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⚽ Champions League playoff first leg, 5.45pm GMT kick-off
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7 min: Newcastle are carving Qarabag open. Joe Willock runs through the middle before slipping in Harvey Barnes. Barnes hits it down to the keeper’s left and it’s out for a corner.

5 min: Qarabag head the other way, working it well on the left. It rolls out to Joni Montiel but his effort is blocked and goes out for a corner.

⚽ Premier League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off
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Wolves make three changes to the team that started the goalless draw at Nottingham Forest last Wednesday. André, Jean‐Ricner Bellegarde and Jackson Tchatchoua come in for Rodrigo Gomes, João Gomes and Tolu Arokodare, who all drop to the bench.

Arsenal make four changes to the XI that began the 1-1 draw at Brentford last Thursday. Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli are back; Eberechi Eze,
Leandro Trossard and Cristhian Mosquera step down.

Portuguese managed Fenerbahce and leads his new side into their Europa League playoff sounding confident

As Vítor Pereira wrapped up his pre-match media duties at Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on Wednesday evening, his assistant Luís Miguel Moreira da Silva waited at the mouth of the tunnel. “Let’s go?” he said as Pereira eventually emerged, before the Nottingham Forest squad followed the pair on to the pitch.

Then it was down to business, Pereira’s first assignment in charge of Forest at one of his 13 former clubs, Fenerbahce. For Pereira, the Kadikoy district of Istanbul represents familiar territory, having lived in the city across two enjoyable but trophy-less spells here as a manager, most recently in 2021.

• Backing a sign of improved relations between presidents

• Tournament expected not to be held every two years

Uefa is ready to back Fifa’s proposed expansion of the Club World Cup to 48 teams for the next edition in 2029 in a sign of improving relations between their respective presidents, Aleksander Ceferin and Gianni Infantino.

The European football governing body had opposed plans to grow the Club World Cup over concerns an expanded tournament could threaten the status of the Champions League, but Uefa is now willing to back Fifa in return for an undertaking that the competition will not be held every two years.

The Brazilian has seen this before, football has seen this before and yet why does it feel like nothing ever changes?

José Mourinho: against provoking opposition fans. José Mourinho: in favour of restrained celebrations. José Mourinho, once of the poke-in-the-eye, sprint-down-the-touchline, accost-the-referee-in-the-car-park school of footballing expression: now apparently very big on showing respect to the game. Well, it seems like we’ve all been on a journey here.

“I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was Black,” Mourinho recounted when asked about his conversation with Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday night. “This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.” And doubtless these words will have been a profound source of comfort to Vinícius in his lowest moment, having been insulted on the pitch by an opposition player in a Champions League playoff.

What made the Manchester United co-owner’s anti-immigrant screed so revolting was his brazen willingness to say it all out loud. Remind you of anyone?

Did British petrochemicals billionaire and Manchester United’s controlling minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, really mean it when he proclaimed to Sky News that “the UK is being colonized by immigrants”?

Is Ratcliffe simply a gutter racist or actually making a cynical political play that may redound to his benefit down the line when Britain faces down yet another period of political upheaval as the country’s old factions continue to fracture? There’s reasonable debate to be had there.

• Samir Sobha says Caf’s statutes are not being respected

• Véron Mosengo-Omba is past compulsory retirement age

A member of the Confederation of African football’s executive committee has said the general secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, is “occupying the seat illegally” and must be made to stand down.

Samir Sobha, the president of the Mauritius Football Association, said he would not accept Mosengo-Omba’s presence at Caf meetings because the 66-year-old Swiss-Congolese lawyer no longer holds the position legitimately.

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An Italian word that roughly translates to the grit and fierce determination upon which Juventus have historically based their relentless, never-say-die attitude, “grinta” was fairly conspicuous by its absence in Istanbul on Tuesday night. Instead it was replaced by a collective performance that had all the structural integrity of a soggy cannolo. Having come from a goal down to lead at half-time courtesy of two Teun Koopmeiners goals, Juve did show a modicum of resilience in their Bigger Cup shellacking at the hands of Galatasaray, but only before a second-half collapse so preposterous it suggested their half-time refreshments had been spiked with LSD or magic mushrooms. While there was always a decent chance an ensemble cast of Galatasaray Expendables featuring Davinson Sánchez, Lucas Torreira, Victor Osimhen, Leroy Sané, Mauro Icardi and Ilkay Gündogan would give their Italian visitors a good run for their money over two legs, few could have foreseen them spanking five goals past the Bianconeri in the first one.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily tour of refereeing nightmares across Europe, I’d like to wave an assistant referee’s flag for England. Darren England’s immaculate reffing of the Macclesfield v Brentford FA Cup tie showed it can be done, and done very well, without VAR” – John French.

Re: the question in yesterday’s Football Daily: ‘Who wants to be a referee?’ Well, I do. I love football. I am a very weak player. If I do not referee games, those games may not get played. The only thing worse than a game with several refereeing errors is a game where no referees are present and players try to make calls themselves. I have been part of that, too. What would help is more excellent former players who choose to referee” – George Affeldt.

Dare I make a suggestion from across the pond to help remedy football’s terrible implementation of VAR? Virtually none of America’s conduct is praiseworthy these days, but the one thing we have done well is the way video reviews have been implemented. The key has been the challenge system, rather than reviewing almost every important call, as in the Premier League. Managers/coaches are given a very limited number of challenges to on-field decisions, and they need to decide whether or not to challenge almost immediately. If their challenge is correct, the call is overturned and they get another to use later. If they are wrong, they lose the ability to challenge any important ref howlers that might be just around the corner. The video booth can’t intrude with some piece of minutiae that no one on the field noticed, and we don’t typically have 1,057 controversies per game. There is one downside for fans: highly entertaining manager meltdowns are now a rarity here. If you really believe a call is wrong, you challenge it, and if you don’t have a challenge because you were wrong in your last one, you eat some humble pie, something the former-player pundits of the Premier League should consider adding to their diets” – Steve Plever.

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

In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions

Thomas Clements’ eyes begin dancing as he recalls in vivid detail his first trip to Highbury. It was 1995 and Ian Wright was among the scorers as QPR were defeated. Clements – named after Mickey Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title win – points to his dad, Kevin, standing a metre away. “I was sat on his shoulders in the North Bank,” he says.

That is, in itself, not unusual for a child of the 1980s. However, whereas most regular match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things – travel arrangements, the journey to the stadium, grabbing food and drink, meeting friends and family, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning go into all arrangements.

Plus: high-scoring symmetrical scorelines, Scottish two-club title winners and an almost-one-club manager

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Has a footballer ever been sent off but still won player of the match?” asked Jimmy Clark. The short answer is yes, quite a few. We’ll kick off with a couple of recent examples.

“In 2024 Anthony Gordon was shown a second yellow card for Newcastle against West Ham just as the TNT commentary team were declaring him the player of the match,” writes Tom Reed. You can see the moment in question in this video (around 2:50), as Gordon is dismissed after kicking the ball away. Perhaps the substitute Harvey Barnes, who scored twice in the 4-3 comeback win, would have been a better choice.

The Winslow pub closed last month after serving pints to Everton players, managers and fans for 140 years

By When Saturday Comes

On Saturday January 24, Duncan Ferguson walked into the Winslow Hotel pub on Goodison Road and handed licensee Dave Bond £1,000 to put behind the bar. Ferguson, the former Everton centre-forward, was there because the Winslow, 140 years old and standing in the shadow of Goodison Park’s towering Main Stand, was closing. Eight months after Everton’s men left Goodison, this was another farewell party and Ferguson had turned up to say goodbye. “It was a brilliant gesture,” said Bond.

Ferguson was not the only ex-Evertonian present. Former captain Alan Stubbs, 1995 FA Cup winners Graham Stuart and Joe Parkinson, and 1987 League champion Ian Snodin each had a turn on the mic. Kevin Sheedy, one of the heroes of Howard Kendall’s great mid-1980s team, made an appearance too.

• Désiré Doué helps Paris side fight back for 3-2 first-leg win

• Galatasaray stun 10-man Juve; Dortmund beat Atalanta

The Champions League holders, Paris Saint-Germain, overcame a terrible start and a two-goal deficit to beat 10-man Monaco 3-2 in the first leg of their playoff tie. Désiré Doué came off the bench to engineer an impressive turnaround for PSG, who conceded a goal in the opening minute and were 2-0 down after 18 minutes as Folarin Balogun grabbed a double for the hosts.

The 20-year-old Doué replaced the Ballon d’Or winner, Ousmane Dembélé, who went off injured after 27 minutes, and proved decisive for the visitors as he struck two superb goals and set up one for Achraf Hakimi.

Starting next year, MLS will align itself with big European leagues and become a summer-to-spring operation. Executives see the change as an opportunity

Few constants have endured from MLS’s 1996 debut to now. It’s still an operational soccer league, for one thing. There’s the name itself, although its initial logo was shelved in 2015 for its current shield-and-kickstand. Eight of the 10 teams that launched the league remain involved, though each one has changed their name, crest, or both over time.

Another rare constant will soon fade into the rearview: the league’s schedule. MLS has run spring-to-fall/winter since its launch, more specifically from late February to early December in recent years. Preseason kicks off at the start of each new year, three weeks or so after the previous season’s championship bout. It’s a pretty well-ironed routine, even as ancillary competitions like the Leagues Cup and Club World Cup shuffle the middle bits each year.

• Welsh side denied a fifth successive away win

• Portsmouth ease worries with victory at Charlton

Bristol City denied Wrexham a fifth successive Championship away win as Max Bird’s spectacular late volley secured a 2-2 draw at Ashton Gate. Wrexham twice led, through Ollie Rathbone and a Joe Williams own goal, but the visitors were rewarded for a spirited second-half performance.

Sinclair Armstrong drove home soon after the restart and fellow substitute Bird smashed home off the underside of the crossbar from 20 yards out two minutes from time.

• South American and Caribbean partnership runs to 2031

• Substantial rise contrasts with stagnant domestic rights

The Premier League has secured a 25% increase on the value of its broadcast contact in South America and the Caribbean by agreeing a new deal with the American network ESPN. The Guardian has learned that ESPN has agreed to extend its longstanding partnership until 2031, with the new deal understood to be worth about £450m.

The Premier League told the clubs about the new deal at the shareholders’ meeting last Friday, when they were also updated about TV rights contracts in other regions that are due to go out to tender shortly.

• James, Hampton and Greenwood also return for England

• Head coach’s deal due to run out after 2027 World Cup

Sarina Wiegman insisted that ­­entering the final 17 months of her contract as England’s head coach was not a distraction, as she named her first squad of 2026 and recalled the fit-again captain, Leah ­Williamson, for the side’s meetings with Ukraine and Iceland next month.

Williamson’s fellow Euro 2025 winners Hannah Hampton, Alex Greenwood and Lauren James have also been recalled after injuries, along with Jess Carter, who missed England’s final matches of 2025 to recover from the NWSL playoffs. However, the Lionesses are without Ella Toone, Beth Mead, Niamh Charles and Missy Bo Kearns because of injury as the team get their 2027 World Cup qualifying campaign under way.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Nicky Bandini as a brilliant Vinícius goal is overshadowed by alleged racist abuse at Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Benfica

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Wise remembers long throws with Vinnie Jones, training in a park with Gus Poyet and scoring in Europe for Millwall

By The Coaches’ Voice

As a young player I had been told a few times that I wasn’t quite good enough. Wimbledon manager Dave Bassett was the one who looked at me in a different way. He was the man who gave me that all-important opportunity. In terms of structuring a team, he was on the ball in everything he did.

He was a long way in front of a lot of others, but because of the way he was, people looked at him in a different way. If he had been well-spoken and had what you might call an intelligent way about him, people would have looked at him differently. They would have said: “Wow, this guy is miles ahead.”

In an age in which every gripe is highlighted and performative fury is good business, there is an argument that long-termism has become impossible

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Last week, Thomas Frank was sacked as manager of Tottenham and Sean Dyche was sacked as manager of Nottingham Forest. Both decisions were entirely explicable in their own terms. Frank had won only two of his previous 17 league games and Dyche only two of his previous 10. Both saw the improvement of West Ham under Nuno Espírito Santo and felt the drag of potential relegation. When fear sets in and something has to change, football tends to sacrifice the manager.

Excluding caretakers and interims, their departures take the number of Premier League managers to leave their jobs this season to eight, with Oliver Glasner to come at the end of the season, when Marco Silva and Andoni Iraola are also out of contract. Last season there were 10 departures, in 2023-24 nine, in 2022-23 an absurd 18. To give a little context, in the first season of the Premier League, 1992-93, there were only four changes (five if you include Dave Webb at Chelsea, who was effectively an interim, although he did not officially have that title). The average life span of a Premier League manager has dropped from about four seasons to about a season and a half.

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

Rayo had to prepare at Getafe’s place and play at Leganés’s stadium. But they still managed to upset Atlético Madrid

One day in November, the coach of Rayo Vallecano decided that was it: he was out. The captain in whom he finds strength had reached a similar conclusion long ago, handing in his armband as an act of protest and dignity. Two Fridays ago, the squad signed a statement saying they couldn’t carry on like this. And last Friday, the fans who’ve been through it all before decided they too would walk away. Yet 48 hours later, after another week that proved them right, resisting everything, there they were still, celebrating another implausible success, another day when they had stuck it to The Man. If not, admittedly, the man they’d like to stick it to.

Actually, ‘there’? Not all of them were in the same place, even if that was a way of showing they were in this together. Because Rayo fans were out on the streets of the self-styled independent republic of Vallecas with their banners and scarves and songs on Sunday, while their team and coach were 10km south, playing in a different city. With their training ground unusable and their home home ground declared to be so too, they had to prepare at Getafe’s place and play at Leganés’s stadium. Where, in front of 9,000 empty seats, and kicking off in the relegation zone, they only went and beat Atlético Madrid 3-0, three days after Diego’s Simeone’s side had battered Barcelona 4-0.

Pressure is telling on Scott Parker at Burnley while Dominik Szoboszlai is reaching new heights for Liverpool

The lack of pressure on Scott Parker this season, despite a collection of desperate performances and an impending relegation, has been mystifying. Plenty at Turf Moor feel a strong sense of loyalty to Parker, especially the chairman, Alan Pace, but support in the stands is dwindling. The lack of backing in the winter transfer window left the squad short of quality and with limited routes out of their current predicament. The Burnley head coach’s Premier League record is miserable and the style of play is devoid of entertainment. At the weekend he had the chance to follow a first league victory in 17 matches at Crystal Palace with FA Cup progress against third-tier Mansfield, but instead Burnley were deservedly eliminated. The second-half efforts of the Clarets bordered on embarrassment in a half-full ground and it feels like things cannot continue like this much longer. Will Unwin

Match report: Burnley 1-2 Mansfield

Match report: Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle

Match report: Liverpool 3-0 Brighton

Match report: Burton 0-1 West Ham (aet)

Match report: Hull 0-4 Chelsea

Juve directors condemned Pierre Kalulu’s dismissal but beyond the outrage there were reasons to take heart

At the end of a spectacular, ferocious Derby d’Italia, none of Juventus’s players nor their manager would answer questions from the media. Instead, their chief executive, Damien Comolli, and director of football strategy, Giorgio Chiellini, spoke on the club’s behalf. They were not there to discuss tactical nuance.

“You can’t talk about football today,” said Chiellini. “Something unacceptable happened.” Comolli offered an even more grave verdict: “Juventus lost three points, but Italian football lost much more.” A strong claim. If true, might Comolli have done better to acknowledge his part in it?

Lauren James shows what Chelsea have been missing, Villa get a ‘cruel’ crushing and the leaders bounce back

If there were any questions about how Manchester City would respond to seeing their unbeaten league run end, they were quickly put to bed. Andrée Jeglertz’s side were back to their free-flowing attacking best, putting six past Leicester. Dominant seems to be a bit of an understatement when describing this performance. The league leaders created 31 chances, with 15 on target; had an expected goals of 4.63; registered 66 touches in the opposition box; and made 600 of 660 passes (91%). The front four of Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw, Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema is formidable and they were involved, to some degree, in five of the six goals. Hemp starred down the left, creating 11 chances that include two assists; Shaw sent home a trademark header for her 15th league goal of the season; Miedema pulled the strings and grabbed herself a double; and Kerolin scored the pick of the bunch and registered an assist. Sophie Downey

Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

• Sam Kerr among 26 players selected but injured Charli Grant misses out

• Australia open tournament against Philippines in Perth on 1 March

The Matildas have backed Mary Fowler to return to fitness for the Women’s Asian Cup despite the star attacker playing just 15 minutes since returning from a serious knee injury.

Australia head coach Joe Montemurro selected Fowler among 26 players for the tournament on home soil despite her falling well short of the three 90-minute matches he said in November that he hoped she would have played before the squad was named.

Sebastian Hoeness’s side are back in the top four but face test to keep hold of top talent again this summer

Köln had been here before. “It’s not the second time, but the fifth or sixth time,” said the forward Marius Bülter, “that we’ve sat in the locker room after a game, not able to blame ourselves much, but still left with zero points.” His coach, Lukas Kwasniok, described it as “Groundhog Day”, after “a more than decent performance against top opponents”.

Their words are the signal, if it were needed, that Stuttgart really have arrived at the top of German football. Effzeh’s players and coaching staff alike felt that this fitted snugly into a growing list of hard-luck stories; last week’s home loss to RB Leipzig, last month’s game with Bayern Munich when the champions didn’t take the lead until late on, or even the autumn defeat at Dortmund where they were beaten by Maxi Beier’s goal deep into stoppage time.

Pierre Sage’s team thrashed Paris FC 5-0 to go top of the table yet he is still talking about avoiding relegation

By Get French Football News

Marseille have a propensity to explode. So when they lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain last Sunday and then lost their manager, it was no surprise. But seeing PSG having to put out fires is an unexpected turn. All the while, Lens have been a tranquil and unassuming force, keeping their dream of a Ligue 1 title alive – even if they don’t yet fully believe in it.

By this time last season, PSG were on the march. Unbeaten domestically until the end of April, after which point the league title was already mathematically ensured, Luis Enrique’s side were infallible. But that is not a word that applies to them in the present, as their 3-1 defeat to a managerless Rennes side proved this weekend.

The Colombian icon joined the MLS side in a short-term deal with an eye toward fitness for the 2026 World Cup

Two weeks ago, few could’ve expected that the most notable international acquisition of the MLS offseason would be made by Minnesota United.

The team’s marquee import until last week was Finland striker Teemu Pukki, with honorable mentions for Colombian playmaker Darwin Quintero and ex-Porto midfielder Ibson. The Loons aren’t known for paying sizable transfer fees, and their wage bill last year was the league’s fifth-smallest.

Tax exile has already proven himself a terrible club owner; now his ill-informed diatribe about immigration has poured fuel on wider flames

Well I, for one, am shocked. Shocked to learn that a tax-exiled English expat who made his billions squeezing chemical plants doesn’t have liberal, let alone accurate, views on immigration. Or at least, in public anyway.

It seems highly likely Sir Jim Ratcliffe knew what he was doing in the course of his now semi-recanted Sky News interview. And it is above all vital that at least one part of his empire of influence – football, sport, Manchester United – rejects it, as the club have done to some extent in their statement.

Extending his England men’s team contract until 2028 means increased stability and a less relentless form of pressure

Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be here for a good time, not a long time. It was win or bust when he signed up to become England’s head coach in October 2024. The target was clear – lead the side to glory at the 2026 World Cup – and it came with an acceptance that the German was nothing more than a very expensive gun for hire.

An 18-month deal, which began on 1 January 2025, saw to that. Tuchel talked about it giving him focus. He said it streamlined the role. “It’s a little bit of a step into the unknown for me,” he said. Tuchel would have to adapt. He loves being out on the training pitch, working with his players, honing their understanding of his tactics. Wouldn’t he get bored during the long months without a game? Wouldn’t he get itchy feet as soon as he saw a job open up at a big club?

As ‘the pressure of the haircut’ enters the game’s lexicon, the extent to which football revolves around winning and losing games appears to be fading

“I don’t care about his haircut at all,” Matheus Cunha said this week. “I don’t really look at other people if they need to go to the hairdresser or not,” Bruno Fernandes said at the weekend. Michael Carrick, for his part, said he was aware of the haircut issue. But the Manchester United coach insisted it would not factor into his team’s preparations for their game against West Ham on Tuesday night.

And so, here we are. Many games of football end up being remembered for reasons far outstripping their original significance: the 1914 Christmas Truce, the 1962 Battle of Santiago, the 2020 pandemic curtain‑raiser between Liverpool and Atlético Madrid. To these we can add the Haircut Game: a mildly arresting 1-1 Premier League draw at the London Stadium that posterity will nevertheless recall as the game when a man did not get his hair cut at the end.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The USMNT manager said players should stay out of conversations that don’t deal with soccer

Last week, Mauricio Pochettino began a World Cup year with an unforced error.

At the tail-end of a virtual press conference that covered a wide range of ongoing USMNT business, the 53-year-old Argentine – who has made himself commendably available to the American soccer press – was asked about recent comments by Tim Weah.

Leander Schaerlaeckens’ 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.

Our cartoonist reflects on the Manchester United co-owner’s recent statements and electioneering, via the prism of Cracker’s DCI Bilborough

• Buy this cartoon | David’s favourite works of 2025

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

Annual mass game in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, is centuries old and has minimal rules except competitors must come from one side or the other of a brook

Croat never stays long but is an expert at doing what is necessary and also comes with a reputation as a taskmaster

In Italy, the interim manager of a football club is often referred to as “un traghettatore” – a ferryman. When waters are choppy, you do not need some ambitious captain with notions of heading out on an adventure. All you really want is someone who can get you safely to shore.

Igor Tudor is not keen on the word. Hearing it applied to him when he arrived at Juventus last season, he observed that every manager, everywhere, is living from game to game. “You can have a contract for five years and get sent home after three matches,” he said. “You have to construct your tomorrow today.”

Lucy and Pippa Tallant have opened the Crossbar, in Brighton, to create a place for women to feel comfortable watching all sport

You can’t miss it, the giant “Crossbar” flanked by two stylised crosses in black on the whitewashed outside walls glares down the street, a stone’s throw from Brighton’s Churchill Square. Outside is the narrow shelf that the co-owner Lucy Tallant, the DIY enthusiast of the pair, attached to the wall for those wanting to hang around outside. As she worked on that shelf, two girls walked past and one proclaimed: “Yeah, they’re opening a lesbian club.” “A lesbian club?” replied the other, “Yeah, there’s one outside now.”

Lucy was in stitches, and so was social media when she posted about what she had overheard. The shelf has become a thing, with lesbians posing for photographs and then sharing online with versions of “there’s one outside now” as the caption.

Small town club’s Serie B adventure captivated football and inspired a famous book. That spirit remains and is being passed to their successors

The WhatsApp group flickers into life at about 6am every day. It is the manager who goes first because, when you are 79, old habits die hard. “Good morning,” Osvaldo Jaconi hails his former players and staff before, little by little, the salutations roll in from across Italy. Maybe it is someone’s birthday or another special occasion; the conversation may be accelerated by an in-joke that recalls why, three decades ago, they were brought together in the first place. Just in case anyone could forget, the group’s title says: “Serie B.”

This is how miracles stay alive. Perhaps it is the point of what Castel di Sangro achieved in 1995-96. A rag-tag bunch from this backwater in mountainous Abruzzo had risen from local amateur leagues and then, in a crowning triumph with little precedent, made it to the second tier. “It’s like 30 years haven’t passed,” says Angelo Petrarca, who was nominally the masseur but often resembled a one-man backroom. “It shows how much love everybody has for each other, and did back then. As if everybody is still right here.”

A man accused of having placed secret cameras in Altach’s changing room is appearing in court next week

A man who has been accused of having videos from secret cameras in the changing room and showers of the Altach women’s team is appearing in court next week in a case that has shaken football in Austria.

About 30 women have been identified on the recordings, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Feldkirch, and some are considering a civil lawsuit against the accused. The team play in the top division in Austria.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Chile’s female players are newly protected under labour law and are hoping their official status can help the game thrive in South America

The Chilean players’ association officially became a union in December, and its president, Javiera Moreno, believes there needs to be women’s representation in players’ unions around the world.

“We want this movement to become massive,” says the former Universidad Católica captain. “Our goal is to spread this to other countries. I don’t know if in other places the path will be to have a specific union for women. This was needed here, but I think there needs to be at least representation of women’s players within every country’s footballers’ union.”

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Nicky Bandini as a brilliant Vinícius goal is overshadowed by alleged racist abuse at Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Benfica

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On the podcast today: a chaotic night of Champions League playoffs. In Lisbon, a brilliant Vinícius Júnior goal overshadowed by accusations of racism against Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni. Madrid were prepared to stop playing and afterwards José Mourinho chose his words incredibly badly.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Sophie Downey and Sanny Rudravajhala to reflect on the weekend’s WSL games and much more

On today’s pod: Tottenham run riot in a 10-goal spectacular at Villa Park, hitting seven past Aston Villa in a chaotic encounter that piles pressure on Natalia Arroyo. The panel dissects Spurs’ most complete attacking display under Martin Ho and asks serious questions about Villa’s defensive collapse after four straight defeats.

Elsewhere, Chelsea make it back-to-back wins in an emotional week at the club, with Lauren James returning to full sharpness at just the right time. Manchester United extend their winning run with a comeback victory over London City Lionesses, as the panel debates whether performance levels matter when results keep coming, and discusses the fallout from Jim Ratcliffe’s controversial comments.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Dan Bardell to discuss the fourth-round weekend and a big day in Scotland

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On the podcast today: all hail Mansfield Town – their win at Turf Moor kept the magic of the cup alive this weekend, even if it’s impossible to be surprised by a Burnley defeat of any kind.

Arsenal make the leaders pay, Sonia Bompastor is defiant and Manchester United’s squad is working in harmony

Andrée Jeglertz said Manchester City’s “decision-making wasn’t ideal all the time during the game” in their 1-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on Sunday. He’s right. City may have had 22 touches in the opposition box to Arsenal’s 19 but they had only had one shot on target to Arsenal’s four. To some extent though, they have a hall pass for that lack of solid decision-making because it’s just so rare. Despite the defeat, City are sitting pretty at the top of the WSL table, their lead still a hefty eight points ahead of Manchester United. Should Arsenal win their game in hand, City’s lead will still be seven points. In a 12-team league and 22-game season, it’s incredibly unlikely that that gap will be bridged. Their goal difference is also 10 better than United’s. This is City’s title to lose and with the talent they have at their disposal the likelihood of any rot setting in is extremely slim. They play bottom-placed Leicester next, then struggling Aston Villa, who suffered a third back-to-back defeat, and those teams should fear City’s frustration. Suzanne Wrack

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