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“Spain is Spain,” Switzerland’s talismanic captain, Lia Wälti, had warned and, in the quarter-final between the host nation and the world champions, Spain Spained, crushing the resolve of a team that had played in an inspired fashion.

The hosts had more than clung on, they fought, roared on by a crowd that maybe believed, maybe did not, but that did not really matter. It took until the 66th minute for the tournament favourites to find a way through, Athenea del Castillo and Clàudia Pina each striking in a five-minute, second-half spell to crush gentle rumblings of a possible upset.

Centre-back’s ordeal against Sweden was damaging but sketchy press and midfield failings need to be addressed before Italy semi-final

Jess Carter glumly accepted her warm-down top, the pallid commiserations of Arjan Veurink and a seat on the England bench. In truth she had been fortunate to see 70 minutes of this quarter-final, and for all the nightmarish apparitions of the first half perhaps the last few minutes were the loneliest of all. Marooned at the back, 30 yards behind the rest of the team while England forced set pieces and pushed for a route back into the game: a last line of defence that had proved to be very little defence at all.

Esme Morgan would replace her to add some extra heft and the entire system would need to be rejigged to a back three. Carter would watch the excruciating last hour from a seated position, reflecting bleakly on the sort of performance that scars international careers, perhaps even defines them. “You’re feeling nothing and everything at the same time,” she said afterwards. “It’s a turbulent experience. I feel like it’s the first time I’ve smiled since the game.”

• Lionesses overturned deficit to win on penalties in Zurich

• Reigning champions will face Italy for place in final

England supporters in Zurich were recovering on Friday from the drama of the Euro 2025 penalty shootout win against Sweden, with one speaking of “absolute madness in the stands” as the team came from two goals down.

England’s official allocation of 2,099 tickets at the Stadion Letzigrund was sold out but there were about another 10,000 England fans in the stadium, including Louisa Holden-Morris, from Crewe, who was attending her 13th match at this tournament. She told the Guardian she could scarcely watch the penalties.

• No guarantees from new manager over captain staying

• ‘We’re probably not favourites to win Premier League’

Thomas Frank has said he is yet to decide whether to keep Son Heung-min as his captain at Tottenham and the new manager did not offer any guarantees that the club’s marquee player would stay beyond the closure of the summer transfer window.

Frank addressed a host of subjects at his official presentation on Friday before his first Spurs game – the friendly at Reading on Saturday – taking in his targets, how he intends to play and the desire to guard against the level of injuries that undermined his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou. He revealed that Dejan Kulusevski, who underwent knee surgery on 14 May, would not be available for the start of the season.

Mikel Arteta’s latest signing from Chelsea is a driven individual, confident in his ability, according to his fitness coach

If Noni Madueke finds time to head to Marbella for his annual personal pre-season training camp this summer, you probably won’t find Arsenal’s new signing frequenting any of the Spanish seaside city’s glamorous hangouts. “His peers are all partying – they’re at the beach clubs and stuff like that,” says the winger’s individual skills coach, Saul Isaksson-Hurst. “But he’s turning up every day. Even I’m telling him: ‘You need one rest day, a couple of days.’ But Noni is so driven. He understands the importance of working hard – the more you put in, the more you get out. The reality is that he wants to do more.”

Madueke was spotted letting his hair down with Jadon Sancho at the Wireless festival in north London’s Finsbury Park last weekend, which was understandable given the week he had. Having been used sparingly by Enzo Maresca during Chelsea’s first five games at the Club World Cup, the 23-year-old flew back from the US last Friday, before the final, after an agreement was struck for him to become the sixth player Mikel Arteta has signed from Stamford Bridge since the Spaniard became the Arsenal manager in late 2019. Kepa Arrizabalaga trod the same path at the start of this month.

• Fee for forward could reach £71m with add-ons

• Mbeumo wanted United despite Spurs interest

Manchester United have agreed a deal worth more than £70m to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford. A fee of £65m will be paid up front and a further £6m could follow in add-ons.

The Cameroonian, who scored 20 Premier League goals last season, has been a key target for Ruben Amorim. United first made an offer for Mbeumo six weeks ago and had a number of bids rejected. Mbeumo made clear he wanted to move to Old Trafford despite interest at Tottenham from his former head coach Thomas Frank, and personal terms are not thought to be an issue.

Saturday’s quarter-final is last chance for eight-time champions to meet expectations after Sweden rout

“A historically lousy Germany” – Welt. “DFB Women Light Years away from the World Top” – Bild. “One big defeat and many small ones” – Der Spiegel. These were just some of the headlines that emerged in the aftermath of Germany’s bruising 4-1 defeat at the hands of Sweden in their final Group C match.

In just a matter of days, the optimism surrounding Germany’s chances has seemingly dissipated. Despite qualifying for the quarter-finals with a game to spare, Christian Wück’s side have looked far from cohesive and defensively frail. They were also exposed by a Sweden attack that understood how to exploit their weaknesses. Carlotta Wamser’s red card was certainly a factor but there are long-standing structural issues that should be a cause for concern with an in-form France to come on Saturday in Basel.

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The strongest contender that Football Daily could find for the worst penalty shootout of all time was predictably held between two English teams. In January 1998, under-10 pair Mickleover Lightning Blue Sox and Chellaston Boys faced off in the Derby Community Cup. After the regular game finished 1-1, a total of 56 penalties failed to break the deadlock, with referee Peter Shieff even moving the spot two yards closer and offering a coin toss to decide the result (which the sides declined). Despite saving 31 consecutive spot-kicks in the sudden-death decider, Chellaston Boys’ goalkeeper Ben Hodder ended up on the losing side as Blue Sox romped home 2-1, after a grand total of 66 kicks had been taken, a world record verified by David Barber, the FA’s official statistician. A thought, then, for the parents that day 27 years ago, stood on the sidelines, outwardly encouraging their youngsters while internally being tortured and scorched with the fires of a thousand flamethrowers.

There is such a feeling of sadness and disbelief around this awful tragedy that we wanted to make this tribute of our own as soon as we could. Like everyone else, we’ve been stunned by events, and we remember what a wonderful player Diogo was for Wolves during that unforgettable promotion season under Nuno and our early years back in the Premier League. His record of 44 goals at Wolves, and then 65 at Liverpool as a Premier League title winner, speaks volumes. So many fans across the game – especially in Portugal after he helped them win the Nations League this summer – are feeling his loss deeply. We saw no reason to delay this decision” – Wolves induct Diogo Jota into their hall of fame.

The north (in the west) starts at the Cheshire/Staffordshire border. This puts Stoke in the midlands (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) and Crewe in the north. This isn’t just my opinion (I went to grammar school in Crewe) but also the opinion of a person originally from Merseyside who wrote a book about the north that started by him defining where the north started and the first chapter was him visiting Crewe” – Mike Walsh.

Looking at the James, Parker, Chapman, Jack golfing quartet (yesterday’s Memory Lane, full email edition), I couldn’t help but wonder which one of them would have the flag showing ‘Fashion, Golf, Arsenal. In that order’” – Ken Muir.

Further to Yannick Woudstra (yesterday’s letters) wondering if a move to Old Trafford could materialise for Jordan Henderson. I seem to recall that Alex Ferguson once put the kibosh on a move for Henderson in the early-2000s over concerns about his running style. Well the good news for Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s brains trust is that, at the age of 35, running won’t be something Henderson will be doing a lot of. Sign him up!” – Joel Flood.

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The Orlando Pride forward is thriving while playing for her country after a sex eligibility row

Having missed the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations as a result of a controversy over the DSD (difference in sex development) test guidelines set by the Confederation of African Football, Barbra Banda was tight-lipped about her feelings as the Copper Queens won bronze without her.

Now she is back. She has scored three goals in Zambia’s Wafcon campaign, with the first coming 58 seconds into the tournament’s opening game, against hosts Morocco. Banda, who doubles as the Copper Queens captain and attacking pivot, alongside the equally lethal Racheal Kundananji, can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Euro favourites give Switzerland hope before sealing their place in the semi-finals but France or Germany could challenge their supremacy

Afterwards, there was an awful lot of messing about. Probably more than you would expect after a briefly absorbing quarter-final whose outcome was never seriously in doubt. The Swiss players performed the world’s slowest lap of honour. The Spanish players posed for a group photo, but it kept having to be retaken as more players arrived. OK, now one more with Aitana. Now one more with Irene. Now one with the staff. Now in portrait for the ’gram. Then the teams gave each other an honour guard off the pitch. At one point you would swear someone laid out some picnic blankets and Scotch eggs.

Finally they left. And if there was a strangely ceremonial feel to the post-match perhaps it was because there was a strangely ceremonial feel to the match itself: more event than genuine contest, even as Switzerland held out for more than an hour, counted their blessings, fleetingly hoped. But there was always too much time on the clock. There were always Athenea del Castillo and Salma Paralluelo and Vicky López to come on. There was always one more attack to weather, one more shot to block, one more ricochet that had to bounce just right.

When the chips were down against Sweden, the right-back scored, scrapped and strapped her way to a semi-final spot

Lucy Bronze pinned up a picture of herself after the 2019 Women’s World Cup bronze-medal match against Sweden, which England lost 2-1, for her teammates to see on a wall in the team hotel where players and staff share inspirational images. She was, in her words, “absolutely exhausted” in it, hairband round her neck, shirt crumpled, hair awry, the physical, emotional and mental pain of the preceding 90 minutes visible.

That photo represents so much to Bronze, England’s stalwart right-back who no one has come close to replacing and likely never will. “I will give anything and I will give everything when I play in an England shirt,” she says of the image of her at her most broken. “I wanted all the girls to know that that’s my why. My why is to give everything for this team because I just love playing for England so much.”

The first Lions Test, a golf major at Royal Portrush, a Euro 2025 quarter-final and heavyweight boxing are just some of our offerings this weekend

• Pressure put on 18-year-old Smilla Holmberg criticised

• England squeak through after youngster’s miss

Swedish media reacted with incredulity and indignation after the country’s women’s team lost the Euro 2025 quarter-final to England on penalties.

The Swedes raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half before the Lionesses responded with two quickfire goals to take the game into extra time. After a goalless 30 minutes Sarina Wiegman’s team, the reigning champions, won a fraught shootout 3-2.

• Goalkeeper made two crucial saves in shootout

• Head coach believes Lucy Bronze is ‘one of a kind’

Sarina Wiegman said England never doubted Hannah Hampton’s ability after the Lionesses goalkeeper made two crucial shootout saves to help send England through to the Euro 2025 semi-finals amid remarkable drama in Zurich.

The Chelsea keeper, who was named as England’s new No 1 by Wiegman in May when Mary Earps retired from international duty, also made two vital saves in normal time to help England battle back from 2-0 down to eliminate Sweden.

There is no shortage of contenders but who will finish as the tournament’s top scorer in Switzerland?

The race to be top scorer at the Women’s Euros 2025 in Switzerland is a fascinating one. Spain, the world champions, have several players who can top the list: Esther González, Clàudia Pina and Salma Paralluelo. The beaten finalists in Australia and New Zealand – England – count Alessia Russo as their main threat but also have Beth Mead, Chloe Kelly, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp who can chip in with goals.

Germany and France also have high hopes of going all the way this summer and have, among their ranks, Lea Schüller, Jule Brand, Klara Bühl, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Sandy Baltimore and Kadidiatou Diani.

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

Today’s rumours were up all night

Given Victor Osimhen is one of the world’s best No 9s, definitely available for transfer and with a £64m release clause is a cheaper option than both Viktor Gyökeres (who is older) and Hugo Ekitike (who is relatively unproven), it seems a little bit wild that Arsenal, Liverpool or any other elite European team are not in for the Nigerian striker. Having impressed last season on loan at Galatasaray, winning the Golden Boot in Turkey on the way to a Süper Lig title, Osimhen could complete a remarkable permanent move to Istanbul in lieu of any other interest. Napoli are happy to sell, given Osimhen has one year remaining on his contract, but have reportedly inserted a clause preventing the striker from joining Juventus at a later date.

Like a sophisticated nuclear submarine patiently lying in wait or just a middle-aged man trying to get out of a bathtub, West Ham have emerged as a potential loan destination for Jack Grealish. The Manchester City winger’s gargantuan wages are too dear for a permanent move but a loan deal may suit and the Mill is wholeheartedly in favour of the deal, mainly because Grealish and West Ham mascot Danny Dyer will undoubtedly be thrown together in the name of #content. Everton could yet scupper the Englishman’s move to east London, offering Grealish a chance to stay in the north-west.

Ince was also fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 statutory surcharge and £85 costs over incident in June

The former England footballer Paul Ince has been banned from driving and ordered to pay £7,085 for drink-driving.

The 57-year-old appeared at Chester magistrates court on Friday where he admitted driving his Range Rover while over the limit on 28 June in Neston, Cheshire.

• Swede ‘staying super-focused’ amid Liverpool interest

• Elanga praises collective spirit of Newcastle teammates

Newcastle’s new £55m signing Anthony Elanga has insisted that Alexander Isak is “super-focused” in training but the winger sidestepped a series of invitations to predict precisely how much longer his Sweden teammate intends to remain part of Eddie Howe’s squad.

Elanga’s arrival on Tyneside last week coincided with intense speculation that Liverpool were readying a £130m bid for Isak. Although Newcastle have repeatedly reiterated that they are determined to keep their prized centre-forward, and the Anfield board are in advanced negotiations to sign the Eintracht Frankfurt forward Hugo Ekitike, Isak’s thoughts on the future remain unknown.

• Forward’s fee eclipses $1.1m paid by Chelsea for Girma

• Canadian describes move to Arsenal as ‘an honour’

The first £1m transfer in women’s football has been completed after the Canada forward Olivia Smith concluded her record-breaking move from Liverpool to Arsenal.

The 20-year-old has signed a four-year contract with the European champions and, although the fee is officially undisclosed, ­multiple sources say it is the game’s first to reach the £1m mark, as revealed by the Guardian a week ago, in a historic moment for the sport. The previous highest was the $1.1m (£890,000) paid by Chelsea for the US centre-back Naomi Girma in January.

• Championship club under majority American ownership

• Luka Modric joined as investor and co-owner in April

The American rapper Snoop Dogg has bought a minority stake in the Championship club Swansea. The deal was announced three months after the Croatia international Luka Modric joined as an investor and co-owner.

Snoop Dogg helped to launch Swansea’s new home shirt on Monday. The 53-year-old is a keen sports fan and has described Celtic as his favourite football club in Scotland. He said last month he would love to open a burger van at Celtic Park.

The tournament in Morocco has produced some fine football but has yet to win over the general public

From deep inside the Stade d’Honneur came a beautiful sound as 26 voices united in song. The loudspeaker quietened in respect. The few dozen people at the ground braved the summer swelter to crowd near the players’ tunnels. Ghanaian players walked out in no noticeable combination with slightly puzzled looks on their faces. The noise grew louder and more distinctive as one voice called and the others responded. There was definitely the beating of a drum.

Then, they emerged. Defending champions South Africa announced their arrival at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) with nothing but notes of pure joy. For about 90 seconds, they kept the tune going. Even before they had kicked a ball, Banyana Banyana had offered something special.

The football was at times intriguing, but the true meaning of the first expanded Club World Cup will be debated for years

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For the first four weeks of the 2025 Club World Cup, there had been the danger that the tournament would soon be largely forgotten. There is no danger of that after the final. There had been unease after the 2022 World Cup final at the way Qatar inserted itself into the trophy presentation by draping a bisht over Lionel Messi, but at least the Emir kept his distance. Donald Trump, by contrast, placed himself front and centre of the celebrations – and he was soon joined by the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, who has a pathological fear of missing out, and must follow his great ally in all things.

And so we were presented with a grimly perfect image of this misguided tournament, a celebrating football team struggling to be seen from behind the politicians who took centre stage. The confusion of Cole Palmer and Reece James at Trump’s continued presence was clear. History, and not just football history, will not forget such shameless grandstanding, or Fifa’s complicity in allowing football to be hijacked by a national leader.

We asked readers if they enjoyed the tournament, how it could be improved and if they will watch in four years’ time

It is a senseless attempt to line Fifa’s already gilded pockets and increase the demands on already exhausted players who must be close to breaking point. The idea of the world’s top clubs playing each other is dull because of the mismatch in resources between Europe and the rest. No one needs more games in an already crowded calendar. Playing it in the heat of the American summer is another mistake. I suspect the clubs that participated will pay for it next season. Scrap it. Max, an Arsenal fan

A tournament won by Chelsea exposed international divides and sparked questions about workload and weather

Fifa: The world’s governing body had hoped to gain more of a foothold in the club game with the expanded version of this tournament. Now that it has taken place without major disruption or mass protest, chances are it won’t go away any time soon. In many respects, that alone is mission accomplished – Fifa now runs a property that will allow it to control the global profile of some of the world’s biggest soccer properties, which had been mostly out of its reach. There are also plenty of positive storylines Fifa can pick to tout (more than 2.4m cumulative attendance and any number of highlights on the field), even if some of those are balanced out by some less flattering realities (more than 1.5m empty seats).

Aggressive, motivated, extremely talented and now champions of the world, Enzo Maresca’s squad have the confidence and real depth

When Chelsea won the Conference League in May, a victory secured by the standard ice‑cold Cole Palmer performance in a final, the reaction was restrained and there was no internal talk of an impending title challenge. Now the vibe is different. It is hard not to dream when Chelsea perform as they did against Paris Saint‑Germain in the final of the Club World Cup.

Nobody is getting carried away. Chelsea know what the rest of us know, which is that they are not the best team in the world. They are not the finished article. They are young and still have much to learn. Yet there is a gold badge on the shirt for the next four years and if Chelsea woke up feeling $100m on Monday morning it will not only have been because of the prize money made during their month in the US.

The midfielder’s switch to Italy reaffirms the league’s undisputed status as home of the gifted senior citizen

Luka Modric will turn 40 in September. He has played 930 games over the course of a career and has won seven league titles and six Champions Leagues. He even broke the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly to claim the Ballon d’Or after inspiring Croatia to the World Cup final in 2018.

He rarely lasts a full 90 minutes these days, didn’t start a game during the Club World Cup and suffered the indignity of coming on for his Madrid farewell with the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain long since lost. He could have retired five years ago and still been one of the most respected players in the history of the game but, his eyes on next summer’s World Cup, when his contract at Real Madrid expired Modric chose to join Milan.

• Footballer revealed details in social media post

• Test failure after match against Manchester United

Athletic Bilbao’s Yeray Álvarez has been provisionally suspended because of a failed doping test after a Europa League game against Manchester United, with the defender saying he unintentionally ingested a banned substance in medicine used to treat hair loss.

Álvarez said he had tested positive after Bilbao’s 3-0 home defeat in the semi-finals of Uefa’s second-tier club competition in May. The Spanish side also lost the return leg 4-1.

Announcement disappoints her legions of fans who hoped she might one day retake the field

US international and two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath announced her retirement on Thursday, after years away from the sport due to injury, disappointing her legions of fans who hoped she might one day retake the field.

Famed for her cool demeanour and extraordinary intelligence on the pitch, Heath picked up two Olympic golds and won the NWSL championship twice with the Portland Thorns.

• Former Real manager will not spend any time in jail

• Ancelotti convicted of failing to pay tax on image rights

The Brazil coach and former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has been given a one-year prison sentence and a fine of almost €400,000 (£345,000) after a Spanish court found him guilty of one count of tax fraud.

Ancelotti, who managed Real Madrid from 2013 to 2015 and between 2021 and 2025, appeared in court in Madrid in April to stand trial on charges of defrauding Spain’s tax office of more than €1m (£836,857) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.

The US lost a final but gained competitive options at multiple positions, which should make some entrenched yet absent stars nervous.

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In the end, the status quo went unchanged. Mexico won its second consecutive Concacaf Gold Cup trophy in a heated final with the United States in Houston’s NRG Stadium on Sunday. The oddly angular cup will be tucked into Mexico’s federation trophy case next to El Tri’s first Concacaf Nations League title, lifted in March. The program was unquestionably on top of Concacaf before the Gold Cup – now that it’s over, they still are.

If anything is changing, it’s the momentum in Mexico’s favor. The 2-1 victory over the United States men’s national team was the first time the Mexicans vanquished their arch-rivals in six years – minus one day.

Donald Trump is closing the borders even though the World Cup and 2028 Olympics will take place in the US

Call it big, beautiful timing. On Tuesday, Fifa announced it had taken an office in Trump Tower. On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced he would attend the Club World Cup final. And who could begrudge the US president a little sporting entertainment after the week he has had? Those Nobel peace prize applications don’t write themselves.

Trump’s attendance at a tournament we can be 95% sure he doesn’t understand is, doubtless, a huge coup and political victory for football. This is a sport that only a decade ago was openly considered un-American, scrawled into the rightwing commentator’s list of pet peeves between meteorologists and Judy Blume. Ann Coulter described soccer’s growing popularity as a “sign of the nation’s moral decay”. Glenn Beck likened it to Obamacare: “It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get … we want nothing to do with it.”

Despite objections from the Premier League, a regulator tasked with protecting the whole of the sport has moved a significant step closer to reality

It seems like a lifetime ago that the fan-led review into football governance emerged from the wreckage of the failed European Super League. The ideas that underpin the independent regulator were born out of that crisis: an attempt to stop the drift of our national game toward private greed, corporate overreach and ownership disconnect from local communities. Years later, we are probably on the verge of finally seeing those ideas enshrined in law.

Tuesday’s resounding 415 to 98 vote on the football governance bill. in the House of Commons means the process should come to a resolution with royal assent in the coming days. Although that may feel inevitable given the overwhelming cross-party support in the Commons, anyone who has worked in politics knows better than to celebrate before the final whistle. But we are, at last, in what looks like the final minutes of the game.

Unexpectedly cheap tickets gave my boy an overwhelming soccer experience, and me a jolt of faith in a flawed tournament

My son had never been to a professional soccer game.

Soccer is, shall we say, not really his thing. It’s also never been particularly important to me that he likes soccer, that he likes what I like. Our sons will be their own men, come what may.

Spurs signing Klinsmann or selling Waddle were bolts from the blue. Now, transfer influencers track private jets and almost nothing is unknown

Which transfer fee blew your mind? It was probably Spurs signing Gazza for £2m in the summer of 1988. TWO MILLION. No one is worth that kind of money. The following year, I distinctly remember running into the living room – Spurs had just signed Gary Lineker. I was preparing for the season ahead, invisible football at my feet, commentating to myself: “Gascoigne, to Waddle, in for LINEKERRRR.” The next moment I switched on the TV and someone (let’s say Ray Stubbs) was telling me that Spurs had sold Waddle to Marseille. I was bereft. There was no warning. For me, or for Lineker it turns out.

I heard the striker talking about the transfer recently on the excellent What Did You Do Yesterday? podcast hosted by David O’Doherty and generic broadcaster Max Rushden (perhaps the second-best podcast he hosts).

Our cartoonist on the US president’s central role in the final of a tournament that seemed like it would never end

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Pre-season trips to Asia may not be new for English clubs, but they remain a huge global engagement opportunity

Fifty years ago, Arsenal lost 2-0 to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, with jet-lagged players struggling to deal with frogs bouncing around the Merdeka Stadium pitch as well as the legendary local striker Mokhtar Dahari.

Since then, however, many aspects of Asian tours by English clubs have changed. They have become, mostly, slick affairs. This summer, Arsenal will visit neighbouring Singapore for games against Newcastle and Milan. Then to Hong Kong for an unusual north London derby against a Tottenham team that will also travel to South Korea to face Newcastle. Liverpool visit Japan and Hong Kong just weeks after Manchester United were in action there on a post-season tour, which they finished in Malaysia.

Win over the Netherlands shows Sarina Wiegman has kept spirits high in the Lionesses’ camp as decisive matches loom

England are back on track. They really needed that display against the Netherlands and it was a pivotal moment for them. It was a very, very commanding performance.

Physically, they showed their dominance and exposed the Netherlands’ weaknesses at the back. With Lauren James, in what I think is her best position, playing from the right and being able to drift in, you can maintain your midfield structure. Her performance showed why Sarina Wiegman has selected her and the team performance showed why she stuck with the group that she did.

Shakhtar Donetsk coach on staying calm on the touchline and learning from Diego Simeone and Luis Enrique

Arda Turan knows the question is coming. How has the firebrand who thrilled and exasperated during a successful, sometimes wildly controversial, playing career become a manager with the temperament to take on one of Europe’s most delicate jobs? It comes down to taking a breath. “When there is something going on, right now the first thing that comes into my mind is thinking rather than reacting,” he says with a grin.

There will be plenty to occupy that fizzing brain at Shakhtar Donetsk, where he was appointed head coach in May. His competitive debut comes on Thursday, against the Finnish side Ilves, but it is a Europa League first qualifying round tie and the Ukrainian giants are not used to that stage. This is only their second year since the turn of the century without any form of Champions League football and they have rolled the dice by asking one of Turkey’s greatest ever footballers to set them straight.

Under the guidance of a former Manchester United assistant, Minnesota United are finding MLS success with a surprising tactic

Not many soccer players are as passionate about dead balls as Anthony Markanich. Then again Minnesota United, under the 33-year-old first-time head coach Eric Ramsay, don’t play soccer like most teams.

“All the guys get really excited about set pieces, especially myself,” Markanich gushed last Friday after scoring a goal off a long throw-in by the center back Michael Boxall for the second time in a week. “I told Boxy I love when he has the ball for throw-ins and stuff – I get so excited about that.”

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Football Daily has long believed that no good can come from the prefix “multi”. Multi-storey car parks have been causing spikes in blood pressure ever since City & Suburban Electric Carriage Company opened the first anxiety maze at 6 Denman Street, London, in May 1901. Multiplexes are for watching films that have been dubbed over by some gobby ne’er-do-well crunching on a never-ending bucket of popcorn. Multiperspectivalism looks an interesting concept, sure, but we’re too thick to understand it properly and now we’ve got a headache. And the multiverse? This one not causing you enough misery?

Re: Hamrun Spartans’ shoot-out win over Zalgaris and it being ‘the first time a Maltese side have made it beyond this round, becoming part of football history’ (yesterday’s Football Daily). I am sure I won’t be the only football geek to point out that Malta was represented regularly in the European Cup’s early decades – eg Floriana (beaten 10-0 at Portman Road) and Hibernians, who held the Busby Babes 0-0 in Valletta before going down 4-0 at Old Trafford” – Alan Cooper (and no other football geeks).

I’m interested in the view that the north of England starts at Stoke (yesterday’s Football Daily). If so, does the south of England also start at Stoke? Asking for a friend who claims to live in somewhere called ‘the Midlands’” – Tony Rabaiotti.

After your comment on Jordan Henderson joining yet another club playing in red and white (Tuesday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), I couldn’t help but think which other Premier League clubs in red and white kits he has to cross off before he goes full circle and rejoins Sunderland. Arsenal seem the logical next move, as it’s just a short drift down the Regent’s Canal away. But would he survive ‘The Theatre of Dreams’? I sincerely hope Amazon will be there to film it all” – Yannick Woudstra.

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Bigger Cup is up and running, baby, as we officially wave goodbye to “last season” and welcome “this season”. The question of when we enter a new campaign is eternally asked; it’s like the quandary of where the north of England starts (anything above Bristol Stoke, if you were wondering), and Football Daily is happy to provide the definitive answer of … roundabout now. Tuesday’s first qualifying round second legs brought the drama Uefa desperately needs to make the competition entertaining before the drudge of matches from September to January. Unfortunately for the suits in Switzerland, almost certainly none of the teams currently playing in the qualifying rounds will reach the league stage but we should let Hamrun Spartans, Lincoln Red Imps and Drita dream … for a bit. At the same time, the prospect of facing Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and FC Basel is over for another year for the likes of The New Saints, Differdange 03 and Virtus, who will have to wipe away the tears, pull their socks up and go again in Tin Pot.

Apropos the article on Puma’s deal with Manchester City (yesterday’s Football Daily), a shout out please for their retro-inspired 2025-26 strips produced for Port Vale’s 150th anniversary. Pleasingly sponsor-free and designed by supporters (OK, the boss’s son) rather than some PR wonk, they are the absolute business” – Rob Ford.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily letters. For the last 30 years I’ve lived roughly a Rory Delap throw-in away from the Auld Triangle/Plimsoll in Finsbury Park. On a visit to the Irish Emigration Musuem in Dublin a few years ago, my daughter was surprised to see a faithful reproduction of the pre-gastro incarnation set up as an example of the type of pub that the Irish diaspora has created around the world. I’ve no idea if it is still an exhibit there, but possibly worth a trip for anyone who misses the old days. I don’t think they have a replica Robbie doing the quiz, mind” – Brendan Mackinney.

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

Montse Tomé’s side have scored 11 goals in two games with Aitana Bonmatí on the bench – but all is not lost for rivals

One week of Euro 2025 has passed and already there is unquestionably a frontrunner. Spain with their glittering array of talent have already shown the levels that they can reach in their opening two matches.

Even though two-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí is yet to return to the starting XI after suffering from a brief bout of viral meningitis, they have caught the eye with their goalscoring prowess and command of the ball. In among the goals and dominant play, however, are there some gaps in the armour that can be exploited?

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When Real Madrid refused en masse to turn up for last year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony because they knew their man on the shortlist hadn’t won the main award, their snub was widely and correctly perceived to have been an act of the most extreme petulance. And while their players and coaching staff did deign to attend last night’s Copa Gianni semi-final at the MetLife EnormoDome, they certainly didn’t turn up in any meaningful sense of the word and were duly humiliated by Paris Saint-Germain, the Bigger Cup holders Kylian Mbappé famously abandoned last summer to pursue his dream of … winning Bigger Cup. Subjected to the footballing equivalent of being attacked by a swarm of angry bees, Real simply had no answers for PSG’s terrifyingly energetic onslaught across 90 minutes.

Chelsea did offer me another contract, but I decided to go to Aston Villa because they were in the Championship. And I had an agreement with Villa that if we got promoted that year – we lost in the playoff final to Fulham – that I wouldn’t play against Chelsea the following year in the Premier League. So the two games I would have missed the next year would have been Chelsea, it just wouldn’t have felt right” – Plain Old John Terry tells TalkSport that his Aston Villa contract included a ‘won’t play against Chelsea’ clause.

Today’s rumours wanna jive tonight

The Villa Park Rehabilitation Centre for Disaffected Souls Who Learned the Hard Way that Old Trafford is No Longer the Theatre of Dreams or Let’s Be Honest Even Hopes could soon have a new arrival. After helping Marcus Rashford discovery his joie de football last season, Unai Emery reportedly wants to do to the same for Alejandro Garnacho, while also injecting him with an eye-watering level of tactical detail and a hitherto unseen desire to do the defensive hard yards.

Chelsea and Tottenham are also listening to Garnacho FM for the latest, which could result in an unlikely swap deal. The word on the street is the Manchester United’s search for a centre-forward has reached Nicolas Jackson, who might as well have a red shirt to go with the red cards he’s started collecting.

Plus: most champions-in-waiting beaten en route to Champions League glory and the hottest English match on record

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Arsenal have signed a new keeper, Kepa,” noted John Marsden last week. “Are there any other examples of players with a name so similar to their position?”

While we can’t find a player named Left Back, there is a former Anderlecht defender by the name of Mark De Man (which, admittedly, is an on-pitch instruction not a role). The Belgium international earned five caps for his country and retired in 2012 with a spell at third-division KSK Hasselt, having rejected the chance to make the move to Kilmarnock. “I have two children and my wife has a good job. I did not want to move to Scotland on my own,” said De Man.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Tanya Oxtoby to discuss England’s dominant win against Wales, France’s comeback, and the final twists in the Euro 2025 group stage

On the podcast today: England hit their stride with a 6-1 demolition of Wales to seal a quarter-final showdown with Sweden. With six different goalscorers and Ella Toone back to her best, Sarina Wiegman’s side looks like they’ve arrived at the tournament. The panel discusses the game and analyses the Lionesses’ chances in the quarter-final against Sweden.

Wales bows out, but Rhian Wilkinson’s honest post-match assessment provides a blueprint for the future. The panel discuss what Wales can learn from their experience at the tournament. Meanwhile, France turn on the style to knock out the Netherlands, who continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Best players, best managers, best matches, best goals, biggest flops and biggest gripes: our writers have their say

Mohamed Salah. The numbers don’t lie – 47 goal contributions in the Premier League was an outstanding return from the Egyptian, who seems to be getting better with age. Ed Aarons

Arne Slot’s first season could not have gone any better while Wolves fans drank to Vítor Pereira’s arrival

By winning the league, the Dutchman surprised pretty much everyone. He faced the daunting task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp and inherited the German’s squad, adding only Federico Chiesa, who barely kicked a ball in anger. Not much changed from the previous year, except Ryan Gravenberch became the designated defensive midfielder as Slot’s Liverpool looked to get on the ball as much as possible. Slot was never going to be a personality who generated headlines like Klopp did, keeping his cards close to his chest, but he always comes across as someone who is very personable and has brought the players closer together. Slot made Liverpool an efficient winning machine – rarely thrashing teams, often winning by the odd goal or two – and that allowed them to race to a second Premier League title. No one could compete with the Reds, which was partly down to rivals dropping their standards but most of it can be attributed to the fact Slot made his team superior.

Managers, teams and players who have disappointed over the campaign – including the reigning footballer of the year

Ruben Amorim’s average points tally of a point per league game since arriving at Manchester United in early November puts him just above Malky Mackay’s record at Cardiff and Paul Jewell’s Premier League record with Bradford, Wigan and Derby. While Sporting won the Primeira Liga title without Amorim, United have fallen down the table to 15th since the Portuguese took the reins from the interim coach, Ruud van Nistelrooy. Much of the ire towards United has been directed at the owners but on the pitch Amorim has failed to adapt his squad of expensive, experienced internationals into anything approaching a cohesive unit. The Europa League final defeat by Tottenham showed how much work is left to do.