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It’s raining goals in Spain. It’s Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona now.

Linda Caicedo just scored her second of the night for Madrid and it was a belter, arrowed into the top corner from the edge of the box after a scything run.

• Nigel Dewale, 60, given suspended prison sentence

• Offensive messages were sent during Euro 2025

A 60-year-old man has received a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to sending offensive messages about the England international Jess Carter during the European Championship last summer.

Nigel Dewale, of Great Harwood in Lancashire, was sentenced to six weeks, suspended for 12 months, after a hearing at Blackburn magis­trates court. He also received a four‑year football banning order and a requirement to engage in a 10‑day rehabilitation programme.

Before meeting with Bosnia and Herzegovina, head coach has urged his players to step up and embrace the occasion

“Have you ever seen Usain Bolt in the 100m?” Craig Bellamy asks a crowd of journalists in the Wynnstay auditorium at Wales’s hub in Hensol, on the eve of the World Cup playoff semi-final against Bosnia and Herzegovina. “He’s smiling, waving – all right, it does help he knows he can run at 60% to win – but he has discovered the art of being relaxed and calm to be able to run at his best speed. If you’re tense, you’re fighting yourself.”

Bellamy has been there as a player but as a head coach, while intense and fiercely driven, he believes cool heads will prevail at the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday and, if they get the right result, in the playoff final at the same venue five days later. It is a message he has relayed in each session, every conversation, since his squad gathered on Sunday. “We all want something, but the more you want something, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it,” he says. “In sport, I dislike the word ‘pressure’. It is a privilege to be where we are now. Why wouldn’t you enjoy this? If you can’t enjoy this and you only feel pressure, you ain’t made for elite sport. You put that on your shoulders, it gets you nowhere.”

• State department to expand program on 2 April

• Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tunisia, Cape Verde affected

• No apparent exceptions for athletes or officials

A newly expanded policy from the Trump administration could require travelers from five World Cup-qualified countries to front a bond of up to $15,000 in order to enter the United States for the tournament.

Visa bonds operate like security deposits: A one-time payment meant to be refunded after a traveler exits the US under the terms of their visa. The amounts generally run between $5,000 and $15,000, and are required for passport holders from certain countries to enter the USs legally under B-1 or B-2 visas, the type required for business travelers or tourists.

Reform’s use of the football club has shocked fans and left the ownership red faced but how did it happen?

When photographs of Nigel Farage’s visit to Portman Road went viral on Tuesday morning, a wave of shock quickly spread among Ipswich Town’s staff. Some were furious, others genuinely devastated by the carelessness that saw the club allow itself to be leveraged for Reform UK’s political gain. The anger was palpable and hardly assuaged by an email sent to employees by the chief executive, Mark Ashton, who sought to douse the fire by stating there had been no intention to endorse Farage nor his policies.

The problem for Ipswich is that the horse has bolted. At best, they were grievously naive in letting Farage and his social media team run amok after arriving for a pre-booked stadium tour; a less generous reading would be that they simply stood by and let it happen, fully aware of Reform’s propensity to create sensation from the smallest gulp of oxygen. A photo of Farage holding an Ipswich shirt aloft, seemingly in their press conference room, was swiftly emblazoned as the banner on his party’s X account. Before long Farage, ever the opportunist, was launching a video from the scene and cockily linking himself with the Ipswich manager’s job.

• Home nations frontrunners to host Women’s World Cup

• United’s New Stadium Development wants showpiece

The FA is resisting lobbying from Manchester United to nominate a rebuilt Old Trafford as the venue for the 2035 Women’s World Cup final.

The chief executive of United’s New Stadium Development, Collette Roche, went public with the club’s aspirations to host the 2035 final for the first time on Tuesday but the FA is committed to staging the showpiece occasion at Wembley.

• Ireland face Czech Republic in playoff semi-final

• Coleman: ‘We are just riding the wave of confidence’

Séamus Coleman believes the Republic of Ireland have “a duty” to lift the country by completing the job of qualifying for a World Cup finals for the first time since 2002.

Ireland visit the Czech ­Republic on Thursday in a World Cup playoff semi‑final that few would have imagined possible after collecting one point from their opening three qualifiers. Having reignited their campaign with two Troy Parrott-inspired wins against Portugal and Hungary in November, however, Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side will take confidence and momentum into their bid to end a 24-year absence from the World Cup.

• World champion hosts ‘Three Lions darts championship’

• Littler: ‘It was a dream as a football fan to come here’

Luke Littler was happy to teach the England squad how to hit the target as he hosted a darts tournament at St George’s Park.

The double world champion visited Thomas Tuchel’s group as they build up towards upcoming pre-World Cup friendlies with Uruguay and Japan.

Sadness over the Egyptian King’s departure from Liverpool is matched by gratitude for the goals and glory he gave supporters

The first time I saw Mohamed Salah play was in August 2017. Arsenal were the visitors to Anfield. Liverpool were sensational on that sunny Sunday afternoon. Bobby Firmino and Sadio Mané had fashioned a 2-0 first-half lead, before the third member of Jürgen Klopp’s new attacking trio added his name to the scoresheet.

Arsenal’s corner was cleared to Héctor Bellerín, about 30 yards out. Salah was on him instantly, robbing the hapless Spaniard easily. His whirring legs blurred like the Road Runner’s as he raced into the Arsenal half and towards Petr Cech. I’d never seen a player bear down on the Kop goal so rapidly.

Despite a recent focus on youth, the big SPL clubs will have the Middle East’s biggest star in their sights, bringing a possible link-up with Mané and Ronaldo

“We do not know where Mohamed will play next season,” Mohamed Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, said on social media on Tuesday. “This also means that no one else knows. Beware of the attention seekers.”

A worthy warning but a futile one now that the Liverpool legend has confirmed he is leaving Anfield at the end of this season. While there will be some attention on whether he can end a hugely successful nine‑year spell with a trophy, clicks worldwide will be focused more on his next destination.

George Raynor led Sweden to Olympic glory and a World Cup final, but he was never appreciated back home

By The Set Pieces

Nobody wanted him. An ambitious young English coach who was bursting with new ideas grew more and more frustrated as his efforts to land a job in his homeland fell flat. Application after application came to nothing, his reputation as a lower-league player meaning he rarely received a reply. But then came hope. A new opportunity opened up in Sweden. It was a relative football outpost, but it was the foothold the coach had been craving. George Raynor was finally going to be a football manager.

Raynor’s big break in 1946 has a few parallels to the path that Graham Potter has taken in management. Potter is unlikely to win an Olympic gold medal or lead Sweden to the World Cup final but that was not the aim for Raynor either. Swedish football was very different when Raynor took the job in the 1940s. The domestic league maintained a staunch amateur philosophy that extended to the national side.

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Plus: swift ascents up the pyramid, Steve Palmer’s maverick set of shirts and an infamous 2004 Olympic penalty

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“During a rather animated discussion at the pub recently, the topic of footballers ‘retiring from international football’ came up,” says Edd Crick. “We were reminiscing about the days when footballers simply stopped being picked for international games, so who was the first to come out and declare their retirement this way?”

We assumed this was a fairly modern development, but it goes back at least as far as the 1950s. Let’s look at the leading answers in reverse chronological order, starting with one of the stars of Italia 90. “Roger Milla is arguably responsible for popularising the concept of international retirement (not to mention elaborate goal celebrations) by famously unretiring at the request of the Cameroon president Paul Biya to play in the 1990 World Cup,” writes Tom Reed. “Milla had formally retired from playing for Cameroon at a jubilee event following victory in the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations.”

• Son Cameron confirms 77-year-old has the disease

• Toshack managed Swansea and Madrid among many

The Liverpool and Wales great John Toshack has been diagnosed with dementia, according to his son ­Cameron.

Toshack had a celebrated playing career with the Merseyside club, scoring 96 goals and winning nine trophies between 1970 and 1978, and earning 40 caps for Wales before turning to management, including roles with Real Sociedad, Real Madrid and his national team.

• Current trophy is embossed with old WSL logo

• WSL2 trophy also set for a complete redesign

The Women’s Super League trophy will be redesigned for the 2026-27 season when the league expands to 14 teams. It is understood that the WSL and WSL2 trophies are set for a complete overhaul to bring them in line with the WSL rebrand which was introduced last summer.

The current WSL and WSL2 trophies are embossed with the old WSL and Championship logos, prompting the need for change. As a result, at the end of this season both trophies will have a smooth flat top, with the old logos removed, before new silverware is introduced next year.

• Midfielder could make debut against Uruguay or Japan

• Garner: ‘I knew I had to show everybody what I’m about’

James Garner always planned this to be a defining year in his career and is reaping the rewards after receiving a first England call-up, the Everton midfielder has said. The 25-year-old could make his international debut over the next week, having impressed Thomas Tuchel with his form.

England face Uruguay on Friday and Japan on Tuesday, giving Garner two chances of an international debut, with this the final chance for players to impress before the World Cup squad is announced. He received the news in a phone call from Tuchel last week, keeping the news to himself for a day before informing his family. “I told myself at the start of the season that this season has to be the season that I can show everyone what I can do and I think so far I have done,” Garner said.

Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich and WSL derby will shape the rest of United’s season

It is no exaggeration to describe the next seven days as the most significant week of fixtures in the history of the Manchester United women’s team, as they contest their first European quarter-final with a crucial derby in between.

Debutants in the Champions League main draw, Marc Skinner’s side now have three box-office matches in huge arenas, starting with the first leg of their quarter‑final against Bayern Munich on Wednesday at Old Trafford, as the runaway Frauen‑Bundesliga leaders arrive in England hoping to illustrate their own European title credentials. The stage is set for a thriller.

Thirty-five players, late callups, including Ben White, but still no Trent Alexander-Arnold. Will James Garner win the World Cup for England? What chance do recalled Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo have of getting into the final group? And realistically what starting positions are still up for grabs? Then on to the Football League. Are Coventry ready for the the Premier League? Who of Middlesborough, Ipswich, Millwall and Hull would be the most interesting to join them? It’s exhaustingly tight at the bottom of the Championship, with Oxford, Leicester, Portsmouth, West Brom and Blackburn all desperate to avoid joining Sheffield Wednesday. Lincoln City could be promoted from League One at Easter, with Cardiff sure to join them, leaving nine teams still vying for the playoffs. In League Two, it’s pick three from six for the automatics, with Bromley almost certainly there, plus a four-way scrap to stay in the Football League.

Head coach has been preparing for playoff against Turkey in hospital and sees job as ‘duty to Romanian football’

Mircea Lucescu is fighting for one last World Cup while at the same time battling his own body. He has lived through thousands of games as a player and manager but these could be the hardest of them all: two playoff games to take Romania to their first World Cup in 28 years.

Lucescu is 80 years old now and has not been well – but he has lost none of his energy, nor love for the game. Since December he has been admitted to hospital on three occasions but here he is, with an espresso in front of him, discussing his long career, the playoff semi‑final against Turkey on Thursday and Ukraine, a place he used to call home. He does not, however, want to disclose the exact nature of his illness for fear that it will become the focus over the next few weeks.

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With ratings declining, it was inevitable ties needed to be severed without commissioning a new season of a cherished Liverpudlian mainstay. This is what happens when things get tired, they can never replicate what they were in their prime. It is no great shame to have such a long run, collect plenty of awards on the way and finally realise the industry has moved on and there is nothing fresh you can bring to compete with the elite rivals. Plenty of drama and joy was provided, testing the boundaries of what was possible and changing a nation in the process by challenging the establishment. But in the end, time caught up with Brookside and it had to go.

The Egyptian is leaving Anfield in the summer. How much do you know about the forward’s time on Merseyside?

From World Cup preparations to Champions League complications, the issues facing football in the region

It has been a little over three weeks since the United States and Israel attacked Iran and plunged the Middle East into war. Football there is struggling to deal with the fallout from the conflict. Here are the issues.

Despite being 150th in the world rankings, the French overseas territory can dream of a truly astounding achievement

Roussillon is a small town nestled in the Rhône valley, about 40 minutes south of Lyon by car, and a reminder that the most extraordinary stories can hide in the most ordinary of places. One player says “the town doesn’t ‘live’ for [its] club”, but as you head through the town centre and towards Salaise Rhodia’s stadium, you begin to doubt whether the town lives at all; welcome to a Sunday in rural France.

Around 30 minutes before the start of the game, the single stand begins to fill. Everyone seems to know each other in some way. Entry is free for what is a top of the table encounter in the Régional 2, the seventh tier of French football, against Craponne AS.

Former England forward started against Ajax but failed to make an impression and was hooked early on by Robin van Persie

When the moment came, Raheem Sterling ran out of road. At long last a few yards of space had opened up and here, advertised by a spike in the decibel level around De Kuip, was an invitation to attack the Ajax right-back Lucas Rosa. There was no doubting what his mind intended to do: go around the outside, skitter along the byline and execute in the manner that has defined a largely brilliant career. For a split second the muscle memory seemed enough but Rosa’s angles were perfect and the legs had no way of compensating. Just as he had in a tighter spot before half-time, Sterling could only dribble the ball off the pitch.

Four minutes later, he would be exiting it for good. Feyenoord had gone a goal down in De Klassieker to a drab, workmanlike Ajax and the unfortunate truth was that there was only one place to look.

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. Today, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them.

Twenty-six minutes. That’s all the game time Gio Reyna has played in 2026. He hasn’t played at all for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the last two months. For any other player, this surely would’ve kept them off the US roster for the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Portugal. US manager Pochettino has consistently repeated the point that club form matters when building these squads. Reyna, however, isn’t any other player.

The Parma Women's second team player Claudia Morelli deliberately missed a penalty that was wrongly awarded, while their match against Hic Sunt Leones was still level at 0-0.

The referee awarded the penalty after the Hic Sunt Leones goalkeeper made a save, mistakenly thinking a defender had handled the ball instead, and therefore Morelli sportingly decided to simply pass her spot-kick tamely towards the keeper.

Parma went on to win the match 9-1 and clinch their respective league title with an unbeaten season

There was talk of this being a last hurrah at home for a golden generation of Matildas. But their performance showed a glimmer of something else

Two steps to the left. That’s probably all the space Alanna Kennedy needed to poke the ball away from the edge of her own penalty area and back into the field of possibility.

But these are the gaps where football lives, in the inches that open and close like a hand, and by the time the veteran midfielder had spun in surprise, the ball was thwacking the back of the net as Maika Hamano wheeled off into the night.

Nellie Pou’s bill follows refusal of ICE chief Todd Lyons to rule out enforcement near stadiums and fan festivals

A New Jersey congresswoman introduced legislation on Thursday to block immigration enforcement from conducting raids within a mile of a Fifa World Cup soccer match or fan festival in the US this summer.

The Save the World Cup bill, introduced by Nellie Pou, a Democrat, is meant to assure visitors that they will not be detained and to remove the chilling effect of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations on the events, she said in a release. The World Cup’s first US match begins on 12 June.

The Egypt forward led Galatasaray a merry dance for 17 second-half minutes to Anfield’s delight

Welcome back, Mo. The old place has missed you. How many more of these are we going to get?

It would be incorrect to say this was Mohamed Salah’s night at Anfield. It was instead Mohamed Salah’s 17 second‑half minutes, although these were the decisive 17 minutes in this Champions League tie, and one of those interludes at this ground where a kind of voodoo descends, the night goes a little wonky and ghosts flicker at the edge of things.

The Herons are out of the Champions Cup after defeat to Nashville. Now it’s back to the same old hits for the club

Concacaf may not have the world’s most hallowed Champions League. The confederation is so aware of that fact that it rebranded the competition as a Champions Cup two years ago.

Nonetheless, winning the continental competition is the ultimate aim for MLS’s most ambitious clubs, even though (or perhaps because) only one of its last 25 installments has seen an MLS team crowned as Concacaf’s best. Liga MX continues to dominate the competition, boasting 21 winners since 2001, even as MLS improves. Even Costa Rica’s Liga Promerica has more titles since the turn of the century thanks to back-to-back victories for Alajuelense and Saprissa in the mid-2000s.

The head coach is not responsible for many of the problems at Anfield but he is the most obvious target for those seeking reasons for the team’s decline

It was the coffee bar at the training ground, installed by the Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive, Michael Edwards, after he got the idea from visiting Roma. It was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, added to the post-match playlist by Alisson and which could be heard booming out of the Liverpool dressing room after victories. It was the video analysis. It was the data. It was the pre-season fitness tests. It was the close collaboration between the football and sports science departments. It was everything that changed from the Jürgen Klopp era. It was everything that stayed the same from the Jürgen Klopp era.

Victory brings a dazzling clarity. Particularly a victory as resounding as Liverpool’s unexpected 10-point romp to the Premier League title last season. It turns the cogs, powers the houses, confers a sunlit aura of genius on everyone involved. So with a certain uncharitable hindsight, it is instructive to go back to late April 2025 and read about how everyone thought Liverpool had done it. And why everyone – wrongly – thought they were going to do it again.

Ruling of the Caf appeals committee is against the laws of the game and casts another shadow over Motsepe’s stewardship as president

In more than three decades of reporting on African football, I have gone through the entire gamut of emotions: exhilaration over some of the continent’s great moments at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and World Cup; frustration over the errors its governors make; and deep despair, wondering whether its custodians will ever live up to their responsibilities and do their jobs diligently.

The decision on Tuesday, by the appeals committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), to strip Senegal of the 2025 Afcon title and hand it to Morocco, leaves me gobsmacked, as it did a former member of the appeals committee. “As a person who was on the appeals board for six years I know it does not have the power to change the on-field decision of a referee. I cannot understand how they came to this disgraceful decision,” he said.

Our cartoonist on the master beating the apprentice as Manchester City got one over Arsenal at Wembley

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Transformative 999-year deal is a massive moment in the history of the club and the violent cultural push-pull of London

I have in my hand several hundred pieces of paper. Dog-eared, scribbled with rewrites, and stained with sweat and ancient Bermondsey vinegar. But a wodge of paper that may just guarantee, finally, what passes for peace around here.

There was a moment at the Den on Saturday afternoon that carried its own strictly localised sense of history. An hour before kick-off in Millwall’s Premier League playoff-push game against Portsmouth, the key personnel gathered in a wedding-style lineup around the centre circle.

Former Norwich defender lived for years in an LA motel, cut ties with his family for more than three decades and is now the subject of a documentary

“I hated it,” Tony Powell says on a spring afternoon in Los Angeles of his past as a secretly gay professional footballer for Bournemouth and Norwich in the 1970s. Powell is 78 and now lives in a very different world compared with when he was a husband, the father of two young daughters and Norwich’s player of the season in 1979.

Powell is not a demonstrative man and, having been forced to bury his true self for decades, does not make a fuss about the pain he endured. But there is an ache in his English accent, which remains intact after 45 years in America. “I just wanted to be who I am, but at that time it was not a good idea to come out.”

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

Max Rushden and Barry Glendenning went to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas last week. With only a few months to go before the World Cup, the pair are joined live on stage by The Guardian’s senior US soccer editor, Alexander Abnos, and star of the hit TV show Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt.

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Only two of the Premier League’s last-16 teams made it to the quarter-finals while European giants are coming into form when it matters

Another traumatic week for the self-worth of the Premier League, one in which Europe’s big beasts got into their stride. The defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, put on a devastating display at Chelsea. Bradley Barcola’s goal, their second, was the highlight of a 3-0 win. Barcelona ran out 7-2 winners over Newcastle, having been level at half-time at 2-2, 3-3 on aggregate. Real Madrid continue to be Pep Guardiola’s great tormentors, with Vinícius Júnior getting both goals at Manchester City. His crybaby celebration was aimed at those City supporters who mocked him after Rodri pipped the Brazilian to the Ballon d’Or in 2024. Bayern Munich continue to look irresistible. Harry Kane scored twice, and Lennart Karl’s strike continued his trajectory as German football’s next big thing in a 4-1 win over Atalanta, a mighty 10-2 on aggregate.

Only existing since 2024, the team, who came fourth at the world championship, has changed its players’ lives

“We are the first, but we will not be the last.” The rallying cry came from Eliane Gonçalves, a 39-year-old midfielder of the Brazilian women’s blind football national team during one of their training camps. The team’s psychologist had suggested the team come up with something to shout before matches. Gonçalves offered that line – and it stuck.

The team had existed for less than a year when they landed in Kochi, India, in October 2025. In their opening game of the world championship, Brazil beat the host nation 1-0 – and Gonçalves scored the goal. She had started playing only two years earlier after gradually losing her sight to a hereditary condition called retinitis pigmentosa. Sport had pulled her through the hardest period. “When I started losing my vision, I was very lost. Everything was completely different,” she says. “Sport took me out of depression. It gave me a better perspective on life, new dreams.”

The Gunners have a nine-point lead in the Premier League. But recent run-ins, and their loss to City on Sunday, will keep them wary

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Some day, probably quite soon, Arsenal will win something again. Quite probably something much bigger than the Carabao Cup. But until then, there is only going to be anxiety, and it is going to get worse after Sunday’s second-half freeze against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final, which City won 2-0. Wembley could have seen the start of the Arsenal era, perhaps even the first leg of an unprecedented Quadruple; instead it was City celebrating, and with a gusto that suggested the past couple of years of dearth have served as a useful reminder that these occasions can never be taken for granted.

Claims that victory in this final could be a huge psychological blow in the title race are perhaps a little fanciful. One game is one game. Professional athletes, robust self-belief integral to their existence, recover from defeats. But still, that flatness in the second half, the way Arsenal were pinned back and unable to break forward, has to be a concern. City were able to use the way Arsenal like to control the pace of the game against them, the short passes out from the goalkeeper used as a way of penning them in as they closed down passing lanes, allowing their defenders to have the ball and denying them options. What was that? A tactical triumph for Pep Guardiola? Exhaustion from Arsenal? Or the familiar mental fragility returning?

Today’s newsletter looks at the women who grew up in the 1970s, 80s and 90s loving football but had little or no opportunity to play. I was one of them

I screamed so loudly when Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal in the 2022 European Championship that our children ran from the room. They were too young to understand what it meant. Since then they’ve watched the Lionesses reach the final of the 2023 World Cup and seen them victorious at Euro 2025. They are growing up with women playing football on TV.

I cried at that win four years ago. I watched the Lionesses in awe, but also with a sense of loss for what I never had the chance to become. According to Fifa’s 2023 Member Association survey report, the number of women and girls playing organised football has grown by 24% since 2019, to more than 16.6 million, with 3.9 million registered female players. Fifa’s Women’s Football Strategy 2024-27 aims to achieve 60 million registered players by next year.

Max Rushden is joined by Sanny Rudravajhala, George Elek and Ali Maxwell to discuss who made it into Thomas Tuchel’s England squad before the international break … and who didn’t

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Thirty-five players, late callups, including Ben White, but still no Trent Alexander-Arnold. Will James Garner win the World Cup for England? What chance do recalled Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo have of getting into the final group? And realistically what starting positions are still up for grabs?

Max Rushden is joined by Seb Hutchinson, Dan Bardell and John Brewin to review Manchester City’s 2-0 win over Arsenal at Wembley, ending hopes of Arteta’s side winning the quadruple

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Manchester City won the Carabao Cup. Two goals for Nico O’Reilly as Pep Guardiola danced with anyone and everyone. He played a reserve keeper who was good. Mikel Arteta played a reserve keeper who wasn’t, but the rest of the team also didn’t really turn up. What does that mean for the rest of the season? Could Arsenal really come second in everything?

Kobbie Mainoo needs a power boost, Everton revel in home comforts but Brentford must rediscover their buzz

• Premier League top scorers: check the latest standings

One theory behind Manchester City’s subpar 18 months is that the end is sliding into view on Pep Guardiola’s glorious reign, and the fact that he may be considering life after City is transmitting itself to his players. Sunday’s Carabao Cup win goes some way to refuting that. Not only did he see off the challenge of his former apprentice Mikel Arteta, but it was vintage Guardiola on the touchline. He looked gobsmacked when decisions didn’t go his side’s way, produced a Chuck Norris tribute kick to an advertising hoarding when City took the lead then sprinted down the touchline, fists pumping, when Nico O’Reilly scored his second of a fairytale final for the club’s local lad. If Guardiola’s intense level of care has dropped, he’s disguising it well. Anybody writing off him – and City’s league title ambitions – would do well to remember just what level of manager we are dealing with here. Alex Reid

Match report: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Player ratings: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest

Goal records and late winners caught the eye on a good weekend for both Manchester clubs

A 13-minute Khadija Shaw hat-trick helped Manchester City with an emphatic 5-2 win against Tottenham as they inch closer to the WSL title. Shaw, a strong contender for player of the season, scored her 18th goal in 18 league games. It was her fourth consecutive hat-trick at home against Spurs and the fastest in the league’s history. All three goals were headers as the visitors crumbled under City’s aerial prowess from set pieces. Shaw’s 15-goal total against Spurs is the most goals one player has scored against an opponent in the league. The club and supporters will be desperate to see the Jamaica striker stay ondespite her contract expiring in the summer. City need eight points to secure the title and Shaw said: “Keep going, keep our heads down, keep focused. Don’t watch the noise in the market, watch the sale.” Renuka Odedra

WSL roundup: Shaw’s 13-minute treble edges City closer

WSL roundup: Leicester still rooted to bottom despite leading

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