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• Austrian was capped 33 times for his national team

• Manninger won Premier League during Arsenal spell

Alex Manninger, the former goalkeeper who helped Arsenal win the Double in 1998, has died in a car accident in Austria, aged 48.

His first club, Red Bull Salzburg, broke the sad news on Thursday. The Austrian Bundesliga club said in a post on its official X account: “We mourn our former goalkeeper Alexander Manninger, who tragically lost his life in a traffic accident. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Rest in peace, Alexander.”

• BlueCo ownership can point to commitment of Caicedo

• Jan Paul van Hecke and Alex Scott are players of interest

Moisés Caicedo has handed Chelsea a major boost after verbally agreeing a new deal with the club.

The midfielder has been a star performer since his £115m move from Brighton in 2023 and his decision to extend his current deal represents a show of faith in the Chelsea project after a turbulent period, with the club rocked by Enzo Fernández and Marc Cucurella using recent interviews to question the direction of travel at Stamford Bridge.

• ‘Etihad is the ultimate test – bring it on,’ says midfielder

• ‘We have six games to go and we know how big it is’

Declan Rice has insisted Arsenal must be better at Manchester City on Sunday if they are to press their Premier League title claims.

The midfielder is conscious of his club’s curious situation: six points clear of City at the top of the table, albeit having played an extra game, and the only English team in the Champions League semi-finals. But the mood is edgy and Rice is aware that the fans have concerns over the style of play.

The $95 bus trip to Foxborough highlights a tournament unique in modern times – one that ultimately makes no secret of its disdain for the paying public

Like any journalist with an unerring nose for an offbeat feature, my interest was sharply piqued by this week’s announcement of the $95 bus ride. What magnificent accoutrements might conceivably justify the £70 fare for a half-hour journey from south Boston to Foxborough? An at-seat shiatsu? A pool deck? A five-course dining experience? A brief but moving Céline Dion set in the aisles? At the very least, I felt I owed it to my profession to find out for sure.

Alas upon closer investigation, the Boston Stadium Express being launched for this summer’s World Cup appears to be an entirely regular bus journey on an entirely regular bus with entirely regular bus seats. Your non-refundable ticket – no child concessions – entitles you simply to be dropped off a 15-minute walk from the ground, and picked up again from the same place. There is, in short, no more complex rationale for the Boston organising committee to charge £70 than the fact that they can, and the World Cup only comes once, and if you don’t want to pay then some other rube will.

Manager’s grounded attitude has helped the free-scoring German giants set up a tantalising Champions League showdown and de facto final

If you thought that was good, wait until you have done it at Ewood Park. While everyone else struggled to compose themselves after watching a modern classic unfold between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, it was Vincent Kompany who supplied the cooling balm. He had just taken Bayern back to the Champions League semi-finals in scintillating fashion, another feat to justify the decision to take him from Burnley two years ago. Not many managers have breathed such rarefied air within days of turning 40. For Kompany, though, it sat snugly alongside the snappy Lancashire climate.

“I remember we beat Blackburn twice with Burnley,” he said, having been asked whether Wednesday night marked a crowning achievement in his coaching career. “Nobody in this room will want to compare it with the game today, but it was amazing. I experienced so much as a player and that was incredible. For Bayern this game is an amazing feeling, but I don’t think you wait for Real Madrid to say ‘This is the best’. You have to get it from other things as well.”

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While a church bell clanged intermittently and bits of tumbleweed blew across the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, the Allianz Arena hosted a ding-dong battle that pretty much had it all on Wednesday night. For the second evening in eight days, it was left to Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to pull out all the stops and provide the box-office entertainment as Arsenal once again Arsenaled their way past Sporting in a bore draw to earn their place in Bigger Cup semi-finals. More or less picking up where they’d left off at the end of the first leg, Bayern and Madrid served up a gourmand feast of slapstick goalkeeping, a see-sawing scoreline, much better goalkeeping, near-misses, goals of an at times absurdly high quality, several red cards and no end of post-match salty Spanish tears and recriminations. While Madrid have little or no chance of pipping Barça to this season’s La Liga title, they certainly thrashed them in the ungracious Bigger Cup exit stakes.

The image of Fermín López getting the boot from Juan Musso (yesterday’s Football Daily) clearly shows technique learned from English players. Admittedly, López’s head appeared to be at a dangerous level and one might expect an element of risk from crouching like that. As a life-long Hearts fan, I haven’t forgotten the approximation of a tackle attempted by English full-back Jason Talbot, then ‘playing’ for Livingston, on poor young winger Sam Nicholson in 2015. This was one incident in a match which, I believe, carries the accepted term ‘feisty’ (ie five goals, eight yellow cards and one red). And no, this wasn’t the red” – Ken Muir.

Re: your almost-spot-on analysis of Southampton’s chances of automatic promotion (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), what you and – to be fair – every other publication I’ve read about this in, have omitted to mention is that Ipswich’s game in hand is away to Saints during the week before the last games of the season. Rather pertinent, I’d say” – Stuart Ainsworth.

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

• Three officials have had applications for visas rejected

• Fifa Congress will take place in Vancouver on 30 April

Officials from the Palestine Football Association have been denied entry to Canada ahead of a pre-World Cup meeting of Fifa’s member associations to be held in Vancouver this month.

Three officials have had applications for visas to enter Canada rejected, with the association subsequently asking Fifa to intervene with immigration authorities on their behalf. It comes amid concerns over the ability of some nations to travel freely to this summer’s 48-team tournament, which will be held across the USA, Canada and Mexico.

• 31-year-old has been at club for nine years

• Portuguese says he will be ‘a City supporter for life’

Bernardo Silva has confirmed he will leave Manchester City in May, with the captain saying he will cherish the legacy he helped build in nine years at the club, winning the 2022-23 treble and a record four consecutive titles.

Silva joined City from Monaco in July 2017 for £43.5m and has been a key member of the generational success of Pep Guardiola’s team, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups, the Champions League and two Fifa Club World Cups. Including the Community Shield, the Portuguese has 19 honours with City

Sid Lowe is our Spanish football correspondent and has been covering an increasingly busy beat for years. He answered your questions on everything from the Champions League to La Liga … and lookalikes

trollercoaster asks: Why have so many Spanish clubs competing in the Champions League or European Cup been relegated? It happened with Real Betis and with Villarreal. We have seen leading Spanish clubs fall to the second division and even to lower leagues, see Deportivo.

Sid:

There are lots of elements at play here, and they are not all the same going back over time, as the structure of Spanish football has changed (collective TV deal, etc), while some clubs had their own specific issues (Depor’s success, built on money they didn’t really have, was what brought their fall, for example). The short-term reason for some teams – look at Athletic this season, for example – is that they don’t always have the resources for both competitions. There’s definitely a financial component to it. Villarreal’s relegation in 2012 was baffling but internally they had overspent – which is unlike them, a stable and financially strong club – although they did learn from that.

Look at the second division now and it is full of massive clubs (historically). Zaragoza are the really clear example … Sporting, Málaga, Depor, similar with Oviedo until last summer. Often laden with debt, often unready for the sudden fall off of income, etc …

I don’t know … I’m not sure that I feel that the people I bigged up (early) have started suffering better fates … have they? It might not have been that bad before. Or maybe it was, ha.

There’s a related issue here, actually, which is part of the daily battle … most pieces are on-demand, so to speak, (the desk asks about an issue or I suggest an issue or whatever), but on Mondays, the regular column linked to the weekend games, I more or less write what I want (over a 38-week season there might be three or four weeks when the desk suggests/wants a certain topic and I’m not totally mad: if it’s clásico weekend then very likely that will be the focus). Which is why you get Leganés or Levante.

The semi-finals are set after a dazzling meeting between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. But there was plenty more to talk about in the last eight

Bayern Munich’s thrilling 4-3 win over Real Madrid on Wednesday, which gave them a 6-4 victory on aggregate and set up a semi-final meeting with PSG, was a stone-cold classic. If either of the semis is as good as Real and Bayern’s quarter-final, this season will have been blessed. Arda Güler showed off his brilliance on Wednesday, first with his presence of mind after Manuel Neuer’s mistake led to the opening goal and again from a free-kick in the 29th minute. Güler’s goals gave Madrid hope, but Harry Kane made another difficult finish look routine before Luis Díaz and Michael Olise’s late goals settled the tie. Bayern’s wing wizards were crucial in defeating the 15-time champions. This game had it all. That includes controversy, with a post-match scuffle set off by Madrid players enraged by Eduardo Camavinga’s dismissal for two quickfire yellow cards. Neuer, the hero of the first leg, had his blushes saved by his Bayern teammates, though one save from Kylian Mbappé was him at his best, combining reflexes with brute strength. Fine margins decided a battle of the giants.

Supporters everywhere will be watching Sunday’s big game against Manchester City, united by nerves

My father is a Liverpool fan. When he was watching a game I saw an advertisement for the Premier League broadcast and saw Thierry Henry scoring a goal and that was it.

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Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

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• Mikie Sherrill says taxpayers should not carry burden

• Costs at World Cup have come under increased scrutiny

New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, has hit out at Fifa after reports her state’s transport system will charge $100 for a return ticket to World Cup matches this summer.

New Jersey Transit lists the price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, which will host eight World Cup matches this summer, including the final, as $12.90. The new pricing, reported by The Athletic earlier this week, puts the return ticket at more than $100 with no reductions for children, seniors or people with disabilities. NJ Transit told Fox 5 New York that the price has not been finalized. A decision is expected in the coming days.

• Allegations relate to Liam McDonald’s time at Redditch

• They include a claim that he bet against his own team

The Football Association has opened an investigation into allegations of a breach of betting regulations by the Kettering Town manager, Liam McDonald.

The allegations are understood to be historic and relate to McDonald’s time as manager of Redditch a decade ago. They include a claim that he bet against his own team. The FA’s betting rules enforce a strict ban on any participants in the game from Step 4 upwards placing any bets on football anywhere in the world.

When the dust kicked up by an utterly scintillating two-legged struggle had settled, Bayern Munich could bathe in the glow of a win for the ages and linger dreamily on the prospect of a semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

It is the tie most neutrals wanted but the bar for entertainment has been raised sky high now. Real Madrid should curse themselves, and one of their number in particular, for letting things career out of their control at the death; the sadness for those with no skin in the game came from being deprived an additional half-hour of the near ceaseless thrills both teams were serving up here.

• Forward could be out until 2027 with suspected achilles tendon rupture

• Ekitiké is club’s leading goalscorer this season with 17 goals

The Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitiké will miss the rest of the season and the World Cup with the injury he sustained against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, Didier Deschamps has confirmed.

Ekitiké suffered a suspected achilles tendon rupture in the first half of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final second leg defeat and could be sidelined until next year as a result. The full extent of the 23-year-old’s injury has not been confirmed – he underwent scans on Wednesday and Liverpool are expected to provide an update later this week – but the head coach of the France national team has ruled Ekitiké out of his plans for this summer’s World Cup.

• Australia defeat hosts 2-0 at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi

• Captain scores 75th international goal before Wheeler seals victory

Sam Kerr’s 75th international goal may have been her softest as she set her Matildas on the way to a surprisingly tough, controversial 2-0 victory over Kenya in the Fifa Series final.

In front of 20,000 excited home fans in Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium, a goal in each half from skipper Kerr and midfielder Clare Wheeler proved enough for Australia to conclude their ground-breaking jaunt with the victory on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Jonathan Liew to discuss Wednesday’s Champions League action

On today’s pod: a Champions League classic in Munich. Bayern beat Real Madrid 4-3 on the night, 6-4 on aggregate, in a game that had just about everything. The panel try to unpack it, from Manuel Neuer’s early mistake to Arda Güler’s brilliance, Harry Kane reaching 50 goals for the season and the chaos that followed. But the big talking point: was that Eduardo Camavinga second yellow a turning point? And why do Real Madrid always seem to end up furious with the referee?

Elsewhere, Arsenal are into the semi-finals. That’s the positive. But the panel ask: has there ever been a less enjoyable route to the last four? Are Arteta’s side controlling games, or just strangling them? With eight clean sheets, are they quietly brilliant defensively, or is this football that raises bigger existential questions about what the point of it all actually is?

Plus: how do Arsenal approach the looming Premier League title decider at the Etihad? Elsewhere, there a huge Merseyside derby on the horizon, more questions around Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham, and news of a Football Weekly live show in New York.

The crowd were getting anxious and players are either missing or off form but they have still reached the Champions League semi-finals

And so I am become a meme. Towards the end of this game, already booked for standing on the edge of the pitch whirling his arms in a balletic, immaculately groomed pose of horror, like an oversized wedding cake figurine at the world’s most distressing wedding, Mikel Arteta could be seen pulling his jumper up over his eyes to obscure the spectacle in front of him. Not so fast, Mikel. We’re all in this together you know.

At the final whistle, with a controlled, job-done 0-0 safely in the bag, Arteta could be seen striding out in front of the post-match column of Arsenal players, conducting the crowd, an urgent, compact, dark-haired figure with, from a distance, something of the business-casual Tom Cruise about him.

Thirteen of the Damallsvenskan’s 14 teams are based in the south. For Piteå IF, rising costs are now the priority

Piteå IF are entering their 17th season as a top-division side in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, but the challenge for them is getting tougher and tougher every year.

And it is not a small budget compared to clubs such as Hammarby and Häcken who have, in recent years, been able to rely on the support of major men’s club, or the rejuvenated Malmö FF side, but geographical issues which have put a strain on club finances.

Plus: scoring past three keepers in one day, highest ratio of European to domestic titles and a dream result

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“I’ve been wondering: who is the greatest footballer never to make an appearance in England?” muses Cameron Turner. “Did any of the game’s greats go their whole career without visiting the home of football? I think the best bet might be a South American from the 1970s-1990s, though Brazil and Argentina often played friendlies at Wembley.”

This question is difficult to answer categorically, mainly because the internet does not yet provide chapter and verse on every football match played by superstars of the black-and-white era. But it’s also far too interesting to leave on the cutting-room floor, so we’ve given it a go with the caveat that the answers are only 99% correct.

Just Fontaine (France, 1953-60)

Roger Milla (Cameroon 1973-94)

Hugo Sánchez (Mexico, 1977-98)

Romerito (Paraguay, 1979-90)

Abedi Pele (Ghana, 1982-98)

Mia Hamm (USA, 1985-2000)

Michelle Akers (USA, 1987-2004)

Hong Myung-bo (South Korea, 1990-2002)

The manager, set to depart after this season, transformed the Cherries into a legitimate talent factory and one of the Premier League’s most entertaining sides

The walls of the Emirates could hardly contain Andoni Iraola’s beaming grin. As he crossed the touchline last Saturday after Bournemouth’s 2-1 win, his stride wasn’t one of rushing disbelief. He applauded the away support in between tousles of his charges’ heads and slaps on their sweat-soaked backs. The coach knew his side had completely outplayed the league leaders for their third win in four against Arsenal.

This wasn’t a Bournemouth upset of old. It was further evidence that these arenas have never been more welcoming to the Cherries – and are the sites that Iraola is ready to call his next home.

England have a long way to go yet before booking flights to Brazil, but Esme Morgan, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Lucia Kendall impressed against Spain

Everybody keep calm. England sit top of their qualifying group with a 100% record after beating Spain, but there remains a very long way to go before anyone can start booking flights to Brazil for 2027. Let us cast aside that sensible advice, though, and begin to look at the players who enhanced their prospects of selection because, whether England continue this winning streak or not, their target is to win a first world title and there is no hiding from that challenge. So who has staked a claim?

Of those who started at Wembley on Tuesday, eight look nailed on to be in the first-choice XI for the World Cup. That octet of Hannah Hampton, Lucy Bronze, Alex Greenwood, Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, Lauren James and Alessia Russo will be central to Sarina Wiegman’s plans for Brazil, together with senior players such as Leah Williamson and Ella Toone when they return after injuries, plus the “clutch moment” saviour that is Chloe Kelly, who was on the bench.

The longtime USMNT standout is following in the footsteps of his father, coaching with a deep appreciation of what makes American soccer special

The timing was ideal. The day after Red Bull New York won their 2026 MLS home opener 1-0, with three academy products becoming the youngest trio to combine for a goal in the history of the league, the club hosted their annual youth summit. Coaches and administrators convened in the Audi Club Lounge of Sports Illustrated Stadium where they were fed, presented to, encouraged to learn, network and, of course, stick around until head coach Michael Bradley arrived for a panel to wrap up the event.

Most of them did. A long line quickly formed between Bradley and his exit, and he obliged all of the people waiting for a photo. It’s the same patience he still affords the media, whose numbers noticeably increased at RBNY games when the New Jersey native took the reins, following in the footsteps of his father, Bob, under whom Michael learned as a son, a player, and an assistant before striking out on his own.

The US federation’s sporting director hired Mauricio Pochettino and Emma Hayes, but it’s too early to judge his larger impact

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Sporting directors live in the mid-to-long-term. While the coaches they hire and players they recruit have to deal with the highs and lows of week-to-week performance reviews, the executives watch on and make sure the project hasn’t veered off course. With a club, the rule of thumb is that it can take at least three transfer windows to start seeing tangible evidence of progress under a new sporting director. In international soccer, it often takes multiple cycles.

Matt Crocker arrived at US Soccer in April 2023 pledging to guide the program into a brave new era while acknowledging that initiative would take time to actualize. As it turned out, he never game himself that time. US Soccer announced on Tuesday that Crocker was stepping down as sporting director, and he’s reportedly due to take up a similar position with Saudi Arabia.

The league’s emphasis on youth development has seen its place in the careers of US national team players shift dramatically

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When the United States men’s national team traveled to France for the 1998 World Cup, they did so with 16 Major League Soccer players on their 22-man roster. This was very much by design. MLS had kicked off in 1996 as a fulfilled promise made to Fifa by US Soccer for the right to host the 1994 World Cup. The new league then set about hoarding as many national team players as it could.

In a winless and mirthless tournament in 1998, fraught by a fractious camp, the Americans started an MLS player 21 times in their three group-stage matches, for an average of seven per starting lineup. That number has trended down ever since. In the 2002 run to the World Cup quarter-finals, setting the program’s modern high-water mark, an average of 5.4 MLS players made a start in the USA’s five matches. In 2006, it was 3.33. By 2010, that number had sunk to two; and in 2022, it was only one. In Qatar, the USMNT’s final group stage match against Iran was, in fact, the first time the team had started no MLS players at all at a World Cup since the league’s founding.

• Zahra Ghanbari had been on list of ‘traitors’ whose assets were frozen

• Latest move taken ‘following her change in behaviour’

Iran’s judiciary said on Monday authorities had released the assets of the captain of Iranian women’s football team which had been seized after she made and then withdrew an asylum claim in Australia last month.

Zahra Ghanbari was among a group of six players and one backroom staff member who sought asylum in Australia in March after playing in the Women’s Asian Cup at the start of the Israeli-US war against the Islamic republic.

• 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.

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.

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.

With the season reaching its climax and weather improving, it’s ideal for attracting fans, but the fixture list is blank

Momentum can be extremely powerful. Just ask Wrexham, anyone involved in English women’s football in the aftermath of Euro 2022 or the scientists calculating Artemis II’s route for Nasa.

The climax to the domestic women’s football season in England, and around Europe, has lost its momentum as an extended international break has arrived. That, coupled with the Easter weekend’s Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals before the international window, means there will be nearly four weeks without WSL fixtures, at a time when the weather is improving, jeopardy surrounding fixtures’ permutations is increasing and interest should be swelling.

Spurs head coach’s apology for past comments about his former player was important but insufficient. If we want things to change in football, we need some accountability

Roberto De Zerbi apologised in his first interview as Tottenham’s head coach for past comments about Mason Greenwood when the forward was his player at Marseille. Spurs supporter groups, including Proud Lilywhites and Women of the Lane, both of which I co-founded, were among those who criticised him. De Zerbi said he had never meant to downplay male violence against women. (Greenwood denied charges of attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2022 and the case was discontinued.)

That he responded at all matters. Silence from men in positions of power on these issues is its own problem, and I would rather see someone engage than retreat. But what the response offered was self-description rather than accountability. And in this context, that is not enough. I will come to that.

Our cartoonist on the Gunners’ latest wobble and who could be brought in to get final push back on track

• Buy this cartoon here | His favourites from 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Manchester City can brush off Rodri’s comments but Chelsea’s existential angst helps explain suspension of midfielder

Enzo Fernández and Rodri would quite like to move to Madrid; many people would. They both said as much in the international break, those special parts of the season when players join up with their national teams and give interviews while apparently unaware that media are global these days: a whisper on Luzo TV can soon become a hurricane in London. But Rodri will line up for Manchester City at Chelsea on Sunday, while Fernández will not, suspended by the club for “crossing a line”.

It’s worth, perhaps, looking at exactly what was said. Fernández expressed disappointment at Enzo Maresca’s departure on New Year’s Day. “It … hurt a lot,” he told Luzo, “because we had a lot of identity, he gave us order, but it’s the way that football is, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But we always had a clear identity when it came to training, playing and obviously his departure hurt us especially in the middle of the season – it cuts everything short.” Sadness that a manager has gone surely isn’t a crime; it could even be supportive of Liam Rosenior and the difficulty of taking over a club mid-season.

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?

The retired midfielder’s absence for the semi-final of Euro 2016 was the great ‘what-if’ of Welsh football, but even so his brilliant career managed to transform a footballing public for ever

If some footballers take time to reach their potential, others seem to be the finished article before they’re able to drive. A teenage Aaron Ramsey was firmly in the latter camp. After only 11 league starts for Cardiff he had made his international debut for Wales against Denmark, turned down Manchester United in favour of Arsenal, and given Cardiff fans one of the great what-ifs of their club’s modern age after Dave Jones chose not to start him in the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth, with Ramsey being the tender age of 17.

Success-starved supporters who should know better will pin their hopes on to the narrowest of young shoulders and yet it all seemed so easy for the teenager from Caerphilly who was captain of his country by the age of 20, would go on to play in a World Cup and two European Championships, and this week retired as an icon of the Welsh game.

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.

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While Barcelona’s night at the Metropolitano was pretty well summed up by the accompanying image of poor Fermín López shipping six studs in the mush, Lamine Yamal’s cross in the buildup should be framed and hung in the Louvre. Using a minimum of backlift, the preposterously precocious 18-year-old had arced the ball directly into the path of the midfielder with the outside of his left boot, only for López to be denied by a splendid Juan Musso save that left the already bandaged Barça midfielder drenched in claret. Had López scored, Barcelona would have gone 3-0 up on the night and ahead in the tie, having already restored parity courtesy of goals scored by Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres in a blistering and blood-drenched opening 30 minutes. Moments later, Charlton Athletic academy graduate Ademola Lookman scored the decisive goal that sent Atlético Madrid into Bigger Cup semi-finals, much to the not entirely surprising delight of their head coach Diego Simeone. “Playing in a [Bigger Cup] semi-final, how wonderful,” he honked before an appointment with Arsenal or Sporting. “We’ll go there with all our enthusiasm and faith. We know our strengths and weaknesses. We’re ready.”

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Seeing as the Ifab laws of football decree that hair-pulling is an act of violent conduct that is punishable by a straight red card, Football Daily is somewhat perplexed by the controversy surrounding the dismissal of Lisandro Martínez at Old Trafford on Monday night. Approaching the hour mark of his side’s 2-1 defeat by Leeds, the Argentinian quite clearly yanked Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair, sending the Leeds striker’s man-bunned up tresses cascading over his shoulders by pulling off the scrunchy that was holding them in place without so much as a formal invitation.

Should Spurs be relegated (no question mark, this isn’t The Moral Maze), it will be not only funny, not only a salutary Ozymandias moment – the €uropean $uper £eague, anyone? – but also a perfect opportunity for a club with an undoubtedly great heritage to take stock, give its long-suffering supporters a season of winning, and come back up in better shape than they have been since Mauricio Pochettino left” – Mark Dawson.

Prof Stacey Pope’s showcase highlights how women have always been required to defend and justify their fandom

“You can be the thickest bloke and you still think you know more about football than a woman,” reads a line from Newcastle fan named Jo around halfway into a new exhibition on women in football culture. “[They] say, ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Oh, I could wipe the floor with you, man, with my knowledge and how much I’ve been, how much I’ve seen.”

“I love that quote,” smiles Prof Stacey Pope, a leading women’s football sociologist and creator of the Away From Home: The Untold Stories of Women Football Fans exhibition, alongside David Wright of Durham University’s museums, galleries and exhibitions Team.

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

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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.

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

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

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“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)

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

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

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

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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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