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From the Premier League to MLS and the NFL, huge stadiums with gargantuan costs are a symptom of elite sport’s unrealistic promises

“Nil satis nisi optimum,” boasts the motto of Everton FC: “Nothing but the best is good enough.” Performances on the pitch over the past few seasons have suggested otherwise (what’s Latin for “Anything to stay up will do?”) but in the form of the sparkling new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, which will replace Goodison Park as Everton’s permanent home from the start of next season, the club now has tangible proof that its historic aspiration to excellence is at last being met.

Based on the renderings and early footage of its interior, Everton Stadium (it will be a while before that bland placeholder is draped in the capitalist rococo of the “TeslaDome” or “Open AI’s ChatGPT Arena” or “Palantir Presents Bramley-Moore Dock”) appears to be a pleasingly raked and compact arena that should retain at least some of the raucousness of Everton’s old home. The stands are at the steepest pitch that regulations will allow, sightlines are unobstructed from every seat, and judging from the promotional videos, fans will never be more than 50 metres from either a toilet or a scouse pie, which seems like a key metric of success for any stadium in Liverpool.

Real Madrid could not live with his relentlessness but how will Rice fare against João Neves, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha?

Declan Rice went into Arsenal’s Champions League quarter‑final against Real Madrid knowing it was a chance to go to another level. Rise to the occasion against the kings of Europe and people would see the midfielder in a different light. Remember the boy who was kicked out of Chelsea at 14? The tearful one who travelled across London for a trial at West Ham, went on to captain them to their first trophy in 43 years, and left for £105m? Well, the thing you need to know about him is that he has never been afraid to meet a challenge head on and make people think twice about questioning his talent.

So Rice backed himself when he faced Madrid and left Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga, Luka Modric and Aurélien Tchouaméni in the shade by producing man-of-the-match displays in both legs. He drove Arsenal on, powering them forward, bending the tie to his will. Madrid, the reigning European champions, could not live with his relentlessness. There was hype around Rice’s duel with Bellingham, but it did not live up to much. There was no debate about who dominated the battle between the two leaders of England’s midfield.

As PSG prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final, key figures in winger’s career on why he can reach the top

By Get French Football News

“I am Désiré Doué. Kylian is Kylian,” says the Paris Saint-Germain forward, shirking the Mbappé comparisons. However, there is something reminiscent of his compatriot: the explosiveness, the agility, the unbridled self-confidence. Those traits have also earned Doué comparisons with his idol, Neymar, the most expensive jewel of Les Parisiens’ bling-bling era. But Doué isn’t some pastiche of PSG past; he embodies a different ethos entirely.

“Everyone is inspired by a player. For me, it is Neymar,” says Doué. The Brazilian’s panache has certainly been adopted by the Frenchman, as have his celebrations. But for Julien Stéphan, who managed him at Rennes, there is a uniqueness to Doué. “He is already a different player in terms of his personality,” Stéphan says. “Everything is oriented towards performance and reaching the top level. That is the first thing that left a mark on me. What is remarkable about him is his personality and the maturity for his age, and to what extent everything is already aligned in his daily life and his way of working.”

As, partway though the first half, the home supporters launched into a chorus of “Daniel, Daniel Farke,” a little smile played across the face of the Leeds manager as he offered a polite wave in return.

Up in the directors’ box, Paraag Marathe looked on inscrutably. If, and it remains quite a big if, he really is considering sacking Farke, the club’s chairman – who, perhaps significantly pulled out of a planned pre-match television interview at the last minute – must surely be having second thoughts after this.

• Team were battling Forest for top spot in third tier
• Players informed after final game of their season

The Wolves women’s players have said they feel let down by a lack of ambition from their club after learning an application for promotion to the Women’s Championship was not submitted, despite the team battling Nottingham Forest for top spot all season.

Wolves finished second in the northern section of the third tier in English women’s football – the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division – on Sunday, three points behind Forest, who clinched promotion on the final day to go up to the second tier. Only one team could be promoted.

• Richmond council could block Twickenham move
• Chelsea considering long-term move to Earl’s Court

The Rugby Football Union chief executive, Bill Sweeney, has said Twickenham could host Chelsea matches if the Premier League club is seeking a temporary home – but he believes the local council would attempt to stand in the way.

Sweeney acknowledged the financial carrot of hosting an elite football team on a short-term basis and revealed discussions had previously taken place. Chelsea have long since been looking to either upgrade Stamford Bridge or relocate elsewhere in London and in 2017 it was said that moving temporarily to Twickenham was an option being considered.

• Manchester United loanee suffered hamstring injury
• Villa object to Spurs’ request to change date of league game

Marcus Rashford is expected to miss the rest of Aston Villa’s season because of the hamstring injury that forced him out of their FA Cup semi-final defeat by Crystal Palace on Saturday. The on-loan England forward will have a scan but is not thought to require surgery.

There is a slim possibility Rashford, whose injury rehabilitation will take place at Villa, could return to face Tottenham on 18 May, but he is ineligible for their final game of the season against Manchester United, his parent club.

Midfielder keeps collecting nicknames – and goals – as he drives his side towards a title that would be his own

Scott McTominay could have said anything and a whole city still would have loved him: the man who fired Napoli clear at the top of Serie A with four rounds of games left to go. His first-half strikes delivered a 2-0 win over Torino on Sunday. He had scored the only goal as Napoli won away to Monza in their previous fixture, and two out of three in a rout of Empoli before that.

Carrying his team towards the finish line, in other words, though McTominay has been decisive from the start. He scored within 28 seconds of coming off the bench for his home debut in September and his goals have broken seven 0-0 deadlocks since then. No player in Serie A has done this more.

Dino Toppmöller’s side looked spent after they sold their top scorer but have a fine replacement, as Leipzig found out

If they were on the verge of something special, the man in charge was hiding it well. It was not, insisted Dino Toppmöller, a final. Nor a playoff. Nor was it even the most important match of the season. All it was, according to the Eintracht Frankfurt coach the day before the game, was quite simply: “Matchday 31.”

By the end, as Saturday night drew in, it was definitely Saturday night. It turned out that Toppmöller’s less-is-more approach suited his team perfectly. They had thrashed RB Leipzig, their significantly more wealthy rivals for a Champions League spot, and were six points clear of their fifth-placed opposition with three games left, staring a return to the promised land square in the eyes.

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Rodri knacked his knee. Everyone else is rubbish. Arsenal are not a serious football club. Manchester United are hopeless. Chelsea are a shambolic mess. Lads, it’s Tottenham. They got lucky with knack. They had help from the PGMOL. While we’ll leave it up to you to decide which of the above statements are true, most if not all have been mooted as the main reasons Liverpool won the Premier League this season by fans whose almost heroic begrudgery in the face of their own teams’ failure has to be commended. Of course, a more considered view is that Liverpool are the champions again because they are quite obviously the best football team in the country and have only lost two football matches throughout a campaign from which few of their own fans, no TV or radio pundits and only one particularly enlightened, erudite and prescient podcast regular predicted they would prevail before a ball was kicked. And because Arsenal are not a serious football club.

Somebody said the Welsh have the ‘heart of a poet and the fist of a fighter.’ That’s what I love about this place. I wish the whole world could visit Wrexham. Diolch” – co-owner Ryan Reynolds reflects on back-to-back-to-back promotions for the Hollywood club. Next stop: the Championship. Eek.

Will it be the first season where the PFA player award is going to be decided by a selfie?” – Krishna Moorthy.

Before the Copa del Rey final at the weekend, Jonathan Wilson wrote a piece looking back 15 years and said: “Real Madrid, once a club obsessed by señorío, doing things the right way, became seduced by the consolations of imagined persecution, a trait they have still not shaken off”. He certainly wasn’t wrong …” – Noble Francis.

I went to see The Flaming Lips last night for a truly joyous live show. There were inflatable killer pink robots, confetti cannons, giant weather balloons (confetti filled of course), dancing space aliens, dancing inflatable eyes, singing in a zorb and inflatable rainbows. And it was still nothing like as crazy as the race to avoid Championship relegation. Barely more than a week ago I was convinced the mighty Hatters were doomed. Now watch us bugger up the last game just as I’ve regained some belief …” – Kevin Goddard.

Playing host to two FA Cup semi-finals less than 24 hours apart, as well as more than 150,000 fans, means a busy time for staff at Wembley. We take a look at the preparations

It takes a great deal of organisation and a lot of staff, working across a variety of roles, to deliver these two huge fixtures. More than 12,000 staff worked at Wembley over the two days. Many worked both days and through the night to ensure everything was in place.

Matchday mascots wait to greet the players as they arrive at Wembley for the first of the weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.

Club’s president has a deep sphere of football influence and travels to Arsenal desperate for Champions League vision to be realised

As Nasser al-Khelaifi watches from the Emirates Stadium directors’ box on Tuesday night, he can reflect that Paris Saint-Germain may be a month from the latest monumental victory of his career. Champions League success has been a long time coming, given the plan of Qatar Sports Investments had been to reign Europe within five years of its takeover in 2011, but the fresh sense of clarity in PSG’s approach is on the verge of reaping rich dividends. The serial Ligue 1 winners could soon sit atop club football just as their president rules it from the corridors of power.

Khelaifi is, in the words of one seasoned observer, “the most powerful person in sport that nobody has heard of”. That oversight is probably true of a British public to which his influence is yet to cut through. If nothing else the Qatari should receive a slightly more amenable welcome at Arsenal that the one afforded in November by fans of Bayern Munich, who certainly seemed well versed in his various functions when PSG visited.

Midfielder may finally get her due against defending champions after authoritative display in the Champions League semi-final

As the sun set around the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, the celebrations began for Arsenal on Sunday. There were shouts of joy as the weight of what they had just achieved dawned on the players, having reached a Champions League final for the first time since the club won it in 2007.

The team’s leader, the normally stoic Kim Little had tears in her eyes. She was soon joined by Lia Wälti who came over to her midfield colleague and wrapped her in a long embrace, a quiet moment of triumph in the mayhem.

• Matildas captain still out nearly 16 months after rupturing ACL
• ‘Difficult for me to have a clear answer,’ says Sonia Bompastor

The date when Matildas captain Sam Kerr can return to action remains unclear, her club coach says.

The West Australian has been out of action since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury during warm weather training in early January 2024.

Manager elated at semi-final win against Aston Villa but keen to ensure players keep their eye on league form

Oliver Glasner is not the kind of manager who makes bold predictions, although it seems to be a different story behind the scenes. A few hours after Crystal Palace’s epic 3-0 victory over Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-finals, a video of the Austrian’s post-match team talk was released on social media, where he had outlined his expectations of his players during a training camp in Marbella in March.

“I told you guys, this is because I know you guys and I know your talent, especially I know your character, that we can achieve outstanding things this year,” Glasner said. “I felt it, guys, that we are able to achieve, to write history for Crystal Palace. We fully deserve a place in the final, but it’s not the final.”

• England duo return from injuries in 1-0 win at Leicester
• Palace relegated after 7-1 defeat at home to West Ham

There was a major boost for England and Manchester City as Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood both returned to action for the first time in 2025 following serious knee injuries in City’s 1-0 Women’s Super League win at Leicester.

With both players coming on as second-half substitutes, winger Hemp quickly provided an assist to set up Jess Park’s winning goal with 20 minutes remaining. Hemp had been sidelined since November, while Greenwood had been ruled out since December; both will hope to go to Switzerland in July for the Euros.

• Paraag Marathe travelling from San Francisco on Monday
• Doubts among owners over Farke despite promotion

The Leeds chair, Paraag Marathe, is flying in from San Francisco for talks with Daniel Farke over the manager’s future. The American will attend Monday night’s Championship game against Bristol City at Elland Road, with Leeds needing to win to move back to the top above Burnley on goal difference with one game remaining, before meeting Farke this week.

Members of the 49ers Enterprises consortium that owns Leeds have privately expressed doubts about whether Farke is the right man to manage the club in the Premier League despite the German leading them to promotion this season and earning 90 points in the previous campaign. Farke was relegated from the Premier League in the 2019-20 season with Norwich, who sacked him early in the 2021-22 campaign after he had led them back to the top flight at the first attempt.

• Head coach told squad what was wrong and how to fix it
• Konaté sat alone in stands after title win almost in tears

Arne Slot predicted Liverpool could win the Premier League providing they corrected the flaws that undermined their title challenge last season, Ibrahima Konaté has revealed.

The Liverpool defender was almost in tears after the club’s record‑equalling 20th league championship on Sunday. He took a moment to sit alone in an empty Main Stand at Anfield long after the 5-1 rout of Tottenham to absorb the size of the achievement.

• Manager vows to challenge Liverpool for title next season
• Forest aiming to leapfrog City to third in the table

After Manchester City reached a third successive FA Cup final, Pep Guardiola insisted that beating Crystal Palace in the showpiece will not make it a successful season, vowing his team will next year challenge the newly crowned Premier League champions, Liverpool.

City’s 2-0 semi-final defeat of Nottingham Forest at Wembley on Sunday came via Rico Lewis’s long-range strike after two minutes and Josko Gvardiol’s 51st-minute header and kept alive their last chance of silverware this term.

After a drama-free title race, the legacy of Liverpool’s 20th league triumph will be determined in the years to come

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It was probably just as well the decisive match came against Tottenham. Liverpool fans object to the suggestion this season has been anti-climactic, as though that somehow diminishes their achievement, but it is not a criticism to point out no side has come close to staying with them, that the title was in effect won on the January afternoon when Darwin Núñez scored twice in injury time to beat Brentford then Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead to draw against Aston Villa.

That was the season in microcosm: Arsenal carelessly squandering points, Liverpool always having enough, turning games their way in the second half. Nine times this season in the league, Arsenal have led in games that they have failed to win. On 13 occasions, Liverpool have improved their result in the second half (that is, turned a draw into a win, or a defeat into a draw or a win). It has not been a thrilling conclusion – they’ve wrapped the title up before the end of April with four games to spare and have looked probable champions for at least three months – but at least they had their day of celebration of Anfield.

Reds supporters from across the globe react to their team being crowned Premier League champions

Twelve thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three days ago (not that anyone’s counting) my mate and I stood on the old Kop, watching Liverpool edge QPR 2-1, with Rush and Barnes doing what Rush and Barnes did best. It was a simpler time: fewer grey hairs, no smartphones, and considerably fewer dodgy knees.

From sitting in the dugout with his dad to obsessing over Guardiola, Liverpool’s hero appeared destined for success

The man who has supplanted Pep Guardiola as coach of the Premier League champions is, it turns out, something of a fanboy. “He was always talking about Pep,” says Henk de Jong, now in his third spell as coach of Cambuur, the Dutch club where Arne Slot got his first break as assistant 11 years ago.

“We were sometimes laughing at him,” De Jong says, describing how Slot would get out his extensive video collection of Bayern Munich and Barcelona games to amplify a tactical point. “‘Pep again, eh?’ we would say. He had videos of all his games. And we would sit and listen to him talk about what he was seeing.”

Head coach inherited a fine culture and squad but his level-headedness, honesty and analysis propelled club to a 20th league triumph

Liverpool players were looking for signs last summer as to how their new boss would succeed a club legend and turn his rich inheritance into Premier League champions. Arne Slot made sure they were unmissable from the start.

At the plush Fairmont hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, first port of call on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the US and their first bonding trip abroad last July, names would be written on a board giving advance notice of that day’s meeting schedule. There were one-on-one meetings for players with a member of Slot’s coaching team, squad meetings with all of the new backroom staff, meetings to analyse the double training sessions and meetings to analyse individual performances within them. There had been two meetings a day at Liverpool’s Axa Training Centre before the trip but this was another level.

Renée Slegers masterminded Arsenal’s memorable triumph in Lyon while Shekiera Martinez scored four for West Ham

There was jubilation at the final whistle and Renée Slegers joined the celebrations with her players on Sunday. The Arsenal manager had just guided her team to a Champions League final at the first attempt, defeating her former mentor Joe Montemurro in the process. The 36-year-old outmanoeuvred and outsmarted the Lyon manager as they stormed back from a first-leg deficit to win 4-1 and secure a spot in their first European final in 18 years. It exemplified Slegers’s ability to learn quickly in-game and from match to match, while keeping her feet and those of her players firmly on the ground. “We talked about the Arsenal way – what it looks like and why it’s important for us,” she said. “We really look forward to the final, but also straight away when there’s euphoria on the pitch. We are so happy and we need to celebrate these special moments, but we are also very humble and we need to get ready for the next one.” Sophie Downey

Palace’s best-paid player shows his class, Ipswich meet their fate and Mateo Kovacic sounds a warning

In April 1964 a side from north London came to Anfield with Liverpool one good result from winning the league, and conceded five. “Arsenal did little to allay the general suspicion that they were there just to be sacrificed,” Eric Todd wrote in his report for the Guardian. This time it was Tottenham but otherwise, for anyone whose memory stretches back 61 years it was a familiar story. Time and again Spurs meekly surrendered possession in dangerous areas, and while they defended in numbers – which suggests willing – they did so with terrifying inefficiency, which suggests poor organisation. Their focus is now fully on the Europa League, but if Liverpool had been a little more ruthless this would have been truly another real embarrassment in a season full of them. In April 1988 it was Spurs themselves who came to Anfield with Liverpool needing one point to guarantee the title. It had been a terrible season for Tottenham, and they were only just outside the bottom three. They lost 1-0. “Tottenham remain in the relegation penumbra,” wrote Stephen Bierley in his Guardian report. “Strange it seems that nobody much under the age of 30 will remember them being champions. Who would have thought it?” Simon Burnton

Match report: Liverpool 5-1 Tottenham

FA Cup report: Nottm Forest 0-2 Man City

Match report: Bournemouth 1-1 Man Utd

Manager finds fresh motivation with young talent after guiding club to win over Forest in FA Cup semi-final

News just in: Pep Guardiola still has a few tactical tricks up his sleeve. The scary thought for the rest of the Premier League must be that Guardiola, who looked and sounded like a man ready to pack it in and head for the golf course earlier this season, is finding fresh motivation in putting Manchester City back together. Enjoy it while it lasts, you can imagine him saying to his rivals, but just be aware that I have revenge planned for anyone who dared to wonder if I was finished when we were losing 4-0 at home against Tottenham.

It is, of course, worth pointing out that it is too soon to assume that a new imperial era is taking shape. City are deservedly through to their third consecutive FA Cup final, a date with Crystal Palace secured thanks to a well-crafted 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest, but Guardiola still has damage to repair. Ever the perfectionist, he will look back at his team’s performance against Forest and conclude that there were moments when this semi-final could have slipped from their grasp. Anthony Elanga had a glorious chance to make it 1-1 early in the second half, only to miss from close range, while City will know that they were fortunate not to concede after going 2-0 up.

Spanish giants show class against elite Women’s Champions League opponents, but Chelsea face more soul-searching

Clàudia Pina scores. You know it’s a good goal because the moment it hits the net, Barcelona’s substitutes scramble forward to the front of the dugout, desperate to watch it again on the replay screen. Meanwhile, a few yards away Sonia Bompastor turns to the Chelsea bench and smiles weakly. A yeah-fair-play smile. A what-can-you-do smile.

Pina’s goal makes it 7-1 to Barcelona on aggregate, there are still more than 45 minutes to play, and we have reached the point in this Champions League semi-final when it almost begins to feel rude that Uefa insisted Barcelona fly over to play this second leg. Imagine the aircraft emissions and single-use plastic glasses that could have been saved simply by abandoning the pretenice that this was a meaningful contest.

Gazza painted his artistry all over the 1991 FA Cup and his stupendous free-kick influenced the game for years

Football is an unstoppable continuum, a whirling dervish of love and hate, life and death, frequent tedium and the greatest excitement known to humanity. Because we care so much for it it feels like it cares for us back, but the painful truth is this is our imagination and self-respect saving us from acknowledging that actually, football was there before us, it’ll be there after us, and while we’re there it exists as though we don’t.

Occasionally, though, we have bestowed upon us an event that grabs us by the lapels and shrieks indelibly into our souls, the entirety of the cosmos consumed by the wonder of the game. “It tells us something we’ll always remember,” wrote director-screenwriter Randall Wallace when considering what makes something epic. “It makes us walk out of a theatre and whisper into our own hearts, ‘I’m changed.’”

Arne Slot’s team faced the perfect opponents as the afternoon became a dual celebration for their Covid season triumph

Football is often compared to theatre. Sometimes it just is theatre. With 63 minutes gone at Anfield, and Liverpool already 3-1 up, Mohamed Salah took the ball on the right in an empty square of deep green, veered inside, and then paused, leaving just enough time for the entire home crowd to freeze the moment, to see a snapshot of what was about to happen.

Salah rolled the ball to his left then spanked it hard into the near corner, drawing a vast, rolling cheer that just didn’t want to stop, a self‑fuelling cheer for this relentless one-man highlights reel, face of an era, the curator of moments, who then made another one here by taking a mid-match celebration selfie with the Kop.

Club president has turned on his players and the fans have turned on the club. Can the 2012 champions survive this?

By Get French Football News

Montpellier are one of three clubs to have denied PSG the Ligue 1 title since the takeover more than a decade ago. In the time that has elapsed since their 2012 triumph, the club has drifted into a state of dereliction and destitution. Their relegation from Ligue 1 confirmed, La Paillade exit the stage with a whimper; it may be a while before they grace it once more.

Montpellier are a family club. Louis “LouLou” Nicollin is the founding president of the club and upon his death, in 2017, ownership passed to his son, Laurent. LouLou who died aged 74, continues to be honoured in the 74th minute of every home match by the fans, but there was a mixture of applause and boos at Sunday’s commemoration. Families don’t always get along and relationships have buckled under the strain of the most devastating season in the club’s 50-year history. Disunity reigns at the Mosson.

• Bayern sink Mainz 3-0 but Leverkusen beat Augsburg 2-0
• Kane booked so suspended for Bayern’s likely clincher

Bayern Munich eased past Mainz 3-0 but had to put title celebrations on ice after Bayer Leverkusen matched their win to stay eight points behind with three matches left.

The Bavarian club, top on 75 points ahead of Leverkusen in second with 67, can now secure a 34th German league title with a win at RB Leipzig next week. But Harry Kane will miss next week’s game after picking up his fifth booking and a suspension.

Paris Saint-Germain’s hopes of becoming the first side to complete a Ligue 1 season unbeaten came crashing down at the Parc des Princes on Friday when Nice handed them their first defeat of the league campaign, winning 3-1 to boost their own Champions League ambitions.

Having already secured the title earlier this month, PSG still top the Ligue 1 standings on 78 points, while Nice move up to fourth on 54.

Sacking big name was a gamble but appointing a boyhood fan has proven a masterstroke for a side eyeing Europe

“Claudio has changed my life,” Borja Iglesias said and all around him, as they jumped and sang and smiled and hugged, they felt the same way; he has changed all of their lives. At the end of Celta de Vigo’s victory over Villarreal on Wednesday, players and staff crouched low before fans and for the first time a hush fell over Balaídos. All together now, the chant started slowly, quietly, whispered, but the pace quickened and the volume grew bit by bit until they burst to their feet, belted out their name and bounced off each other, footballers fell into the net laughing and one thought emerged above any other: how much fun they were having.

This is the way football’s supposed to be – about enjoying, about belonging – and this is the way it has been since Claudio Giráldez came along: good even when it has been bad and getting better all the time. The last time Celta played Villarreal they were beaten 4-3 with a 100th-minute winner, a game of seven goals that could have been 17 after which Iglesias said: “If we’re going to lose, let it be like this.” Eight months on Celta beat them back, a 3-0 victory lifting them into a European place where they have not finished for a decade and embodying all they want to be. Iglesias was a ballboy back then and it was “cool”, he said, but not quite like this, grateful for the days he has been given.

• Serie A leaders Inter will now host Roma on Sunday
• Italy v Wales in Women’s Six Nations also rescheduled

Serie A has postponed its three fixtures on Saturday because of Pope Francis’s funeral being held that day in Rome. Meanwhile, Italy’s Women’s Six Nations match against Wales is also expected to be rescheduled as the country prepares to pay its respects.

Earlier media reports in Italy had suggested that Serie A might make an exception for Inter’s clash with the visitors Roma to allow Simone Inzaghi’s side additional rest time before their midweek Champions League semi-final at Barcelona. However, the league has confirmed that the game at San Siro will now kick off at 2pm (all times BST) on Sunday.

In war-torn occupied territories, fake teams are being deployed as a tool to normalise a violent denial of the past

On 12 April a new club played its first game in Russia’s football pyramid. A healthy enough crowd gathered at Novokolor Arena in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 20 miles from the border with Ukraine’s occupied territories, encouraged by a slick buildup on social media. They watched “Zarya Luhansk” begin their slog through the Third League, the fifth tier of a complicated Russian system whose composition shifts annually, with a 5-0 home win over Volgar Astrakhan’s second team. Some had travelled by chartered bus from the city their club purports to represent.

The name may sound familiar. The real Zorya Luhansk are eighth in the Ukrainian Premier League and savour a proud 102-year history. They play European football almost every season and hosted Manchester United in 2016. Nowadays, they play home matches in Kyiv owing to the illegal occupation of their home city. Any idea they would pull out and compete in Russia is beyond laughable.

• Olmo scores winner early in second half against Mallorca
• PSG held 1-1 by Nantes but retain unbeaten run

Barcelona’s Dani Olmo scored inside the first minute of the second half to earn a hard-fought 1-0 home win against Mallorca, extending their lead in La Liga over Real Madrid at the top of the table to seven points with five games to go.

Barça dominated proceedings despite their coach, Hansi Flick, deciding to rest several key starters ahead of Saturday’s Copa del Rey final against rivals Real, but the Mallorca goalkeeper Leo Román put on a show between the posts to keep them at bay.

Both clubs threw away convincing leads in England last week. They need to get their seasons back on track quickly

By Get French Football News

Hubris cost Lyon last week and it almost cost PSG too. “We thought we were too good,” admitted Ousmane Dembélé after PSG conceded three goals at Villa Park and were nearly knocked out of the Champions League. “We eased off a bit. We thought it was over but big matches are like that,” said Malick Fofana after Lyon’s spectacular three-goal collapse against Manchester United did cost them a place in the Europa League semi-finals. “It is a match I won’t forget,” added Fofana, who knows that Lyon – like PSG – will have to re-engage if their season is to end well.

With a derby at Saint-Étienne on Sunday, Lyon had no time for a postmortem. But for Paulo Fonseca, one thing was clear. “We led 4-2 with one less player on the pitch but we celebrated the 4-2 too much when the match was not finished,” said the Lyon manager after his team’s 5-4 defeat at Old Trafford. “We should have thought about continuing to manage the match. We lacked experience at this moment,” he added.

Few expected this Köpenick clash to deliver many thrills, but the two clubs served up eight first-half goals

It was not the game, at the start of the weekend, that leapt from the fixtures page as a history maker. Even afterwards, if you looked at the numbers below the top line it hardly seemed a game to make you leap from your seat.

Yet few first halves have scrambled perception and expectation as much as Union Berlin’s meeting with Stuttgart on Saturday evening. Fifty-one minutes and 48 seconds which bedazzled and befuddled in equal measure at Stadion An der Alten Försterei, the claustrophobic arena known for unrelenting atmosphere, emotion but very few goals. In this first half, Union matched a third of the goals they had already scored at home all season, taking their season tally in their yard from 12 to 16. It was the first time a Bundesliga game has ever contained eight first-half goals; four, in this case, for each side.

Five years after Covid-19 restrictions prevented Liverpool fans from celebrating at Anfield their team's first top flight title triumph in 30 years, Reds faithful wasted little time on 27 April getting the party started on another Premier League success. With Anfield filled to the brim, Liverpool equalled Manchester United's record of 20 English top-flight titles with their 5-1 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur. But it was after Alexis Mac Allister struck a blistering shot to put the Reds ahead for good in the 24th minute that the delirious crowd at the sun-drenched stadium erupted and they did not stop singing until well after the final whistle sounded.Thousands of fans not fortunate to be inside Anfield on Sunday celebrated outside, setting off flares before the game ended in a party that carried on through the night

• Arne Slot’s coolness lies at heart of Liverpool’s record-equalling title

• Unruffled Liverpool and Salah serve up theatre and euphoria on title day

• From Portman Road to paradise: 10 key moments in Liverpool’s title win

­Manchester United fans chanted abuse at Manchester City’s Phil Foden about his mother during Sunday’s goalless derby. City manager Pep Guardiola said the move 'lacked class' and added: 'I don’t understand the mind of the ­people ­involving the mum of Phil, it’s a lack of integrity, class, and they should be ashamed.' It is understood that City were shocked and disgusted by the chants and the number of people involved. United’s stance is that they condemn all abusive chants aimed towards players

• ‘Lack of class’: Guardiola hits out at United fans’ chant about Foden’s mother

There was a cheeky free-kick in the third tier of Swedish football when Jönköpings Södra's Linus Lyck caught the goalkeeper and defensive wall unawares with a nonchalant curler into the bottom corner to give his side a 1-0 lead against Lunds BK. It was reminiscent of a goal scored against Chelsea by Liverpool's Fábio Aurélio in 2009

Great Weston: National League footballer scores from inside his own area – video

Weston-super-Mare’s Luke Coulson scored from his own penalty area against Hornchurch in the National League South. With the hosts 3-2 down in stoppage time, goalkeeper Mason Terry went up for a late corner - but the ball instead dropped to Coulson, who kicked it from the penalty spot all the way upfield, where it bounced and rolled into an empty net.

The vice-chairman on his ‘rejuvenator’ manager Marco Silva, his use of analytics and European ambitions

Tony Khan does not look or sound like a man who has just watched his team lose a local derby in agonising circumstances. If he is feeling bruised after seeing Fulham fall to a last-minute defeat at home to Chelsea he is hiding it well. Instead Khan, the vice-chairman and director of football operations, brings nothing but positivity when he breezes into a small, private room at Craven Cottage and starts to talk about his hopes for the future.

The most immediate issue is whether Fulham’s push for European qualification is still on. “Oh absolutely,” says Khan, on a flying visit to London from his Florida base. “We have a very good chance and we have so many exciting things we can achieve in the remaining fixtures. It’s been such a great season. There’s a lot of great things happening at the club. It’s been so fantastic. I’m really excited for the future.”

When they’re not shouting at their own children, many of Britain’s soccer dads like nothing more than swearing at the officials, or even trading blows on the touchline. Isn’t this supposed to be fun?

A chilly Saturday morning on the Astroturf pitches at Coram’s Fields in central London and several youth football matches are under way. I’m watching an under-11s game. The sound is the thud of boot on ball, the shrill interruption of the referee’s whistle, and a whole lot of shouting. From the players (“Mine!”, “Here!”, “Pass!”, “Ref!”, etc). From the two coaches (“Press!”, “Stay wide!”, “Push up!”, “Ref!”, etc). And from the touchline dads. There is one mum here today, but she’s less vocal.

To varying degrees, the dads are part fan, part coach, part personal trainer to their progeny. There is one dad (there’s always one) who’s taking it a bit further, who’s a bit shoutier than the others. “Get rid of it!” he screams at the defence, meaning hoof it upfield, which is the opposite of the coach’s instructions to play it out from the back. “Ref! Seriously?” he shouts at the referee (who’s only about 17 himself).

French clubs are enjoying best continental season in decades but catastrophic crisis could engulf entire league

If it is results that count, tout va bien for Ligue 1. Having so far accrued its second-highest total of Uefa ranking points in a single campaign, the “league of talents” remains on course to register its best season in Europe since the 1990s, when Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco and others regularly featured in the latter stages of Uefa competitions.

A transformed, exuberant if still-not-quite-perfect PSG hope to go one better than the Thomas Tuchel side who lost the 2020 Champions League final to Bayern Munich, and Lyon gave Manchester United an almighty scare in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Brest and Lille defied the odds by qualifying for the knockout stage of the Champions League, beating teams such as PSV, Atlético Madrid and the holders, Real Madrid, on the way. The conveyor belt of young talent shows no sign of slowing, the 17-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi of Lille and PSG’s Désiré Doué the latest French academy products to break through on the biggest of stages.

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Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it’s easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn’t regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU’D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT’S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We’re now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson’s Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough.

It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn’t continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It’s surreal here” – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side’s second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily’s 18th … minus the goal, of course.

Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women are taking part in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that’s the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?” – Derek McGee.

Following the preview of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final (yesterday’s Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better” – Chris Carter (and no others).

Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday’s Football Daily). According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it” – Mike Wilner.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Seb Hutchinson and Dan Bardell as Manchester City get a vital win over Aston Villa in the hunt for Champions League football

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On the podcast today: two midweek Premier League games to review. One more consequential than the other as Manchester City go third with a late win over Aston Villa. In the other fixture, Crystal Palace score two brilliant goals to claim a point at Arsenal.

Plus: footballers who put parenting first, title playoffs in Italy, and relegated Golden Boot winners

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Arne Slot is going to win the Premier League in his first season after taking over from Jürgen Klopp,” writes Hannah Mitchell. “What examples are there of managers who have had instant success after succeeding a legendary manager?”

It’s not unusual for a new Liverpool manager to win the league in their first season. Matt McQueen (1922-23), Joe Fagan (1983-84) and Kenny Dalglish (1985-86) all did so, – but they were established figures at the club, whether in the boardroom, the boot room or the dressing room. Arne Slot was new to English football, never mind Liverpool, and was succeeding one of the most charismatic figures in the club’s history. In that context, winning the Premier League with (potentially) four games remaining is a remarkable achievement.

Our cartoonist on the big German striker’s blunt opinion of his Hammers teammates and life in general

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• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

Without a pathway to follow in their own country, players have had to look overseas to make a career. But no more

As “O Canada” reverberated around Vancouver’s BC Place last Wednesday, the emotion was clear on the faces of those on the pitch and in the crowd. There were hugs, there were tears, and there was an unbeatable cacophony of noise when Quinn slotted home the winning penalty, the first goal of the Northern Super League era. All 14,000 inside the stadium were aware of how momentous this occasion was, the moment professional domestic women’s football had finally arrived in Canada.

For many of the Canadian players involved for Vancouver Rise and Calgary Wild, it was the first time they will have heard only their anthem at the start of the match. “It was something I said to our team before the game,” the Rise midfielder Quinn reflected after the game. “That was pretty neat.”

Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Tom Garry and Emma Sanders to discuss the Champions League semi-finals, the Women’s Championship and the latest WSL action

On this week’s Guardian Women’s Football Weekly, Faye Carruthers is joined by Sophie Downey, Tom Garry and Emma Sanders to review disappointing first-leg semi-final results for Arsenal and Chelsea in the Champions League. They are trailing in their ties with Lyon and Barcelona respectively. But can they turn it around? The panel preview this weekend’s must-win second legs.

And after teasing you for weeks, the panel take a deep dive into the Women’s Championship as we approach the final two games of what’s been a thrilling season. They also round up the very latest from the WSL.

Who should be on Arne Slot’s shopping list, Chelsea’s unlikely hero and an angry Ollie Watkins

Arne Slot is set to win the Premier League but at the same time knows he needs to make plenty of improvements within his squad this summer. One key acquisition will be a new striker. Darwin Núñez was not brought off the bench at Leicester despite Liverpool misfiring, Diogo Jota’s fitness is a constant concern and Luis Díaz, who started on Sunday, does not give off the impression of being a No 9. In tight matches, Mohamed Salah has often been the man to separate them from opponents. They had 28 shots at the King Power Stadium but needed a full-back to score the winner. Núñez will almost certainly depart Anfield to open up a spot for a superior No 9 but they do not come cheap. Plans will be afoot but they know they cannot get it wrong twice, having spent more than £80m on the Uruguayan who has never looked like delivering. Will Unwin

Match report: Leicester 0-1 Liverpool

Match report: Ipswich 0-4 Arsenal

Match report: Aston Villa 4-1 Newcastle

Match report: Manchester United 0-1 Wolves

Match report: Fulham 1-2 Chelsea

Match report: Everton 0-2 Manchester City

Match report: Brentford 4-2 Brighton

Chelsea change under the spotlight, twins have Manchester City seeing double and Holland shines for Liverpool

Were Chelsea wrong to make a substitution while preparing to defend a corner? The former England midfielder Fara Williams criticised Chelsea for doing so in the 81st minute, when Nathalie Björn was replaced by Naomi Girma seconds before Barcelona scored their third goal, a far-post header from an unmarked Irene Paredes, with Williams telling TNT Sports, “You can see that there is a bit of confusion” in Chelsea’s organisation for the set piece. Sonia Bompastor said she had been forced to withdraw Björn because of an injury, and played down the incident. “I don’t think the substitution had an impact on the goal we conceded,” the head coach said. “When I talk about not making mistakes, maybe we didn’t have to concede that corner. If you have a better clearance from the goal and don’t concede that corner, you don’t give Barcelona the opportunity to score. I don’t think the substitution had an effect on the goal. I think Naomi [Girma] knew exactly where she had to go and I think everyone knew their role in that.” The header was the first of two late strikes for Barcelona in Sunday’s first leg which put the tie in a much more challenging position for Chelsea before Sunday’s return at Stamford Bridge. Tom Garry

The Championship’s best team will need to be smart in the transfer market to give themselves a chance next season

When Leeds United sold £140m of playing talent last summer, Daniel Farke deviated from accepted managerial convention and declined to throw his toys out of the pram. Farke is a little too unconventional, a little too resistant to groupthink, to always do the expected and his club’s owner, the San Francisco‑based 49ers Enterprises, is poised to reap the benefits.

The German’s unusual amalgam of high emotional intelligence and advanced numeracy have helped to provide the framework for the freshly secured promotion to the Premier League that Leeds so narrowly missed out on last May.

Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich are returning to the Championship. Which of their players deserve to stay up?

By WhoScored

Leicester were relegated at the weekend and will join Southampton in the Championship next season. Ipswich are 15 points from safety with five games to play, so it’s only a matter of time before they too are consigned to the second tier. The three sides have been extremely disappointing this season, picking up just 10 wins between them, but they have some talented players who will be targets for Premier League sides in the summer transfer window.

The coverage of Manchester United’s win over Lyon last week was just the latest sign that fandom is consuming everything

Impartiality fan here – for my sins! – but you have to say Robbie Savage and Rio Ferdinand during the closing minutes of Manchester United v Lyon on Thursday night were absolute class. It all starts in the 118th minute, with United 6-5 down on aggregate, and the TNT Sports camera lingering on the face of a crying boy in the crowd. “Let’s hope we can put a smile on that young man’s face by the time we finish,” the commentator Darren Fletcher says.

And it’s worth unpacking those 17 words, because contained within them are at least three layers of assumption. Foremost among which is the assumption that it would be a good thing, all round, if United won. The child is crying. Is there any cause more catholic or universal, any image more reliably guaranteed to tug at the tear ducts, than a crying child? The coefficient can wait for now.

Statistics can help assess a potential recruit’s emotional control and leadership, while highlighting red flags

“The players didn’t show enough fight.” Listen to any pundit’s post-match reaction and you will hear variations of that soundbite. But can you analyse an athlete’s state of mind, based on their on-pitch body language?

In an era when football is increasingly leaning on data to demonstrate physical attributes, statistics offering an accurate indication of a player’s psychological qualities, such as emotional control and leadership, are harder to come by. But Premier League clubs including Brighton are using a technique intended to help in that regard with selection and recruitment.

Rodri has beaten Vinícius Júnior and Erling Haaland to top our ranking of the most talented players in the world this calendar year

• How all the judges voted | Rodri heads 2024 list | Our methodology | The top 100 female players in the world
• 2023 edition | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Manchester City midfielder becomes the sixth player to top our ranking of the world’s best 100 male footballers

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

One of the worst things about seeing Rodri in agony on the pitch against Arsenal in September – and the subsequent news that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament – was that in the buildup to the injury he had criticised the workload being put on players. It was as if he knew something bad was about to happen.

In April, after an epic 3-3 draw at Real Madrid the Manchester City and Spain midfielder said: “I do need a rest.” He added: “Let’s see how we speak, how we live the situation. Sometimes it is what it is. I need to adjust. It [rest] is something we are planning, yes.”

Aitana Bonmatí finishes top of our rankings for a second consecutive year, with Caroline Graham Hansen second and Sophia Smith third

• Bonmatí on top of world again | How every judge voted | Video top ten | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
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The Spanish midfielder wins for a second consecutive year on a fast-moving list that sees 15 players appearing for the first time

• The top 100: check out the full list for 2024

Aitana Bonmatí emulates her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas and takes back-to-back wins in the Guardian’s 100 best female footballers in the world list.

The double Ballon d’Or winner received votes from all 99 of this year’s judges, finishing 667 points clear of her club teammate Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian climbing to her highest ranking after a superb individual year for both club and country.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents