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Scott McTominay has come in at 19th in the world in our rankings and is joined by Declan Rice and Désiré Doué for places 40 to 11

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Fifa has made big mistakes over 2026 tournament but it can afford to slash prices and even give some tickets away

Who is the World Cup for? Fifa appeared to share some of its thinking on this topic in the past week. On the one hand, there was the revelation that spectators are being asked to pay more than twice as much for match tickets than they were in Qatar. On the other, the news that prize money for competing teams is to rise by more than 50% on four years ago. Stakeholders are doing good! Fans? Not so good.

It hasn’t taken long for some of those watching to wonder whether things could be done differently. Tom Greatrex, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, which represents fans in England and Wales, argued that the ability to pay expanded prize money, itself a result of expanded revenue, showed “there is no need to charge extortionate ticket prices to the supporters who bring the vibrancy to the World Cup”. You could go so far as to say there was never a real need to do it in the first place.

To remedy a local let down, enter the local hero. After 56 years without a trophy before glorious victory at Wembley in March Newcastle were never going to let go of the Carabao Cup without a fight, but few of the impressionable children walking up Barrack Road for a pre-Christmas treat imagined their heroes having to hang on to the silverware this grimly before Lewis Miley’s stoppage-time winner.

The Magpies had dominated without often threatening the killer blow, with the constant threat of their own doubt undermining them after the miserable derby defeat at Sunderland that cast a cloud of gloom over St James’ Park well before the Wednesday afternoon rain set in.

On Wednesday night Pep Guardiola masterminded Manchester City’s cup knockout of Brentford. On Thursday Keith Andrews’ team will train at their facilities and the two managers will enjoy coffee. This is before the Bees’ trip to Wolves on Saturday yet zero niceties were present in City’s professional passage into the semi-finals, where they will play Newcastle, with the first leg at St James’ Park.

Guardiola cites how his team must grow during the season and with each outing greater control and composure is suggested. A sparkling Rayan Cherki scored first, then Savinho followed, only a second goal by the inconsistent 21-year-old this season.

• Sam Kerr header secures 2-1 victory in Wolfsburg

• United seeded for playoffs along with Arsenal

Chelsea clinched an automatic place in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals by coming from behind to stun Wolfsburg and avoid having to contest February’s playoffs.

Sam Kerr won the game with her 20th Champions League goal, heading in Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s cross. Chelsea survived a late scare when the German side struck the crossbar in the 94th minute, but will now contest the last eight in March.

Arsenal secured a seeded spot for the Women’s Champions League knockout playoffs with a comfortable 3-0 victory away at OH Leuven. Olivia Smith, Beth Mead and a Saar Janssen own goal helped Renée Slegers’ team end the league phase in fifth place.

Slegers was delighted with her side’s maturity in front of a raucous crowd at the Den Dreef as they earned their fourth win of the campaign against the plucky hosts.

• Club yet to make a decision on how to build bigger ground

• A £10bn housing and retail bid for site approved this week

Chelsea have been urged to “put up or shut up” and decide whether they want to move to Earl’s Court after alternative plans for the site were approved by Kensington and Chelsea council.

The club are yet to make a decision on how to build a bigger ground and another stumbling block is in their path after the Earls Court Development Company’s proposals for a £10bn housing and retail development were granted planning permission at a council meeting on Tuesday. The ECDC, whose master plan does not include room for a football stadium, secured unanimous approval from Hammersmith and Fulham council last month.

• New manager’s nightmare continues at Tannadice

• Lawwell to leave club as Nicholson hits out at ‘assaults’

Celtic’s chair, Peter Lawwell, has announced he is to stand down, citing “intolerable” treatment from a section of the club’s support, with the club’s chief executive, Michael Nicholson, revealing that three of their colleagues were “assaulted” after the Scottish League Cup final defeat by St Mirren on Sunday.

Lawwell’s exit will intensify a sense of crisis around the Scottish champions. Sunday’s final marked a third loss in succession for the new manager, Wilfried Nancy. Three became four defeats on Wednesday night when Celtic lost 2-1 at Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.

• Player involved in collision on M1 after match at Bedford

• Club says ‘Ethan’s vibrant legacy will never fade’

The Macclesfield forward Ethan McLeod has died in a car accident. The 21-year-old was driving back from the club’s National League North match against Bedford on Tuesday night when the incident occurred close to junction 15 on the M1.

Macclesfield said in a statement: “[It is] with the heaviest of hearts and an overwhelming sense of surrealism that Macclesfield FC can confirm the passing of 21-year-old forward Ethan McLeod. Travelling back from Bedford Town last night, Ethan was involved in a car accident on the M1 which tragically took his life.

Give the one you love something special: a free subscription to Football Daily. The gift that never starts giving

Welcome to the fourth Football Daily Christmas Awards. This is the bit where, in our old guise, we would bang on about becoming so jaded that we’d lost count of how many years we’d been churning out this old tat. Hmm … So OK, here we are, refreshed and ready to go! Pour yourself a pint of wine, throw your boots up on the desk, decompress, de-depress, and enjoy!

Plus: which European champions were top at Christmas, players giving each other presents and other festive trivia

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Just reading a book about Christmas No 1s,” begins Paul Savage. “The section about Wham!’s Last Christmas says Andrew Ridgeley was watching football at George Michael’s parents on a Sunday, when George got the melody and wandered off to record it upstairs. Greatness obviously awaited but I want to know: which match was it? It’s 1984, a Sunday and presumably on terrestrial TV. Was the second half worth Ridgeley not getting involved in the recording?”

Last Christmas by Wham! didn’t become a Christmas No 1 until 2023, having been kept off top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas in 1984. As Paul mentioned, George Michael wrote the song in his childhood bedroom while his parents and Andrew Ridgeley watched football on TV downstairs.

• All 48 competing nations to get minimum of $10.5m

• Fifa Council approval comes amid ticket price row

Fifa has announced a 50% increase in World Cup prize money for next year’s tournament, with the champions set to take home $50m (£37.5m) as a reward for their success.

The news comes days after there was widespread public outrage over the price of seats at the tournament, to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada. Fifa this week announced a limited number of discount tickets for fans of participating countries.

The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker, who turns 39 in January, has been productive but was benched for the tail end of Miami’s title run

Inter Miami have re-signed striker Luis Suárez through the 2026 season, the MLS Cup champions announced Wednesday.

The legendary Uruguay international had 17 goals and 17 assists in 50 appearances for the team in 2025. However, Inter Miami became a buzzsaw after Suárez was dropped to the bench by head coach Javier Mascherano. Replaced by Mateo Silvetti after Miami’s 2-1 loss at Nashville SC in Round One, Miami won their next four games and outscored opponents 16-2 in route to the MLS Cup title.

• Wilson, née Smith, exercised a contract extension option

• Forward missed 2025 season on maternity leave

Sophia Wilson is returning to the Portland Thorns for the 2026 season.

The 25-year-old US national team star has exercised the player option of her contract for an additional year, the NWSL team announced Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not revealed, but Sportico reported the option was worth $1m.

• The two African nations join Haiti and Iran on ban list

• Fans may face restrictions when entering US

A proclamation signed by President Trump widened his administration’s ongoing travel restrictions on Tuesday to include the 2026 World Cup participants Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

The two African nations were added to the travel ban list with what the White House statement said were “partial restrictions and entry limitations,” currently the least restrictive category among the full group of nations covered, which now numbers 39 after Tuesday’s announcement. The sweeping travel ban already includes two countries who will participate in the World Cup: Haiti and Iran, both of whom are subject to the most stringent restrictions.

As Facundo Buonanotte saddled up beside Alejandro Garnacho on the advertising hoardings in front of the pocket of away supporters, after the latter opened the scoring at a jam-packed Cardiff City Stadium, for a moment or two everything seemed just fine in the often chaotic and complex world of Chelsea. The pair exhibited cheesy smiles as João Pedro played ­photographer, pretending to capture their celebration.

Then, with 15 minutes remaining, the hosts equalised through David Turnbull’s brilliant diving header, detonating the kind of noise not heard in these parts for a long time, and another awkward 48 hours were on the cards for Enzo Maresca.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as Manchester United and Bournemouth play out a thrilling 4-4 draw. On the podcast today; lots of fun to be had at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 4-4. But how to analyse a game that wild? Let’s hope the panel have some ideas. Elsewhere, Coventry City lead the Championship with a reinvigorated Middlesbrough led by Kim Hellberg in second. Plus, Cardiff City and Walsall lead the way in Leagues One and Two respectively and your questions answered.

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Six Sunderland players are off to the tournament but Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa are not losing anyone

By Opta Analyst

The Africa Cup of Nations begins on Sunday in Morocco. Thirty-two Premier League players have been selected to represent their national teams at the tournament but some clubs will be hit harder than others.

Sunderland have enjoyed an excellent return to the Premier League, with their derby win over Newcastle on Sunday taking them to 26 points from 16 games. They have already picked up more points than the three promoted clubs did last season – Leicester (25), Ipswich (22) and Southampton (12). However, they will have some key absentees over the next month. Six Sunderland players will be with their national teams, representing nearly a fifth of all Premier League players at the tournament, and double the tally of any other club.

If action is taken, the so-called ‘banter’ used to victimise women who take part in the sport will soon diminish

After six days in which a former player was held accountable in court for sexist comments and a current manager was charged by the Football Association with using sexist language, are we seeing a change in how that behaviour is tackled?

For years, talk of so-called “banter” has been used to silence complaints and it has been a struggle to convince football that sexism and misogyny even exist, but there are signs the sport is finally waking up.

Latest Liverpool alumnus to join Saudi Pro League will not have to worry about a lack of funds at Al-Qadsiah

The path from Liverpool to the east of Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly well-worn, but Brendan Rodgers has a bigger job on his hands than Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. On Tuesday, the 52-year-old was confirmed as the new head coach of Al-Qadsiah, with the target in his new job simple: to turn the Big Four in Saudi Arabia into the Big Five.

If he had concerns about the lack of investment at Celtic, the club he left in October, then that shouldn’t be an issue at the Khobar-based Al-Qadsiah. In July, they splashed out a reported €65m (£57.15m) on the Italy striker Mateo Retegui. Few clubs around the world have an owner with pockets – or oil wells – as deep as those that belong to Aramco. The state-owned oil enterprise usually makes the top 10 lists of the world’s biggest companies.

With 11 games played our writers assess what has been good and not so good in England’s top flight as the league takes a winter break

This was a tough one, and an honourable mention has to be given to Martin Ho, who, despite only two summer signings, has taken Tottenham one point past last season’s 20-point total with half the season to play. However, Andrée Jeglertz arrived at Manchester City after managing Denmark at the Euros, where his team failed to pick up a point, and has had an instant impact. City look a different beast under the 53-year-old. The league leaders’ opening-day defeat by Chelsea is firmly in the past: they have won all 10 games since, have scored eight more goals than any other side and have built a six point lead at the top. Where previously City had struggled to kill off matches against title rivals, this season there has been a ruthlessness epitomised by their late winner in a 3-2 defeat of Arsenal, after they had twice given up the lead, and a comprehensive 3-0 win over Manchester United. SW

Early season chaos has given way to an approach based on solidity and utilising the squad’s attacking strengths

The table does not lie and Nottingham Forest were proudly fifth in the Premier League on Sunday night. Admittedly, the reality is they sit 16th but since Sean Dyche took over as manager only four teams have bettered their points tally, with a breezy win against Tottenham a further sign of revolution in action.

Considering the shambolic nature of the season before Dyche was appointed on 21 October, the fact Forest find themselves out of the relegation zone is impressive enough. They were 18th with five points after nine matches that included four defeats from Ange Postecoglou’s five league fixtures. It may have felt even sweeter for fans that the latest humbling handed out was against the Australian’s previous club.

Khadija Shaw becomes first woman to score 100 goals for City while United battle back to draw against Spurs

Leah Williamson returned to competitive action for the first time in 139 days on Saturday as she made a return from a knee injury late in Arsenal’s 3-1 victory against Everton. The England captain was brought on to replace Steph Catley as an 82nd-minute substitute at Goodison Park, drawing a roaring reception from the 1,200 travelling supporters. It was the 28-year-old’s first match since July’s Euros final against Spain in Basel. Arsenal are managing Williamson’s return carefully but she could feature again against the Belgian side Leuven in the Champions League on Wednesday. TG

• Al-Qadsiah describe appointment as ‘landmark moment’

• Martin O’Neill says patience needed with Wilfried Nancy

Brendan Rodgers has been confirmed as the head coach of the Saudi ­Arabian side Al-Qadsiah. Rodgers resigned from Celtic in October, a move thattriggered a stinging attack from the club’s main shareholder Dermot Desmond. The 52-year-old is yet to address Desmond’s sentiment but is known to have been attractive to Saudi clubs for some time. He turned down a move to the kingdom after leaving Leicester in 2023.

Al-Qadsiah, who sacked their Spanish manager Michel at the ­weekend, have stolen a march on their domestic rivals by moving for Rodgers, who has been keen for a swift return to the dugout. The club are owned by Aramco, the state-owned Saudi oil company.

Urs Fischer’s side are certain to begin 2026 bottom of the table but denied rampaging leaders victory at home

Sometimes the numbers really don’t say it all. Mainz were on the wrong end of many of them as Sunday evening drew in, as you would expect for a visit of almost any team to the Allianz Arena, never mind a struggler. They had the lowest share of possession of any Bundesliga team in a game since the statistics were first recorded – 15%. When they did have the ball, fewer than 60% of their passes were actually completed. Are you sure you can face looking at the xG after that? Mainz logged a respectable 1.07, but Bayern Munich’s was a staggering 4.72.

And yet, even if the most deflating statistical confirmation of all is that Mainz are certain to begin 2026 bottom of the table (even with a game still to play before Christmas), they have every right to feel good about themselves, even after conceding a late penalty equaliser to the inevitable Harry Kane. In Urs Fischer’s debut after being appointed as the new head coach Mainz became the first team to prevent Bayern from taking maximum points at home this season, and the first last-placed team to take a point at the venue since relegation-bound Köln in April 2006.

Cristian Chivu’s side are yet to draw a game this season while Milan continue to drop points against the minnows

“The reality is different to the narrative,” declared Cristian Chivu in his press conference just before a 2-1 win away to Genoa sent Inter top of the table. Fresh off back-to-back Champions League defeats, albeit in controversial circumstances, and having lost four Serie A games in the first 14 rounds, his approach to criticism was bullish. “Despite what people say, in my view we are having a great season. We started under a magnifying glass, because people said we were failures and we were finished, but we are still up there.”

Looking at the standings, it is rather hard to disagree with him. Inter are the sole leaders, the first time all campaign they have been in this position. Even with those setbacks against Atlético Madrid and Liverpool, they remain in a strong position to secure a top-eight Champions League spot and will participate in the Supercoppa Italiana in Riyadh this week.

The forward’s blocked contract and a growing talent drain to Europe have nudged the NWSL into crisis mode. Here’s what’s happening and why it matters

The Trinity Rodman contract saga has exposed a fundamental tension at the heart of the National Women’s Soccer League: a salary-cap model built for stability and measured growth coming in collision with a global market that has accelerated far beyond it.

Rodman is one of the most important young players in US soccer, arguably its most marketable female star and a centerpiece of the NWSL’s future. Yet European giants have offered her salaries that America’s top women’s domestic league cannot legally match, prompting the NWSL to veto a record-breaking Washington Spirit deal (and the players’ union to file a grievance in response).

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era?

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Tottenham Hotspur, Thomas Frank said after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, are “not a quick fix”. That’s been true for probably 40 years, since they lurched into financial crisis amid boardroom shenanigans in the 1980s, becoming the first soccer club to list on the stock exchange and embarking on a disastrous programme of diversification (the highlight perhaps being becoming Hummel’s distributor in the UK, a role they performed so badly that Southampton took a page of their own programme to blame Spurs for the fact that their shirts were not being delivered).

Right now, Spurs would probably settle for even a little bit of a fix, a slow hint of progress, a flicker of hope, anything to break them out of the current grim spiral. They have won just one of their last seven league games. When they beat Everton on 26 October, they were third, five points behind the leaders. Sunday’s defeat leaves them 11th, 14 points behind Arsenal. Given that Spurs finished 17th last season, perhaps that is not so unexpected – and the compacted nature of the table means they are only four points off fifth and probable Champions League qualification. But, equally, 22 points represents their lowest Premier League tally after 16 games since 2008.

German striker was given a sarcastic ovation by the Sunderland fans after his inadvertent match winner

On numerous occasions during the 75 minutes he spent on the pitch during the Wear-Tyne derby, Nick Woltemade cut an extremely isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in the opposition box. A bad afternoon for Newcastle’s German striker got significantly worse shortly after half-time when he cut an even more isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in his own team’s box after inadvertently heading a Nordi Mukiele cross past Aaron Ramsdale from six yards out.

Woltemade’s embarrassing own goal proved to be the unwitting match-winner in a contest that had until that point been high on full-blooded aggression but low on moments of real quality. As he made way for Yoane Wissa, it was no surprise the Sunderland fans granted the visibly deflated 23-year-old a sarcastic ovation. A fan favourite on Tyneside until the 46th minute of this match, Woltemade has now pulled off the unlikely feat of winning a permanent, bitterly ironic place in mackem hearts.

Forward made an emotional lap of honour at Anfield after a week that put his future at the club in doubt

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool have put politics to shame by showing what a long week truly looks like. It ended with the Egyptian doing a one-man lap of honour at Anfield, an attempt to rebuild trust with the supporters after creating a ceasefire, if not a complete truce, with Arne Slot.

Over the past seven days a lot has changed, but one thing remained the same, Salah started a Premier League game on the bench, not that he needed to wait long for a chance to do his talking on the pitch. He would finish with an assist after playing 75 minutes against Brighton in a game in which he desperately wanted to score. Maybe his parade was the beginning of the end, but it felt more like the start of the apology that should continue after the Africa Cup of Nations, giving both parties space to breathe.

In World Cup parlance, Qatar was Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s qualifier. Now it’s the big time for Trump’s dictator-curious protege

I used to think Fifa’s recent practice of holding the World Cup in autocracies was because it made it easier for world football’s governing body to do the things it loved: spend untold billions of other people’s money and siphon the profits without having to worry about boring little things like human rights or public opinion. Which, let’s face it, really piss around with your bottom line.

But for a while now, that view has seemed ridiculously naive, a bit like assuming Recep Erdoğan followed Vladimir Putin’s election-hollowing gameplan just because hey, he’s an interested guy who likes to read around a lot of subjects. So no: Fifa president Gianni Infantino hasn’t spent recent tournaments cosying up to authoritarians because it made his life easier. He’s done it to learn from the best. And his latest decree this week simply confirms Fifa is now a fully operational autocracy in the classic populace-rinsing style. Do just absorb yesterday’s news that the cheapest ticket for next year’s World Cup final in the US will cost £3,120 – seven times more than the cheapest ticket for the last World Cup final in Qatar. (Admittedly, still marginally cheaper than an off-peak single from London to Manchester.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Our cartoonist on exorbitant World Cup ticket prices and peace breaking out on Merseyside

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Women’s football is booming – but the bigger it’s got, the messier it’s become for players. Through it all, the hot tip for Sports Personality of the Year has kept a cool head

At the end of last year, Chloe Kelly was seriously considering stepping away from football. She was deeply unhappy at Manchester City, her team since 2020, where it seemed as if they wouldn’t let her play, nor let her leave. She wasn’t getting enough time on the pitch, so wasn’t sure that she would be selected for England, who were preparing to defend the title she had helped win in 2022 in the Euros tournament. She was 26, about to turn 27. She had been a professional footballer since she was 18, but her mother was starting to get concerned. She desperately wanted her daughter to be happy again. “I remember my mum coming up to see me and she was meant to go home, but she didn’t go home, because she was so worried,” recalls Kelly.

Less than a year later, and things are very different. At the time of writing, Kelly is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year after a history-making comeback. At the end of January, she was loaned to Arsenal and in May she lifted the Champions League trophy with the team, very much the underdogs in the final against Barcelona, whom they defeated 1-0. At the end of July, she scored that penalty for England, securing them a second Euros title, against arch-rivals Spain. She was fifth in the Ballon D’or Féminin, and named in the Fifpro World 11 squad for the first time – a peer-voted list of the best footballers in the world. Against the odds, then, 2025 has turned out to be a great year. “For sure,” Kelly smiles. “To bounce back, that’s what makes it the best year of my career.”

Revolution is still being sought three decades after the landmark ruling with a Dutch lawyer calling for a collective bargaining agreement for players

On 15 December 1995, judges at the European court of justice (CJEU) took two minutes to bring an end to a legal process that had lasted five years. The Bosman rule, as it was known, was to stand, the judges said. European football clubs were no longer allowed to demand transfer fees for players whose contracts had expired, with governing bodies stopped from capping the number of Europeans in any team. The man whose dogged legal pursuit had brought about these changes, Jean‑Marc Bosman, emerged from a crowd of cameras and well‑wishers to give his verdict. “I have got to the top of the mountain and I am now very tired,” he said.

For Bosman himself, it was downhill from there. “In the past I got a lot of promises but never received anything,” he told the Observer in 2015, claiming he “earned nothing” from the changes that ensued. He went bankrupt, was treated for alcoholism and was found guilty of assault against his then partner in 2013, resulting in a community service order that included mowing the grass of his local football pitch. There can be no argument, however, that the ruling that took his name was historic and, 30 years on, it has helped bring about a revolution in the sport from which the man himself was ultimately shunned.

How each team qualified, who will be favourites to progress to the knockout stage and which games to look out for

The opening game in the Azteca will be a repeat of the opener in 2010 when South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in Soccer City, Soweto. Mexico have won one knockout game at the World Cup, beating Bulgaria last time they hosted, in 1986. Their manager, Javier Aguirre, was a forward in that side and will be targeting their third quarter-final as hosts. South Africa, coached by the veteran Belgian Hugo Broos, qualified for their first World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin, despite having a game against Lesotho they appeared to have won awarded against them for fielding a suspended player.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

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Crowds at women’s football in England are the envy of the world but there is a curious gap between number of tickets sold and attendances

When the stadium announcer reads out the attendance during England home games, the immediate question that follows relates to the drop-off between the number of tickets sold and the number of fans through the doors.

In 2025, on either side of a phenomenal European title defence in Switzerland, the Lionesses played eight home games, including three at Wembley. Across those fixtures, almost 48,000 bought tickets but stayed away.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as Manchester United and Bournemouth play out a thrilling 4-4 draw

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On the podcast today; lots of fun to be had at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 4-4. But how to analyse a game that wild? Let’s hope the panel have some ideas.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Ameé Ruszkai and Tom Garry to review a dramatic final WSL weekend before the winter break. Plus, Zarah Al-Kudcy joins in part two to discuss Panini’s expansion into the women’s game

On today’s pod: a final WSL weekend before the winter break, packed with goals and drama. Manchester United and Tottenham share six in a chaotic draw at Leigh Sports Village, while Manchester City go six clear at the top after hitting Aston Villa for six, with Bunny Shaw scoring four in a record-breaking performance. The panel discuss the action from the weekend’s WSL games and ask why Bunny Shaw has never been shortlisted for a Ballon d’Or.

Plus: we’re joined by WSL Football’s Zarah Al-Kudcy to discuss Panini’s decision to include WSL 2 players in its sticker album for the first time, what that means for visibility and revenue, and how commercial growth could shape the future of England’s second tier.

Manchester City conquer the Bernabéu, Liverpool survive without Mohamed Salah and Atalanta find Chelsea’s flaws

• To say that Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid have history is to put it mildly. At Barcelona, Guardiola grew up amid an obsessive enmity on both sides, one deepened by his term as the Catalan club’s coach. They are highly familiar with Manchester City, too. City met Madrid for the fifth season in succession on Wednesday. Despite Madrid’s recent struggles under Xabi Alonso, winning at the Santiago Bernabéu is a huge result, a deserved win where City might have been out of sight by half-time. Rodrygo scored his habitual goal against City but one of Guardiola’s new generation in Nico O’Reilly equalised before a controversial penalty award, converted by Erling Haaland, decided the game. A player linked with a move to Madrid sometime in the distant future celebrated with a smirk; Jude Bellingham’s attempt to distract by trying to yank Haaland’s ponytail did not work. After the selection misstep that led to defeat to Bayer Leverkusen, Guardiola got it right in Madrid to leave a lifelong rival in flux. In acknowledging an opponent wracked by injury and infighting had made for an easier task than usual, high standards came to the fore. “I’ve been here [at the Bernabéu] many times in the last five years and we have played much better than today and not won,” Guardiola said. He talks – and his team plays – like he has his mojo back.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves