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Arsenal defender on embracing her England chance, maintaining self-belief and sharing training tips with her cyclist partner, Tao Geoghegan Hart Lotte Wubben-Moy pauses, then says: “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t doubts.” The Arsenal and England defender has just been asked whether, during her stop-start journey, she had questioned herself or her chances of getting to show what she can do. Wubben-Moy has had to bide her time with club and country. Having made her debut for England in February 2021, she has picked up only 16 caps despite being almost ever-present in the squad. Even when left out, her lack of game time at Arsenal an obvious issue, she has often found herself called back in because of injuries to others and, regardless of minutes played, her value to the squad and environment is often talked about.

⚽️ News, discussion and buildup before weekend’s action ⚽️ Today’s matches | Tables | And you can also mail us here Mikel Arteta urged Arsenal fans to bring the noise at the Emirates Stadium this afternoon as the Gunners look to go 12 points clear at the top of the table. He said: “We know the meaning of every match here and the opportunity that we have, especially when we play at home. We need to maximise every result. It’s about each individual and how we turn up there. It’s actually impacting the game, the atmosphere and energy in the stadium. Whoever comes tomorrow, I ask them to be with that mindset, energy and commitment, because the team is going to respond beautifully to that.”

Midfielder on the prank-fuelled promotion at Bristol Rovers that kickstarted his career, confidence in Nottingham Forest’s survival and modelling for England ‘It was a brand-new car as well,” says Elliot Anderson, grinning as he relives the Gazza-inspired prank that sticks in the memory from his fruitful loan at Bristol Rovers. It is four years since a reserved teenager from Whitley Bay walked into a dressing room of big personalities after signing on January deadline day and turbocharged the club to promotion. His soaring header was the last and decisive goal in an exhilarating 7-0 win on the final day of the League Two season. A lot has happened in Anderson’s world since that incredible climax, when Rovers pipped Northampton to third on goals scored. At the end of that four months, he was well versed in the culture of capers. Fridays meant forfeits and spinning the “wheel of fortune”. Practical jokes were never in short supply and on one occasion, as when Paul Gascoigne famously haunted Gordon Durie with trout, players planted fish in the boot and on the back seats of a teammate’s car. The analysts used training-ground CCTV to present a “Panorama” investigation and find the culprits.

Fans jeer as draw follows losses to Mallorca and Bayern Marseille go third in Ligue 1 as Paris FC stun Monaco Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against mid-table Girona in La Liga on Friday, extending the hosts’ winless run to three games in all competitions and giving Barcelona the chance to stretch their advantage at the top. Federico Valverde put Madrid ahead six minutes after half-time but Girona levelled in the 62nd minute through Thomas Lemar. Álvaro Arbeloa’s side are six points behind Barça, who have a game in hand against Espanyol on Saturday and could move nine clear with seven games to play.

Guardiola says City must win every game, Howe ‘aligned’ with chief executive and Pereira wants fixture help

Last year’s title ‘postponed’ overhaul says manager Slot insists he ‘can feel that support’ from fanbase Arne Slot has said last season’s title triumph “postponed” the end of an era at Liverpool but that the club were under no illusions a rebuild was required when appointing him as Jürgen Klopp’s successor. Two more links to the Klopp era will be removed this summer when Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah leave on free transfers. Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Joe Gomez, the remaining players from the squad that delivered Premier League and Champions League success to Anfield under Klopp, will then enter the final years of their contracts.

De Zerbi wants to replicate former manager’s style ‘I want to see the Spurs I watched with Postecoglou’ Roberto De Zerbi intends to bring back “Ange-ball” as he attempts to prevent Tottenham’s first relegation in 49 years. De Zerbi has only seven games in which to impart his complex football philosophy to his players and wants to replicate the rampant, marauding style of the former manager Ange Postecoglou, who won Tottenham’s first trophy in 17 years but was dismissed after finishing 17th in the Premier League last season.

The moment when West Ham really felt their survival bid pick up pace was when the jab from Taty Castellanos rolled beyond the reach of José Sá and crawled towards the Wolves goal. Two-nil up in a must-win game, Nuno Espírito Santo’s side looked unrecognisable from the doomed bunch who dropped seven points off 17th place in early January. This is a different West Ham. This is a West Ham with a punch in attack and, if this daring escape act does end with Premier League football secured for another season, a key part of the story will be how Nuno strengthened his squad in January.

⚽️ Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽️ Live scores | Latest table | Join us on Bluesky | Mail John Here’s the talk from the managers ahead of the Premier League weekend. Just wondering how much Danny Dyer we will see this Friday night. Sunday versus Leeds bordered on the overkill.

Arsenal host Bournemouth at Saturday lunchtime and De Zerbi leads Tottenham out for the first time at Sunderland Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Emirates Stadium

⚽️ News and buildup before a big weekend of football ⚽️ Read the latest Football Daily | And you can mail Dominic Aston Villa: Despite the looming World Cup and this season still being very much up in the air for both sides, Bayern Munich have just announced they will be playing Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly in Hong Kong on 7 August. For their part, Villa say they “hope to announce further fixtures in the far east in due course”. Whatever the outcome on the pitch in Hong Kong, you have to say the Bayern Munich club secretary has stolen a march on his or her Villa counterpart early doors. That’s clichéd German efficiency at its finest.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! Discipline has long been one of the cornerstones of a successful dressing room in England. If John Eustace’s Birmingham City players did not wish the training ground reception staff “good morning” they were issued with a £250 penalty. Steven Gerrard implemented a variety of fines when manager of Aston Villa for players leaving flip-flops in the shower (£50), forgetting to bring a cake for a birthday (£50, Yaya Touré: look away now), leaving plates and cups on the dining table (£100 an item). When Frank Lampard replaced Maurizio Sarri in 2019-20, Lampard immediately introduced a series of internal disciplinary fines for first-team players. Late for training? That’s £20,000, guv. Failure to report knack or illness before a day off? That’s 10 large. Phone rings during a team meeting? One thousand English pounds, thank you very much. Sheffield FC invented football (yesterday’s Quote of the Day)? A certain person on the other side of the Atlantic would no doubt dispute that” – Robert Pearce. This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

The retired midfielder’s absence for the semi-final of Euro 2016 was the great ‘what-if’ of Welsh football, but even so his brilliant career managed to transform a footballing public for ever If some footballers take time to reach their potential, others seem to be the finished article before they’re able to drive. A teenage Aaron Ramsey was firmly in the latter camp. After only 11 league starts for Cardiff he had made his international debut for Wales against Denmark, turned down Manchester United in favour of Arsenal, and given Cardiff fans one of the great what-ifs of their club’s modern age after Dave Jones chose not to start him in the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth, with Ramsey being the tender age of 17. Success-starved supporters who should know better will pin their hopes on to the narrowest of young shoulders and yet it all seemed so easy for the teenager from Caerphilly who was captain of his country by the age of 20, would go on to play in a World Cup and two European Championships, and this week retired as an icon of the Welsh game.

Chicago and Pittsburgh decline to enter running Some cities opt to focus on men’s Rugby World Cup Bid approval delayed by reported government holdups A number of American cities named in the running to host games at the 2031 Women’s World Cup are considering withdrawing over concerns related to Fifa’s handling of this summer’s World Cup. The Guardian has learned that several cities are exploring whether to focus solely on winning the right to host matches at the men’s 2031 Rugby World Cup. The US will also stage the women’s rugby tournament two years later.

Game could be held back without radical change, it says It wants more competitive games for young players Sue Day, the Football Association’s director of women’s football, has defended the governing body’s plans to radically change the structure of the women’s lower leagues, including introducing four Women’s Super League academy sides into third tier, saying she believes the game is at a “crucial turning point”. On Tuesday the Guardian revealed the proposals, which also include a mid-season split in tier three, a financial package of about £1m and enhancements to the loan system, as well as more relegation spots and playoffs in tier four, as part of a major transformation of the Women’s National League’s structure. Reaction has been mixed, with some third-tier coaches heavily critical.

There are protests planned at Anfield as Roberto De Zerbi starts his Tottenham tenure and Everton eye Europe Nuno Espírito Santo has rolled back the years in an attempt to save West Ham. He has gone old-school, switching to a gung-ho 4-4-2 system to give his side more threat in the final third. Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos, both January arrivals, have altered the face of the attack, but neither forward has been prolific. Castellanos has scored three goals in all competitions since joining from Lazio and Pablo, who is yet to open his account in English football, failed to convert during last week’s penalty shootout defeat by Leeds in the FA Cup. As a pair, though, Castellanos and Pablo have been oddly effective. Are they any good? Unclear. Do they run around a lot and give a previously ponderous West Ham more energy? Undoubtedly. Played together, Pablo and Castellanos do a worthy job for the team. Importantly, they create space for the wingers, Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville, who hopes to return from a calf injury for Friday night’s vital home game against Wolves. Bowen and Summerville are the big threats; they are West Ham’s main source of goals, but both are more dangerous with Pablo and Castellanos in the team. Jacob Steinberg West Ham v Wolves, Friday 8pm (all times BST) Arsenal v Bournemouth, Saturday 12.30pm Brentford v Everton, Saturday 3pm Burnley v Brighton, Saturday 3pm Liverpool v Fulham, Saturday 5.30pm

⚽ Europa League news from the first leg; kick-off 8pm BST ⚽ Porto 1-1 Nottm Forest – live | Join us on Bluesky | Mail Taha The players are out. The DJ presses play on the Unai Emery anthem. Federico Bernardeschi has just a couple of goals in Serie A for Bologna this season – but he’s their leading man in the Europa League, with five this campaign. He scored in both legs of their last-16 triumph against Roma.

There was a heady atmosphere in Bologna before this match, with flags flying everywhere and the legend “weareone” plastered on the walls of the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. Into this fervent atmosphere stepped Aston Villa, with warnings against complacency from their manager ringing in their ears. The Premier League side did not play well and were second best for much of the night, but they did stay supremely cool and turned the nervous energy of their hosts back on them to take a two-goal lead home to Birmingham. Ezri Konsa opened the scoring after a gaffe by the goalkeeper Federico Ravaglia, before a second-half double from Ollie Watkins determined the outcome of the match and overwrote Jonathan Rowe’s late goal for the hosts. Bologna’s Englishman, a former Norwich City winger, was likely the man of the match, but Watkins’ ability to remain calm in pressured situations will surely prove the more decisive factor in this tie.

The Atlético Madrid and Argentina striker’s sensational freekick against Barcelona showed that the consummate team player is capable of more Sign up for Jonathan Wilson’s World Cup guide newsletter Julián Alvarez has his detractors, but even they can no longer deny he belongs at the game’s highest levels. Still only 26, the Argentinian striker has an impressive collection of honors: two Premier League titles, a Champions League, a Copa Libertadores, two Copa Américas, a pre-bloat Club World Cup. And oh yeah, the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Champions League, won within in a half-year span. He has been key for many of the teams that won those titles, yet is often cast as a supporting player rather than a star. Those Premier Leagues and the Champions League with Manchester City were more directly (and rightly) credited to Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and Rodri. When Argentina snapped their international drought with a Copa, a World Cup, and another Copa for good measure, it was framed almost entirely in the context of Lionel Messi’s legacy.

Left-back who joined in 2017 is out of contract in summer Napoli, Juventus, Atlético and Spurs keen on Robertson Andy Robertson is to bring his illustrious Liverpool career to a close at the end of the season, the club have confirmed. The 32-year-old is out of contract this summer and will follow another renowned player of the Jürgen Klopp era, Mohamed Salah, in leaving Anfield on a free transfer. Napoli, Juventus, Atlético Madrid and Tottenham are all keen on signing the Scotland captain, who rejected a move to Atlético last summer.

English forward has been the perfect loan signing. And yet, there is an ‘and yet’, absurd though that can seem At the end of Barcelona’s 2-1 win at Atlético Madrid on Saturday night, as the players stood celebrating before the small pocket of supporters applauding them from high in the north-west corner of the Metropolitano, Diego Simeone approached Hansi Flick, shook his hand and reminded him of something: “You’ve got to come back.” It came as an invitation, born of admiration, and also a warning. This was only the start of a trilogy in which they face each other three times in 10 days, and the concluding chapter there would be different. A different competition, for a start. Goals from Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski, the latter on 89 minutes, had virtually secured Barcelona the league title but it was going to get bigger and mean more. Atlético, already adrift, had rested players; the last time Barcelona had been there – in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg – they had beaten them 4-0; and the next time the Catalan club came it would be the Champions League quarter-final, second leg. And, back in the Metropolitano, that really would be a battle: tougher than this and, it turns out, tougher than anyone had imagined.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe after a disappointing Liverpool performance at PSG. On the podcast today: Liverpool are outplayed by PSG from the start, creating almost nothing all game and possibly fortunate to leave Paris only two goals down. Elsewhere, in Barcelona, the whole game changes in a minute. Barcelona were on top before Pau Cubarsi’s red card and a stunning Julián Alvarez free-kick … meaning it’s advantage Atlético for the second leg in Madrid. Plus, there’s a Premier League preview with huge games at the top and the bottom, Fifa’s new partnership and your questions answered.

This week’s quarter-finals provided some classic action as this season’s competition hurtles towards its conclusion Bayern Munich had not won at the Santiago Bernabéu since May 2001, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on their way to becoming European champions. Tuesday night’s match changed all that. The 29th Champions League meeting between the teams lived up to its heavyweight billing, though Bayern, superior on the night, may rue their failure to extend their 2-1 lead. Real Madrid meanwhile could point to Manuel Neuer making nine saves – not bad for a 40-year-old. “We won’t win the competition without more of these kinds of performances,” said Bayern’s manager, Vincent Kompany, of his keeper. Big trophies are rarely won without great goalkeepers and Neuer continues to play like an all-time great. Bayern’s second goal was a trademark finish from Harry Kane, who made the difficult look easy. The goal will also have calmed England fans’ fears that their captain will arrive at the World Cup suffering from his usual summer malaise. A word too for Luis Díaz and Michael Olise, Bayern’s brilliant wingers whose performances brought back memories of the club’s modern greats Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben. Kompany’s team were commanding in Madrid, but may fear the backlash from the 15-times champions, the kings of comebacks.

‘I see a lot of players come in and it’s too big for them’ Maguire feels he is ‘one of best defenders in both boxes’ Harry Maguire believes the harder times he has experienced at Manchester United would have broken many players and says he has seen teammates find the Old Trafford spotlight too big to handle. Maguire, who feels he is “arguably one of the best defenders in the world in both boxes”, this week signed a new one-year contract with the option of a further season. That extends a United career which began when the club paid a then world-record fee for a defender, £80m, to sign him from Leicester in 2019.

Tottenham are teetering on the verge, while The U’s have just dropped out of the automatic promotion places in League Two Parents who’ve forgotten how exhausting young children are occasionally stop you and say: “The days are long, but the years are short.” Some reel – which is where I get all of my information these days – altered it slightly to say: “The days are long, but the weeks are also long,” which feels more accurate when you’re on your hands and knees on the kitchen floor picking up sticky rice with a wet wipe. There are fewer saccharine Insta posts about football seasons feeling so arduously long and yet suddenly over at the same time. “Ah don’t you remember when it was the Carabao Cup first round – so cute.” This catches me out every year. Perhaps no one else is blindsided by football season by stealth, but here we are again: only a handful of games remaining to decide everything – and I’m not entirely sure how we’re at this stage.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe after another disappointing Liverpool performance at PSG Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts and join the conversation on email. On the podcast today: Liverpool are outplayed by PSG from the start, creating almost nothing all game and possibly fortunate to leave Paris only two goals down.

‘No one gives us a chance … we have to show the fight’ Champions League first-leg loss was side’s 16th of season Virgil van Dijk has compared the scale of Liverpool’s task against Paris Saint-Germain to Barcelona in 2019 but conceded belief may not be as strong in Arne Slot’s team amid an “unacceptable” season. Liverpool require another remarkable Anfield comeback to salvage their Champions League aspirations after losing the first leg of their quarter-final against PSG 2-0 on Wednesday. The scoreline flattered the Premier League champions, who were outclassed at the Parc des Princes, yet Van Dijk is “100%” convinced the tie can be transformed on home soil. Memories of Barcelona in 2019 fuel the captain’s conviction.

Alma Mana’o, the captain, reflects on their journey from a 21-0 defeat in 1998 to a place in the final round of qualification The American Samoa women’s team has lived through a scarcely believable tale littered with upsets, and their story is still unfolding. At the end of last year, they entered a World Cup qualification tournament containing the lowest-ranked teams in the smallest federation, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). At 153rd in the world rankings, American Samoa ranked the lowest of the low. With an estimated population of 45,319, the island’s entire population would not sell out even the smallest stadium hosting Fifa’s showpiece event next year. The national team’s captain, Alma Mana’o, talks of American Samoan culture as being “family is above all”. Multiple sets of sisters represent the team, something Mana’o relishes. “This is a family, we have got to get together, hold our sisters accountable and push each other,” she says. The Mana’o family hold the record for most family members to participate in Fifa events – “If we can’t win, we’re going to have the most kids!” Alma declares with a laugh – and American Samoa are out to prove there can be success in the family business. This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

During my 43-year adventure I saw pubs close, standing on terraces return and big flags fly all over the country By When Saturday Comes It was bound to end like this: a long and arduous odyssey that started in 1982 on a crumbling terrace culminated on a grey, drizzly afternoon in December watching my team get hammered 3-0 in a brand spanking new stadium named in conjunction with an international commercial law firm. A glorious away win thanks to a last-minute winner would have been somehow too poetic. This was how it was meant to be, when I finally completed the 92. As with that game at Everton, most games were as an away Nottingham Forest fan; others as a neutral. There is much I witnessed and learned from this ludicrous yet wholly fulfilling enterprise and the many miles travelled. For one thing, it used to be that one displayed allegiances by carefully trapping a scarf in the window, so it fluttered outside all the way. This has been replaced by the executive car sticker or personalised number plate and our society is much the worse for it.

Becoming heavyweight champions of the world may be beyond the ninth tier club but new chair Jon McClure hopes to bring team back to the city “I told them if they bring a drum, I will buy them a pie,” was the message from the new Sheffield FC chair, Jon McClure, to young fans. The Reverend and the Makers frontman is Steel City born and raised, a Wednesday fan by nature and extremely proud of his home town’s history. Becoming involved with the world’s oldest club was an opportunity not to be missed, and McClure knows how to create some noise. McClure wanted to link up with Sheffield FC eight years ago, but says he was not “in a mature enough position in my life to look after what’s essentially a kind of cultural and civic institution in the country and in Sheffield”. Since last month he has been at the heart of the ninth-tier club’s boardroom, part of a new minority ownership group alongside David Bianchi, the co-founder of Various Artists Management, reviewing the state of things and seeking improvement.

The New Zealand striker provides a welcome boost as Forest face crunch games in the league and in Europe Nobody has scored more goals in the Europa League this season than Igor Jesus and yet the overwhelming source of interest surrounding Nottingham Forest on arrival in northern Portugal on Wednesday was another striker. Only Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak outscored Chris Wood in the Premier League last season and the New Zealand frontman has been slowly building fitness and working towards a long-awaited first-team return. All eyes were on Wood at last weekend’s interactive open-training session, staged at the City Ground. He has been ticking off different targets since knee surgery in December and at the end of last month the 34-year-old made a welcome goalscoring comeback 11 minutes into his return to action for Forest under-21s against Newcastle, in modest surroundings at Loughborough University’s stadium in front of a crowd totalling a couple of hundred: students, Forest fans, a few from the north-east.

Another Anfield miracle in the second leg will be talked up, but the gulf in class between the two sides was undeniable These are strange times for Liverpool Football Club, still, and until anyone specifically says otherwise, the champions of England. It is a mark of where the team is that on an oddly tension-free night in Paris there were reasons to be pleased, but also not to be pleased about being pleased. Pleased that Liverpool’s players didn’t give up or stop trying. So that’s a tick. Pleased that they only lost 2-0 against a Paris Saint-Germain team who were able to approach this first leg carelessly, to showboat a little, to approach the scoring of a goal in the style of a temperamental high-end Parisian pastry chef, always trying to create the perfect deconstructed mille-feuille tour de vanille infinite, when all you really need is a biscuit.

Slot admits team ‘were in survival mode’ during first leg ‘Football has shown many times everything is possible’ Arne Slot admitted Liverpool were in survival mode against Paris Saint-Germain and will need the backing of Anfield to raise their level against the European champions in next week’s Champions League quarter-final second leg. Liverpool were fortunate to escape with a 2-0 defeat at Parc des Princes where Ousmane Dembélé, who missed a crucial chance for Barcelona in their 2019 semi-final against Jürgen Klopp’s eventual champions, squandered several opportunities for Luis Enrique’s star-studded side.

When the final whistle went, the man in black disappeared out of sight and set off running up the tunnel. For the first time since he took over at Atlético Madrid 15 long, transformative years ago, Diego Simeone had just led his team to a victory at the Camp Nou, reviving the dream of taking them back to a European Cup final a decade later. In 2014 and 2016 Atlético knocked out Barcelona en route to Lisbon and Milan and while there is much to be done at the Metropolitano in six days’ time, they have put themselves in a superb position to repeat that in 2026, maybe even to finally lift the trophy that resists them.

The rout anticipated at Parc des Princes did not materialise, at least not in terms of the scoreline, but the gulf in quality between Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool was laid bare all the same. Arne Slot’s side leave Paris with a scintilla of hope, having arrived with none, and will need to conjure a stunning Anfield recovery on Tuesday just to lay a glove on European champions worthy of the name. A deflected strike from Désiré Doué plus a superb second from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave the holders a deserved advantage in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. It should have been much more. Ousmane Dembélé missed a hat-trick of openings, striking the outside of a post with his final effort, Nuno Mendes and Doué squandered gilt-edged chances and Liverpool survived two penalty claims. A fine display from the visiting goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili also helped keep the margin of defeat respectful.

⚽ Champions League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽ PSG v Liverpool – live | Latest scores | And mail Luke “Diego Simeone has never won at Camp Nou,” says Karen Carney, alongside Cole on pundit duty. And there you have it. No time like the present, that’s what I say. “It’s beauty and the beast,” says Joe Cole on TNT Sports of the contest that awaits. We know what Atlético are going to do tonight, they’ll “bank in”, make it nasty, they’ll be aggressive, and there’ll be all sorts of shenenigans going on.”

⚽ Champions League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽ Barcelona v Atlético Madrid – live | Latest scores “I am beset by dread,” writes Joe Pearson, “and not in the ‘I am the law’ kind of way. Although admittedly PSG are giving off ‘You’re next, punk!’ vibes. IYKYK.” While Arsenal were busy Arsenaling their way to a worthy but dull Bigger Cup quarter-final first leg win at Sporting on Tuesday, the players of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich released the collective handbrake and performed many high-speed donuts, wheel spins and Rockfords as a pleasing counterpoint to the careful mirror-signal-manoeuvring on display at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade. Like a couple of stolen supercars racing each other around a shopping mall in The Fast and the Furious: Bicester Village, these two European heavyweights massively committed to the bit, not unlike a daily football email bogged down in a laboured motoring metaphor.

Win over Sporting comes after back-to-back cup defeats ‘It’s been tough but that’s the beauty of football’ After everything Riccardo Calafiori has been through over the past couple of weeks, Tuesday night was exactly what he needed. The Italy defender was still buzzing from Kai Havertz’s late winning goal against Sporting in the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final when he reflected on a fortnight during which his club suffered successive defeats either side of the Azzurri again failing to qualify for the World Cup. “It’s been tough, but that is the beauty of football: it is 100% better now,” Calafiori said, before reflecting first on Saturday’s shock FA Cup loss at Southampton, then on the wider pain of the period. “This chance to play three days later rather than just stay home and think about it [was welcome]. Of course I’m really disappointed, but I’ve got a lot to play for with Arsenal.”

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! While Arsenal were busy Arsenaling their way to a worthy but dull Bigger Cup quarter-final first leg win at Sporting on Tuesday, the players of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich released the collective handbrake and performed many high-speed donuts, wheel spins and Rockfords as a pleasing counterpoint to the careful mirror-signal-manoeuvring on display at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade. Like a couple of stolen supercars racing each other around a shopping mall in The Fast and the Furious: Bicester Village, these two European heavyweights massively committed to the bit, not unlike a daily football email bogged down in a laboured motoring metaphor. “When I see the chances we had, that has to give us confidence that we can score more goals,” whooped Vincent Kompany following a hi-octane Bernabéu white-knuckle ride from which his team emerged deserving winners, even if it was their 40-year-old goalkeeper who took home the gong for player of the match. A doff of the Romanian cap to the great Mircea Lucescu. As a player, he captained his national team against World Cup holders England and eventual World Cup winners Brazil at the tournament in 1970, after which Pelé wanted to exchange shirts with him. And, as a manager, apart from all his domestic success, he was the first manager to get Romania to qualify for the Euros in 1984 and nearly led a poor Romania team to the World Cup in 2026, a couple of weeks ago, while very sick. What a football man, what a tremendous football man …” – Noble Francis. Interesting to see the report about Nike’s new Geopolitics World Cup kits bunching up ridiculously at the shoulder seams. You never got problems like that back in my day, principally because, on the massively oversized kits of the 90s, the shoulder seam was positioned halfway down the arm. The tendency of these kits to make even professional athletes look like Sunday pub league players is exemplified by the photo of Blackburn’s relegated 1999 team in today’s edition of The Knowledge – an effect amplified by the fact one of them seems to have been playing in tracksuit bottoms, and another in sliders” – Phil Taverner. After being emotionally blackmailed into running the LLHM by my friend and broadcasting colleague Max Rushden, I began training in late October. Having done little or no exercise beyond nimbly climbing on and off bar stools for almost 30 years, I was heroically unfit and literally couldn’t jog 100 metres without stopping to catch my breath. Reader – I had bitten off more than I could chew. At the start line I will be 53 years old and I remain overweight despite all my training. I still drink too much and have resigned myself to the fact that I won’t win the race, but I plan to enjoy a unique day. If you’d like to add to the already huge sum raised, every little helps. It would be absolutely magic to hit the £60,000 mark before race day. With that in mind, please give anything you can, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be enduring a world of pain to try to alleviate that of that experienced by so many wonderful and brave kids.” Donate here.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Arsenal get a late winner against Sporting and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich play out a belter at the Bernabéu On the podcast today: a vital win for Arsenal in the Champions League. Having lost their previous two Arsenal had to find a way and in injury time Gabriel Martinelli drew the defence and Kai Havertz slotted home. Elsewhere, a much better game at the Bernabéu. Should Bayern have put it to bed? Trent Alexander-Arnold’s perfect ball for Kylian Mbappé means the tie remains alive. Plus, there’s a big Easter of Football League action to look back on, a salute to Aaron Ramsey and your questions answered.

WSL academy teams would play in third tier Previous FA expansion plan was withdrawn last year Plans to include four Women’s Super League academy sides in the third tier of the English women’s football pyramid from 2027 have been criticised as an idea based around “repackaged B teams” and received a mixed reaction from club staff and supporters. The changes to the Women’s National League, put forward by the Football Association, would also introduce a mid-season split similar to that used in Scotland, as well as a potential investment package of about £1m and enhancements to legal and medical support in the loan system. They have not yet been formally ratified, but consultations are continuing.

The sportswear giant says it’s aware of the strange seam on some of the new shirts, and is looking into how to address it When Nike rolled out its collection of World Cup kits in late March, fans and pundits alike largely approved. The US men’s national team got arguably their most distinctive pair of shirts in decades, while other federations – France, England, Canada and Uruguay among them – earned strong reviews. Over the last international break, when players took the field in the kits for the first time, many fans couldn’t help but become fixated on one singular detail of the new shirts: a somewhat unsightly bulge along the shoulder seam.

Plus: teams who went out of Europe without losing a game, and rare competitive meetings Mail us with your questions and answers “What’s the furthest a team has gone in Europe while being relegated in the same season?” wonders Matt Reilly. This question was probably asked in reference to Tottenham, who were still in the Champions League at the time, but it’s still relevant to some of this year’s quarter-finalists. Nottingham Forest are three points above the relegation places in the Premier League; Fiorentina only have a five-point cushion in Serie A. Real Zaragoza 2001-02, first round; 2007-08, first round Alavés 2002-03, second round Celta Vigo 2006-07, last 16 Real Zaragoza 2007-08, first round Real Betis 2013-14, last 16 Espanyol 2019-20, last 32 Blackburn Rovers 1998-99, Uefa Cup first round Bradford City 2000-01, Intertoto semi-final Ipswich Town 2001-02, Uefa Cup third round Ruda Hvezda Brno 1960-61, Cup Winners’ Cup Dynamo Zilina 1961-62, Cup Winners’ Cup Espanyol 1961-62. Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Napoli 1962-63, Cup Winners’ Cup Bayern Munich 1962-63, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1. FC Magdeburg 1965-66, Cup Winners’ Cup Lyn 1968-69, Cup Winners’ Cup Beroe Stara Zagora 1973-74, Cup Winners’ Cup Real Betis 1977-78, Cup Winners’ Cup Bologna 1990-91, Uefa Cup First round Artmedia Bratislavia (2-2 away, 3-1 home) Group stage Sparta Prague (2-0 away), Zulte Waregem (6-2 home), Ajax (2-0 away), Austria Wien (1-0 home) Last 32 Livorno (2-1 away, 2-0 home) Last 16 Maccabi Haifa (0-0 away, 4-0 home) Quarter-final Benfica (3-2 home, 0-0 away) Semi-final Werder Bremen (3-0 home, 2-1 away) Final Sevilla 2-2 (1-3 pens)

Mikel Arteta discovered that playing your best goalkeeper can be a good idea as his side recovered from cup exits with late win in Lisbon There was a temptation to fixate on the moment when Arsenal won this game with a goal that could change their season. Mikel Arteta had urged his players not to panic, not to sink away with hopes of a quadruple long gone, and Kai Havertz got the memo. Gabriel Martinelli crossed from the left and, as the ball dropped, Havertz caught the Sporting defence napping at last, controlled with a feathery touch, took a breath and rolled a finish past Rui Silva to give Arsenal victory in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final. It had been a slog at Estádio José Alvalade. Arsenal attempted 488 passes and it was not until the first of two added minutes that they made one really count. Before then it was a grind. Arsenal were often constipated in open play. Although they controlled the game, at least until allowing it to become ragged during a fraught finale, there were long spells when the best the Premier League leaders offered was set-piece wrestling. Noni Madueke, mostly ineffective as he deputised for Bukayo Saka on the right wing, curled an early corner against the bar. Viktor Gyökeres was recorded as being on the pitch. Leandro Trossard tried to score from 40 yards. Leandro Trossard did not score from 40 yards.

Havertz goal offers response after back-to-back defeats Arteta praises ‘extraordinary’ Raya for crucial saves Mikel Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal had a point to prove against Sporting after losing their last two matches and believes that Kai Havertz’s late winner could prove to be a “big moment” in their season. Arsenal had David Raya to thank for making three superb saves that kept the scores level before Havertz came off the bench to seal a priceless away victory. It was a huge relief for Arteta, who had urged his players to rediscover their identity after they suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup.

“This is why you guys come to these games,” Vincent Kompany had said, and especially here. For the quality, the chaos and the goals, the edge, the drama and the history that invades every moment. Another wild Champions League night had this place believing in another crazy comeback, the noise level rising towards what appeared destined to be one, last thunderous crescendo as Real Madrid rose again and went for their biggest European rivals. In the end, though, Bayern Munich held on for a win that sets up another, definitive battle at the Allianz Arena next week. Strikes from Luis Díaz and Harry Kane either side of half-time had given Bayern a 2-0 lead, underlining an incontestable authority in the opening hour. But a Kylian Mbappé goal 16 minutes from the end began a rebellion that could have left the tie on even more of a knife edge than it is, Madrid finding chances for a draw or even another victory. They also found Manuel Neuer rolling back the years, aged 40, with nine saves.

How Mikel Arteta treasured this win. All the tension that had built up in the Arsenal manager after devastating defeats in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup was suddenly released in the moment that Kai Havertz calmly slotted home from fellow substitute Gabriel Martinelli’s cross in the first minute of injury time and he set off on a celebration charge down the touchline, fists pumping. He had been a frustrated presence until then as Arsenal put in another anxious performance against a ­spirited Sporting side who could have established a precious lead ahead of next week’s second leg in north ­London if they had taken their chances. But having scored in the last round against his former club Bayer Leverkusen, once again it was Havertz who edged Arsenal closer to the last four for only the fourth time in their history.

⚽ Champions League updates from 8pm BST ⚽ Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich – live reaction ⚽ Email Yara | Read the latest Football Daily The teams are out and the Champions League anthem is being played. ‘You are my life’ reads the tifo, an ode from Sporting fans to their beloved club. Great energy in Lisbon so far – mostly from the home fans but the pocket of 2,600 Arsenal away fans are doing their best. Kick-off up next. A look at the pre-match post bag. After the last 2 losses, nothing can be taken for granted and I don’t think Arsenal are favourites for this game tonight. Arteta is trying to convince himself but the truth is: he is panicking! Zubimendi and Rice are our two most important players tonight. If they have a good game, I think we will take a good lead to the Emirates. Shocking that all the players Arsenal withdrew from international duty are now in the starting XI. How does that work? I am quite surprised that Viktor Gyökeres has gotten a decent reception during the warmup … We all know Alexander Isak would not receive the same warm welcome on Tyneside. What is the difference between how the two forced moves?

⚽ Updates from this 8pm kick-off at the Bernabéu ⚽ Six of the best Bayern and Real Madrid face-offs ⚽ Read Football Daily | Sporting 0-1 Arsenal – live At the end of tonight’s game, a Real Madrid fan will charge onto the pitch, chin Harry Kane and flatten the referee Michael Oliver. No, of course they won’t. But that is essentially what happened at the end of the first ever meeting between Real and Bayern. The footage is kinda bonkers: watch for the affronted gentleman who sprints into view from behind the goal.

Wirtz denies Liverpool ‘gave up’ in Manchester City loss Isak could return off bench after four months out injured Arne Slot has warned Liverpool will suffer another emphatic defeat should they switch off against Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday evening but believes his toiling team can save their season by going “toe-to-toe” with the European champions. The pressure on Liverpool and their head coach has intensified following Saturday’s 4-0 capitulation against Manchester City in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. Florian Wirtz disagreed with the captain Virgil van Dijk’s damning assessment that Liverpool “gave up” at the Etihad Stadium, but both the £116m playmaker and Slot admitted there can be no repeat of that performance at Parc des Princes.