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Before facing his former club the defender explains why he left Anfield when Slot wanted him to stay and why he is loving life at Brentford

Sepp van den Berg knew what he had to do. The Brentford centre-back knew what he was going to do. Another summer, another change; another push to find a footballing home. It was June 2024 and as he enjoyed a lunch in the sunshine with his brother and friends in their hometown of Zwolle in the Netherlands, he could reflect on an excellent season on loan from Liverpool at Mainz. “Then I got a tap on my shoulder,” Van den Berg says.

It was Arne Slot. Another guy who had grown up in the area. Slot’s first job as a manager had been with the PEC Zwolle under-13s after he retired as a player at the club in 2013; Van den Berg, playing a year up, was in his squad. Now Slot had been confirmed as Jürgen Klopp’s successor at Liverpool and he was looking forward to the start of pre-season.

• Fans describe it as one of club’s ‘most bittersweet days’

• Wednesday left on -6 points at bottom of Championship

Sheffield Wednesday fans say their club have endured “one of the most bittersweet days in our 158-year history” after the Championship side were placed into administration by the owner, Dejphon Chansiri, and deducted 12 points.

The Owls will have a chance to rebuild their fortunes after a period of turbulence, with players and staff having not been paid on time in five of the past seven months. First, however, they face almost certain relegation after the EFL’s penalty left them on -6 points, 15 adrift of safety.

Sheffield Wednesday were placed into administration by the owner, Dejphon Chansiri, and deducted 12 points, while Bruno Fernandes readied for a milestone

Nottingham Forest: Following an eight-game winless run under Ange Postecoglou, Nottingham Forest kept their first clean sheet for 21 games in beating Porto 2-0 at the City Ground last night, in the process consigning the Portuguese side to defeat for the first time in 12 matches this season. It’s small wonder Sean Dyche, Postecoglou’s replacement, looked pleased with himself and his players afterwards.

“When you are on the side you don’t hear every word, you hear a noise and you know if it’s a positive noise or a negative noise,” he said. “I’m not here to judge or question anything, just deliver what I can to the job. It’s nice when they support you from the off, winning helps.

Online debate around Lionesses squad has been fierce but game against Brazil is about flexibility, not finality

The online discourse when Sarina Wiegman named her England squad for the October international window was emphatic: Maya Le Tissier must play at centre-back; Aggie Beever-Jones must start; Taylor Hinds’s allegiance switch is odd; this player isn’t good enough … it is scandalous that that player hasn’t been included.

It’s good that people care, that fans are engaged in the details, drilling down into what England do, and are discussing how they take the next step on the way towards the 2027 World Cup. Opinion is valuable. Sometimes, though, the discussion verges on hysteria, can feel misplaced and, as England head into the first of four friendlies in their “Homecoming Series”, it all feels a bit over the top.

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As October draws to a close and a relentless winter of football looms into view, the biggest domestic game of the season anywhere in Europe – and a contest that could decide a title race – is set to light up a gloomy Sunday afternoon. But after Scottish league leaders Hearts take on Celtic at midday [GMT! – Football Daily Ed], there’s also a decent-looking fixture in Spain. Yes, el clásico is back, this time with a hefty dose of existential angst.

Sadly, I mistakenly thought that nominative determinism would make a winner of me on my bet on Aston Villa’s opponents scoring first. Still, Come From Behind Eagles has a certain ring to it” – Richard Reisman.

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 Argentine has been as excellent as ever in his later years, but his presence and performance has yet to push MLS into the US mainstream

OK, show of hands. How many of you knew that Lionel Messi – a global superstar who has committed to spend his next three years in the United States – just completed the best individual season in Major League Soccer history?

Be honest.

On Saturday the Welsh icon ends a 20-year international career which pushed her nation to their first major tournament and raised standards for women professionals

The word legend is thrown around too easily in football but when it comes to Jess Fishlock, no other word really comes close. Few embody what it means to play for Wales more than the trailblazing midfielder who will bring her near 20-year international career to a close on Saturday at the age of 38.

When Fishlock takes to the field in a Wales shirt for the 166th and final time against Australia , it will be the closing chapter of a storied international career, a farewell to a player who has gone above and beyond to put the women’s game in her country on the map.

Brighton forward is playing the best football of his career at 34 and Thomas Tuchel could have a vacancy next summer

Age appears no barrier for Thomas Tuchel’s England. An 18-month contract as a one-shot deal – North America or bust – little need to plan for the future. Any legacy is bound up in the success or failure of Mission 2026, hence the expected presence of “good tourist” Jordan Henderson, 36 less than a week after the World Cup kicks off.

Though Harry Kane is immovable, undroppable, there may yet be a vacancy for an athletic, intelligent, hard-working forward, capable of linking play and leading the press, should Ollie Watkins or Dominic Solanke falter. Anyone meeting the demands of modern forward play: apply within.

Bournemouth are third in the Premier League after selling Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Illia Zabarnyi for £150m

By WhoScored

Losing three of your four starting defenders and your goalkeeper in the same summer would send most mid-table clubs spiralling. For Bournemouth, it’s somehow become the launchpad for one of the most impressive starts in the Premier League. They sit third after eight games – not bad for a side that sold Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Milos Kerkez to Liverpool and Illia Zabarnyi to Paris Saint-Germain in deals worth a combined £150m, while Kepa Arrizabalaga’s loan from Chelsea came to an end.

The mastermind behind the success, Andoni Iraola, working with the Premier League’s 16th highest wage bill, has produced nothing short of a miracle at Bournemouth. It is easy to forget there were question marks over his arrival in the summer of 2023. Nine games without a win had Bournemouth fans glancing nervously at the table, and the doubts peaked when Gary O’Neil, the man he had replaced, returned to the Vitality with Wolves and left with a 2-1 win. “Nice to see some friendly faces,” O’Neil joked in the press room afterwards.

Marc Guiu faces Sunderland reunion, Manchester United seek a minor three-peat and Mohamed Salah has to step up

Leeds host West Ham in a Friday night match that, even at this early stage of the season, looks very much like a quintessential relegation six-pointer. Elland Road is a wonderfully atmospheric ground but given the local traffic congestion, getting there, particularly on a Friday evening, is invariably tortuous. The prospect of exacerbating that gridlock dictates that the club’s plans to expand Elland Road to 53,000 appear in potential jeopardy. Leeds city council will make a final, delayed, decision on the project on 27 November but, with 65% of the team’s fans driving to matches, there is concern about the inevitable extra traffic chaos. The club hope to reduce the percentage of match-bound car travel to 51%, but to do that public transport needs to improve; Leeds is the biggest city in western Europe without a metro system. Cycling? Anyone familiar with the area’s topography knows it is not a realistic option for the vast majority of fans. Louise Taylor

Leeds v West Ham, Friday 8pm BST

Chelsea v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm BST

Newcastle v Fulham, Saturday 3pm BST

Manchester United v Brighton, Saturday 5.30pm BST

Brentford v Liverpool, Saturday 8pm BST

Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest, Sunday 2pm GMT

Manchester City forward shows he is a dab hand in the kitchen as he launches his YouTube channel

“It’s been a good day, doing lots of good things for my body and what I normally do in my life,” Erling Haaland says in the opening seconds of the video that marked the launch of his YouTube channel on Thursday. The recording is entitled “Day in the life of a pro footballer” but this is not the most enticing start. Will it be the usual run-of-the-mill offering about how a footballer has herbal tea, protein powder and a private chef to produce beans on toast?

It will not, it turns out. If the key takeaways are that Haaland has maple syrup in his coffee, stands in front of red light to get vitamin D and is sickeningly talented on the barbecue, there is more besides when the Manchester City striker invites the camera into his mansion of marble, clean edges and floor-to-ceiling windows. Maybe he is not permanently a footballer eager to mow down defenders on his way to scoring goals.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

Champions Liverpool pay a visit to Brentford on Saturday night while leaders Arsenal host Crystal Palace on Sunday

Saturday 3pm Venue Stamford Bridge

• Mystery pain delayed rehabilitation, says Matildas striker

• Kerr to return after nearly years out and hopes to continue as captain

A problem with the surgical graft that repaired the knee of Matildas striker Sam Kerr went undiscovered for 10 months, leaving her in pain and suffering “dark” days in her rehabilitation.

The 32-year-old is set to return for the Matildas this weekend in a friendly against Wales, almost two years after her last national team appearance. She has used her first media availability to declare she wants to continue as captain, but also spoke at length about what came to be her medical “mystery”.

Aston Villa suffered a Europa League humbling as they were beaten by the Dutch minnows Go Ahead Eagles in Deventer. Unai Emery’s side looked on course to extend their winning streak to six matches in all competitions when they went ahead in the fourth minute through Evann Guessand. They missed a host of chances to finish the game, though, and came unstuck as goals from Mathis Suray and Mats Deijl either side of half-time gave Go Ahead Eagles a famous victory in one of the biggest games in their history.

This was an unexpected blip in Villa’s quest to finish in the top eight of the league phase as Emery plots a fifth Europa League title, and after Emiliano Buendía missed a penalty late on to get his side back on level terms the head coach lamented that his side must be more clinical from the spot. It was also a disappointing night for Jadon Sancho, who failed to make a telling impact on the second start since his loan move from Manchester United and was withdrawn in the second half.

• Lavelle scores after 33 seconds but US beaten 2-1

• Portugal earn first-ever win and goals against Americans

• Morgan feted in emotional send-off at Subaru Park

The US women’s team stumbled Thursday in their first game since July, allowing a goal in each half that sent Portugal to its first win against the Americans, 2-1 on a night two-time World Cup winner Alex Morgan was feted with a star-studded farewell.

Portugal not only beat the US for the first time in 12 matches, they scored their first goals against the Americans in international play.

Three days in the job, two training sessions and, most significantly, one victory. Sean Dyche succeeded where Ange Postecoglou had failed so miserably, winning at the first time of asking to get Nottingham Forest’s Europa League campaign truly up and running. “Forest are back,” rejoiced the home support, who chanted the name of their third head coach of the season en route to handing Porto their first defeat of the season. Cue the victory-lap fireworks dazzling above Trent Bridge.

Perhaps most remarkably, this was also Forest’s first clean sheet since April. It all must have made pretty satisfying viewing for the owner, Evangelos Marinakis, applauding the goals from his seat in the directors’ box and last seen scarpering from the stadium midway through Postecoglou’s final game. Even the VAR gods were on Dyche’s side, both Forest goals stemming from interventions, with Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus scoring a penalty in each half.

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

Today’s newsletter looks at the next World Cup hosts as they prepare to take on England and Italy with a squad with an average age of 24

The road to the 2027 World Cup is long and winding for all teams hoping to qualify – apart from the hosts, Brazil. Having won their ninth Copa América Femenina in the summer, their next major tournament will be the World Cup in 20 months.

That may seem like a long time but the head coach, Arthur Elias, is aware that every minute of preparation counts, starting with their friendlies against England in Manchester on Saturday and Italy in Parma on Tuesday.

This week’s action saw an astonishing 71 goals over two nights, with the Premier League responsible for many of them

• Barcelona’s youth system. Ahead of Sunday’s edition of El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two clubs won their midweek matches. Real Madrid’s opponents were Juventus, in the type of heavyweight clash the Champions League’s rejig into a 36-team group stage was supposed to throw up on a regular basis. Wednesday’s meeting fell short of classic encounters like 2003’s meeting of Madrid’s Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane with Juve’s Pavel Nedvěd and Alessandro Del Piero. In 2025, Juventus are not the force of yore, though they made Madrid sweat. The sole goal came from Jude Bellingham, England’s great enigma.

Arsenal are on course to break one of the most impressive records in Premier League history

By Opta Analyst

In an era when human performance and sports science continue to advance at a remarkable pace, there are very few football records that remain truly untouchable. But Chelsea’s 2004-05 Premier League campaign remains one of the great exceptions. José Mourinho’s side conceded only 15 goals on their way to winning the title, a record that has stood unchallenged for two decades.

No team has come close since. Chelsea themselves conceded 22 times the following season and, along with Manchester United in 2007-08 and Liverpool in 2018-19, came closest to the magical 15 number. But even then, those three teams were still seven goals shy.

The very public face of his club has shown disdain for football’s structures, from the Premier League to VAR

I feel a rush everywhere when I see you
You become a silent scream
In the mind, in the body, in the secret moments
And in the lost logic
In your kiss, in your embrace
In the curse and the blessing
We will all burn together

Exapsi (Excitement), vocals by Natasa Theodoridou, lyrics by Evangelos Marinakis.

The world’s largest sportswear company was wobbling amid complaints that it had become too safe. Armed with a provocative new slogan, the company reveals the innovations and strategy it hopes will turn its reputation around

The entrance to Nike’s swish global headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon is paved with rough cobbles, designed to remind employees to watch their step when they go forward.

Last summer, though, not even the world’s biggest sports brand could stop itself from taking an almighty tumble.

Our cartoonist is back after a lengthy off-season to turn his thoughts to the opening round of the competition

• Ringleaders earned tens of thousands of euros a game

• Tourists were primary targets with tickets up to €800

Porto have dismantled one of the largest ticket-scalping networks uncovered in football, reclaiming hundreds of seats at their Estádio do Dragão that had been exploited for profit on the illegal resale market. The operation was earning its ringleaders tens of thousands of euros a match.

Porto said one alleged ringleader had convinced dozens of people to hand over personal details, which he used to register them as club members and purchase season tickets in their names. “These schemes reached an impressive scale, with dozens of seats controlled by a single individual,” the club said in a statement to the Guardian. “We also identified businesses processing hundreds of transactions, serving as fronts for this unlawful activity.”

• Kick It Out Israel finds 367 instances in 2024-25

• Of those, 118 were linked to Maccabi supporters

Racist chanting by Israeli football fans grew rapidly over the past year, data shows, with Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters the most likely to engage in discriminatory behaviour. The research was conducted by Kick It Out Israel, which is funded by a civil society organisation, Givat Haviva, that works towards the “creation of a shared society for Jews and Arabs”.

It found 367 instances of racist chanting at Israeli Premier League (IPL) matches in the 2024-25 season, a record total and an increase of 67% on the previous campaign.

• Potter takes charge of November’s final two qualifiers

• Sweden aiming for March’s playoffs via two routes

Graham Potter has been appointed Sweden’s head coach on a short-term deal with the goal of qualifying for the World Cup. The 50-year-old, sacked by West Ham less than a month ago, will take charge of the final two qualifiers next month and his contract will be extended to cover the playoffs and next summer’s tournament should the team get there.

Sweden are bottom of their qualifying group with one point from four games and play in Switzerland on 15 November then at home to Slovenia three days later. They could reach the playoffs even if they do not finish second because they won Nations League group C1. The 12 qualifying group runners-up will be joined by the four best-ranked Nations League section winners in March’s playoffs.

The MLS postseason starts on Wednesday night. We assess the contenders for the championship, and take a look back at the talking points from the regular season

How little there was between the top teams. When all was said and done, just seven points covered the top six teams in the standings. The Supporters’ Shield race was settled with a game to spare, but any one of several sides could have finished top of the pile, which bodes well for the playoffs. Even by MLS standards, the field is wide open. GR

In an embarrassing climbdown, the game in Miami is off with the league having alienated the players and even Villarreal, the club that was on its side

If there is a moment that defined La Liga’s fourth failed attempt to play in Miami, an image to explain why everything went wrong, it may have been the moment it was all over. On Tuesday night, Spanish television broadcast reaction to the news from the Estadio de la Ceràmica, live and unfiltered.

Cameras caught someone else who felt dismissed and disrespected, treated as if they didn’t count. This time it was someone who was supposed to be on the league’s side, but now appeared as a portrait of poor planning and poorer communication, a lack of consideration that pushed the project to collapse.

Manager inherits a group of players that suits him and has a track record of creating camaraderie in his squads

Sean Dyche was often spotted at the City Ground while out of work. The Nottingham Forest job has been of interest to him for a long time, and not only because he lives close by. The circumstances in which the role has become available are not ideal for an incoming head coach but his appointment is the pragmatic choice in ludicrous circumstances.

Ange Postecoglou was never the right man, inheriting a squad that did not suit his style and did not adapt quickly enough, though it did not help that he told the players their previous achievements meant nothing. His tenure will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Dyche, on the other hand, has plenty of respect for what Forest achieved under Nuno Espírito Santo and is far more aligned with that conservatism than with what was witnessed under Postecoglou.

The celebrated film largely still holds up and inspires, But, with a sequel in the works, its handling of a player/coach dynamic shows how times have changed

In the proposed upcoming sequel to the “feel good”, “uplifting” film Bend It Like Beckham (one of the Guardian’s best movies about football), a leading character has been banned from the game for life. At least that’s what could, and probably should be revealed, preferably as early as possible.

Seem dramatic? It isn’t. Though Bend It Like Beckham brilliantly tackles issues around racism, gender norms, homophobia, culture, immigration, and feminism with an endearing comedic twist, a core point of the plot rests on an adult coach pursuing a romantic relationship with a teenage player. In 2025, after multiple high-profile instances of inappropriate player/coach relationships have been reported in women’s soccer, and after the harm inherent in those relationships has been exposed, the normalization of one in a celebrated film is hard to ignore.

More than half the 26 places appear to be locked down but big names are at risk with qualification secured and the tournament looming

Fresh from breaking Gordon Banks’s record for consecutive England clean sheets, Jordan Pickford remains the undisputed pick in goal. A miserly defensive record is a positive for Thomas Tuchel, even if the shutouts have come against poor sides. John Stones, such an elegant centre-back, is back in the team and will start at the World Cup if he stays fit. But who will partner him? Tuchel likes Ezri Konsa, whose versatility also makes him an option at right-back, and Marc Guéhi; big Dan Burn also looks established after making his international debut in March. It is more uncertain at left-back, but Reece James will play at right-back as long as his body does not let him down.

Our cartoonist looks back at the doomed and very short reign of Ange Postecoglou at the City Ground

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• David’s latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

After eye-catching showings for Aston Villa, piano-playing psychology student is ready to step up for England duty

Lucia Kendall was watching TV, probably a drama, and missed Sarina Wiegman’s call. She wasn’t expecting it. Certainly not this soon. The 21-year-old joined Aston Villa from the WSL 2 club Southampton in the summer but her start in the top division has been so impressive that it has yielded a first senior England call-up for the friendlies against Brazil and Australia.

“It’s surreal really,” Kendall says at the team’s St George’s Park training base. “I don’t think it’s really sunk in. I’m just here to learn as much as possible. This team’s just gone and won back-to-back Euros so to be able to be in their environment is something I really didn’t think I’d get to do so soon.”

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he could take World Cup matches away from US cities he deems ‘unsafe’. Here’s what he said – and what powers he does and doesn’t have

Former England midfielder has always been a disruptor and says Saturday’s match will show his kids he can fight

David Bentley has never been one to turn down a challenge, even if it is to his detriment. In 2008, on England duty, he got roped into playing what was meant to be a lighthearted game with Jimmy Bullard, shouting “Postman Pat” at Fabio Capello in training, on account of the manager’s likeness to the children’s character. Capello – perhaps unsurprisingly – did not see the funny side and Bentley never played for England again.

Bentley has always been audacious. When coming through at Arsenal, he accidentally sat in the seat of the club captain, Patrick Vieira, in the canteen. When the Frenchman tapped the then teenager on the shoulder, ordering him to vacate the seat in front of the rest of the squad, Bentley refused as a matter of principle. “I wasn’t going to let anyone mug me off,” Bentley says. “If I was on the street, no chance. I’m not moving. There’s a hierarchy but I don’t know, I’m not having that. But I can feel his hand on my shoulder now.” He spent the next three months getting kicked in training by Vieira and excluded from nights out with the team.

By blending diaspora players with homegrown talent the island nation of fewer than 600,000 people has qualified for 2026 tournament

On 5 July 1975, the Cape Verdean flag was raised for the first time at Estádio da Várzea in the capital city of Praia, marking the nation’s declaration of independence from Portugal. At that moment, there was no national football team – and no sign of what was to come.

Exactly 100 days after the 50th anniversary of independence, the country’s flag was waved at the very same ground, where crowds gathered to celebrate Cape Verde’s historic first World Cup qualification with the players who had earlier secured the decisive 3-0 win against Eswatini five miles away at the National Stadium. This island nation off the coast of Senegal, with a population of fewer than 600,000, has become the second‑smallest country to qualify for the tournament, after Iceland in 2018.

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There was a moment on Match of the Day (midweek Bigger Cup version) when presenter Mark Chapman observed that the five English teams in the competition had won by an aggregate score of 19-2 and enquired of his studio pundits if this was indicative of the financial heft of the Greatest League In The World™. Not a man widely renowned for his vast repertoire of zingers, the former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock was quick to point out that if had not been for the outstanding performance of Guglielmo Vicario in the Tottenham goal away at Monaco, the aggregate score in matches featuring teams from the English top flight would have been closer to 19-19. In an ideal world, Warnock would have unclipped his microphone, dropped it on the pristine studio floor, walked out of Salford’s Media City and taken his one-gag, one-man show on a nationwide tour. However, being a consummate professional he elected to remain in the company of Chappers, Andy Cole and Guillem Balagué to watch the goals from a series of shellackings that took place in Uefa’s blue riband club competition in gameweek three.

All this talk of Big Ange’s defenestration (yesterday’s Football Daily full email edition), followed in the next paragraph by Lucia Kendall’s surreal Lionesses experience made me think of erstwhile NWOTNW (ask your dad, kids) tyros S*M*A*S*H and their pop hit “Real Surreal”. It would be nice to think Ange was humming “A table’s not a table it’s a chair, you said, so I’m not sacked, I’m still a red” – David Bell.

Can Guardian Towers enlighten me as to why former players and managers are so churlish about calling for a manager to be fired? Is it that horrific to then fall into the Bayern/Rangers/Sweden/Forest/West Ham/Leverkusen/Besiktas (that one’s niche) job among many many others? Or is it truly that bad to be on gardening leave and having to appear on the Overlap while they wait for their next pay day a la Moyes, Solskjær and Dyche? After hearing the usual lot tiptoe around Amorim’s job security before he gave himself a weeks grace with the Liverpool result I just want to shout at the TV: ‘Relax, he’ll be fine!’” – Jake Shepherd.

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 former Tottenham manager made a rash Premier League return, and it will probably be his last

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

The weirdest aspect of Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day reign at Nottingham Forest was how inevitable it all felt. The only shock was that he was sacked on Saturday, within minutes of a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea, rather than a day or two later. But by then, it was obvious this ill-starred adventure had run its course; perhaps it was kinder to everybody to bring it to an end. Forest, certainly, had to act quickly if they are to make the most of their first European campaign in three decades.

But why was such an obviously terrible appointment made in the first place? What was it that made the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, ever think that Postecoglou was the right man to succeed Nuno Espírito Santo? They met in July at an event staged by the Greek league to celebrate Postecoglou winning the Europa League with Tottenham, but was it really just that? That they got on well over a glass of wine?

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

The duo face Germany and Sweden respectively in this week’s semi-finals and should each have enough to win

First leg: Friday, Düsseldorf, 4.45pm (all times BST). Second leg; Tuesday, Caen, 8.10pm

I had high hopes of making a difference when I joined Halifax Women but ended up feeling let down. Clubs have a responsibility to look after their players – at all levels

Football has given me some wonderful experiences. As a young Arab and Egyptian woman playing for Stoke City from 2017 to 2021 I broke barriers and that paved the way for some exciting opportunities. Fifa selected me as a 2022 World Cup ambassador and put me in a film with David Beckham; I also became an Adidas ambassador and worked as an Afcon pundit for the BBC.

But there have been less easy times as well. As an Egyptian international, representing a country that stands 95th in the Fifa rankings, there are obstacles to playing in the biggest leagues. Because of the points system for international players I left Stoke for the chance of playing second-tier football in Spain with Albacete. And since coming back to England, I’ve seen a world very distant from the new riches of the WSL.

Plus: Austria’s full-house of goals and assists, more free-kick purple patches and seeing red after scoring a hat-trick

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Is Ange Postecoglou’s 40-day spell at Nottingham Forest the shortest for a full-time manager in the English top flight?” asks Donna Stevens.

Any Nottingham Forest manager aspires to emulate the achievements of Brian Clough at the City Ground, or at least pay some kind of success-based tribute. Alas, Ange Postecoglou’s spell at Forest was more reminiscent of Clough’s time at Leeds – short and sour.

Ron Futcher, Charlton 5-3 Barnsley, Division Two, March 1985
Futcher’s hat-trick put Barnsley 3-0 ahead; he was then sent off with the score 3-3 before Charlton completed a spectacular comeback.

Hristo Stoichkov, Atlético Madrid 1-4 Barcelona, La Liga, September 1992

Benni McCarthy, Porto 5-3 Santa Clara, Primeira Liga, April 2002

Marco Gabbiadini, Sunderland 4-0 Ipswich, Division Two, March 1989
Quite an achievement, this one – after 87 minutes Gabbiadini had scored only one goal. He added two more in the 88th and 89th before being sent off in the 90th for an alleged right-hander.

Chris Iwelumo, Preston 1-3 Wolves, Championship, September 2008

Hugo Almeida, Werder Bremen 3-0 St Pauli, Bundesliga, November 2010

Arsenal’s title chase picks up pace, Yankuba Minteh gets one over on Newcastle and Wolves are in a tight spot

The high-stakes duel in one of the fiercest rivalries in the English game came down to a crucial in-game management decision. Arne Slot, a manager lauded for smart substitutions last season, took a gamble in the 62nd minute, making three changes that aggressively shifted Liverpool into a 4-2-4, leaving Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz dangerously exposed in midfield. The gamble initially appeared worthwhile: after rattling a post twice, Cody Gakpo finally delivered a 78th-minute equaliser to breathe some life into the deflated Anfield crowd. But Ruben Amorim remained calm and trusted his vision. Liverpool were undone just six minutes later after Bruno Fernandes’s fantastic cross found Harry Maguire inexplicably alone at the far post, the lack of defensive bodies evident as he thumped in the winner. Slot was hoping for a high-risk, high-reward outcome but ultimately, United’s grit in the second half paid off. Amorim has his critics – droves of them – but his tactics, including starting Maguire, were vindicated to earn United’s first win at Anfield since 2016. Two league wins on the bounce is a first for Amorim at United. Are the wheels shifting? “It’s an embarrassing stat to have had,” said Maguire. “We have to start putting a bit more consistency together. We have set a benchmark.” Yara El-Shaboury

Match report: Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa

Match report: Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Nottingham Forest 0-3 Chelsea

Match report: Brighton 2-1 Newcastle

Match report: Manchester City 2-0 Everton

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today’s column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them

By the time next summer’s World Cup kicks off, it’ll have been 12 years since Italy last played at the tournament they have won more times (four) than any other nation besides Brazil (five) and Germany (also four). The way things are going, the Azzurri’s 12-year wait for World Cup qualification could become a 16-year one at the very least.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson and Ben Fisher as the Premier League returns this weekend

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On the podcast today: the panel preview the upcoming round of fixtures including Liverpool at home to Manchester United in a game that feels significant for both sides. Arne Slot has some big decisions to make while a win for Ruben Amorim would potentially blast his side up to the dizzying heights of sixth.

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