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Updates from the 158.3km stage from Lannemezan Stage-by-stage guide | Stage four report | Mail TomChristian Prudhomme waves the flag and stage five is now properly underway.Here is the official visual guide to today’s stage: Continue reading...

⚽ All the latest as we look ahead to the quarter-finals⚽ Player guide | Bracketology| Golden Boot | Email usPerhaps Lionel Messi could do with a look at this video – our own Nikhita Chulani sifts the data in search of the perfect penalty.Just in, from AP. Continue reading...

Updates from Wednesday’s last-eight action in SW19 Arthur Fery: the wildcard carrying GB hopes | Mail DanielPaolini bursts out of the blocks with as much speed as she shows when charging around the court, racing to 40-0 and taking the game to 15. This match pits two of the best athletes in the women’s game against each other, and while Kostyuk possesses more power than the counterpunching Paolini, it’s Paolini who has the greater experience at this stage of grand slams, having reached not only the Wimbledon final but also the French Open final two years ago. Which could be to her advantage, if this comes down to who handles the moment better.Three more games, three more holds, but it’s been fairly tortuous on serve for Mertens, who has to save three break points to scramble to 2-2, just as Paolini and Kostyuk make their entrance on Centre. I’m really, really looking forward to this one … Paolini, after losing the opening set of her first-round match 6-0, has been a player transformed, finally rediscovering the form that took her to the 2024 final and made her a fan favourite, while Kostyuk, after reaching the French Open semi-finals last month, has carried her form from the clay on to the grass, and has won 20 of her past 21 matches. Continue reading...

Two-time Ballon d’Or winner joins on a free transferMary Earps and Nicole Anyomi also new recruitsLondon City Lionesses have announced the signing of Alexia Putellas at an event in New York, confirming the arrival in the Women’s Super League of one of the women’s game’s all-time greats.The two-time Ballon d’Or winner was available on a free transfer after leaving Barcelona at the end of the season, ending a 14-year stay during which she helped them to win four Champions League titles. Continue reading...

A goalkeeper with 27.5m Instagram followers and a forward whose future is opaque make our team of players looking for new clubsAs late bloomers and cult heroes go, few have made an impact on a World Cup quite like the goalkeeper who first defied Spain’s attackers and, after Cape Verde’s qualification for the knockouts, reduced Lionel Messi to a single goal. Vozinha departed Chaves in Liga Portugal 2 at the end of last season, having previously played in Cyprus, Slovakia and Moldova. With 27.5m Instagram followers, he would be a social media marketer’s dream, as well as a handy goalkeeper with a taste for the big occasion. Continue reading...

Country’s model prioritises joy while offering choice – and Erling Haaland’s World Cup exploits show that it worksAt full time, the arithmetic felt wrong. A team from a country of 5.5 million people, back at a World Cup after 28 years away, had just beaten the five-time champions to reach a first quarter-final.During Norway’s victory over Brazil on Sunday there was little between the fast feet of Vinícius Júnior and the raw power of Erling Haaland. But look at how that pair and others on the two teams were raised and a different story emerges. Neymar, Matheus Cunha and Vinícius grew up in a system that prioritises prodigies – spotting talent early and fast-tracking it through academies built around a single sport. Haaland, Martin Ødegaard and Antonio Nusa grew up inside something altogether different. Continue reading...

Blues defeat Maroons 12-30 in Game 3 to win series 2-1Nathan Cleary secures legacy with Wally Lewis medalQueensland will cry blue murder at a couple of contentious calls but history will speak only of New South Wales delivering one of the all-time great Origin boilovers on Wednesday night. Despite being outplayed in Sydney and smashed in Melbourne, the Blues did the unthinkable, silencing Suncorp Stadium with a 12-30 victory to seal the Origin shield.Under siege for weeks, with their coach Laurie Daley pilloried in all sections of the media, NSW were magnificent, scoring five tries to emphatically silence the critics. The hero was Nathan Cleary, who scored two tries and kicked five goals from five to win the Wally Lewis Medal as Man of the series and finally “own” the Origin arena. Continue reading...

The Frenchman is a footballer, flautist and a thespian. There’s no question he is the most thrilling and compelling figure at this year’s tournamentThis has been the World Cup of characters, bold fashion statements, and bantz: we’ve had Thomas Tuchel rubber-banding around the England dressing room like a teen at his first all-ages rave, and Iván Barton booting Miguel Almirón from the field as if sentencing him to death. Mauricio Pochettino and his $500 overshirt have brought fresh energy and inspiration to the wardrobes of convex middle-aged men the world over. Jokester Javier Aguirre’s avuncular “fuck you” at Anthony Gordon has pushed bilateral relations between Mexico and England to their warmest point since the British-brokered peace that ended the Pastry War of 1839.Erling Haaland has shown it’s possible to be Jaws in front of goal and Scooby Doo once the ball is in the back of the net, that there’s nothing about football so important that it can’t make way for some silly bit of online comedy. Even Harry Kane, a man who often seems like he was media trained in the womb, has squeaked thrillingly, if briefly, to life. Continue reading...

We pick six of the best analysts to feature at the World Cup in North America on screens in the UK, US and AustraliaJoe Hart There’s long been a feeling that, when it comes to punditry, only goalkeepers should talk about goalkeepers given the unique nature of the role. That view will have been strengthened by Hart’s appearances during this World Cup. The former England No 1 has been an authoritative voice on all things shot-stopping, providing the sort of insight and analysis only a man who has been there, done that and worn the gloves can. Highlights include his flagging of keepers getting a hand to long-range efforts but not being able to keep them out and how this definitely wasn’t normal, and how a subtle left-sided weight emphasis was the reason Jordan Pickford was done at his near post for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s goal against England in Atlanta. This sort of thing, allied to passionate yet crisp oratory, has made Hart a big asset for the BBC, whose decision to stay at home has meant it needs as much punch as it can get. Sachin Nakrani Continue reading...

The Australian superstar returns to the US after a seven-year absence – and will find a vastly changed landscapeWhen Sam Kerr last played for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Big Apple-adjacent club, it was called Sky Blue, and the playing conditions were comparatively abysmal. The Australian striker spent three years (from 2015-17) accruing accolades for a team infamously bereft of locker rooms or running water at its training facility. This July, she returned to a vastly evolved franchise that has won two NWSL Championships in three seasons while implementing a comprehensive overhaul of its players, personnel and prioritization of player conditions.Kerr’s return, called “a landmark moment for our club” by the president of soccer operations, Yael Averbuch West – whose role was intrinsic to Gotham’s progress – feels like an exciting moment of nostos for one of the greatest to ever play women’s professional soccer in the United States, and a sign of continued ambition for a program that has worked hard to overhaul its operations. Continue reading...