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The teams for the final in Budapest are set. We look at how they got there and the factors that could determine the champion

Destination Budapest, where Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to be the first club apart from Real Madrid to win two consecutive European Cups since Milan in 1990. Vincent Kompany’s promise of “more” from Bayern Munich after a nine-goal first leg did not materialise. PSG offered a different proposition in Wednesday’s second leg; they put on a performance of defensive discipline, with their attacking players committed to closing down their opponents. Luis Enrique’s team never allowed the tie to spin from their control even if there were 33 shots in Munich compared to 22 in Paris.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia plays like an old-style winger, and set up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, but he is also thoroughly modern in the way he presses hard and high. Bayern found space at a premium until Harry Kane’s late goal. Luis Enrique’s team is much the same as last season’s, sticking to the same formula. They are a year older but still flush with youth. The PSG project took many years and billions of euros to hit pay dirt but is now delivering the success that was dreamed of after the Qatari takeover in 2011.

• Jamaica striker decides to go when contract ends in June

• City could not match other offers to the 29-year-old

Khadija “Bunny” Shaw has decided to leave Manchester City this summer at the end of her contract, the Guardian understands, after extensive talks over a new deal concluded with her opting to pursue a new challenge.

The Jamaica striker, who is on course to win the Women’s Super League’s Golden Boot for a third consecutive season, was close to agreeing a new deal in March and is understood to have told City she wanted to stay, but negotiations on the finer details hit a number of stumbling blocks, including the proposed length of the extension, and the WSL leaders are preparing for life without their star player.

• Entain wants no operators unlicensed in UK as sponsors

• Two clubs did not advertise such companies this season

The Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been urged to stop Premier League clubs from accepting sponsorship from gambling companies unlicensed in the UK in the latest public consultation over its licensing regime.

Entain, the global sports betting company that owns Ladbrokes and Coral, has submitted a response to the IFR asking for a clarification of its guidance that would prevent clubs from doing commercial deals with operators unlicensed in the UK.

The tiny Italian club are flying high with the help of the former Arsenal player, ambitious owners and a scouting guru inspired by Football Manager

The serene sound of lapping water is broken only by the whir of a seaplane engine swooping to land. Outside the hangar to which the aircraft will soon return, a crowd has gathered well before kick-off. Later, most will scale the steep steps of the adjacent Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia.

To the right sits Villa Carminati, a new private members’ club that also houses hospitality guests on matchdays. It is a unique setting for a unique football club. When bathed in sunshine, as was the case for last Sunday’s goalless draw with Napoli, Como 1907 is a waterside paradise. Or, as their president Mirwan Suwarso puts it when drawing parallels between the club and Disney, it is the “theme park” division of the “main brand … Lake Como”.

• Fifa association with Panini goes back to 1970

• 2030 World Cup will be final tournament

Panini World Cup sticker albums will become a thing of the past following the centenary finals in 2030 after Fifa announced a new partnership on Thursday.

The Fifa association with Panini already stretches back more than 50 years, with the first World Cup sticker book published ahead of the 1970 finals in Mexico, and will have reached 60 years by 2030.

Striker reflects on the ultimate high with Leicester and the role of the self-titled ‘Inbetweeners’ in his success

“I was just a little freak in the works.” Jamie Vardy is reflecting on his career with the usual levels of self-deprecation and pondering whether anyone could possibly board the same rollercoaster. “It’s not the common way of doing things, is it? I don’t think it will probably happen again, but it did happen for me and it was hard work. It really was tough, but all worth it.”

Humour has always been a preferred Vardy tool for removing the sting from a serious point. He is speaking to mark a new documentary about his rise, which brought him from warehouse work making walking frames and crutches to scarcely credible levels of Premier League success.

The Wellington Phoenix coach reflects on the aftermath of the Olympic spying scandal and leading her team into a first A-League Women’s finals campaign

Football is not the kind of profession that lends itself to time off for birthdays and the like. Especially when one is preparing to lead the Wellington Phoenix into their first A-League Women’s finals campaign, as Bev Priestman was last week. Yet, especially when contrasted with the year prior, when she was still in the midst of a one-year Fifa ban after the spying scandal that engulfed Canada women’s football team during the Paris Olympics, being among “her people” turned out to be a gift in and of itself.

“It was my 40th birthday [last week],” Priestman tells Moving the Goalposts. “And it’s those moments, I think to a year ago, and how I felt. And then how I felt in the club [this year], around my staff, around the team. I do this job because I love people. I love the game, obviously, but it’s working with people, getting your energy with people, and trying to inspire people and help them find a better version of themselves.

• Prices will rise by 3% next season but frozen for 2027-28

• Liverpool fans directed yellow cards against owners

Liverpool supporters have achieved a significant victory in their protests against ticket costs at Anfield after the club scrapped plans to increase prices for the next three seasons.

Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), went against the wishes of the club’s supporters board in March by announcing general admission tickets would rise by the rate of inflation, capped to 3%, in each of the next three seasons. Following widespread protests organised by several Liverpool supporters groups, the club have now confirmed those tickets will rise by 3% next season but will be frozen in 2027-28. Further discussions with the supporters board will be held over ticket prices for future seasons. The Premier League champions made record revenues of £703m in the year ending 31 May 2025 and ticket prices rises were costed to be worth an extra £1.2m. The club claimed the increases were necessary due to rising operational costs at Anfield.

After 10 years without a Women’s Super League title, City are champions once more – here’s how they did it

The sight of Rebecca Knaak fighting back tears on hearing the full-time whistle last Sunday summed up what this means. The Manchester City defender had sustained a painful shoulder injury during a victory over Liverpool snatched by her late header so probably had her own reasons for finding the combination of relief, soreness and joy a little overwhelming. But her emotions could have been felt by any of the longer-serving season-ticket holders in the stands after a decade-long wait for a Women’s Super League title.

When City lifted this trophy in 2016, the landscape of the English women’s game was wholly different. The club, then managed by Nick Cushing, completed the 16-game campaign unbeaten and clinched the title on a day when they deployed a starting XI featuring nine English and two Scottish players from a squad that included only six non-English players. It was a time before the wider, full-time professionalism of the league and the influx of overseas talent.

Who will join Coventry and Ipswich in the top flight: Millwall, Hull City, Middlesbrough or Southampton?

By Opta Analyst

For a while it looked as if Millwall would secure automatic promotion, but they finished a point behind Ipswich. Millwall have only spent two seasons in the English top flight. They won the Division Two title in 1987-88, finished 10th in their first season in the top flight and were relegated the following year having finished last.

Something of an obsessive with tidiness, the interim coach has beaten all the club’s closest rivals in his short time in charge

We’ll get on to the more pressing business of whether Michael Carrick deserves the full-time Manchester United job in a moment. There’s plenty to discuss: tactics and philosophy, character and comportment, the squad he inherited from Ruben Amorim and how United might strengthen it in the summer window. But first: I want you to imagine eating an entire dover sole with the bones left in, while under the gaze of the former England international Trevor Francis.

You’re in a fancy restaurant in Birmingham. You’re 18 years old, and have ordered the fish with potatoes on the assumption that it will essentially be a posh chippy supper. The sole arrives, the waiter asks whether you want it filleted, and because you don’t know what that means, you say no. Immediately you feel the painful prickles on your tongue, the unsatisfying gnash of skeletal marine matter between your teeth. Naturally, you don’t want to look rude or foolish in front of your new manager. So you put on a brave face, and keep chewing. Meanwhile, Trevor Francis keeps watching.

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Alex Greenwood has won the first WSL title of her career and Khadija Shaw has been the league’s standout player

Ayaka Yamashita This has been a solid season for the Japan international, with her seven Women’s Super League clean sheets putting her in contention for the Golden Glove going into the final round of matches. Yamashita’s distribution has been a strength, aiding the way Andrée Jeglertz wants to play. 7

• Accounts for year ending July 2025 show improved salary

• Richard Masters had earned £1.9m the previous year

The latest accounts filed by the Premier League show the chief executive, Richard Masters, received £1m in a performance-related bonus.

Accounts by the Premier League for the year ending 31 July 2025 were published on Companies House on Tuesday and revealed Masters’ improved salary.

• Logistics complicated for 30 May showpiece in Budapest

• Arsenal to receive only 16,824 official ticket allocation

Arsenal have had to find different ways to win this season as they pursue a Premier League and Champions League double. Their fans will now have to show similar dexterity if they hope to make it to Budapest for Uefa’s showpiece final.

With direct flights from London costing up to £1,500 and the only available hotel rooms about 20 miles from the Hungarian capital, it could be the most expensive Champions League final to attend in history. But with a bit of luck and logistical flexibility (and the ability to stay awake all night), Gunners supporters can still hope to match Declan Rice’s demand that 200,000 descend upon the Danube at the end of this month.

• Fan groups have called prices a ‘monumental betrayal’

• Fifa collects 30% cut on resale market

Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, has defended World Cup ticket prices, insisting that football’s global governing body was obliged to take advantage of US laws that allow tickets to be resold for thousands of dollars above face value.

Fifa has faced searing criticism over the cost of World Cup tickets, with the fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) calling the pricing structure “extortionate” and a “monumental betrayal”. FSE filed a lawsuit with the European Commission in March targeting Fifa over “excessive ticket prices” for the tournament.

• If in Argentina squad, Prestianni would miss two games

• Benfica winger banned for racial abuse of Vinícius Júnior

• Prestianni has one Argentina cap, from November

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Fifa confirmed a global ban Wednesday for Gianluca Prestianni that will rule the Benfica winger out of two World Cup games in the United States if he is selected in Argentina’s squad.

Uefa imposed a six-game ban – with three games deferred on probation – on Prestianni two weeks ago for his verbal abuse of Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior in the Champions League. Prestianni covered his mouth with his jersey while using the insult.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Paul Watson as Arsenal make a first men’s Champions League final in 20 years … and get an edge in the Premier League.

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On today’s podcast: Arsenal reach the men’s Champions League final for the first time in 20 years, a timely-in-form Bukayo Saka with the decisive goal. They defended like we know they can defend – limiting Atlético to virtually nothing.

The panel discuss why the whole affair wasn’t as nerve-wracking as it should have been. Elsewhere, this win is the second great result for Arsenal in two days after Manchester City dropped points in their 3-3 draw away at Everton on Monday night. It means the title is in Arsenal’s hands with three games to go.

Also, Nottingham Forest make eight changes and still beat Chelsea, Ewan Murray joins us from the jazz bar and we answer your questions.

Chapters:

00:00 - Coming up...

00:49 - Arsenal thought to UCL final

26:47 - City lose vital ground in the Premier League title race

35:08 - Are Chelsea the weirdest team in England?

45:10 - Ewan Murray's jazz corner

1:02:40 - Paul Watson's Vaduz corner

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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s trickery and imagination in Munich gave a reminder of the challenge facing Arsenal in the final

Well, it was never going to be quite the same. You only get one all-time high, one first kiss, one Catcher in the Rye, one loved-up alien-ball dreamscape of a game like the first leg between these two teams.

In the event Bayern Munich never really laid a glove on Paris Saint-Germain at the Allianz Arena. They trailed from the third minute to Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, drew level on the night through Harry Kane at the death, but looked in between like a team trying to generate energy from a standing start, always kept at one remove by the extended arm, the palm on their forehead, fists whirling in the empty air between.

A fourth manager of the season seemed a wild strategy but Portuguese coach has galvanised the squad and this journey could end in the Champions League

Football, it transpires, is not rocket science. If it were, Nottingham Forest would not be close to securing Premier League survival and two games from Champions League football next season. The club’s approach could hardly be described as methodical but whether by accident or design, Vítor Pereira, Forest’s fourth head coach in six months, has found the right formula.

When eight changes to the lineup were announced for Monday’s visit to Chelsea, eyebrows were raised as the second string were sent out. It allowed Pereira to rest others for Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Aston Villa. Within two minutes they were ahead and by the hour they were out of sight and a further step towards salvation thanks to a third away win in a row.

In the space of a week the mood has changed, with positive energy replacing suffering, and two trophies are suddenly within reach

It was a soundbite designed to go viral, the kind the ex-pros in the TV studios are always looking to confect; snappy, heavy on hyperbole, bang in the moment. Thierry Henry made it pop on Tuesday night as he interviewed Bukayo Saka on CBS Sports after Arsenal had beaten Atlético Madrid to advance to the Champions League final. “We were the Invincibles. You will be the Unforgettables,” Henry said.

There it was, as laid out by one of the greats, the goalscoring hero of Arsenal’s unbeaten bolt to the 2004 Premier League title, the last one they won.

Plus: youngest players to score a trophy-clinching goal, an apology to Albert Kidd and keepers seeing red

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Sheffield Wednesday finished their Championship season on zero points, accumulating 18 points throughout their 46-game season after being handed an 18-point deduction for severe financial mismanagement,” notes Michael Butler. “But has any team finished on zero points simply because they lost every league game?”

There are many instances of teams finishing on zero points (with deductions), but one really has to delve deep to find those teams unfortunate enough to lose every single match in a full season. Even Fort William, famously branded as the “worst football team in Britain” after going 840 days and 73 matches without a win in 2019, managed to dig out a couple of draws in those seasons.

Defeat to Arsenal could usher in a period of intense change, but whether coach will stick around is an open question

“I love you,” Diego Simeone said, but they only had 14 games to save the season. It was the night before Atlético Madrid faced Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final first leg in early April and the manager was sitting alongside Antoine Griezmann, unexpectedly opening up in a press conference of all places, emotion and admiration expressed publicly as the end drew near. “A player first, then a friend,” in the coach’s words. Griezmann had recently announced that he was leaving for Orlando City. That was the bad news; the good news was that he would do so at the close of a campaign that could be for ever, that he was still here at all.

The threat had been that Griezmann would go with immediate effect, departing in March before the season was even finished, his American contract already agreed and not easy to change, faced by a reluctance to release him. But how, Atlético’s coach, CEO and teammates insisted, could he leave when the pinnacle of his 10 years at the club unexpectedly still lay ahead? So meetings were held, pressure applied, a solution found that allowed him to stay a little longer and leave a legacy unlike anything else. “The best is still to come,” Griezmann said. “I love you, but if you don’t run, I’m taking you off,” Simeone reminded him. “There are eight league games, one in the cup [final] and, if God wills it, five more Champions League matches.”

With the Wood one win from reaching the Football League for the first time, a veteran correspondent recalls lessons learned from their amateur days

The years teach much which the days never know. This weekend Boreham Wood FC go to Wembley fighting for a place in that treasured home of the global game, the English Football League. Why will I be watching 7,000 miles away? Well, the experience of riding the Wood’s team bus 50-odd years ago taught me much that I have carried across our world ever since. So, I’ll be somewhat possessed this Sunday, Boreham Wood versus Rochdale, even though I live in that footie mecca on the other side of the world, Argentina.

The memories are rich. Back then I’m on a gap year before university, a football captain at school sees an advert in his local paper for a reporter, urges me to apply, and I do, convincing one of the best editors I ever worked for (by the name of Roger Norman) to take me, and I spend a golden period reporting for the Borehamwood and Elstree Post. Elstree, with its film studios, the poor man’s Hollywood. Borehamwood, a working-class hinterland of my north London, with not much to celebrate.

• ‘I crossed the line’ says 34-year-old Brazil forward

• Neymar hugs teenage teammate after Santos goal

Neymar has publicly apologised to his Santos teammate Robinho Júnior for slapping him during a training session, as the pair appeared to put the dispute behind them during a game on Tuesday.

Santos said they had opened an investigation this week after the altercation between Neymar and the 18-year-old son of Robinho, the former Real Madrid and Manchester City striker.

Visit will be the first time a North Korean women’s football team has competed on southern soil since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games

A North Korean women’s football club will travel to South Korea this month, marking the first visit by a northern sports delegation in nearly eight years, at a time of near-total estrangement between the two Koreas.

Naegohyang Women’s FC, based in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang, will face South Korea’s Suwon FC Women at Suwon sports complex, on 20 May for the semi-finals of the AFC Women’s Champions League.

• Inter 2-0 Parma seals scudetto with three games to spare

• Marcus Thuram and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on target

Inter secured the Serie A title with a 2-0 victory over Parma at home, establishing an unassailable lead at the top of the table. Marcus Thuram opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time before Henrikh Mkhitaryan sealed the win 10 minutes from time. Inter moved up to 82 points and clinched their 21st scudetto with three matches remaining.

Inter entered the match knowing a point would be enough after second-placed Napoli were held to a 0-0 draw at Como on Saturday. Sunday’s victory handed them an unbeatable 12-point lead over last season’s champions.

Positions fourth to sixth are separated by goal difference as Hoffenheim rue being out of the Champions League spots

“This is perhaps the most difficult moment of my career.” It was not, it is fair to say, what Andrei Kramaric had expected on a day – and a week – that was going along like a dream. Two days after he had extended his expiring contract for two years at “my second home”, Hoffenheim’s all-time record scorer had dragged them even closer to a surprise return to the Champions League, scoring goals 157 and 158 for the club on a sunny afternoon with the mood of celebration in the air, as they dominated direct rivals Stuttgart. But in the 95th minute, up popped the visitors’ Tiago Tomás out of nowhere to shatter it all. In the race for the top four in the Bundesliga, life comes at you fast.

One could understand Kramaric’s difficulties in absorbing what had just happened. When he left the field in stoppage time to the warm applause of the PreZero Arena Hoffenheim were in fourth position, the (likely) final Champions League spot which they have worked so hard to recover in recent weeks after a big wobble either side of Easter. By the time that the Croatia striker got comfy on the bench his team had seen their lead improbably evaporate, and when he sat down for dinner they were in sixth, following Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-1 demolition of RB Leipzig in the early evening Topspiel.

Manchester United midfielder broke the lines and scored the winner, while Liverpool’s midfield was pedestrian

‘You need someone like this.” So said Benjamin Sesko of Casemiro after the veteran’s commanding display against Brentford last Monday. Fast forward six days and the same sentiment applied to Kobbie Mainoo. Manchester United had two central midfielders like this – selfless, disciplined, destructive and creative – while Liverpool desperately need someone like this. Old Trafford revelled in the contrast, once it had recovered from a self-inflicted scare.

The redemption arc was strong at Old Trafford where United sealed their return to the Champions League by completing a Premier League double over Liverpool for the first time in 10 years. Mainoo savoured his own too. Cast aside earlier in the season under Ruben Amorim, his future with his boyhood club in serious doubt, the 21-year-old celebrated signing a five-year contract on Thursday by securing a deserved victory with his first Premier League goal since May 2024.

Every World Cup, from Uruguay and Italy in 1930 and 1934, to Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022, has been to an extent about presenting an image to the world

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Football fans will be well aware that in 1930 Uruguay both hosted and won the first World Cup, but less well known is the diplomatic backstory of the country’s entry on to the international sporting stage. In the 1920s, Uruguay’s foreign minister, who led one of the country’s two rival football associations, coordinated with a diplomat serving in Switzerland to give his federation legitimacy by joining Fifa. The diplomat also entered Uruguay into the 1924 Olympic football tournament in Paris – which was emerging as the premier venue for global football. That provoked panic back in Uruguay: nobody had expected him to do that and nobody quite knew how they would afford it; a federation official ended up having to use his own house as collateral on a loan to pay for the team’s passage across the Atlantic.

Once they got to Europe, Uruguay quickly won admiration. First in nine friendlies as they travelled through Spain and then at the Olympic Games itself, where they became by far the biggest draw. The great novelist Colette was even dispatched to the villa where Uruguay were staying to record her impressions for the newspaper Le Matin. Playing brilliant, coherent passing football, Uruguay took gold at the Games.

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Tight decisions and Arsenal’s fragility from set pieces saw French side through to Women’s Champions League final

Fine margins defined this football match. Just a few centimetres in the key moments. As the OL Lyonnes owner, Michele Kang, celebrated on the pitch, arm-in-arm with her players with the Arsenal squad’s faces a picture of dejection, those tiny differentials will have felt wider than the Rhône that runs through the city. Arsenal’s reign as European champions has ended.

Up in the top tier, overlooking the scene with almost a bird’s-eye view, around 600 Arsenal fans had reason to be proud but ultimately were despondent. It was barely the thickness of a baguette that had kept Jule Brand onside when her late winning goal for Lyonnes was reviewed by the video assistant referee (VAR). In similarly agonising fashion, Arsenal’s Daphne van Domselaar stepped off her line slightly too early when saving a first-half penalty, which Wendie Renard retook and scored. But if those travelling Arsenal supporters were reflecting honestly, Lyonnes were worthy winners.

John Terry’s journey into the internet pipeline is by no means an isolated case – what makes footballers so susceptible?

And so we ask ourselves: how did it come to this? Did we miss the signs? Were there red flags that went unheeded, cries for help that fell on closed ears, forks in the road not taken? Or ultimately, for all our best efforts, was it always going to end like this? Is it, in fact, possible that John Terry was a far-right sympathiser all along?

Yes, it’s been a chastening week for those who have been fighting Terry’s corner for more than a decade. Who steadfastly defended him against the racism charges, who accepted his explanation that he was simply repeating what Anton Ferdinand had been saying to him, who turned up at his trial in full kit, who lamented his failure to land the coaching jobs he so coveted, who right to the end just wanted to believe.

Our cartoonist on a weekend of genuine excitement at the top and bottom of the English top-flight table

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Having overseen a historic return to the Premier League, businessman is now aiming his sights even higher

Doug King is discussing the night Coventry clinched promotion to the Premier League after 25 years away. He had a tear in his eye when the moment arrived at Blackburn and, after eventually exiting the Ewood Park boardroom, the champagne flowing, the straight-talking owner worth hundreds of millions hunkered down at a Travelodge adjacent to a service station on the M65. “It was ... noisy,” he says, taking a second to land on the best adjective, “because all I could hear pretty much all night was: ‘We are Premier League.’”

It has led King to feel like a party planner of late. The biggest one yet was Monday’s open-top bus parade which started on Jimmy Hill Way, named after the manager who in 1967 led the club into the top flight for the first time. After Coventry were crowned champions last month, King guzzled from the trophy. “I didn’t think the lid would come off, so we had to make the most of that,” he says with a smile.

Only Alexis Sánchez and Thierry Henry have had more prolific first seasons for Arsenal in the Premier League era

By Opta Analyst

Viktor Gyökeres was at the heart of one of Arsenal’s best attacking displays of the season at the weekend, scoring twice and grabbing an assist as Mikel Arteta’s side dismantled Fulham 3-0 at the Emirates on Saturday.

The Swede’s opener, a close-range tap-in following excellent work down the right from Bukayo Saka, was his 20th goal in all competitions for Arsenal this term. A header on the stroke of half-time effectively sealed the result and took Gyökeres to 21 goals in his debut campaign.

Bournemouth face Crystal Palace this weekend before their successful head coaches move on with top level still unclear

On Sunday afternoon, Bournemouth face Crystal Palace: Andoni Iraola, in his fourth-last league game in charge of the home side, against Oliver Glasner in his fifth-last league game in charge of the away side – although the latter also has the Europa Conference League to deal with. Both managers are out of contract at the end of the season, and both hope to move on to a club with a substantially bigger budget.

That’s understandable. This has been an uncomfortable season for Glasner, whose frustration at the club’s financial limitations was perhaps expressed a little too publicly, but history will remember him as the manager who won Crystal Palace the FA Cup. More prosaically, with the 12th-highest wage bill in the Premier League, he has taken Palace to 10th and 12th, while they started the weekend 13th. And there remains the possibility of a glorious farewell with Conference League success in Leipzig.

Training ground fun, rock star fans and a Christmas party in Copenhagen were ingredients in the rank outsiders’ triumph, sealed on 2 May 2016

I remember in January, February that season Riyad Mahrez asked: “What do you think we can achieve?” I laughed, but didn’t say anything. Riyad said: “You know, you know.” I am a very pragmatic man … I knew we could do something special, but not to win the Premier League. Now people everywhere recognise me – people from the US, Canada and Asia ask to take pictures: “Leicester! The legend!” Unbelievable. It was a story that was something special for the world.

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While the match itself may not have been up to much, the spectacle and occasion of Arsenal’s win over Atlético Madrid on Tuesday night made it a unique and memorable evening in the club’s history. Pre-match smoke and pyro provided the soundtrack to the raucous welcome their players received as they arrived on the team coach. The rabble-rousing Over Land and Sea tifo couldn’t have looked less like its dismal, forlorn-cannon-on-a-bedsheet counterpart of yore. The unifying roar that greeted Arsenal’s gladiators as they strode out from the bowels of the colosseum they call home was off the scale. It was as if a sizeable proportion of match-going Arsenal fans had finally twigged there’s more to supporting your team than turning up five minutes before kick-off and sitting in nervous near-silence for 90 minutes. “We felt it,” cooed Bukayo Saka, in a post-match interview with the CBS Bigger Cup B@nter Show. “Since we were on the coach, I’ve never seen the Emirates like this in my whole career. It was so special. When the game started, they pushed us. It was just a beautiful moment.”

Sunday’s edition of the famous rivalry felt like the least important in years, except for the uncertain futures of both managers

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It’s been a long time since a Manchester United v Liverpool game felt of less consequence. These are the two most successful sides in English league history, hailing from neighbouring cities and they have a rivalry that stretches back well over a century. Yet it felt perhaps only the seventh-most significant fixture of the weekend, behind the games involving the two title contenders, Arsenal and Manchester City, and the four sides still scrapping to avoid joining Wolves and Burnley in being relegated this season – Leeds, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Tottenham.

United’s 3-2 win sealed their place in next season’s Champions League while, barring very odd swings of goal difference, Liverpool need just three points from their remaining three games to be certain of their own qualification. For both, the biggest issue now is deciding who manages them next season – and this was a ragged enough game to cast doubts over the suitability of Michael Carrick and Arne Slot for their respective sides.

It was an honour to be asked to help find talent for the men’s team and I am enjoying and benefiting from the responsibility

The buzz after I mentioned doing some scouting in the men’s game for Bayern Munich, during my appearance as an analyst on Swedish broadcaster SVT for the men’s team’s Champions League match against Real Madrid, is a bit of a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, I thought: ‘Why is this such big news? It shouldn’t be.’ On the other hand, I understand it and I’m happy there has been so much positivity and encouragement around it. I hope it widens people’s perspectives and helps break barriers for women working in men’s football, because I think we’re ready for that, men’s football is ready for it and it needs it. I hope it inspires other clubs to see it as a good idea. Why not give these opportunities to someone who wants them and wants to prepare for their career after football?

A dominant defender who set the standard for club and country, the Chelsea stalwart has called it quits after a long battle with injury

Millie Bright’s voice choked up very quickly and she could barely get the words out during an emotion-packed goodbye video to announce the end of her playing career. Bright may be from Derbyshire but she could not be more Chelsea and she leaves with a staggeringly big legacy at club level and with England.

It has been a tough, injury-hit year for the 32-year-old Bright. An ankle problem sustained in early February, against Tottenham, meant she played her last professional game, not realising it at the time. The injuries have taken their toll. In the emotional farewell Bright said: “I’ve been playing injured for the last six years and I’m tired.”

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Langdon and Archie Rhind-Tutt after PSG progressed past Bayern

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On today’s podcast: Bayern and PSG didn’t provide another nine-goal thriller, as per the first leg, but it was an entertaining game in Munich as PSG progressed with a 6-5 aggregate win to the final, as the French side seek consecutive Champions League titles. As scary as PSG look, at least Arsenal fans don’t have to worry about the prospect of Harry Kane winning the Champions League at their expense.

OL Lyonnes ended Arsenal’s Champions League hopes while Rebecca Knaak puts Man City on the brink of WSL title glory

Who is the best female player in the world right now? Melchie Dumornay continues to make a strong claim for that accolade after her starring role in OL Lyonnes’ comeback to beat Arsenal in the Champions League semi-finals. The fearless Haiti international won a first-half penalty and provided a superb assist for Jule Brand’s late winner in the second leg, as well as being a constant thorn in Arsenal’s side with her pace, trickery and energy. The attacking midfielder, having missed the first leg through injury, helped the French side come from 2-1 down to win 4-3 on aggregate. Tom Garry

Arne Slot is fuming, Mikel Arteta’s big risk pays off and Josh Dasilva enjoys an emotional return for Brentford

Arne Slot was seething as he lamented the decision to allow Manchester United’s second goal to stand despite claims of handball by Benjamin Sesko. “The curve on the ball changed so there must have been a contact,” argued the Liverpool head coach. “But it’s no surprise to anyone that if there is a VAR intervention then the decision goes against us. It’s happened to us all season.” As PGMO confirmed at the time, however, there “was no conclusive evidence that Sesko handled the ball before scoring”. Slot was stretching it to pin Liverpool’s latest defeat on poor refereeing. United’s movement pulled the visitors apart in the first half and, without the injured Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitiké and Alexander Isak, the threat from Liverpool was nonexistent until capitalising on two errors early in the second half. Defeat stemmed from an anaemic first-half performance, nothing else. Andy Hunter

Match report: Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool

Match report: Arsenal 3-0 Fulham

Match report: Newcastle 3-1 Brighton

Match report: Aston Villa 1-2 Tottenham

Match report: Brentford 3-0 West Ham

Match report: Leeds 3-1 Burnley

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Sophie Downey to discuss Arsenal’s Champions League exit and speak with Birmingham City’s head coach, Amy Merricks

On today’s pod: Arsenal’s Champions League defence comes to an end as OL Lyonnes overturn the first-leg deficit to reach yet another final. The panel discuss where the tie slipped away, OL Lyonnes’s clinical edge, the impact of VAR on a stop-start contest, and what this means for Renée Slegers’ side heading into the final weeks of the season.

Elsewhere, Barcelona set up a blockbuster final against OL Lyonnes after overcoming Bayern Munich, with the panel reflecting on their continued dominance in Europe and what to expect from two of the game’s heavyweights in Oslo.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

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

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025