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Follow updates from Monday’s 8pm (GMT) kick-offTen talking points from the weekend | Email DanielI’m minded of Martin Buchan’s legendary response – later pilfered by Gordon Strachan – to a reporter he didn’t know putting a hand on his chest to stop him going to get a drink.“A quick word, Martin?And because he’d been so rude I added ‘fuck off’.” Continue reading...

Benfica appeal against ban for Real Madrid second legBrazilian alleged he was racially abusedGianluca Prestianni will not be available for Benfica’s Champions League playoff against Real Madrid on Wednesday night after Uefa suspended him following allegations that he racially abused Vinícius Júnior during the first leg. The one-game ban is a provisional measure as an investigation continues.Benfica have said they will appeal and regret being “deprived” of the winger, but the club admitted they did not expect to be able to prevent the 20-year-old Argentinian from missing the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu. Continue reading...

Harry Brook’s side have been unconvincing against the turning ball and will face a team that has an attack packed with spinning optionsAfter four wins in five games, and now just one away from sealing a place in the semi‑finals, it is hard to describe England’s progress through the World Cup as ugly. But it hasn’t been straightforward. Like an inverted swan, everyone can see them struggling – yet somehow their progress has been, up to this point, serene.There are no bonus points available for artistic merit and to win tournaments it is necessary only to be, at each stage, slightly better than your opponents. Australia’s T20 champions of 2021, for example, were a side few considered the best in that competition – and were notably annihilated by England in the group stages – until Aaron Finch raised the trophy in Dubai. Continue reading...

After relegation fears, historic late victory has goalkeeper jumping in the stands and El Sadar dreaming of EuropeThere’s only one thing better than celebrating a brilliant 90th-minute winner that at last delivers victory over the team you most want to beat, 15 long years later. Celebrating it twice. So this Saturday, that was exactly what Sergio Herrera did. At the north end of El Sadar, where for one night only they thought VAR might be a good thing, Raúl García applied the brakes, sent Raúl Asencio sliding by out of shot and curled a gorgeous finish beyond Thibaut Courtois to defeat Real Madrid 2-1; at the south end, Osasuna’s keeper turned, jumped over the hoardings where the ticker tape, armbands and beach balls lay spent, and leapt into the arms of the fans going wild behind his goal, an extra notch somehow found on that volume dial, pandemonium taking Pamplona.Which was when someone noticed that the assistant had his flag up, the referee, Alejandro Quintero, had his whistle in his mouth, and García had his hands over his face. Herrera climbed down, lamenting his lack of patience, but he didn’t have to wait long until everything turned out nice again and he got to have another go. Sixty-four seconds passed before Quintero took his finger out his ear, drew a screen and pointed at the centre circle. The offside overruled, the goal given, victory over Madrid close, Herrera set off once more. He sprinted along the line and back again screaming all the way, let loose for good this time. “Bloody hell,” he said after, the offside had been a blow – “una leche”, in his words – but this was marvellous. Continue reading...

Nations Championship involves 25,000-mile itineraryEngland to split squad in July and leave a team to face FijiEngland have been handed a gruelling 25,000-mile travel itinerary for their inaugural Nations ­Championship fixtures in July and are expected to split their squad and field a weakened team against Fiji as a result.As revealed exclusively by the Guardian, England’s match against Fiji – the week after they face South Africa in Johannesburg and the week before playing away in Argentina – will be staged at Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!When James Milner made his Premier League debut for Leeds he was 16 years old. He came on as an 84th-minute substitute for Jason Wilcox, the current Manchester United director of football, to help close out a win over West Ham in which Harry Kewell, Nick Barmby and Mark Viduka scored. Pathé news reports from the time reveal that Westlife were top of the charts and a few days later Michael Jackson would dangle his baby from a Berlin balcony. Fabian Hürzeler, Milner’s current gaffer at Brighton, was a nine-year-old urchin, learning his times tables and being tucked into his race-car bed. More than 20 years later, Milner is 40, still playing in the top flight, and is the living personification of a hard-working, clean-living, low maintenance model professional who has finally eclipsed Gareth Barry to make the all-time Premier League appearance record his own. Frankly, after 23 seasons at six different clubs doing the bare minimum just to stay relevant, the most obvious conclusion to draw is that the universally admired and well-liked “Millie” is apparently not all he’s cracked up to be.In the film The Thursday Murder Club, Pierce Brosnan’s character is an ardent West Ham fan, which got me thinking. Relegation would be A Long Way Down. Is there No Escape for the Hammers? They may not be The Greatest, but they’ve got the mentality of a Survivor. The Final Score on the weekend didn’t do them any favours but I don’t see it as The World’s End because there are plenty of matches left to play” – Peter Oh (and no other Pierce Brosnan superfans).I’m sure that Barry Glendenning would be able to look after himself and have a quiet word with your correspondent who took him to task about using the term ‘centred around’ (Friday’s letters). But if he’s otherwise engaged, I’ll weigh in and point out that it’s a perfectly legitimate phrase, and, if Professor Google Ngrams is to be believed, has been on the rise since around 2010. It still only manages to account currently for 0.000037% of all two-word combinations in English, but since the figure for the rival ‘centred on’ is the only slightly more impressive 0.00013, I think honour is satisfied” – Charles Antaki.Maybe this is just the myopic view of an unmarried bachelor, but on the topic of how to make VAR better (Friday’s letters), officials must be tying themselves in knots working out whether something is both ‘clear’ and ‘obvious’ – maybe if they just concentrated on meeting one of these criteria, they would feel less pressure and take less time” – Nick Livesey.Lads, it’s Spurs” – Marc Meldrum.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

41-year-old developed compartment syndromeSkier credits Team USA surgeon with saving legLindsey Vonn says she came close to having her leg amputated in the aftermath of her crash during the Olympic downhill earlier this month.The 41-year-old sustained a complex tibia fracture to her left leg in the crash and underwent multiple surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the US for further treatment last week. But in an Instagram post on Monday, the American said the crash also led to compartment syndrome in her leg. The condition occurs after traumatic injuries such as falls from heights and car crashes. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “compartment syndrome happens when there’s too much pressure around your muscles. The pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and nerves. Compartment syndrome is extremely painful.” The lack of blood flow can lead to permanent damage to patients. Continue reading...

Curling cursing, podium camaraderie and stunning speed on skis linger for our writers after an astonishing GamesBest moment Matt Weston winning double gold. It was so well deserved. He fought hard for the victories and the emotions afterwards showed how much it meant to him.Biggest disappointment Seeing the second GB skeleton relay team, Freya Tarbit and Marcus Wyatt, take fourth place. The sense of almost getting that medal, the sadness was so visible. I was so impressed by their performance, I wanted to hug them both. Continue reading...

The club’s vision for a young team of players from the region has been put on hold due to concerns about going down By Get French Football NewsIf anyone can empathise with Stéphane Gilli, it is probably Antoine Kombouaré, the man who now replaces him as Paris FC manager. Gilli had felt like a lame duck since the Arnault family took over the club midway through last season, but earning promotion to Ligue 1 at the first time of asking bought him a stay of execution. It didn’t last long. With fears of relegation growing, Kombouaré – a former lame duck turned firefighter – has taken his place.Just like Gilli, Kombouaré too failed to fulfil the lofty ambitions of new owners; his face didn’t fit. QSI were merciless when they dispatched Kombouaré within just months of their purchase of Paris Saint-Germain in 2011; they were top of the league when he was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti. The self-proclaimed “bling bling” era had begun at PSG and, despite its flaws, there was at least a direction – which is more than can be said for Paris FC now. Continue reading...

Team meeting led to ‘honest’ exchange, says strikerArsenal five points clear but City have game in handViktor Gyökeres has revealed that Arsenal’s brutally honest team discussions after the draw at Wolves last Wednesday brought renewed purpose and helped them to secure a restorative win at Tottenham on Sunday.Gyökeres produced arguably his best performance for Arsenal in the 4-1 derby victory, threatening from start to finish and scoring two goals. It was the perfect way for Arsenal to respond to the Wolves game, when they surrendered a 2-0 lead in a match that ended in a 2-2 stalemate. Continue reading...