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⚽ All the latest news from a huge World Cup Wednesday⚽ Spain reach final | Player guide | Golden Boot | Mail usOver the next three hours – and when I’m subbed off thereafter – we’ll reflect on France 0-2 Spain, and look forward to England v Argentina. England v Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup, oh my complete and utter daze days.Greetings one and all. Anyone got any plans for later? Continue reading...

Stage starts from Vichy at 12.50pm BST/1.50pm CEST ‘I have haters’: Pogacar brushes off boos | Email LukeChristoph Roodhooft, Jasper Philipsen’s boss at Alpecin-Premier Tech, tells Hannah Walker on TNT Sports that his sprinter is “feeling better … but that doesn’t mean he will win today.”Is there any thought of letting Mathieu van der Poel sprint, instead of Philipsen, given the latter’s apparent lack of form? Continue reading...

ICC reveals shape of expanded 2027 14-team tournamentOnly one of three lowest-ranked teams would advanceThe men’s Cricket World Cup will undergo yet another revamp when it takes place in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia next year. A convoluted 14-team format has been officially confirmed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), albeit one that trims the competing nations to 12 almost immediately.While at the last two World Cups the 10 teams played a round-robin league stage that threw up four semi-finalists, the expanded 2027 edition will begin with the three lowest-ranked teams out of the 14 qualifiers playing what has been dubbed a “Super series”. Only one of these teams will progress through to the main event. Continue reading...

The 154th Open starts at Royal Birkdale on Thursday with a host of compelling storylines to followScottie Scheffler won the 2025 Open by four strokes but the world No 1 arrives at Royal Birkdale having missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open. The out-of-form American has claimed his fewest wins in a season since 2021, having claimed only one victory all year: January’s American Express, in his first start of the year. Since then, Scheffler has recorded four runner-up finishes, including at the Masters. “I didn’t really feel like I played that bad,” he said of his missed cut, his first in four years. “This golf course can be just tough at times.” Continue reading...

Many are in awe of the investment that Michele Kang is making into the women’s game. Others, though, are baffledThere is one team whose transfer activity this summer has captured everyone’s attention. London City Lionesses, a club who finished in the bottom half of the second tier a little over two years ago, have stunned the women’s game by signing a flurry of big names, including the Spain stars Alexia Putellas and Mapi León, the former England goalkeeper Mary Earps, and then, on Wednesday morning, the France winger Kadidiatou Diani. It is a startling recruitment drive intent on breaking up the Women’s Super League’s established order.Reaction has been divided. Many are in awe of the investment that the independent club’s owner, the American businesswoman Michele Kang, is making into the women’s game. Others, including senior staff at lots of rival clubs, are baffled at the idea that one of the league’s smaller teams can afford such world-class signings. They have one key question on their lips: how are London City able to sign all of these top players within the confines of the WSL’s salary cap rules? Continue reading...

L’Équipe laments ‘mentally sunk’ players in DallasOuest France front page reads: ‘End of American dream’French fans’ expectations of their national team had been at an all-time high: a semi-final on Bastille Day, Kylian Mbappé a hero, a squad unbeaten. Across the country, bars had been packed with viewers spilling on to pavements, ready to crack open the fireworks ahead of hopes for the final.But the night was unexpectedly subdued, streets cleared early. On Wednesday morning, the French media were still digesting the disappointment of defeat in a World Cup semi-final, praising Spain’s performance in Texas while struggling to comprehend Les Bleus’ fall from a high. Continue reading...

Experienced Belgium right-back signs two-year dealCompeting in Europa League was ‘big factor’ in moveSunderland have completed the signing of the experienced Belgium right-back Thomas Meunier on a two-year deal as Régis Le Bris’s team step up preparations for a second successive season in the Premier League alongside a Europa League campaign.Meunier, who has just returned from the World Cup, has been capped 83 times by Belgium and was a free agent after the expiration of his contract at Lille. The 34-year-old is Sunderland’s first summer signing. Continue reading...

Brilliant buildup play has often withered but control and flawless execution overcame France’s more variable chaosWhen the World Cup came to North America, with its final held in the planet’s biggest media market, the tournament was bound to fixate on stars.Fox’s coverage certainly enables that bias. Every game is billed like a boxing bout between two über-talented footballers rather than 22 players figuring things out across 90 minutes. One semi-final has been distilled down to MESSI v KANE (or MESSI v BELLINGHAM, depending on the broadcaster). The other leaned heavily on hope that Lamine Yamal’s hamstring would finally be at 100% after his April injury. MBAPPÉ v 600 PASSES PER GAME isn’t so snappy. Continue reading...

Centre/wing is embracing a friendly rivalry with his headline-grabbing teammate when they take on the PumasIt has been a long road for several of the players who went on last year’s British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. They are putting on a professionally brave face, but for some the final weekend of the season cannot come soon enough. Factor in the travel, the training and associated other stresses and strains and the 2025-26 campaign has been relentless from a physical and a mental perspective.Crunch the numbers before Saturday’s last hurrah against Argentina and it is a wonder many are still standing. Of the those English Lions, Henry Pollock is about to participate in his 32nd competitive game while his Northampton teammate Tommy Freeman his 29th. Ben Earl and Ellis Genge, assuming their involvement against the Pumas, will be in the same situation with Ollie Chessum one behind. Continue reading...

An unlikely match ‘like a World Cup final’ was for some first proof of Yorkshire immigrant community’s love of cricketOn 30 June 1986 the Yorkshire Post printed an invitation to a pre-match reception at the Majestic hotel. “Meet cricket club celebrities,” the invite read. “Auction, £10 (including buffet).” But these were not just any old cricket celebrities, this was India and Pakistan, led by Kapil Dev and Imran Khan, due to meet for only the second time on British soil at the genteel English town of Harrogate.This unlikely match, a 40-over bish-bash fundraiser for Help the Aged, had been encouraged by the cricketing bigwigs of both nations. India were already in situ on an England tour, while the Pakistan ambassador, Ali Arshad, was in charge of pulling together a team, flying five players over specially.This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...