supplement that will rid you of all the horrific writhing parasites inside your body, because the advert had a really convincing animated graphic that made you hate yourself.

From Algeria to Uzbekistan, our writers and contributors from around the world assess the state of the 48 nations to qualify for the tournament

“There’s more talent and potential than in 2022,” Kylian Mbappé said ominously this week after France had beaten Brazil 2-1 despite having Dayot Upamecano sent off after 55 minutes. He may well be right. For the second game of this window, against Colombia, Didier Deschamps changed the entire starting XI but was still able to field an attack of Marcus Thuram, Désiré Doué, Rayan Cherki and Maghnes Akliouche. Doué scored two in a comfortable 3-1 victory. “I’m well aware that there are some very good players that I won’t be bringing because, in my opinion, there are even better ones,” Deschamps said. Marcus Christenson

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Discipline has long been one of the cornerstones of a successful dressing room in England. If John Eustace’s Birmingham City players did not wish the training ground reception staff “good morning” they were issued with a £250 penalty. Steven Gerrard implemented a variety of fines when manager of Aston Villa for players leaving flip-flops in the shower (£50), forgetting to bring a cake for a birthday (£50, Yaya Touré: look away now), leaving plates and cups on the dining table (£100 an item). When Frank Lampard replaced Maurizio Sarri in 2019-20, Lampard immediately introduced a series of internal disciplinary fines for first-team players. Late for training? That’s £20,000, guv. Failure to report knack or illness before a day off? That’s 10 large. Phone rings during a team meeting? One thousand English pounds, thank you very much.

Sheffield FC invented football (yesterday’s Quote of the Day)? A certain person on the other side of the Atlantic would no doubt dispute that” – Robert Pearce.

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Alma Mana’o, the captain, reflects on their journey from a 21-0 defeat in 1998 to a place in the final round of qualification

The American Samoa women’s team has lived through a scarcely believable tale littered with upsets, and their story is still unfolding. At the end of last year, they entered a World Cup qualification tournament containing the lowest-ranked teams in the smallest federation, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). At 153rd in the world rankings, American Samoa ranked the lowest of the low. With an estimated population of 45,319, the island’s entire population would not sell out even the smallest stadium hosting Fifa’s showpiece event next year.

The national team’s captain, Alma Mana’o, talks of American Samoan culture as being “family is above all”. Multiple sets of sisters represent the team, something Mana’o relishes. “This is a family, we have got to get together, hold our sisters accountable and push each other,” she says. The Mana’o family hold the record for most family members to participate in Fifa events – “If we can’t win, we’re going to have the most kids!” Alma declares with a laugh – and American Samoa are out to prove there can be success in the family business.

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Winger explains her rapid ascent from shy 16-year-old Barça signing to a record-breaking hero

At 19 years, eight months and 12 days Vicky López is a history maker, record breaker and Barcelona hero. The Spaniard has played more than 120 matches for the club of her dreams, scoring 32 goals along the way.

López signed in July 2022 at 16, making her first-team debut that season under Jonatan Giráldez and leaving no doubt she belongs among the best. No Barcelona player, male or female, has made their Camp Nou, Champions League or el clásico debut as young as López. The following season she became the club’s youngest goalscorer in el clásico.

From exposed anxieties to unexpected heroes, this weekend’s cup contests papered over a weird three-week Premier League break

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The soccer calendar has been particularly quirky this year. There’s always an international break in March, but because this year’s edition involved World Cup qualifying playoffs, most games were scheduled for the Thursday and the Tuesday, which meant there was very little soccer played over the weekend; barely even a smattering of friendlies.

For a Saturday in early spring, it all felt very weird; it was a day for pacing the floors, wondering how on earth people who don’t like soccer fill the time. And with the Carabao Cup final falling the previous Sunday, and the FA Cup sixth round this weekend, that has meant a three-week hiatus in the title race. Which has been disorienting and, perhaps, not entirely to Arsenal’s benefit.

Guardiola says City must win every game, Howe ‘aligned’ with chief executive and Pereira wants fixture help

This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion

Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to extend their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern’s manager, Vincent Kompany, of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks.

Plus: teams who went out of Europe without losing a game, and rare competitive meetings

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“What’s the furthest a team has gone in Europe while being relegated in the same season?” wonders Matt Reilly.

This question was probably asked in reference to Tottenham, who were still in the Champions League at the time, but it’s still relevant to some of this year’s quarter-finalists. Nottingham Forest are three points above the relegation places in the Premier League; Fiorentina only have a five-point cushion in Serie A.

Real Zaragoza 2001-02, first round; 2007-08, first round

Alavés 2002-03, second round

Celta Vigo 2006-07, last 16

Real Zaragoza 2007-08, first round

Real Betis 2013-14, last 16

Espanyol 2019-20, last 32

Blackburn Rovers 1998-99, Uefa Cup first round

Bradford City 2000-01, Intertoto semi-final

Ipswich Town 2001-02, Uefa Cup third round

Ruda Hvezda Brno 1960-61, Cup Winners’ Cup

Dynamo Zilina 1961-62, Cup Winners’ Cup

Espanyol 1961-62. Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Napoli 1962-63, Cup Winners’ Cup

Bayern Munich 1962-63, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

1. FC Magdeburg 1965-66, Cup Winners’ Cup

Lyn 1968-69, Cup Winners’ Cup

Beroe Stara Zagora 1973-74, Cup Winners’ Cup

Real Betis 1977-78, Cup Winners’ Cup

Bologna 1990-91, Uefa Cup

First round Artmedia Bratislavia (2-2 away, 3-1 home)

Group stage Sparta Prague (2-0 away), Zulte Waregem (6-2 home), Ajax (2-0 away), Austria Wien (1-0 home)

Last 32 Livorno (2-1 away, 2-0 home)

Last 16 Maccabi Haifa (0-0 away, 4-0 home)

Quarter-final Benfica (3-2 home, 0-0 away)

Semi-final Werder Bremen (3-0 home, 2-1 away)

Final Sevilla 2-2 (1-3 pens)

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe after another disappointing Liverpool performance at PSG

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On the podcast today: Liverpool are outplayed by PSG from the start, creating almost nothing all game and possibly fortunate to leave Paris only two goals down.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

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The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025