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⚽️ Kick-off time: 2pm local, 3pm EDT, 8pm BST, 5am AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology| Golden Boot | Email ScottThe great pennant showdown. Spain have managed to pull off a feat previously considered almost impossible, by producing a pennant with an even more boring design than England’s. Not sure what we’ll do should the two teams meet in the final. Maybe just quietly drop this feature. Probably for the best all round.Portugal’s is rather nice, though! This isn’t the one Ronaldo will be handing over to Rodri today, they didn’t take a photo of that, but you get the gist. One of the great recognisable crests. A couple of points docked for lack of edge-cushioning tassels; a sudden gust of wind at the coin toss and you could have someone’s eye out with that. Continue reading...

Updates from Monday’s play at the All England Club Paolini denies Eala | Noskova sees off Keys | Mail Daniel“I feel like I still cannot process this happening,” says Kostyuk, also noting how hot it is. “The longer you stay on this surface, the worse you feel.” She adds that the court wasn’t easy given the heat and wind, especially against an opponent on a roll having played 17 consecutive matches on grass – more than Kostyuk in her entire career. So it was very difficult and she still can’t believe it.She was struggling to break the whole match so is really happy with the last two service-games she faced, and then thanks the crowd for their contribution. Continue reading...

Eala loses her first grand slam last-16 match 4-6, 6-4, 6-3Paolini inspired by seeing ‘idol’ Federer in Royal BoxAlexandra Eala left Centre Court with her hands shaped into a heart and a simple mantra for her millions of followers. “Never say die, and play every point like your life depends on it,” she said. “That about sums it up.”The 21-year-old certainly lived up to those words before her Wimbledon dream ended in the last 16 with a painful defeat to the Italian Jasmine Paolini 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Continue reading...

Ståle Solbakken’s side have played with smiles on their faces – and none more so than the talismanic strikerErling Haaland saves his best content for Snapchat. Norway’s No 9, fresh off another decisive double to dispatch Brazil from the World Cup, posted clips overnight of what looked like a party on the team bus. Haaland was delirious, staggering around in the aisle, singing along to a largely forgotten summer tune by a French DJ called Kungs. “We are never going home,” runs the chorus.Norway will go home at some point, maybe even on Saturday when they play England in a World Cup quarter-final in Miami. But there can be no doubt that the country, the team, the supporters and their superstar have been making the most of their time in the US. From the longboat rowing ceremony, to the accumulation of cowboy gear (T-shirt: “Y’all can kiss my Dallas”), to Haaland’s performative taking-it-all-in pose – hands on hips, eyes raised to the horizon, bemused smile – they’ve been loving every minute of it. Continue reading...

The long-serving centre-back came off the bench to help 10-man England preserve their lead against Mexico, and feels the entire squad is laser-focused on reaching the finalJohn Stones had to know the question was coming. With Mexico vanquished after one of the great England nights, the focus had turned in part to the quarter‑final against Norway in Miami on Saturday and some bloke up front with a ponytail. Stones knows Erling Haaland, having spent the past four seasons with him at Manchester City, but this was not a time for him to engage on the nitty-gritty of how to stop him.At one point, as Stones spoke at the Azteca stadium after England’s epic 3-2 win on Sunday, he claimed to have only just been told what side his team play next. Come on, John. Norway beat Brazil to advance well before England stepped out against Mexico. In many respects, it was classic laid‑back Stones, living only in the moment. The central defender did, of course, talk of his respect for Haaland and Norway. Continue reading...

No 9 seed beats American 6-4, 7-6 (2) on Court OneMarta Kostyuk and Elise Mertens also in quarter-finalsThe ninth seed Linda Noskova produced a composed display under pressure to end Madison Keys’ Wimbledon run in straight sets, sealing a 6-4, 7-6 (2) victory on Court One to reach the quarter-finals of a grand slam for just the second time in her career.Keys had arrived full of confidence after knocking out last year’s finalist Amanda Anisimova in the third round. A former Australian Open champion and twice a Wimbledon quarter-finalist, the American was bidding to reach the last eight for the third time in four years. Noskova was chasing her own breakthrough having battled through consecutive three-set matches to return to the fourth round. Continue reading...

Fans were banned from stage three finish amid fire riskTour organisers insist stage four goes ahead in 40C heatTour de France organisers have insisted that the fourth stage on Tuesday, from Carcassonne to Foix, will go ahead, despite furnace conditions in southern France and predicted temperatures of more than 40C (104F).The 182km stage, scheduled to run through the heat of the afternoon, comes after the Tour’s third stage to Les Angles was held without the usual publicity caravan and only small numbers of fans, to avoid increasing the risks posed by wildfires raging in the eastern Pyrenees. Continue reading...

Lincoln Jopp has won parliamentary time to discuss the effect of the government’s relaxation of planning regulations that has put one of racing’s most historic venues in perilThe “future of British horse racing” and most immediately, the future of Kempton Park will be the subject of a debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday afternoon. Lincoln Jopp, the Conservative member for Spelthorne, has secured parliamentary time for MPs to discuss the effect of the government’s recent relaxation of planning regulations on the country’s second-biggest spectator sport.There are 58 active British racecourses, 59 if you count Newmarket’s Rowley Mile and July courses separately. Plenty are situated on land that could be much more attractive to developers after the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 that aims to accelerate the planning (and appeals) process and release Green Belt land for development when planning authorities cannot meet housing targets elsewhere. Continue reading...

Carlo Ancelotti and his players have been lambasted for their ‘shameful’ and ‘embarrassing’ World Cup exit The wait for the hexa – the record-extending sixth World Cup – continues. Brazil’s 2-1 loss to Norway in the last 16 of the World Cup on Sunday means they have gone six tournaments in a row without being crowned champions. Some in Brazil are calling it the reverse hexa.As you would expect, the reaction back home has been scathing. Neto, the former international who is now a pundit on Radio Bandeirantes, laid into the current crop of players. “It’s a generation that won fuck all,” he said. “There are six players who won one Copa América and that’s it. It was embarrassing from the beginning and everything that happened before that game. It was a shameful campaign and these guys are losers. It’s a generation of lies.” Continue reading...

European governing body’s dramatic move could have major implications for the future of the sportPerhaps the only globally renowned figure who has been more conspicuous by his absence at this World Cup tournament than Donald Trump is the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, although both men have more than made up for their silence over the past 24 hours.By endorsing a statement in which Uefa accused Fifa of crossing “a red line” in making the “incomprehensible and unjustifiable” decision to lift the USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension for the last-16 tie with Belgium on Monday, Ceferin has effectively put European football on a war footing with the world governing body, a dramatic move that could have major implications for the future of the sport. Continue reading...