Find a Football Team

Tottenham have rolled the dice and an injury-ravaged side’s anxiety may only get worse as West Ham close the gap

When did the reality dawn? Perhaps it was towards the end of the first half of West Ham’s game at Chelsea at the end of January with the away side leading 2-0. Or perhaps it was when West Ham took the lead against Manchester United 10 days later. As it turned out, West Ham won neither fixture; had they done so they would have had five points more and so been level with Tottenham going into this weekend. And then Tottenham’s proximity to relegation could not have been denied.

West Ham’s revival means this isn’t like last season, when a win at Ipswich at the end of February took Tottenham to 33 points and as good as confirmed their continued presence in the Premier League, allowing Ange Postecoglou to focus on Europe. Were Spurs to pull off something extremely unlikely and beat Arsenal on Sunday, they would move to 32 and, for all the glee their fans would feel, nobody would feel secure.

• Fofana’s first of two bookings was for fouling Hannibal

• Burnley: ‘There is no place for this in our society’

Hannibal Mejbri and Wesley Fofana have both been racially abused on Instagram in the wake of the former’s Burnley side drawing 1-1 at Chelsea after the latter was sent off.

Hannibal, who was fouled for the first of the two yellow cards that led to Fofana’s dismissal, posted the abuse he had received via a direct message on Instagram and wrote: “It’s 2026 and there still ppl like that … Educate yourself and your kids pls.” Fofana likewise posted the abuse he received.

Manchester City are timing their title run-in perfectly, to give Pep Guardiola a fine chance of a seventh title in a decade and to break Arsenal’s hearts yet again.

For fans of each team squeaky posterior time is officially entered. For the neutral the final 11 matches for City and the Gunners promise to be a cannot-miss spectacle.

When it comes to the back end of May and West Ham reflect on the season that was, there is every chance that this soggy Saturday will go down as a missed opportunity that proved decisive in their survival plight.

Victory here would have raised the possibility of Nuno Espírito Santo’s side ending the weekend out of the relegation zone for the first time since early December. In keeping with those over recent weeks, much of the performance was befitting of another three points. But, thanks to a couple of smart Djordje Petrovic saves and some profligacy in front of goal, the hosts had to make do with a draw – an expected goals (xG) total of 2.87 from 20 shots yielding a blank in the only column that matters.

This felt like the day Aston Villa’s faint title hopes were extinguished despite Tammy Abraham’s late equaliser against Leeds. Unai Emery’s side have won only once in their past four Premier League home games and fell short again to leave them seven points behind leaders Arsenal. They were punished for a sloppy opening 45 minutes when they failed to get almost anything right against their more aggressive opponents.

Anton Stach’s incredible free-kick looked like it would secure victory for Leeds until the 88th minute but it felt like another important step in their fight for survival.

• Raúl García’s 90th-minute winner sinks Real Madrid

• Bayern go eight points clear at top; PSG return to Ligue 1 summit

Raúl García’s superb 90th-minute strike consigned La Liga leaders Real Madrid to a 2-1 defeat at Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday.

Champions Barcelona trail Madrid by two points but can overtake them on Sunday if they beat Levante at Camp Nou.

• Fifth round: Birmingham 8-0 Chatham

• Hurtré 26 59 68, Sarri 53, Louis 65 89, Lee 70, Leidhammar 76

“It is like me coming up against Usain Bolt,” is how Chatham Town’s manager, Keith Boanas, compared the difference in speed and stamina between his fourth-tier underdogs and full-time professionals Birmingham City. The minnows kept themselves in this contest for far longer than 9.58 seconds, testing the second-tier side for just under an hour, before eventually the home side’s superiority told.

Given they are paid only their travel expenses, while their opponents are chasing promotion to the top tier, that was an admirable effort from the lowest-ranked side in the Women’s FA Cup fifth round. They were powerless, though, to stop Birmingham charging into the quarter-finals with a hat-trick from Océane Hurtré.

James Milner showed he can still contribute during his record-breaking 654th Premier League appearance as Brighton won at Brentford. Milner’s inclusion meant he moved past Gareth Barry’s record tally in the competition and it proved an occasion to remember for the Seagulls after first-half goals by Diego Gómez and Danny Welbeck.

The pressure had mounted on Fabian Hürzeler after one league win in 13 games and he turned to the veteran midfielder in an attempt to arrest a worrying run of results after a recent start at Aston Villa. The 40-year-old produced an accomplished display on a landmark occasion before his 90th-minute substitution was marked with applause from both sets of supporters.

• Coventry win 2-0 at West Brom; Oxford hold Boro

• Millwall lose to Portsmouth, Birmingham beat Norwich

Wrexham boosted their promotion hopes with a 5-3 victory over fellow high-flyers Ipswich in a crazy game at the Stok Cae Ras.

Eight days after Josh Windass’s goal had decided the FA Cup fourth-round tie between the sides in Wrexham’s favour, the goals flowed in north Wales.

Playmaker, out of favour under Mikel Arteta, has scored 18 of his 38 Premier League goals at business end of the season

Eberechi Eze was asked in an interview this week if there is a motto that he lives by and his answer was most revealing given how things have been going for him at Arsenal recently. “It’s not about now. It’s the long game,” he told the Men in Blazers podcast before Sunday’s north London derby.

Remaining patient has been a recurring theme throughout Eze’s career ever since he was released by Arsenal at 13 and then rejected by several other clubs before finding a home at Queens Park Rangers. Yet having made an immediate impression after a £67.5m dream move back to his boyhood club from Crystal Palace that peaked with a memorable hat-trick against Tottenham at the end of November, the goals have dried up completely as Mikel Arteta has seemingly lost faith in the England forward.

Club’s relegation could be sealed at Bramall Lane on Sunday but long-term future is of most concern to supporters

When crisis intrudes into everyday lives, personal worlds shrink and important events are reduced to near irrelevance. Sheffield Wednesday supporters understand that better than most. They have endured so much misery for so long that even Sunday’s potential relegation-sealing Steel City derby has lost some of its old significance.

“If you win it’ll be like kicking a cat,” Dan Fudge, host of the Wednesday Week podcast and YouTube channel says to Nick Wylie from the Sheffield United Way in this week’s broadcast. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than bragging rights.”

• New signing makes mark as leaders see off Falkirk

• Dundee win at Aberdeen; Motherwell thrash St Mirren

Hearts got their Premiership title push back on track with a 1-0 win over Falkirk at Tynecastle. The Jambos, beaten 4-2 at rivals Rangers last weekend, broke the deadlock just before half-time when the January signing Islam Chesnokov lashed home his first goal for the club. Hearts held out to move five points clear of Rangers, who travel to bottom side Livingston on Sunday.

Ethan Hamilton’s late goal gave Dundee a 3-2 win at 10-man Aberdeen, who had Liam Morrison sent off just before half-time. The Dons had gone in front after 13 minutes when Kevin Nisbet’s shot was fumbled by the Dundee keeper Jon McCracken and looked to have gone over the line before Toyosi Olusanya knocked in the rebound.

• Fans turned on manager during match on Thursday

• Club decide against change with big games coming up

Crystal Palace have decided against sacking Oliver Glasner despite his latest public outburst on Friday when the manager said he was “just not good enough” to turn around the club’s fortunes.

Glasner has announced he will leave Palace at the end of the season, but the club’s chair, Steve Parish, considered bringing forward the Austrian’s departure after supporters turned on the manager during Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Conference League. Parish is believed to have been disappointed with Glasner’s reaction in Friday’s press conference to preview Sunday’s home game against Wolves when the 51-year-old said he was unsure whether he would see out the season.

• Clubs who did not play are to get solidarity payments

• No formula determined for dividing the money

Frustration is growing among clubs globally at the extended wait for £185m of solidarity payments promised by Fifa on the back of last summer’s Club World Cup.

Clubs that did not participate in the tournament were promised a share of the sum, designed to ensure a proportion of the event’s funding was distributed throughout the football pyramid. If shared equally it would amount to about £50,000 for every top-flight club in the world but, more than seven months after the Club World Cup’s conclusion, there is no sign of the money and no timescale for its distribution. The Guardian understands Fifa is yet to determine how the money will be allocated.

• Wellington’s Josh Oluwayemi heads into his own goal from outside box

• Auckland FC’s 5-0 win prompts Giancarlo Italiano to resign

A comical own goal from Wellington goalkeeper Josh Oluwayemi sparked a 5-0 thrashing by Auckland FC, prompting coach Giancarlo Italiano to dramatically announce his resignation in the post-match press conference.

Oluwayemi’s 24th-minute howler looks destined to be a permanent feature on goalkeeper gaffe compilations after the Phoenix No 1 completely misjudged a Jake Girdwood-Reich clearance at Sky Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.

• Santos player has struggled with injury in recent seasons

• Brazilian forward remains doubtful for this year’s World Cup

Brazil striker Neymar, who extended his contract with his boyhood club Santos last month, said that he may retire by the end of the year.

The 34-year-old forward returned to Santos in January 2025 and played a key role in their survival in the Brazilian top flight, scoring five times in their last five matches.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Paul Watson as Arsenal feel the heat and Inter are caught cold in Norway

Kick off your afternoon with the Guardian’s take on the world of football

Every weekday, we’ll deliver a roundup the football news and gossip in our own belligerent, sometimes intelligent and – very occasionally – funny way. Still not convinced? Find out what you’re missing here.

Try our other sports emails: there’s weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day round-up of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

Get our roundup of women’s football for free twice a week, featuring the insights of experts such as Ada Hegerberg and Magdalena Eriksson

Join us as we delve deeper into the wonderful world of women’s football in our weekly newsletter. It is informative, entertaining, global, critical – when needed – and, above all, passionate. Written mainly by Júlia Belas Trindade and Sophie Downey, expect guest appearances from stars such as Anita Asante, Ada Hegerberg and many more.

Try our other sports emails: as well as the occasionally funny football email The Fiver from Monday to Friday, there are weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day roundup of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

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

The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s action

Subscribe to get our editors’ pick of the Guardian’s award-winning sport coverage. We’ll email you the stand-out features and interviews, insightful analysis and highlights from the archive, plus films, podcasts, galleries and more – all arriving in your inbox at every Friday lunchtime. And we’ll set you up for the weekend and let you know our live coverage plans so you’ll be ahead of the game. Here’s what you can expect from us.

Try our other sports emails: there’s daily football news and gossip in The Fiver, and weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown.

Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter

The 2026 MLS season kicks off on Saturday. Our writers discuss the teams, players and story lines they’re watching this year

Messi v Son. The two best players in the league play for the two “glamour” teams on opposite coasts, and each have large and dedicated fanbases. If both stay relatively healthy and perform up to capabilities, there’s no way the race between them for some honor (Golden Boot? MVP? Both?) won’t be fascinating to see unfold. AA

Fourth-tier team, the lowest-ranked left in the competition, and their Cup-winning manager are hoping to stun Birmingham

Old-school sweet dispensers stand tall pitchside at the Bauvill Stadium, almost as if watching the action. Behind them, Bobby’s bar is bustling and above the club logo on a wall behind one of the goals are four unmissable words: “If I can dream …” Helping to manifest that dream is the shiny Women’s FA Cup trophy, temporarily on display in the boardroom. The group of players who have just finished a day’s work are about to begin their training session at 8.30pm.

Chatham Town Women, the lowest-ranked side in the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup and one of only two sides remaining from below the second tier, are preparing for the game of their lives, against big-spending Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Saturday, live on television, vying for a place in the quarter-finals. Chatham cover their players’ expenses but do not pay football salaries, unlike their full-time opponents.

What if games ended at 90 minutes, set-pieces goals were scrapped, or shots that hit the woodwork counted?

By Opta Analyst

A league table is a pretty helpful barometer of each team’s fortunes. That’s why we use it to decide where teams finish at the end of the season. However, league tables do not tell us the whole story. Arsenal are top in reality (just about), but they might not be in all of our alternative Premier League tables.

MLS stakeholders want to turn the interest in this summer’s North American World Cup into ‘rocket fuel’ for the league. Are those realistic expectations?

In 1988, a full eight years before Major League Soccer debuted, it got its first “World Cup bump”.

Fifa had just awarded the 1994 World Cup to the United States, but there was a stipulation. The US could host the tournament, but only if there was a competitive club league in place by the time it rolled around, something that hadn’t been true since the North American Soccer League collapsed in 1985. Tournament organisers missed that 1994 deadline, but two years later, MLS became a reality. Thirty years on, it is still here.

Move is a temporary measure as J.League transitions to European schedule but could benefit national team in US, Canada and Mexico this summer

Cynics may say it is no coincidence the J.League has introduced penalty shootouts to replace draws just before the World Cup. Japan have identified the quarter-finals as the target this summer after failing to progress past the last 16 on three of the past four occasions, with two of those disappointments coming after failures from the spot.

The 2022 tournament was the worst, with the Samurai Blue, who should have seen off Croatia during normal time, losing the shootout 3-1 in dismal fashion.

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

By When Saturday Comes

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

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

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

• Véron Mosengo-Omba is past compulsory retirement age

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

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

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

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

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

• Benfica manager criticised strongly by Kick It Out

• Uefa investigating Real Madrid player’s claims

José Mourinho has been accused of gaslighting for his response to Vinícius Júnior’s allegations of racist abuse. The Benfica manager was criticised strongly by the anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out for referencing the Real Madrid forward’s goal celebration when talking about the incident.

Vinícius’s allegation that he was racially abused on Tuesday by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni during Madrid’s Champions League playoff win in Lisbon prompted Uefa to appoint an ethics and disciplinary inspector to investigate. Benfica said they would collaborate with the investigation but reiterated their support for Prestianni, who they said was “victim” of a “smear campaign”.

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

• Australia open tournament against Philippines in Perth on 1 March

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

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

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

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

“I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was Black,” Mourinho recounted when asked about his conversation with Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday night. “This club, the last thing that it is, is racist.”

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

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• This gallery was amended on 19 February 2026 to remove images of a similar football match played in Alnwick

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

So much for the glory game, for daring to do. For Tottenham Hotspur, this season’s highest aspiration – beyond an unlikely Bigger Cup triumph – now rests on That Lot From Down The Road/Woolwich FC (delete as applicable according to historical pettiness) blowing their title challenge again. Following Wednesday’s events at Wolves, the north London derby has now become AN EVEN BIGGER GAME. Igor Tudor, Tottenham’s new interim manager, has an instant chance to write himself into Spurs history. Or perhaps infamy. Winning the derby would be a dream holiday in other people’s misery, to misquote lifelong Gooner John Lydon. Arsenal’s collective collywobbles have permeated to their fans, a collective now wracked by anguish. A bit like the regulars in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, actually.

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

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

Top of the league, Wembley trip booked, sweeping through Europe, and blessed with a cushty FA Cup draw – it’s fair to say the Arsenal garden is in full, radiant bloom. At least, it was until they travelled to a wet and windy Molineux to play a match the Premier League surreptitiously slipped into the schedule like a worm tablet hidden in a dog’s dinner. In Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side were facing a team who are not only the worst in the top flight by some distance, but one who have only recently begun battling to avoid going down as the most awful of all time. Having taken a two-goal lead, the only logical question centred around how many more Arsenal would spank past their hapless hosts. Instead, logic gave way to the objective hilarity of a collective on and off-field meltdown as the Gunners managed to turn what should have been a stroll into an inexplicable 2-2 draw.

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

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

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

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

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

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

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

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

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

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

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

Racism allegations in Portugal overshadowed another fine result in the Arctic and the holders being pushed by their Ligue 1 rivals

Nothing should divert attention away from what happened after Vinícius Júnior’s goal for Real Madrid in their 1-0 victory at Benfica on Tuesday. It would be frivolous to do so. The Brazilian scored one of the finest goals of a career marked by spectacular strikes, but this week’s Champions League action will be remembered for the regrettable flashpoint that followed.

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

• Mail us with your questions and answers

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

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

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

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on email.

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

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

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

Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

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

• Subscribe to Moving the Goalposts, our free newsletter

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