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And with that, I’m handing over to Luke McLaughlin, who’ll take you through to lunchtime. Laters.

One of the biggest games of the bank holiday weekend doesn’t come until Monday night, when Hearts host Rangers knowing they could practically end the visitors’ title hopes – and massively boost theirs – with a win, turning the title race into a two-way fight with Celtic (IF the Hoops beat Hibs on Sunday). The Jambos’ manager, Derek McInnes, is trying not to think about it: “Every team in with a chance of the title will see themselves as right in it, which makes it even more exciting. We’ve got a good enough record in this fixture but we need to concentrate on ourselves and not focus too much about what the opposition are thinking.”

• Jibril Rajoub refuses handshake at Fifa congress

• Infantino to seek third term as president

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, confirmed his intention to stand for re-election for a third full term next year after an attempt to orchestrate a handshake between the Palestinian and Israeli delegates at the governing body’s congress backfired.

The Palestinian Football Association’s president, Jibril Rajoub, refused to stand alongside the Israel FA’s vice-president, Basim Sheikh Suliman, in an awkward moment towards the end of the 76th Fifa congress after both men had been called to the stage in Vancouver by Infantino.

Three teams vie for two promotion spots on Saturday, with Charlton and Birmingham going head-to-head

Three teams, two automatic promotion spots and only one point between them. Add the fact that two are facing each other and Saturday’s final day of the Women’s Super League 2 season is set perfectly for an afternoon of high drama, twists and emotions.

Charlton, Birmingham and Crystal Palace are dreaming of a WSL place. For this season only, there are two automatic promotion spots rather than the usual one, as the top tier expands from 12 to 14 teams, offering a precious opportunity that adds to the tension for the 3pm kick-offs, the most tantalising of which comes at the Valley, where the top two, Charlton and Birmingham, go head-to-head.

• Howe under pressure to end Magpies’ losing streak

• Manager confident he retains backing of club owners

Eddie Howe has emerged from a meeting with Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners confident he retains their support but also acutely aware that such backing is finite, with the manager admitting “a lot is riding” on Saturday’s visit of Brighton.

Howe will aim to end a run of five straight defeats against Fabian Hürzeler’s side at St James’ Park and is under no illusion of the significance of the task ahead. “We need a win,” admitted Newcastle’s manager. “There’s a lot riding on this weekend for us. You can talk as much as you want but the proof is in how the team performs. I’m under no illusion that needs to be positive.”

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.

Eddie Howe is under pressure, Rayan needs protection at Bournemouth and John Stones returns to Everton with City

• Premier League top scorers: latest standings

The equation is simple. If Leeds beat relegated – and now managerless - Burnley at Elland Road on Friday they will reach 43 points and be extremely unlikely to meet the same fate as their opponents. Daniel Farke’s losing FA Cup semi-finalists are then scheduled to travel to Tottenham, but victory against Burnley, who they pipped to the Championship title last season, would settle nerves in West Yorkshire. Farke, though, does not necessarily expect a straightforward match. “There’s definitely no complacency,” he said, speaking before the news of Scott Parker’s departure. “I’ve got so much respect for Scott. I’d say there’s not one time this season Burnley were played off the field. They’re always very competitive, they’ve had many tight games.” As Mike Jackson takes caretaker charge at Turf Moor, Farke hopes another three points will persuade Leeds to extend his own contract. Louise Taylor

Leeds v Burnley, Friday 8pm (all times BST)

Brentford v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Newcastle v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Arsenal v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace, Sunday 2pm

Manchester United v Liverpool, Sunday 3.30pm

Stadium sharing, men’s broadcast picks and fun runs can all cause headaches in upper echelons of English women’s game

Waiting for men’s broadcast picks, dodging local fun runs and even having to avoid clashing with nearby comedy gigs: welcome to the quagmire of trying to arrange the Women’s Super League and WSL 2 schedule.

The fixture list is often a bone of contention for supporters, and organisers face a painstaking task in trying to organise games in venues where other teams get first dibs.

Keep this up and Crystal Palace’s European adventure could end in yet more silverware for Oliver Glasner. Four years ago it was Daichi Kamada who scored the winning goal for Glasner’s Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final against West Ham on their way to lifting the trophy. The Japan midfielder again provided the crucial moment here before setting up the substitute Jørgen Strand Larsen to ensure Palace will head into next week’s second leg with a two-goal advantage.

With all his experience, Glasner will know that this tie is not over after a vibrant Shakhtar Donetsk side stuffed with attacking Brazilian flair caused them plenty of problems. Ismaïla Sarr’s opener after just 21 seconds was the fastest goal in Conference League history and the Senegal forward now has eight in 11 appearances so far in this competition.

• Parker departs by mutual consent after talks with board

• Wales manager Craig Bellamy of interest to Burnley

Scott Parker has left his position as Burnley head coach with immediate effect after the club’s relegation from the Premier League.

Parker had been in discussions over his future with Burnley’s chair, Alan Pace, since the team’s return to the Championship was confirmed by defeat against Manchester City on 22 April. The 45-year-old has departed by mutual consent, with respectful tributes paid on both sides, and his assistant, Mike Jackson, will take interim charge for the final four games of the season.

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.

The earnings from the tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada will make it the most lucrative competition in the history of sport, even if some of the 48 competing countries say they are struggling to make ends meet

A World Cup that Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, billed at the draw last December as “the greatest event that humanity has ever seen” will certainly be the most lucrative competition in sporting history.

Fifa has spent the last few years upgrading its revenue projections, with the most recent financial report stating that the world governing body will make $13bn (£9.6bn) from the four-year cycle culminating in this summer’s tournament, almost $9bn of which will be brought in this year.

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.

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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There was a sheepish look on Lucas Digne’s face and for the referee, João Pinheiro, it was a case of reviewing whether the ball was out of play and not if the Aston Villa defender had handled inside the box. Even Digne would not dispute that bit. Digne naively raised both hands after Omari Hutchinson refused to deem Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross a lost cause and Nottingham Forest were presented with a chance to strike the first blow in this Europa League semi-final.

Just how damaging might Digne’s moment of madness prove? Chris Wood punished Villa from 12 yards, his penalty flawless. Unai Emery tried to gesture for calm as Forest’s support went berserk and their players moseyed back towards their half but afterwards the Villa manager expressed his anger at Elliot Anderson escaping a red card for a poor first-half tackle on Ollie Watkins.

• Former Lionesses forward will depart this summer

• England, 31, has seven WSL goals this season

Bethany England, the Tottenham captain, is to leave at the end of this season, the striker has confirmed in a tearful video message published by the club.

It is understood it was the club’s decision not to renew the 31-year-old’s contract as they seek to evolve their squad with younger players. Multiple sources have emphasised Tottenham are expected to be aggressive and highly ambitious in the transfer market.

• United to prioritise midfield but also looking at left flank

• Mainoo gets deal to 2031 after being restored by Carrick

West Ham’s El Hadji Malick Diouf has emerged as a target for Manchester United as they weigh up a summer move for a left-back.

United are looking at bringing in competition for Luke Shaw and are one of the clubs monitoring Diouf after his promising first campaign in English football. The Senegal international joined West Ham for €22m (£19m) from Slavia Prague and has recovered from a difficult start to become one of the side’s most important players.

• 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.”

• Don Garber claims his account was ‘compromised’

• Whitecaps face a potential relocation

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said his X account was “compromised” on Wednesday evening, a statement offered after a post on his account called British Columbia Premier David Eby a “liar” earlier in the day.

MLS has been ensnared in a relocation controversy surrounding the Vancouver Whitecaps, who say they have faced serious financial issues as a result of having to play at BC Place, the stadium owned by the province. The long-running saga has most recently seen the Whitecaps connected with a potential move to Las Vegas or Phoenix.

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.

The summer will probably come too soon, but if Mauricio Pochettino does move to bring an upstart, Zavier Gozo and Julian Hall are among the contenders

With the US roster scheduled to drop on 26 May, it is crunch time for Mauricio Pochettino to finalize his World Cup squad.

There were few glowing segments of footage for him to clip from the team’s feckless final pre-World Cup camp in March, with losses to Belgium and Portugal by a 7-2 combined scoreline. On the club side, the only position group teeming with in-form options is central midfield. Matt Turner’s MLS form is far stronger than Matt Freese’s, but his sole international start in the last 14 games ended 5-2. Christian Pulisic is goalless in 18 games for club and country. Gio Reyna remains a bit-part player; Noahkai Banks has yet to commit his international future.

The first leg of the semi-finals produced a nine-goal thriller and a tense evening in Madrid. Next week’s matches are set to be a treat

Football’s role as a leading hot-take commodity was taken to the nth degree after Tuesday’s nine-goal slugfest between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich in Paris. Best game ever? What happened to the lost art of defending? Proof that France and Germany’s dominant clubs enjoy the luxury of not being challenged in their domestic leagues so they can keep their powder dry for the latter stages of the Champions League? Proof that the best attackers in Europe are sequestered at PSG and Bayern Munich? All of the above may well be true.

The debate will continue until next Wednesday’s second leg in Munich. Those who said it was the competition’s best ever semi-final – it had the most goals of any 90-minute match in the Champions League last-four – forgot previous contenders. “The best match I have ever coached,” said Luis Enrique. The PSG coach omitted to mention La Remontada of 2017, when his Barcelona team won 6-1 at the Camp Nou to complete the greatest comeback of all. And how about last season’s 7-6 semi-final double-header when Inter edged Barça? Only when the second leg delivers the same excitement can accusations of recency bias be dismissed.

Manager was fuming after semi-final draw but also needs a gameplan that can deliver more chances in Champions League second leg

Mikel Arteta has felt the walls closing in on the domestic front in recent weeks. And it was surely a part of the reason why the Arsenal manager went on the offensive about refereeing decisions after his team’s Premier League win over Newcastle on Saturday.

Arteta insisted that the Newcastle goalkeeper, Nick Pope, ought to have been sent off rather than booked for a foul on Viktor Gyökeres, which he argued represented the denial of a goalscoring opportunity. And, while he was at it, Arteta went back to the previous league game – the 2-1 defeat at Manchester City – and made a similar point: he believed the City defender Abdukodir Khusanov should have been dismissed for a last-man foul on Kai Havertz.

Trent Alexander-Arnold has gone, Andy Robertson and Mo Salah are going, and Alisson and Virgil van Dijk may soon follow. Just how much experience are Liverpool losing?

By Opta Analyst

Liverpool have had some fantastic players and enjoyed plenty of success in the last decade. In recent years, they have gradually said goodbye to Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino, but they have also retained a number of their established stars.

Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah would all be in the conversation when it comes to selecting an all-time Liverpool XI. That is quite the achievement considering the club’s rich heritage and, as recently as last season, all five were still at the club as Liverpool strolled to the Premier League title.

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.”

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.

• Teams should now be exempt from US federal taxes

• Many will still have to pay US state and city tax

Fifa is poised to secure a last-minute tax exemption for all 48 World Cup qualifiers after intensive negotiations with the US treasury.

After months of lobbying Fifa has secured a significant breakthrough that should result in the national associations being exempt from federal taxes, although many will still have to pay state and city tax on their World Cup earnings.

Ángel Mateos González due to play for CD Colunga, making him oldest player to take part in official match

At an age when many veteran footballers might prefer to be regaling grandchildren, friends and assorted barflies with slightly embroidered tales of their former sporting prowess, 70-year-old Ángel Mateos González is heading back on to the pitch.

The Spaniard, who retired from competitive football 27 years ago, is due to play in goal for the Asturian team CD Colunga in a fifth-tier match this Sunday. If all goes to plan and he pulls on his gloves, he will reportedly become the oldest player to take part in an official match in Spain.

• Argentinian punched Huesca’s Jorge Pulido in the face

• Incident came after he was sent off for shoving Pulido

The Spanish football federation has banned Real Zaragoza’s goalkeeper Esteban Andrada for 13 matches after he punched a Huesca player in the face.

The federation’s disciplinary committee said the former Argentina international and his club would also be fined, after Andrada was first sent off then “attacked” Huesca’s Jorge Pulido in the second-tier derby last Sunday.

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.

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.

The current season has become a meme-war without end, an endless rolling wall of gloat and taunt in which players and managers must try to block out the noise

In his new book, Saved, Gianluigi Buffon talks about feeling crushed by nerves even at the peak of his playing career. The day before the 2006 World Cup final Buffon and Gennaro Gattuso walked past the French squad after training and were immediately sent into a tailspin by their opponents’ intimidating size and athleticism.

“We don’t stand a chance,” Gattuso joked, not actually joking. Buffon spent most of the night smoking in the hotel corridor with half the Italy team. At breakfast nobody could speak. They turned up at the stadium already feeling exhausted.

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

• Buy this cartoon here | His favourites from 2025

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Classic Football Shirts have been in business for 20 years, selling over one million shirts (so far) and keeping the most iconic match-worn pieces in their temperature-controlled vault. Michael Butler travelled to Manchester to meet the CFS founders

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.

From preparation to game mode, the upkeep of Wembley’s pitch is carried out to an astonishing level of perfectionism

Karl Standley and his assistant Cameron Hutcheon have gathered in their usual spot in the south-west corner of Wembley Stadium clutching hot cups of tea. Standley is a coffee devotee but on matchdays, as a nod to his mum, who enjoys a brew whatever the temperature, he mixes things up.

After every kick-off the pair gaze out at 7,140 sq metres of glistening green perfection like lions surveying their savannah. Every thinkable controllable has been controlled and, for a short time at least, the teams – this time Manchester City and Southampton – have dual custody of the Wembley pitch.

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When Scott Parker led Burnley out of the Championship and into the Premier League last season, he did so with a side showcasing the kind of defensive resilience more readily associated with a medieval fortress, although with more expensive haircuts and less reliance on cauldrons of boiling oil. His team lost just two of their 46 matches, were unbeaten at home, kept a quite remarkable 30 clean sheets and notched up a combined total of 20 1-0 wins and scoreless draws. So while attending one of their games was about as exciting as reading an air-fryer instruction manual, they were devastatingly resolute. To nobody’s great surprise, they were immediately installed as the white-hot favourites to go straight back down before a ball had even been kicked.

I read with interest that David Brent School of Management’s Glenn Hoddle was fishing for the Tottenham job (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). Is that a sign of how far Spurs have fallen, or was he trying to pay for sins in a prior life?” – Neale Redington.

Can I point out Football Daily’s arrogance in dismissing the entertainment value of a proper match (sans £ billions), in which the mighty Vale handed out a schoolin’ to the resurgent Stockport County on a sunny evening in Edgeley (yesterday’s Football Daily)? I haven’t watched the pompfest in foreign climes you referenced, but it couldn’t have been a patch on what Pep Guardiola was fortunate enough to choose” – John Timmins.

Your reader Ken Muir’s observation that Hearts teams are sweeping all before them this season (yesterday’s Football Daily letters), brings to mind an old chestnut. An Englishman goes into a pub in Edinburgh and asks a local: ‘What colour do Hearts play in?’ ‘It’s maroon …’ comes the answer. ‘Thank you! I’ll have a gin and tonic please!’ And I’ll get my coat …” – Allastair McGillivray.

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

• 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

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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