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Roberto De Zerbi had told his ^­Tottenham players to silence the voices competing for their attention but his internal monologue would have been extremely good value at Villa Park. When Richarlison headed in on 25 minutes to double Spurs’ lead, De Zerbi, in pristine white high tops, motored on to the pitch as if at the wheel on Mario Kart, with Marcello Quinto, one of the coaches who the Italian brought with him upon his appointment last month, not far behind him.

After recording their first victory this year at Wolves last weekend, Spurs returned to the West Midlands to chalk up successive Premier League wins for the first time since August. Significantly, this was a win that hoists Spurs out of the relegation zone, trading places with West Ham, who were defeated at Brentford on Saturday. It may be May but Spurs finally appear up and running.

On 77 minutes up stepped Kobbie Mainoo with the coolest of ­winners in front of the Stretford End to cause bedlam among home fans and wrest the bragging rights Manchester ­United’s way.

Alexis Mac Allister’s weak clearance rolled to the midfielder who beat Dominik Szoboszlai to punch home a finish that beat Freddie Woodman to the Liverpool goalkeeper’s right.

• 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.

• Vinícius scores twice in 2-0 win at Espanyol

• Barça can clinch title against Real Madrid next weekend

Vinícius Júnior struck twice for Real Madrid in a 2-0 win over Espanyol on Sunday to make La Liga leaders Barcelona wait to be crowned Spanish champions.

Barça would have completed their title defence if Madrid dropped points at Espanyol, but Álvaro Arbeloa’s side trimmed the gap to 11 points, with four matches remaining.

• Club making contingency plans should Guardiola decide to leave

• City visit Everton on Monday trailing leaders Arsenal by six points

Pep Guardiola has said he remains as motivated as ever after almost a decade managing Manchester City as he chases a seventh Premier League title. His comments come amid a backdrop of the club making contingency plans to replace the Spaniard if he decides to leave in the summer. Guardiola has a further year remaining on his contract but City have made Enzo Maresca a leading candidate to take over as head coach, should a change be required.

Guardiola is focused on his first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday to face Everton, aiming to close the six-point gap on Arsenal. The Gunners have played twice since City’s last league match, defeating Newcastle and Fulham.

• Former United manager felt unwell at Old Trafford

• 84-year-old initially treated as precautionary measure

Sir Alex Ferguson was taken to ­hospital from Old Trafford after feeling unwell before Manchester United’s game against Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.

The move was believed to be a precautionary one, and the Guardian has been told the 84-year-old is out of harm’s way. After United’s 3-2 win Michael Carrick was asked about the health of the former United manager, who is considered the club’s greatest.

Devastating cameo highlighted the crucial role the winger has to play if Mikel Arteta’s men are to pip Manchester City

There was one name on everyone’s lips at the Emirates on Saturday night. Robert Pires, who wore Arsenal’s No 7 shirt with such distinction for Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles, could not stop smiling as he made his way downstairs from the press box for some half-time refreshments. “Bukayo’s back,” said the former France forward.

A frustrated spectator as he battled an achilles injury and his side’s quest for silverware spluttered, Arsenal’s talisman could not have picked a better moment to rediscover his golden touch on his first start since the Carabao Cup final six weeks ago. After leaving Raúl Jiménez on his backside to set up the first goal for Viktor Gyökeres, Saka settled everyone’s nerves with a brilliant second goal and also played his part in the third. The only disappointment was that the England winger didn’t emerge for the second half – a move that Mikel Arteta explained was precautionary ahead of the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday evening. Arsenal might live to regret not piling on the goal difference given how tight things are at the top of the Premier League. But with Saka on song again, anything seems possible.

Manchester City’s Rebecca Knaak scored a stoppage-time winner to give her side a nervy 1-0 home victory over Liverpool and put one hand on the Women’s Super League trophy.

City top the standings on 52 points with one game left and are out of reach of second-placed Chelsea, who are nine points behind ahead of their clash with the bottom side, Leicester, later on Sunday.

By month’s end, Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner will depart their respective clubs. Having both taken their clubs into uncharted territory, neither’s task is yet complete. Bournemouth’s victory, a game all but won in the first half, was one for the club with their Premier League position as the priority. Bournemouth’s hopes of emulating Palace this season in playing European football for the first time were increased by a deserved, convincing win. The Champions League may even be in reach, Europa League permutations permitting.

“We are in a good spot but need more points,” said Iraola, determined to leave a legacy and delighted by a “most dominant performance … we want to give the players the chance to play in Europe next season, it would be massive.”

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.

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.

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.

Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

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The substitute Kelechi Iheanacho kept his cool amid the tension as Celtic capitalised on more indiscipline from 10-man Hibernian to move level on points with the leaders, Hearts.

Hibs’ cause was dented in the 20th minute when Jamie McGrath became their fourth player in three games to be sent off.

Compliments mean little to West Ham at this stage of the season. They need points more than a patronising pat on the head for playing quite well in a defeat. Positives? West Ham hit the woodwork three times, created a host of chances and contributed to an entertaining game. Negatives? Well, all of that would have been fine if they were coasting in mid-table, but given West Ham’s perilous position the overriding sense was this was a costly afternoon in their battle to stay up.

The frustration lay in blowing an opportunity to make 18th-placed Tottenham squirm before facing Aston Villa on Sunday evening. The gap remains at two points when it could have been five.

• The 35-year-old, brother of Will Still, lasts three months

• Watford sack 11th head coach since end of 2020-21 season

Watford have sacked Ed Still, just three months into a two-and-a-half-year contract, after the Championship club’s dismal end to the season. Still was Watford’s 11th permanent head coach since the end of the 2020-21 season.

Still, 35, was appointed in February after the resignation of Javi Gracia and his sacking comes at the end of a season in which Watford lost six of their final seven games. The Hornets finished 16th, 10 points above the relegation zone.

• Barça will be champions if Real fail to win on Sunday

• Bayern draw with Heidenheim; PSG denied by Lorient

Barcelona could secure the La Liga title on Sunday after Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres struck late in a 2-1 victory at Osasuna. With four games remaining, Barça top the table on 88 points, 14 clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand and visit Espanyol on Sunday. Should Madrid fail to win, Barcelona will be confirmed champions for the second successive season.

Barça broke through in the 81st minute when Marcus Rashford crossed from the right and Lewandowski rose to head in. Five minutes later Fermín López slipped Torres clear and he finished low past Sergio Herrera. Raúl García pulled back a goal from close range two minutes later, but it was too little to late for Osasuna, who remain 10th on 42 points.

Régis Le Bris said Dan Ballard’s red card for hair pulling was “hard to digest” as Sunderland’s hopes of European football next season were dented by their draw at Wolves. Sunderland led through Nordi Mukiele against relegated Wolves when the referee, Paul Tierney, dismissed Ballard, who was adjudged to have tugged the braids of Tolu Arokodare in an aerial duel.

The red card meant Sunderland had to play with 10 men for more than an hour and Wolves capitalised, ending a goal drought stretching back to mid-March when Santiago Bueno equalised in the second half.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Lars Sivertsen as Arsenal draw 1-1 away at Atleti and to preview the forthcoming Premier League fixtures.

On today’s podcast: Atléti and Arsenal were never going to deliver the entertainment of PSG vs Bayern, but it was an undeniably good game. It was tense and it was controversial, and Mikel Arteta and Diego Simeone probably covered more ground than anyone on the pitch. It’s impossible not to talk about VAR or handball here. So apologies in advance.

Elsewhere, after that good result for Arsenal, they can return to stressing about the Premier League title race at the weekend. Home to Fulham, while Manchester City have to wait until Monday.

Then there’s relegation. West Ham at Brentford on Saturday, before all-new injury problems for Spurs at Villa on Sunday. If they both win (big if), they could drag some others into it.

Also, there’s all the EFL permutations, Mykhailo Mudryk’s four-year ban and we answer your questions.

Midfielder broke a Barça Dutch record last week and is potentially one win from a third league title with team he visited as a teenager for fun

A warm sun bathes the Barcelona training ground as Frenkie de Jong arrives to chat. The midfielder’s work is done for the day and the Netherlands international is in his comfort zone here, the first team’s longest-serving player, a regular captain and effortlessly fluent in Spanish. It is a far cry from the day just over 10 years ago when he visited the Camp Nou.

In late December 2015 De Jong made the most of the Eredivisie’s winter shutdown to take a city break in Barcelona with his now wife, Mikky. He was 18 and days from linking up with Ajax, who had signed him four months earlier but loaned him back to Willem II, and he managed to get tickets for Barcelona v Real Betis. It is an occasion that stuck in his mind.

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.

The 34-year-old midfielder will leave Old Trafford after conclusively proving high-profile doubters wrong

It was two years ago that Jamie Carragher offered Casemiro a rather withering piece of advice: “Leave the football before the football leaves you.” Fast forward to this season and the Brazilian’s record for Manchester United reads: nine goals (second only to Benjamin Sesko), two assists, and 2,417 minutes played in 31 starts from a total of 32 appearances, with 13 games finished, including seven of the past nine.

Consider, too, how the January announcement of Casemiro’s departure from United at the end of the current campaign has led to supporters pleading with the 34-year-old to stay, and that Casemiro is again a midfield first-choice for his national team in the buildup to a World Cup.

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.

Belting out terrace anthems is part of the experience of watching a match, but why do supporters do it? And would I be able to get a chant going?

A notification on my smartwatch warns me that I’m in a loud environment, and I’m not surprised. Casemiro just played an impudent no-look pass into the penalty area. His Brazilian compatriot, Matheus Cunha, receives the ball on the half-turn and wallops it with a vengeance into the top corner. I’m at Old Trafford, and Manchester United just went 2-0 up against Fulham.

The match-day crowd has become a sea of twirling scarves and flailing limbs, and I’m swept along with it, hugging strangers while shredding my vocal cords. As the celebrations die down and the teams head to the centre circle for the restart, a momentary lull falls over the Stretford End. There’s a popular song that fans at Old Trafford sing at glorious times like this. It goes: “We’ve seen it all, we’ve won the lot, we’re Man United, and we’re never gonna stop.”

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

• This was originally published in the newsletter The World Behind the Cup. Sign up for it here.

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.

This was originally published in the newsletter The World Behind the Cup. Sign up for it here.

• Coach says basketball, American football have deeper ties

• Calls for more publicly accessible playing spots in US

• On World Cup expectations: ‘All is possible in football’

In a podcast appearance released Thursday, Mauricio Pochettino defended the tournament prospects of his US men’s national team, but gave a mixed answer when asked if the hosts feel excitement brewing stateside, questioning the “emotional relationship with the game” of the American public writ large.

“The kids don’t develop until they are 11, 12, or 13,” Pochettino explained in his appearance on Stick To Football. “The difference within other countries – for me, I know Argentina – the way that I developed my emotional relationship with football is before I started to walk because I started to kick the ball. That is the problem. The relationship is with basketball or American football. They take the ball with their hands, first thing. [Elsewhere] you kick the ball with your feet.”

• Campaigners hit out at striker’s role in ‘Let It Pour’ video

• ‘He is a great hero for many young people’

Erling Haaland’s collaboration with a leading American beer brand has caused a backlash in his native Norway, where alcohol advertising is banned.

World Cup sponsors Budweiser’s hiring of the Manchester City and Norway striker to help launch its “Let It Pour” promotional video together with the former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has led to criticism from campaigning groups, who described Haaland’s commercial deal in the buildup to this summer’s tournament as “tragic”.

• Case dismissed after court rules the charges were ‘invalid’

• 37-year-old had been accused of illegally accessing emails

Rui Pinto, the hacker behind the Football Leaks revelations that exposed dodgy dealings in world football, was acquitted on Wednesday of all charges in a second Portuguese trial, despite having previously been convicted for similar offences.

The 37-year-old had been on trial since January 2025 over 241 alleged counts of illegally accessing email accounts belonging to several Portuguese sports bodies, including Benfica, and law firms, magistrates and the tax authority.

In this exclusive book extract, the former Italy goalkeeper describes a moment of crisis before a game against Reggina

If I have to identify the most important moment of this crisis, it was just before a Juventus-Reggina match in February 2004. It was an evening game. We were six points off the top of the table. There were 13 games left in the season, so anything could still happen, but there was an air of negativity, as if the season was already over. We had just had two crazy and very different games. In our previous league match, we had conceded four goals to Totti and Cassano’s Roma, while in midweek we had won the Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter at San Siro, on penalties. Although we were still in the running in the Champions League and perhaps even a little in the league, inside me I was certain that in that season everything was lost.

It was a classic winter Turin evening, wet and cold, and the stadium was half-empty. The speakers played a song that I only heard as an annoying buzz. During the warm-up I prayed and performed my usual pre-match routine, but it felt as if something was wrong with my muscles. After two minutes I put on my gloves, I stood in the goal and I realised that I was struggling to breathe. I stood there, staring at the pitch, and I felt slightly dizzy. What scared me, however, was the tightness I felt in my diaphragm, between chest and stomach, as if I had been hit.

The Premier League isn’t as fun and fizzy as PSG v Bayern but that’s the price of the twice-weekly churn that rewards discipline and sacrifice

In the novel Rabbit, Run, John Updike has one of his characters, a groovy and progressive 1960s priest, calling round to talk to his fellow minister, a hard German Lutheran, about the secret doubts he harbours about his faith. Is the doctrine really necessary? Is hell just, you know, a metaphor? He likes Jesus. But maybe he also likes sinful things, like sex and recklessly open attacking football.

The hard German Lutheran takes one look, curls his lip and tells the groovy progressive priest to get down on his knees in the kitchen and beg for forgiveness. Who is he to reason with divine suffering? Life is pain. Joy is pain. Pain is pain. Frankly, the groovy priest who likes flying full-backs and an open midfield disgusts him. He will burn in hell for his spineless debauchery. The groovy priest leaves in tears.

Atlético’s manic man in black is the personification of the club’s longing to be back in the Champions League final

Diego Simeone had patrolled the touchline all in black, heart racing and arms waving, applying all the pressure he could, seeking to impart his justice, as Danny Makkelie went to the pitchside monitor to make the decision that could have decided this game. Now, as the referee crossed the line back on to the pitch, signalling that there would not be a second penalty for Arsenal after all, Atlético Madrid’s manager followed him. There on the pitch, the force with which he pushed Dávid Hancko and Johnny Cardoso and the volume of the roar from around this stadium, spoke of relief, some kind of redemption.

In the end, then, this was a tale of two penalties, not three. On a night of extreme tension and tiny margins, Viktor Gyökeres and Julián Alvarez scored theirs; Leandro Trossard didn’t get the chance to take his, if it even was going to be his. He had stood by the spot, ball under his arm, waiting, but upon second glance – or third or fourth or 13th– Makkelie decided that Hancko’s challenge on Eberechi Eze, studs on boot, was not enough. Hancko, who had given away the first penalty too, had escaped punishment, apart from Simeone’s shove.

Run of five defeats could lead to awkward queries this week, including why £124m of attacking talent is being underused

Eddie Howe is braced for forensic questioning by Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners at a Northumberland country house hotel in the middle of this week. Matfen Hall sells itself as a venue for rest and relaxation but Newcastle’s struggling manager knows that, with his future at St James’ Park in the balance, a scheduled “summit meeting” with the club’s chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, and other key figures from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) could prove stressful.

“It’s something we do every year,” says Howe, referring to the annual spring event at which the ownership quiz departmental heads. “But obviously things will be slightly harder for me this time.”

After recent seasons with a defined bottom three, a handful of nervous clubs are aiming to beat the drop to the Championship

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It was a good weekend for Nottingham Forest, although perhaps not as good as it looked like it might be on Friday night. That evening, when they handed Sunderland their record defeat at the Stadium of Light, winning 5-0, Forest must have been expecting to pull away from at least one of their relegation rivals. As it turned out, though, they ended the weekend where they began, five points clear of third-bottom Tottenham and three clear of West Ham with four games remaining after both the London strugglers also won.

It was a classic Saturday afternoon in the relegation battle, the sort that is rare these days with games so spread out over a weekend. But Tottenham’s match at Wolves and West Ham against Everton kicked off at the same time, which meant that Tomáš Souček’s goal six minutes after half-time not only prompted celebration at the London Stadium but also anxiety among the Spurs fans who had travelled to Molineux. Then João Palhinha put Tottenham ahead with eight minutes remaining and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall levelled for Everton with two minutes to go. Had it stayed like that, Tottenham would have been out of the relegation zone on goal difference. But Callum Wilson scored for West Ham two minutes into injury-time, lifting them back above Spurs and within three points of Forest.

Our cartoonist on BlueCo’s ‘self-reflection’ as another normal week ended with a place in the FA Cup final

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After stalling at Real Madrid, the forward has found form on loan at Lyon and is desperate to make Carlo Ancelotti’s World Cup squad

With less than a month to go before Carlo Ancelotti announces the Brazil squad for the World Cup, Endrick has been reborn in his nation’s canary yellow shirt. But the 19-year-old prodigy has struggled this season and had to overcome “a night of doubts” before Brazil faced Croatia in late March.

With opportunities limited at Real Madrid after the arrival of Xabi Alonso, Endrick was loaned to Lyon, where his comeback began. He has played 18 matches in France, scoring seven goals and providing seven assists. His form caught Ancelotti’s eye but, before that match in Orlando, the Brazil head coach said Endrick was a player for the future, not for the present.

Former Arsenal, Chelsea and England left-back is in his first manager’s job, with playoff-chasing Serie B side, Cesena

It has been a long journey for Ashley Cole, but also for his wife, Sharon Canu. It took seven years for Cole to get his first job as a head coach, with Cesena in Italy, having retired from playing. During that time, Sharon had to endure many dinner table tactical briefings with salt and pepper shakers. The pair met a decade ago while Cole was playing for Roma – Canu is from Italy – and that period clearly left a lasting mark beyond the pitch. “I bored her a lot,” Cole says, smiling. Now that he has a dugout of his own, Sharon may finally get the seasoning back.

“It was always in our plans to live in Italy because we love the food and the calmness of the country,” Cole says. “She [Canu] told me the fans here are passionate about their team and their city. I had to embrace that, understand what makes them tick, so we can represent them properly.”

The then Newcastle manager’s on-air blast at Sir Alex Ferguson remains a classic Premier League moment

Premier League history is littered with red letter days and Monday 29 April 1996 will for ever rank among the most memorable. Thirty years on, recollections of the aftermath of Newcastle’s 1-0 victory at Leeds remain vivid. Keith Gillespie’s goal saw Kevin Keegan’s team move three points behind the leaders, Manchester United, with two fixtures remaining.

Before Newcastle’s visit to Elland Road, Sir Alex Ferguson craftily suggested that Leeds and Nottingham Forest – the team Keegan’s players would visit three days later – would not try as hard as they had against his own side. Ferguson also pointedly reminded everyone Newcastle had agreed to provide the opposition for Stuart Pearce’s testimonial by the Trent later in the year. This backdrop dictated that Keegan used a live post-match television interview with Richard Keys and Andy Gray of Sky Sports to claim the moral high ground while also walking straight into Ferguson’s psychological trap.

PSG 5-4 Bayern, arguably the wildest match in Champions League history, has sparked a debate about football’s finest dramas – here are six to savour

It’s hard not to start with the most recent World Cup final, which for entertainment is surely the finest in the tournament’s 96-year history. Two protagonists, each the heartbeat of their sides, stole the show: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, the former scoring twice and dictating play after he singlehandedly dragged Argentina to the final. Mbappé netted a hat-trick (including two inside 95 seconds) to haul France back into the game. A word, too, for the magnificent Ángel Di María and Emi Martínez, who made a save for the ages in extra time to deny Randal Kolo Muani and a stop in the penalty shootout against Kingsley Coman. But this will forever be known as Messi’s World Cup, and the moment where he finally stepped out of Diego Maradona’s shadow in the hearts of all Argentinians.

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By Monday morning, the shape of next season’s Premier League will be clearer. Saturday lunchtime stages the final round of the actual best league in the world, the Championship. One of Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough will join Frank Lampard’s Coventry in being a top-division club by 3pm, Rochdale-esque pitch invasions permitting, as automatic promotion is boxed off. There’s also a race for sixth, another triple-header, where plucky, Disney/tech bro/Hollywood-backed Wrexham kick off a goal ahead of Hull and one point ahead of Derby in the chase for the playoffs. Will Ryan and Rob be there? Boro are the opposition, so will Chubby Brown and Jeff Winter be there?

Re: Scott Parker’s Burnley exit (yesterday’s Football Daily). A manager who has masterminded three promotions and two relegations clearly knows what practice makes” – Rob Crouch.

Just wanted to say thanks for the Wilco reference in the last line (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). In the middle of a very busy work day, it really was a shot in the arm” – David Kramer (and others).

Regarding yesterday’s last line, there’s plenty of choice descriptions from that Wilco song for the end of the relationship between Burnley and Scott Parker, but the clear one is this: what Burnley once were isn’t what they wanna be any more. To be fair, Parker could be forgiven for thinking ‘oh, you’ve changed’ upon receiving the news, but the club could have told him they needed a shot in the arm and cut him loose six months ago” – Colin Durant.

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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.”

The Brighton and Nigeria goalkeeper is highly critical of the decision to push back Wafcon, but still has hope for the future of the women’s game in Africa

Chiamaka Nnadozie has, at the age of 25, earned her place in the pantheon of African goalkeepers alongside legends such as Cameroon’s Thomas N’Kono and Morocco’s Zaki Badou.

Nnadozie featured at her first World Cup finals for Nigeria at 18, then played at the 2023 tournament and is the only goalkeeper to have won the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf’s) Golden Gloves award three times on the trot: in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Nnadozie, a reigning Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champion, is delighted and amazed that she has come so far, so quickly.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Lars Sivertsen to discuss Arsenal’s 1-1 draw in Madrid and preview the forthcoming Premier League fixtures

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On today’s podcast: Atléti and Arsenal were never going to deliver the entertainment of PSG vs Bayern, but it was an undeniably good game. It was tense and it was controversial, and Mikel Arteta and Diego Simeone probably covered more ground than anyone on the pitch. It’s impossible not to talk about VAR or handball here. So apologies in advance.

Plus: dramatic late drops into the relegation zone, the Italia 90 XI and teams wearing away kits in finals

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“York City won the National League, and achieved promotion to the EFL, thanks to a goal from Josh Stones in the 103rd minute of their final game,” writes Eddie Giles. “Which players have scored the latest title-winning goals?”

In case you’ve been at a digital detox retreat for the past few days, York’s Josh Stones scored a 103rd-minute equaliser at Rochdale on Saturday to win the title and secure promotion to League Two. Had Stones not scored, Emmanuel Dieseruvwe’s 95th-minute strike would have won the title for Rochdale.

Sánchez plays long game for McFarlane, Southampton can take heart, Arteta tries to gain edge and Isak will come good

One moment from their FA Cup semi-final to Chelsea will haunt Leeds. When Tosin Adarabioyo stretched for a through ball and couldn’t quite get there, quarter of an hour in, everything seemed to slow down. There was Brenden Aaronson with just Robert Sánchez to beat, with the chance to put Leeds ahead against a side that hadn’t scored in five Premier League games and had seemingly lost all confidence. Even at the time it felt a huge moment. The US international didn’t do much wrong, but Sánchez made a fine save with his foot. That, it turned out, was the game. There were other opportunities – most notably Anton Stach’s drive that Sánchez saved spectacularly and the Dominic Calvert-Lewin header just after that, aimed straight at the keeper. They came after Chelsea had taken the lead and the emotional tone was set, though. Sometimes one chance can define a game. Jonathan Wilson

FA Cup semi-final report: Chelsea 1-0 Leeds

Jonathan Wilson: Chelsea chaos theory delivers another trophy chance

FA Cup semi-final report: Manchester City 2-1 Southampton

Barça’s need to adapt on show in Bayern draw, while Sam Kerr’s ‘perfect hat-trick’ is denied by a lack of technology

Alexia Putellas said Barcelona have to “adapt our game” after a 1-1 draw away to Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. The match, in which the scorer of Bayern’s equaliser, Franziska Kett, was sent off for pulling Salma Paralluelo’s hair late on, was a far cry from the 7-1 victory the Spanish champions earned over the German champions in their opening match of the league phase of the competition. “We knew this game would be different. As you’ve seen, we were right,” said the two-time Ballon d’Or winner. “The first half was different from the second half. In the end, they were in a medium block; we waited for more space in the middle. We have to adapt our game.” The key seems to be to let Barcelona have the ball and Bayern’s Giulia Gwinn said: “The biggest challenge against Barcelona is to accept that you’ll have very little possession without becoming passive. Every time we managed to go beyond that initial moment of pressing, we were dangerous. In the second half, we had the momentum. We could’ve made more of a couple of chances, but we could tell that they’re not unbeatable, that we can get something done.” Suzanne Wrack

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

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

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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

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• 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