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A question: can Germany or the Netherlands win the World Cup? My sense is no, not a chance; the winner will come from Spain, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, with it being hard to look past the first of those. Of course tonight’s big dogs could beat any of them in a one-off, but I can’t see them winning four knockout matches. They don’t have the gamebreakers or options of the best, nor anyone transcendental who can render everything but them irrelevant.

Northern Ireland are, as we said, into the playoffs via the Nations League, but will want to build momentum going into that tonight. They fought hard against Slovakia, only to concede a winner in injury time, but they did beat the same opposition at home and, in Ethan Galbraith, have a very modern midfielder doing brillaintly at Swansea.

The team’s qualifying record is impressive but not as important as their burgeoning confidence and momentum

“Right now, I could say that everything played out perfectly,” Thomas Tuchel says, as he reflects on having led England through qualifying to the World Cup finals tournament: phase one of the mission complete. It does not feel incongruous for the head coach to talk about perfection – partly because he is constantly chasing it and also because, well, the results have been perfect.

When Tuchel’s team defeated Albania 2-0 in Tirana on Sunday, it meant they topped their group with eight wins out of eight and with eight clean sheets. Never before has a European nation gone through World Cup qualification, playing at least six ties, without conceding. Spain will emulate them if they beat Turkey at home and keep a clean sheet in their sixth and final qualifier on Tuesday night. The only thing is that Tuchel knows perfection is unattainable – particularly in international football.

Beat Denmark and qualification for first time since 1998 is guaranteed. Is it in the stars?

Wounding events in modern history mean Scotland can not be a football country that expects. It is, however, one on tenterhooks as the prospect of long-awaited World Cup qualification looms so large.

On paper, the task is simple: beat Denmark at Hampden Park on Tuesdayand the Scots will take a place in next summer’s tournament. It is the significance of progress that matters far more than the fact the Danes are ranked 18 places higher in the world.

The former Liverpool and Osasuna player on his coaching journey, redemption in Spain and working with Sven-Göran Eriksson

“I went to a very good school, believe it or not. A grammar school. We had Spanish lessons, but I didn’t take Spanish. I thought: ‘What’s a hairy-arsed kid from the Liverpool ghetto going to need that for?’ And lo and behold …”

It’s late in Bilbao, back in the country that changed him, and a glass of wine rests on the table in front of Sammy Lee, who is grinning again. It’s been an emotional evening and a long night: a lot of laughs, some tears too, talking life at Liverpool and the life that came next. “For me, it’s about coaching even more than playing,” the European champion and former England assistant says. “And that started here.”

DR Congo won a tense penalty shootout 4-3, leading Éric Chelle, the Nigeria manager, to allege ‘maraboutage’

Thirty-one years ago Nigeria burst on to the global stage in a golden summer at the 1994 World Cup in the US, impressing with a do-or-die attitude that helped them top their group and come within two minutes of reaching the quarter-finals by beating Italy. But the Super Eagles will not be returning to North American soil for next summer’s tournament – and they are not blaming their shooting boots.

After a fraught and dramatic continental playoff final on Sunday, where Nigeria were eliminated by DR Congo on penalties, the Super Eagles manager, Éric Chelle, said that his team had been defeated by “voodoo”.

Troy Parrott’s last-gasp goal and DR Congo’s triumph proved once again why the best soccer is almost never about the soccer

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Last Thursday, Irish football was in a bleak place. They had two games remaining in World Cup qualifying and apparently no hope of making it to North America next summer. Another campaign had collapsed in predictable ways: they couldn’t score, they made bafflingly simple errors, too few of their players play for elite sides and those that do seemed unable to reproduce club form for their country.

Their one possible star, Evan Ferguson, had not been energised by a move to Roma – quite the reverse – and although there was vague talk of a new contract for their manager, the amiable Icelandic dentist Heimir Hallgrímsson, everybody thought he would be off after the game in Hungary and was vaguely dreading another Football Association of Ireland recruitment saga, which would inevitably take months, throw up a series of implausible names and result in the job being given to Hallgrímsson’s assistant, John O’Shea.

• Capacity capped at 45,401 spectators for La Liga game

• ‘We’ve dreamed about the return. Now, it’s here,’ club say

Barcelona will finally play at the Camp Nou for the first time since May 2023. The Catalan club announced they have been granted a licence to occupy 45,401 seats of the renovated stadium, which is yet to be completed, against Athletic Club on Saturday afternoon.

The announcement comes after a series of missed targets and 10 days after a successful, smaller-scale test run in which a training session held there was attended by more than 20,000 supporters. The stadium will carry the name Spotify after a €280m title rights deal was agreed in March 2022.

• FA offers up to six sessions via Sporting Chance

• Latest figures show rise in discrimination charges

The Football Association is offering free counselling and mental-health support to victims of hate and discrimination in grassroots football.

Discriminatory abuse is on the rise at grassroots level. In surveys 70% of participants including players, referees and spectators told the governing body that poor behaviour had a major impact.

Chelsea lose ground in title race at Liverpool while Arsenal struggle to find their shooting boots

When Alyssa Thompson fired in a superb ninth-minute opener, Chelsea looked on course for another routine win. However, Liverpool’s defence held firm and the Reds levelled in the 33rd minute and held out until half-time. The Chelsea manager, Sonia Bompastor, introduced further attacking options in the second half, including Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones, but a solid defensive display from Liverpool ensured Chelsea were unable to find a winner as the hosts earned their second point of the season. Although the result did mean Chelsea set a record of 34 successive unbeaten WSL games, clearly all is not well with the defending champions. Last season they had 27 points after nine games and led the way, this campaign they have eight fewer and are three points behind Manchester City. Réshma Rao

Match report: Tottenham 0-0 Arsenal

More than 50,000 fans cheered on Ihab Abu Jazar’s team with the coach and players ‘shocked’ by the outpouring of support during their visit

“We are more than a national team, we represent a story of pain but also hope,” Ihab Abu Jazar said, “and we are not alone.” At 8.26pm on Saturday the Palestine coach, whose father was killed in the Israel-Gaza war and whose siblings now live in tents in Khan Younis, emerged from the tunnel and took his place by the bench at San Mamés, Bilbao. Dressed in black, a keffiyeh over his shoulders, he watched 11 men in red, “a team of refugees playing for Palestinians all over the world”, and listened to 51,396 people applaud them, chanting for their freedom.

“We don’t play just to win; we play to exist,” he had said in the days before Palestine played their first game in Europe, an occasion that turned out to be bigger than even he had imagined: “The most important day in my life”, a “historic” night that “all the words in the world can’t explain”. They didn’t win – they were a goal down within four minutes and lost 3-0 against the Basque national team – but they competed, and it wasn’t about that. In fact, when Zaid Qunbar looked like he might equalise after 12 minutes the whole of this vast stadium cheered him on, roaring the opposition striker running towards their goal.

The Spain Under-21 centre-back on his club’s ‘crazy’ defensive numbers, his dual identity and his love of multicultural London

“Jesus Christ! All I want to do is get you in a straight bloody line. What do I have to do?” Gerald asks. So Horse says: “It’s the Arsenal offside trap, isn’t it?” Lomper here becomes Tony Adams, and Cristhian Mosquera starts to laugh.

The Spain Under-21 international is sitting at a table in the team hotel in Lugo, Galicia. Through the window, the sound of rain falling; in front of him, the famous scene from The Full Monty, cinematic representation of a defence so perfect, so instantly identifiable it became part of popular culture; a backline never to be bettered. Until now?

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• Matildas star writes about self harm and suicidal thoughts in new book

• Incidents came earlier in her career after moving to Europe

Matildas coach Joe Montemurro has praised Mary Fowler for speaking up about her mental health challenges, after the Manchester City forward revealed the extent of her depression when she first moved to Europe.

The 22-year-old attacker is currently recovering from a serious knee injury and is expected back on the field in January ahead of the Asian Cup, but released a memoir this week detailing the extent of her experience with depression and self-harm.

Renée Slegers conceded it is “hard at the moment” for Arsenal, after they failed to capitalise on the chance to move up to third place, dropping points for the fifth time this season in a 0-0 draw with their north London rivals Tottenham.

“We’re not getting the wins that we want at the moment and a club like Arsenal wants and needs to win,” Slegers said. “We see that there’s things we can do that will turn it around for us because we believe that we have all this quality. We did so well last year, that hasn’t just gone away all of a sudden.”

• Portugal qualify after thrashing Armenia 9-1

• Result seals top spot above Ireland in Group F

Norway qualified for the 2026 World Cup after a 4-1 win away to Italy in their final group match, condemning the hosts, who have missed out on the last two editions of the tournament, to the playoffs. The group winners will compete at the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

Norway ended the qualifying campaign with a perfect record of eight wins, finishing six points ahead of Italy, who will compete in the playoffs for the third consecutive occasion.

For Thomas Tuchel, there was an unmistakable circularity, a pleasingness to the narrative arc. The England head coach began his tenure with a World Cup qualifying victory against Albania at Wembley last March. And he finished the first phase of the mission to add a second star to the shirt with another one – by the same scoreline in Tirana.

It is surely worth taking a moment to digest the headline numbers. This was England’s eighth qualifying win out of eight games and an eighth clean sheet. Never before has a European team gone through World Cup qualification – playing at least six matches – without letting in a goal. It is a record to fire hope, which has sent out a message.

Troy Parrott’s brilliant hat-trick, his third coming in the depths of injury time, delivered the Republic of Ireland into the World Cup playoffs, denying a sickened Hungary at the death. To cap a remarkable week in Irish football history, Parrott, the two-goal hero of Portugal’s defeat in Dublin on Thursday, stunned Budapest’s Puskas Arena into silence, barring the ecstatic scenes among the Irish contingent.

Parrott had described Thursday’s defenestration of Cristiano Ronaldo’s team as the best night of his life, only for Sunday to be yet more gloriously dramatic. The former Tottenham trainee, who plays in the Dutch Eredivisie for AZ Alkmaar, would almost certainly not have started Ireland’s double-header had Roma’s Evan Ferguson not injured an ankle.

World Cup could still be in reach for the last genius of Brazilian football who has faded to a shadow of his former self

What’s your favourite Neymar advert? This is a tough question to answer. The body of work is huge and varied. The foot deodorant ad perhaps, which depicts Neymar’s feet literally on fire, ablaze with some kind of divine eau de toenail.

Or the new one for a brand of açaí berry death-gloop sorbet product, which shows Neymar holding up twin cones, like phials of luminous unicorn-sperm, and looking as though he’s just been hit over the head with a rock and it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him.

Han Willhoft-King was fancied to succeed at Spurs then City but opted for law at Brasenose College above pressing sessions with Guardiola

Freshers’ week, Oxford University, early October. A time for the heart to hammer with excitement, when horizons are broadened inexorably. For minimal sleep and maximum fun. And for one or two tall stories, a bit of personal reinvention, perhaps.

Take one new law student at Brasenose College, because he can certainly spin a few yarns. About the time, for example, he was coached by Yaya Touré at the Tottenham academy. He did not recognise him at first but then saw him on the ball and the penny dropped.

The Chelsea defender on Barcelona, the benefits of taking a breather and joining a campaign to tackle winter loneliness

“This will be a for ever thing,” says Millie Bright. “It’s one of the things that gives me purpose. It gives me life outside of football and will give me life after football.”

The Chelsea centre-back is talking about the impact that giving back to society, to fans or to a single individual has on her. She is hugely passionate about it, displaying fresh energy when she discusses her off-pitch work, including Chelsea’s new The Magic of Blue campaign, aimed at highlighting the issue of winter loneliness. The campaign will host collection points for the donation of gifts and warm items at men’s and women’s matches, including at Stamford Bridge next Thursday for the Women’s Champions League game against Barcelona.

The Spaniard talks about her move to coaching, Barcelona and the injuries that ended her career early

A 22-year-old Natalia Arroyo stood alone in what she describes as a “sad shower” and gutturally cried. It was the moment she knew her playing career had ended. The Spaniard had lain on the grass shortly beforehand, her anterior cruciate ligament torn again. It was “super emotional”, she says, but she was done.

Arroyo, speaking at the expanded training base of an Aston Villa side who last Saturday secured a notable win at Manchester United, joined Barcelona at the age of nine, though at the time there was no real relationship with the main club. She graduated to the B team, captained that side and was one of three 16-year-olds to force their way into the senior set-up. That experience has taught her how to integrate players.

The timing was just right for coach to return to his roots and get batch of superstars firing in time for a qualifying playoff

There was widespread approval from Sweden’s well-wishers when, during a training camp in Marbella this week, Graham Potter announced his new charges would play a variation of 4-4-2. A national team once tipped for greatness had been frayed, disconnected and muddled for too long. If their new manager had arrived with an unusually high profile, at least he had wasted no time in throwing on a familiar comfort blanket.

From one angle, that is just what the Sweden job resembles for Potter. He could surely not have believed his luck when, just over a fortnight after his dismissal by West Ham, the top job became open in the country where he made his name. The Swedish Football Association must have pinched itself at the timing, too.

Midfielder is preparing for NWSL semi-final on her latest loan and hopes road will lead her to Gunners’ first team

The headline on Arsenal’s website in early August 2023 was short and sweet. “Teenage trio to join Watford on dual agreement,” it read. That trio included Michelle Agyemang and Katie Reid, two players whose names were known to the keenest of fans then and who have since become part of mainstream conversation for hugely positive reasons. More recently they have hit the headlines for a more devastating reason, having both sustained anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

In any footballer’s career a bit of good fortune is needed, alongside a manager being brave enough to take a chance on you. The knee injury that led to Leah Williamson missing the start of the Women’s Super League season created the space for Reid to be given an opportunity in the first team, while an Alessia Russo ankle knock led to Agyemang’s first England call-up in April. Both subsequently shone, making the forced interruptions to their respective professional journeys especially cruel.

• League will also move to a single-table format

• Season will start in July and end in May

The MLS board of governors have voted to change the league’s schedule to more closely align with the European calendar, with seasons beginning in the late summer and ending in the spring.

The league announced the change after a board meeting in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday. The league will begin its season in mid-July, take a winter break starting in mid-December, then restart games in the first or third week of February (avoiding Super Bowl week).

The Reggae Boyz are well placed to play on the biggest stage for the first time since 1998 and lift a nation needing hope in a time of adversity

Steve McClaren has spoken of a determination to put “a smile on people’s faces” in Jamaica. Over the next six days the former England manager has a golden chance to do so by guiding Jamaica to the World Cup when they play for the first time since Hurricane Melissa.

The devastating category 5 storm that made landfall on the island on 28 October is known to have killed 45 people there and displaced tens of thousands of households, with hundreds still in emergency shelters. The prime minister, Andrew Holness, said it had caused damage to homes and key infrastructure roughly equal to the value of a third of the country’s gross domestic product.

As Asia’s allocation has now doubled, many nations look to foreign-born talent to push them towards qualification

When the United Arab Emirates line up against Iraq on Thursday for the fifth and final round of Asian qualification for next year’s World Cup, it is likely that over half of the home starting XI in Abu Dhabi will be foreign-born. The UAE are, however, merely another participant in a naturalisation arms race in the continent that has been boosted by the expansion of the World Cup from 32 teams to 48.

Asia’s allocation has doubled from four automatic spots in Qatar to eight in North America, opening up the tournament to a new array of contenders desperate to play on the greatest stage of all. Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia have historically dominated World Cup qualifying, with North Korea the most recent outlier in 2010. Those six are the only teams from the Asian Football Confederation to make more than one appearance at the tournament.

As the first female president in Ternana’s hundred-year history, the 23-year-old has ambitions to change the game

“There are still some preconceptions because football has long been a man’s world,” says Claudia Rizzo, “but I think things are changing. Women can bring a different point of view, an added value even in this field.”

At 23, Rizzo has made history. In September the entrepreneur became president of Ternana Calcio, a Serie C club from Umbria, becoming the first woman in the club’s hundred-year history to hold the role. “It’s a huge responsibility, but also an opportunity to bring something different,” she says. “I want to prove that women can lead in football just as they do in any other field.”

On the bench in Madrid and out of the England squad, the full-back has no one to fight his corner – so will have to do it himself

“He chose to start from zero. To keep showing up, day by day. It was about respect, courage and a genuine desire to belong. What I saw was a person growing beyond himself. In football, words can build trust, connection, identity. That is what true professionalism really looks like.” Well, at least someone is pleased with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s progress at Real Madrid. Unfortunately, it happens to be Sara Duque, his language teacher.

When Alexander-Arnold filmed a video in hesitant but really very good Spanish for Duque’s Instagram page, it’s fair to say it wasn’t received entirely in the spirit of pride and achievement it was intended. Very quickly, internet auditors started to do the maths. Alexander-Arnold claimed to have been learning Spanish for five months, which meant he must have started in May, when – gasp – he was still under contract at Liverpool. Rat, scum, traitor, etc. Perhaps, judging by how well he spoke at his unveiling in June, he had been under Duque’s tutelage even earlier. All of which brought to mind the old Frank Skinner joke (although others have claimed it) about John Lennon airport. A fitting tribute, seeing as it was the first place he went after making a bit of cash.

Mohamed Salah has drifted from crucial to peripheral in big games, and Arne Slot’s decision to keep picking him is strange

There must be blame. We need heads on the battlements. We need entrails, horses, chains, a public quartering. Basically we just need to feel something. We need, above all, to feel that this is all someone’s fault.

This is how elite football must function now. The Dalai Lama once said that instead of looking to blame others we should look for answers within ourselves, which just goes to show how wrong you can be and is, frankly, very disappointing from the Dalai Lama.

This match was as dismal as last season’s Europa League final and in a routine league game nerves are no excuse

Never underestimate the haplessness of this Manchester United. Never underestimate the haplessness of this Tottenham Hotspur. Never underestimate the capacity of the Premier League to uncover drama in the least plausible situation. The embers of a game of little quality seemed cold and dead but somehow burst into glorious flame in the final six minutes plus stoppage time.

What it means is anybody’s guess, other than that these are two sides who remain deeply flawed. The shadow of Bilbao and last May’s Europa League final was unavoidable; in purely technical terms, that game was just as bad as the first 84 minutes of this one, but it at least had a sense of edge. Nervousness is permissible if there is something to be nervous about. Such scrappiness in a routine league meeting is far less explicable.

The Real Madrid midfielder is part of an attack-minded squad but the manager will be watching him carefully

One snub was enough. Another and it would have started to look vindictive from Thomas Tuchel, who is far too wily not to know that winning the World Cup is probably going to require help from Jude Bellingham, even if it is also on the midfielder to fit into the tactical structures and squad hierarchies required with England now that he is back in Tuchel’s warm embrace.

The manager wants Bellingham’s edge, his fire, but it is about using it in the right way. Individual quality matters but England know from bitter experience that there is a price to pay when celebrity takes over. Still, a point has been made.

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It starts with singing, banter or enthusiastic goal celebrations – and leads to so much more. Six groups of fan friends share how they met

Like so many football fans, I have my own routines and rituals with which I tie together the home games of a league season. Last year, one such routine involved the older gentleman in the seat to my right. I’d nod hello and, above the strains of pre-match music, ask him what he thought of Norwich’s chances – 23 times I asked, and 23 times he replied along the lines of: “We’ll probably get thumped” or “I don’t see where our goals are coming from.” A shred of contempt would be spared for the referee. Always, the referee was known to him and, always, I’d be forewarned that this or that referee was an “arsehole”, a “wanker”, or – once – “an arsehole and a wanker”.

This neighbour of mine was a retired engineer, a Norfolk boy, and a follower of both first team and academy, home and away. He was just one of thousands with a season ticket at the back of Carrow Road’s lower Barclay stand: a Saturday afternoon companion, a stranger at the start of the last season who became a little less strange as the matches went by. I was able to glean, for example, that after decades of loyal (if pessimistic) fandom, he would soon be moving to Yorkshire with his partner, unable to ignore his dreams of the Dales. He had already decided that he wouldn’t be renewing his season ticket. My first year in this part of the ground was his last.

Assistant coach is using psychological, tactical and physical profiling to help Thomas Tuchel give his England team an edge at the World Cup

Ten years ago, life looked a little different for Anthony Barry. The England assistant coach, whose focus is fixed on helping Thomas Tuchel win the World Cup next summer – nothing less – was playing for Accrington Stanley in League Two. He was in the twilight of a career spent in the bottom two divisions of the Football League and in non-league, and he had taken the first step on the journey that would define him, accepting a voluntary position as the Accrington Under-16s coach.

“It was in the evenings, third of a pitch, asked to do 11 v 11 … flat balls, not enough bibs,” Barry says with a smile. “I was hooked. I’d found what I was destined to do and I thought about what it could become. I’m pretty sure nobody else could see it. But that’s part of dreams.”

Afghan Women United is comprised of players forced to flee their homeland and is another step in beating barriers

“When I step on to the pitch everything else is automatically erased from my mind,” says the captain of Afghan Women United, Fatima Haidari, when asked how football helps her cope with the traumas she has suffered.

“I train, I play, and a fire inside me is lit, not just because of the power that I feel at that moment as a player, but because I feel I have many other girls with me. It’s like I’m taking their hands. Like I’m playing with them. It’s not just for me, and I feel powerful.”

In an exclusive extract from her autobiography, goalkeeper reveals the painful road to her shock England exit

England felt like such a safe space for me. It was usual to have a team review after a big tournament and after the Euros in 2022 we came together in the Club England meeting room at St George’s Park, the team’s headquarters.

The emotional security that I felt within England was bolstered by the culture and values that had underpinned and contributed to our success. Non-collegiate behaviour was not tolerated. We came back together to the news that Hannah Hampton had been dropped from the squad: her behaviour behind the scenes at the Euros had frequently risked derailing training sessions and team resources.

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Football Daily, for research/self-loathing purposes, recently sat through Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest chat with Piers Morgan. Among many moments of hubris, self-celebration and smoke being blown up the great man’s rear end by the ever-willing Morgan, Ronaldo took a typical moment of quiet self-reflection. “I think in the world, nobody is more famous than me,” he trumpeted, Piers nodding along obediently. “Let’s debate it – who’s more famous, me or Donald Trump?” Though such a pointless debate might provide welcome distraction for a president rather uncomfortably named in some emails making the news at the moment, it has very little to do with what Ronaldo is famous for. While doing his day job he had a very bad time in Dublin, as Portugal went down 2-0 to an inspired Republic of Ireland side.

Loosely on the theme of the Wythenshawe FC story doing the rounds (Football Daily letters passim), I have a mildly amusing tale from the late 90s. I played in a bang-average, typically hungover, Sunday League pub team in Exeter. Several of my teammates and I were friends and occasional drinking buddies with a couple of the younger Exeter City players, who popped in the boozer in their downtime. After a particularly enjoyable Saturday night in the pub, following a rare Grecian home win, one of the players had joined us to celebrate, and, inevitably, we cajoled him into playing for us the following morning. No one expected the player to show, but there he was, boots and all, outside the pub at 9.30am. We didn’t think he’d actually play! We were away to a village team, miles away, and with a TQ postcode. None of us knew the place, but the collective assumption was that it ‘must be near Torquay’, reducing the likelihood anyone would recognise the player. He was normally an unused sub, with the occasional run-out. So we were confident he’d blend in. As we approached the car park at the pitch, there was a collective meltdown when we were greeted by a couple of lads in Exeter shirts! It turns out this village is split between City and the Greenies down the road. The postcode was a total red herring! So our ringer decided to risk it, gave the ref a fake name, and proceeded to boss the entire game. One of the City shirt-wearing lads asked us outright if that in fact was the player. We nonchalantly explained it was actually his younger brother, and that we were chuffed that he plays for us when he visits ‘big bro’. They bought it. We had to sub him, though. He was running rings around the opposition, to the point that a rather robust midfielder, who only had one arm, got sent off for trying to crock the player. We feared what his colleagues might do, and not wanting a showdown with Peter Fox and Noel Blake (ECFC’s management duo at the time), we decided not to chance it again. After that, the player himself seemed to spend more time in the pub than playing and was unsurprisingly released” – Jim Hughes.

I can’t be the only avid reader of literary novels to wonder where Lee Child gets his inspiration for naming characters in his Booker prize-winning Reacher series. By page 44 in his latest I’ve come across a David Moyes, a Steve McClaren, a Kelleher, a Walker and a Dominic (Szoboszlai or Solanke?). By page 66 I’m expecting the supervillain to be a certain Bruno Fernandes. Or does your other reader have another suggestion?” – John Murphy.

While there are promising signs of Swiss growth, there is some way to go to cement lasting legacy for the tournament

Switzerland were the toast of the continent this summer as hosts of the Women’s European Championship. The national team reached the quarter-finals for the first time and a total of 623,088 were in attendance at the 31 matches, a tournament record. The hope within Switzerland was for a boost at club level similar to what England experienced three years previously. Those heights have not been reached, but there has been a definite bump.

According to Switzerland’s football association, their Women’s Super League has enjoyed a 62% increase in attendances this season, with an average attendance of 787. While that does not compare with the huge spike England’s Women’s Super League had after Euro 2022 – an average attendance increase of 172% the following season – it is still encouraging.

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Admittedly in the Champions League’s shadow, the Europa Cup does offer fresh opportunities for the game to develop

It may be news to some, but there is a new competition kicking off in Europe this week. With qualifying complete, the business end of the Women’s Europa Cup gets under way on Wednesday. It will mark another milestone in women’s football, a side of the sport that is constantly evolving and developing.

Starting with the round of 16, teams will embark on a journey of two-legged knockout ties that lead to the inaugural final. The winner will also be decided across two legs, due to take place in May and June next year.

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.

The defending Premier League champions spent big over the summer, but it’s hard to see how the new players fit

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What was it supposed to look like? Amid all the talk around Liverpool and their disappointing form at the start of this season, that is perhaps the hardest question of all to answer. What were they trying to do? If it had worked, how would this team have played?

The champions spent £424m (about $550m) on new signings in the summer, but if all had gone well, they would have spent an additional £40m ($53m) to land the Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guéhi. The England international would, at the very least, have given an extra option at the back (the injury to Giovanni Leoni has diminished their defensive options further), allowing Arne Slot to rest Ibrahima Konaté, whose poor form continued in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. An early City penalty was a direct result of Konaté getting in Conor Bradley’s way as Jérémy Doku cut in from the left.

Max Rushden is joined by Dan Bardell, Jacob Steinberg and Sam Dalling as Republic of Ireland beat Portugal 2-0 to reignite hopes of a World Cup playoff place

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On the podcast today; Republic of Ireland’s dreams of qualifying are kept alive by Troy Parrott. His brace capped off a superb Irish performance as they beat Portugal 2-0 at home. Made all the sweeter by a Cristiano Ronaldo red card and subsequent tantrum.

Plus: more football records that were rapidly broken and Home Nations players from the crown dependencies

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“In September, Lithuania became the lowest Fifa-ranked country (143rd) to score against the Netherlands, who were ranked seventh,” writes Pete Tomlin. “That means a difference of 136 places between the two countries. I have two questions upon hearing this – which is the lowest-ranked team to score against England (since the rankings began in 1992) and what is the biggest difference between teams where the lower-ranked team has scored? I was thinking of the respective rankings at the time the matches took place rather than current rankings.”

The Netherlands, who won that match 3-2 in September, will meet Lithuania in the return fixture on Monday. The respective rankings are now sixth and 146th so the gap will be 140 places if Lithuania manage to score in Amsterdam.

65 North Macedonia 1-1 England, November 2023

75 Albania 1-3 England, March 2001

87 Macedonia 1-2 England, September 2003

91 England 2-2 Macedonia, October 2002

116 Northern Ireland 1-0 England, September 2005

118 Malta 1-2 England, June 2000

120 England 5-3 Kosovo, September 2019

122 San Marino 1-7 England, November 1993

131 England 5-1 Kazakhstan, October 2008

Matt Le Tissier England, 8 caps, 1994-97 (b Guernsey)

Maya Le Tissier England, 10 caps, 2022- (b Guernsey)

Graeme Le Saux England, 36 caps, 1994-2000 (b Jersey)

Kieran Tierney Scotland, 50 caps, 2016- (b Isle of Man)

Faye Carruthers is joined by Marva Kreel and Tim Stillman to dissect a dramatic WSL weekend and look ahead to the Women’s Champions League

On today’s pod: VAR talk dominates again after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, with disallowed goals and missed cards prompting calls for more support for referees in the WSL. Should VAR-lite or semi-automated offside be introduced?

Elsewhere, Manchester United suffered their first defeat of the season against a resurgent Aston Villa. Manchester City took full advantage to go top with a hard-fought win over Everton. How long will it be before Marva is allowed to cut her hair?

Everton duo stake England claim, Jaydee Canvot steps up for Crystal Palace, and Benjamin Sesko struggles to settle

Amid the headlines about Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham being recalled for England, there was a little less said about Nico O’Reilly being named in Thomas Tuchel’s squad. Myles Lewis-Skelly paid the price for his lack of game time and now the City man gets his opportunity to stake a claim for a World Cup spot. The 20-year-old now goes into camp having become the latest defender to shut out Mohamed Salah. That’s less of an achievement than it used to be, but O’Reilly still had to show tenacity and patience against this nuggety, late-era version of the Egyptian superstar. The City full-back nicked the ball off his man regularly – much to the delight of the home fans – and got forward to decent effect, too. If Pep Guardiola trusts O’Reilly in the biggest games and he can avoid injury there is no reason to think that the City academy graduate cannot make England’s most open position his own. Tom Bassam

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

Match report: Aston Villa 4-0 Bournemouth

Match report: Crystal Palace 0-0 Brighton

Match report: Brentford 3-1 Newcastle

Match report: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Leeds

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Manchester United

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