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Martin Ødegaard sheepishly leads the Arsenal players out onto the Anfield turf, to a mixed reception from Liverpool’s fans.

Now here come those Liverpool players to walk through …

In the end, Barcelona were just too good and Madrid just not good enough: not just here, in the clásico that effectively clinched the league title, but all season long. Hansi Flick’s young team have been wild and fun, and they are going to be double winners, La Liga taken the way they played out the season. Montjuic briefly held its breath and then celebrated in the sunshine, as they watched their side concede two inside 15 minutes, seemingly inviting a catastrophe, and still win. Because if Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick here, Barcelona scored more. Which is what they do.

Four times Barcelona have faced their rivals this season and four times they have beaten them, scoring 16 times. The first set up the league season, the second won them the Super Cup, the third took the Copa del Rey and the last, another portrait of the campaign for both sides, took Barcelona seven points clear with only nine in play. They trailed early, but goals from Eric García, Lamine Yamal and two for Raphinha saw them do it again, any ghosts from their European exit gone on another fearless afternoon, where the only strange thing was that Madrid were ever even in it – let alone within a goal until the end.

A fleeting loss of first-half control on Nicolas Jackson’s part threatens to cost Chelsea an awful lot of money and prestige. Jackson’s dismissal for smashing a forearm into Sven Botman’s face jeopardised his team’s hopes of Champions League qualification on a day when Enzo Maresca’s side could easily have taken an unlikely point.

Newcastle are almost at the juncture where they can start dusting down the guide books to Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Munich et al but, after a bright start resulted in Sandro Tonali’s opener, Eddie Howe’s players rather lost their way against Chelsea’s 10 men and ended up a little flattered by the scoreline.

If you had told Nottingham Forest fans in August that a point in their penultimate home game of the season would guarantee them European qualification, most would have bitten your hand off. Now, however, after it looked as if Chris Wood’s diving header had lifted them into fifth place, Facundo Buonanotte’s late equaliser means that Champions League qualification is out of their hands.

Qualifying for the Europa League (or Conference League) is no mean feat for Nuno Espírito Santo’s team but, having been sitting pretty in third place for the middle part of the season, it seems like a comedown now. Certainly that seemed to be Evangelos Marinakis’s reaction as the Forest owner strode on to the pitch at full time to have a few choice words with his manager.

This was an exercise in how not to utilise the first of only two matches to tune up before a major European final from Manchester United that left Ruben Amorim so disenchanted he spoke of not being in charge if the start to next season is the same.

The head coach said: “I’m talking about myself, I’m talking about the culture in the club and the culture in the team. We need to be really strong in the summer and be brave. We will not have a next season like this if we start like this. If the feeling is still here we should give space [his position] to different persons.”

Play like this at Wembley and Crystal Palace will have every chance of upsetting the odds when they face Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Oliver Glasner has built a clever, flexible and wonderfully mobile team since taking over from Roy Hodgson last year and it helps that an efficient collective is backed up by the dreamy individual quality of Eberechi Eze, whose double in this straightforward win over Tottenham Hotspur’s second string ensured that Palace have vital momentum before taking on City.

Before anyone gets carried away, though, it is worth pointing out that Spurs were abysmal. Nobody played themselves into Ange Postecogolou’s plans for the Europa League final against Manchester United later this month. There was also concern about Dejan Kulusevski departing with an early injury and although the Spurs fans sang about going to Bilbao there was no disguising their displeasure after their side’s 20th defeat of a dreadful Premier League campaign left them in 17th place with two games left.

• Fans gathered at training complex after defeat to Celta
• Club condemn ‘aggression and vandalism’ in statement

Sevilla players were forced to sleep at the club’s training ground following “extreme violence” from supporters after their 3-2 defeat by Celta Vigo.

A club statement released on Sunday strongly condemned “organised vandalism” at the José Ramón Cisneros Palacios training complex. Footage on social media appeared to show fans with pyrotechnics gathering outside the training ground on Saturday, with an access gate being damaged.

• Barry Ferguson earns first home win as Rangers manager
• Celtic come from behind to beat Hibernian 3-1

Barry Ferguson got his first Ibrox win as Rangers manager at the sixth attempt with a 4-0 Premiership victory against Aberdeen. After a mostly lifeless first half, Vaclav Cerny opened the scoring in the 55th minute before Cyriel Dessers doubled that lead five minutes later, with Hamza Igamane notching in the 70th minute and the left-back Jefté adding gloss in added time with a fortunate goal.

It was a first home win for Rangers since beating Ross County on 2 February, with Ferguson – installed as interim manager the same month until the end of the season – culpable for the previous five home games without a victory.

• Norwegian says it was his choice to leave after nine games
• Club to provide update on new manager ‘in due course’

Leif Smerud has left his role as the Crystal Palace women’s team manager after only two months in charge, after their relegation from the Women’s Super League.

The 48-year-old Norwegian, who said it was his choice to end his time at the club, arrived on 1 March and oversaw just nine games in all competitions, winning one, drawing one and losing seven, concluding with Saturday’s 5-2 loss away at Manchester City on the final day of the WSL season.

Striker’s deserved red card at Newcastle left his teammates in the lurch, though their display improved without him

There are thousands of details that go into determining the outcome of every game, every season, every career, and yet sometimes everything can turn on a moment. If Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League this season, it will have been for a host of reasons, but one incident, not entirely fairly, will stand out: the moment 10 minutes before half-time on Sunday when Nicolas Jackson stumbled, righted himself, looked over his shoulder at Sven Botman, and then thrust his right forearm into the Dutchman’s face.

As the wheels of VAR slowly turned, Enzo Maresca, wearing a salmon-pink sweatshirt that gave him the air of a dad on his way to B&Q on a Saturday morning, turned to the bench, spread his arms and swore with a slight shake of his head. How could they be out of the specific bracket he needed? His diatribe at the fourth official felt performative: in his heart he knew he probably should have bought the necessary hardware more than five minutes before starting to put the shelf up, and that Jackson was bang to rights.

City must respond to Chelsea’s dominance and the identity of their next manager will be key

Even as the party anthems blasted out under sunny Manchester skies and the home fans showed their appreciation after a seven-goal thriller, the celebratory mood could not fully mask the undertone of disappointment at the Joie Stadium, for a club wondering what might have been.

On the season’s final day 12 months ago, Manchester City missed out on the title only on goal difference. This time, they finished 17 points off the runaway champions Chelsea. Worse still, City dropped outside the European places.

• Defender blasts Saints’ time-wasting: ‘It kills the game’
• ‘They can do whatever they want,’ responds City manager

Rúben Dias tore into Southampton for what he felt were anti-football tactics, laying bare his frustration after Manchester City were held to a 0-0 draw here. Southampton had just two shots – both off target – and 28% of the ball as they ground out a result that means City are still not assured of a top-five finish and Champions League qualification.

Dias raged about Southampton’s use of the dark arts, including time-wasting, although his manager, Pep Guardiola, had no complaints, saying it was simply up to City to find a way through. “It’s frustrating,” Dias said. “In a moment like this every point matters. And it is frustrating to play against a team like this.

It was a fraught episode that could yet determine Aston Villa’s season. In the final minute of stoppage time, the big screens showed 94 minutes and 13 seconds when Emiliano Martínez made a magnificent save to thwart Antoine Semenyo and Matty Cash ended up crashing into the Villa net to successfully spook the Bournemouth substitute Daniel Jebbison, who headed over from a couple of yards out. Amadou Onana instantly rushed to Cash, grabbing his cheeks by way of congratulations.

While Martínez embarked on a round of high-fives with his defenders and clenched both fists overhead as if parading a trophy, Cash was still in a heap, clinging to the polypropylene Villa net after the pair combined to eke out a priceless victory in their push to qualify again for the Champions League. The Villa full-back seemed as perplexed as anyone as to how Jebbison contrived to miss.

• Manager has hopes for Bradley and likes finding answers
• ‘I’m very, very, very happy about Virgil and Mo extending’

Arne Slot is planning to turn Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Anfield departure into a positive for Liverpool, the head coach has said. The right-back will leave Merseyside this summer for Real Madrid on a free transfer, meaning the Dutchman will need to find a way of replacing him.

Conor Bradley is set to start Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Arsenal at Anfield as preparations continue for next season with the title secured. Slot might have to look outside the club for someone to challenge the Northern Ireland international for the right-back berth.

• Postecoglou unmoved by idea of a new ‘Ossie’s Dream’
• Spurs face Manchester United in Europa League final

Ange Postecoglou has played down the prospect of his Tottenham squad recording a cup final song before their Europa League final with Manchester United.

The record ‘Ossie’s Dream’ by Chas and Dave – in reference to the former midfielder Ossie Ardiles – is synonymous with Spurs’ history after being recorded with the squad to commemorate reaching the 1981 FA Cup final. However, Postecoglou insisted no repeat would occur with the class of ‘25, who secured a place in Bilbao with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Bodø/Glimt.

• Forward admits ‘hard times’ during difficult campaign
• ‘We are in a good position now to win a European trophy’

Rasmus Højlund is determined to prove himself “on the biggest stage” with Manchester United, although the centre-forward admits his 21-match scoring drought earlier in the season was a test of character.

Højlund’s goal in Thursday’s 4-1 defeat of Athletic Bilbao was only his 10th in 48 games, a return that has prompted some criticism. But the 22-year-old Dane is clear he can turn his form around. “I know what this football club is all about,” Højlund said. “It’s a lot of pressure, but that’s why I’m here. I want to show myself on the biggest stage.”

Former striker answers your questions on Scottish nightlife, his toughest opponent, proudest moment and when football made him cry

I served you many times in The Tally Ho pub in Dundee in the early 1990s. You were always a gent. How did your reputation as a hard man sit with you when, for me, you clearly differ from that in real life? Fionan Lynch

I’m not a hard man. I’ve always tried to be nice to people but sometimes I’ve been backed into a corner and got myself into a wee bit of trouble. I played the game aggressively but I don’t think I was even the toughest in any of the dressing rooms I’ve been in. I don’t see myself as a tough guy. But it’s followed me everywhere. A night to gain a reputation and a lifetime to get rid of it.

Memories of a pie and pint at the football seem worlds away as hospitality folk will be charged up to £20,000 for a ‘world-class matchday experience’

The Premier League has become a place where not just the other half reside but the 1%. If money follows money then England’s top tier is a place to be seen, to do business, to entertain, for those who can afford the corporate facilities increasingly important to football’s bottom line.

On Saturday, before Fulham’s loss against Everton, a grand opening of Craven Cottage’s Riverside Stand. Its exoskeleton was a feature of the Thames during pandemic times, the bottom of the stand has been in partial service for the past three seasons. When contractor Buckingham Group in September 2023 collapsed it left the interior fit to be completed, plus much of the exterior; Buckingham’s collapse also delayed Liverpool’s Anfield Road redevelopment. Portview, the fit-out contractor, took control and full rollout comes before Fulham see out the 2024-25 season.

The 18-year-old schemer has a €70m (£59.5m) release clause but Europe’s top clubs may regard that as money well spent

Rodrigo Mora turned 18 on Monday but plays with the poise of a seasoned professional. Porto’s new wonderkid drifts between the lines, picks passes others do not see and finishes with elegance. His flair for unlocking defences – whether through goals, assists or sheer intelligence – has caught the attention of the super agent Jorge Mendes, who is guiding the midfielder’s career.

“He sees the game like no one I’ve ever coached,” says Nuno Pimentel, the former Porto under-15 manager. Pimentel, who worked with Mora in the 2021–22 season and now coaches in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr’s youth teams, vividly recalls what set Mora apart.

On 11 May 1985, 56 football supporters lost their lives and hundreds more were injured. The city came together that day and its unity since has been a constant source of pride

Bradford is so often portrayed as a city divided. Sometimes, those descriptions can be correct. It is a place swamped with economic instability and problems that run deep, but over the past week, and again this weekend, the two things that unite its many communities have risen to the fore.

One is its football team. Bradford City, like the West Yorkshire city itself, have had their fair share of inauspicious moments, but their incredible escape from League Two last Saturday, scoring a 96th-minute winner to beat Fleetwood and secure automatic promotion for the first time this century, sparked jubilant scenes over the bank holiday weekend.

They have lost three times to their oldest rivals but a win would give Ancelotti’s men a path to retaining the league

Real Madrid’s players arrived at training on Wednesday morning to find seven teddy bears waiting for them. Lined up on a bush outside Valdebebas, they wore white shirts and a banner had been placed in front of them, alongside a couple of Spain flags with the club badge in the middle where the crown should go. “Grazie, Inter,” it said. The night before, Simone Inzaghi’s side had done for them what they had not been able to do for themselves, at least not yet. Now perhaps it can be their turn, one last chance to salvage something from what has been somebody else’s season.

Barcelona had been beaten: there would be no Champions League and no treble, reason alone to celebrate or at least seek consolation in Madrid, if not the only one. Because if it’s tempting to ask: “Is that all you’ve got?” somehow the answer may still be: “Actually, no.” Four days on from Barcelona’s European exit, Montjuïc hosts the fourth clásico of 2024-25 in a fourth stadium. Madrid have lost the previous three – 4-0, 5-2 and 3-2, seeing their rivals go top of the table, win the Super Cup and the Copa del Rey. Lose a fourth, and they will see them win the league title too, Hansi Flick’s team would be seven points clear with nine in play, a double within reach, while Madrid are left with nothing.

The town was ripped apart and the economy decimated. But now the football club will make an emotional return

It was about 7pm when UMF Grindavík’s players finished training in the club’s indoor hall. There had been seismic activity in the area all day but, in this harbour town to the south of Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon, everybody had become wearily used to that. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had been a discomfiting, menacing backdrop to the previous three years. Everyday life had continued but now, on 10 November 2023, nature was to have its say. Four hours after its football team had completed their session, the danger had become intolerable and Grindavík was evacuated. Their once-thriving home quickly turned into a ghost town.

Nobody would dream of using the hall for football now. Its pitch is cleaved in two by a fissure up to 25 metres deep; one of the most striking images in a settlement that has been ripped apart. A chasm has destroyed their outdoor practice pitch too. But something remarkable will happen in Grindavík on Saturday: football will lead the way in a recovery few could have foreseen over the past 18 months. Grindavík will play at their Stakkavíkurvöllur home for the first time since the town’s abandonment, hosting Fjölnir in a second-tier fixture whose outcome feels distinctly secondary.

• US set to host in 2031, the UK in 2035
• Fifa approves strategy for Afghan women’s football

The Women’s World Cup will expand to 48 teams from the 2031 tournament onwards after the proposal was approved by the Fifa council on Friday.

The UK is set to host the event in 2035 and that tournament will now involve 12 groups of four teams and more than 100 matches, with the format mirroring the newly expanded men’s World Cup. It is understood Fifa took this decision after consulting the continental confederations and believe expansion of its most important tournament befits the rapid growth of the women’s game.

• Leverkusen agree to cut contract set to run until 2026
• Alonso led club to unbeaten Bundesliga title last season

Xabi Alonso will leave Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the Bundesliga season, with the expectation he will take on the imminently vacant seat at Real Madrid.

“We can let you know that this week the club and I, we have agreed that these two games are going to be my last two games as a Bayern Leverkusen coach,” Alonso told a Friday press conference. “We have been talking during this week that is always about the moment and now is the right moment to announce it.”

The oldest man on the oldest Champions League team delivered when it mattered to show they can go all the way

What was he even doing there, in the 183rd minute of a two-legged tie, a 37-year-old centre-back attacking the opposition’s six-yard box, the furthest man forward on his team? Francesco Acerbi had not scored a goal in more than a year. Heck, he had not scored one in 65 appearances across Uefa club competitions. This is not his job, not the thing he trains for, not a defining moment anyone had predicted for the most entertaining Champions League semi-final ever to unfold.

Or maybe this is the only way it could be. “Pazza Inter Amala” runs the line from Inter’s club anthem. “Crazy Inter, Love Her”. This is not Real Madrid, where “being successful is part of our DNA”, nor Juventus lecturing you that “winning is the only thing that counts”. Inter make sense when they stop making sense. Acerbi – yes, that Acerbi, who overcame cancer twice and who has won all seven major trophies of his career since turning 30, smashing a striker’s finish into the top corner to make it 6-6 on aggregate and force extra time? Of course. How else did you imagine this could go?

After winning over Bayern’s hardcore support, the prolific Engländer has led the charge to the Bundesliga title

After Harry Kane’s three final heartbreaks with Tottenham and England his first major trophy win, the Bundesliga title we originally thought to be immediately inevitable, was on reflection never going to be straightforward. Last week’s yellow card against Augsburg kept him in the stands for Bayern Munich’s potential title clincher at RB Leipzig (a visibly annoyed Kane suggested referee Bastian Dankert had been “trying to make a name for himself” after the harsh booking, issued when he didn’t return the ball quickly enough after he was whistled for a foul). Then Yusuf Poulsen’s 95th-minute equaliser for the hosts meant Bayern weren’t quite there mathematically, even though Thomas Müller felt comfortable enough to lead the players and a trench-coated Kane through some frolics with the away fans on Saturday. Leverkusen only drawing at Freiburg on Sunday has, at last, finally sealed the deal. Kane’s Bayern destiny has been fulfilled, and no apparent jinx could get in the way this time.

On the day he signed in August 2023 Munich was balmy, in terms of weather and mood. It was the morning of Bayern’s DFL-Supercup game against RB Leipzig and as the thermometers crept above 30C, hot and bothered fans queued outside the multiple Bayern fan shops in the city centre with the aim of getting their hands on one item: the new, white-with-red-trim home jersey with “Kane 9” on the back. The red-on-white, multi-lined font of name and number – a throwback to the figures adorning the backs of Bayern’s 1974 European Cup winners – hinted at a new era of glory.

Murals of McTominay in Naples? Don’t rule that out with the volatile manager who never stays long despite serial success

There’s always a Tottenham exception. Since leaving Siena in 2011, since he got his first break with a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies, Antonio Conte has won league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Going into Sunday’s matches, with three games remaining, his Napoli lead Inter by three points. In a decade and a half he has won a trophy with every club he has managed, apart from Tottenham.

Maybe Tottenham simply aren’t a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies. Certainly it’s not as familiar to them as it is to Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Napoli were Serie A title winners the season before last. Conte led Tottenham for 17 months and although he has the fifth-best win record of any Spurs manager, although he took them to fourth in his first season, having replaced Nuno Espírito Santo in the November, and although they were fourth when he left in March 2023, by the end the situation was so toxic as to be unsustainable.

While Fifa’s chief of global development focuses on offside toes and noses, VAR needs a helping hand somewhere else

Five years ago, Fifa’s chief of global development, Arsène Wenger, outlined his bold plans to change the offside law.

“The most difficult [issue] that people have [with VAR] is the offside rule,” he said. “You have had offsides by a fraction of a centimetre, literally by a nose. It is the time to do this quickly.

Amid a gloomy season, pyrotechnics lit up Old Trafford and Mason Mount led United into the Europa League final

This match meant everything to Manchester United’s season, the one that could save it from oblivion. Amid the Sir Jim Ratcliffe penny-pinching, there was budget for pyrotechnics to complement the tifos and raucous chanting from both sets of fans to create a glorious backdrop for what could be one of the final great European nights at Old Trafford.

With plans in place to knock down the Theatre of Dreams and replace it with a 100,000-capacity stadium in as soon as five years and the current United squad going through a transition under Ruben Amorim, the prospect of reaching the final four in major competitions before the final brick is laid is not guaranteed.

Teenager was a revelation across an incredible semi-final tie and Spanish side have much to be proud of in defeat

On the afternoon before the first leg of the the most extraordinary Champions League semi-final anyone could remember, Lamine Yamal said he had left fear behind in the park in Mataró years ago. Everything else he left behind at Montjuïc and San Siro, a statement stronger than any he had delivered in the press room. If that line was a promise, a demonstration of personality, it was kept, but Barcelona couldn’t reach their first final in a decade so he made another. “We won’t stop until this club is where it deserves to be: at the summit,” he wrote in the dark moments after defeat.

Here Barcelona had been stopped within touching distance. Lamine Yamal departed the pitch in silence holding Marcus Thuram’s shirt, Inter’s players coming to embrace this boy they had survived, a child born every 50 years in the words of their manager, Simone Inzaghi. There has been something revelatory about the 17-year-old’s performance over two astonishing nights and at the end of it all there was almost a kind of reverence, a respect towards him. Inter had reached the final again and will talk of this for ever, their everything; one day, they knew, he may be part of the epic stories they tell.

Our cartoonist on intense motivational techniques and banter in north London before European semi-finals

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From rocks being thrown at cars to spectators being given the red cards, readers share their experiences of the most shocking scenes at children’s soccer games

The first manager my son had, when he was seven, got the parents together and told us how shouting could affect our sons’ development and behaviour, not only as players but as human beings. Usually, I don’t behave so badly. The worst I’ve done is to complain to the referee and I’ve sworn once or twice. But mostly I’ve been civil. There was one time, though, when a game was interrupted because the other team had fielded ineligible nine-year-old players. There was a lot of swearing and shouting from managers and dads. My wife decided enough was enough and took our son from the field to go home. He was the team’s only keeper so without him there was no game and several of the other team’s dads taunted us, shouting: “Are you running?”, “Are you scared?”. My wife ignored them and headed for the exit but one of the dads pushed her. Another guy punched me from behind and I completely lost it and punched back. Both teams were expelled from the tournament.
André Pereira Leme Lopes, 53, Brazil

Now the subject of a documentary, the former striker opens up on his strict upbringing in Argentina, the heart troubles that ended his career and that Manchester City goal

During a visit to Madrid in 2007, Anatoliy Byshovets, the then head coach of Lokomotiv Moscow, said watching Sergio Agüero was like visiting the Prado. Pep Guardiola said he was a legend. Jorge Valdano said he could invent anything, anywhere, a unique footballer who had lost all fear, although he was wrong on that. Lionel Messi said he did the impossible. Diego Maradona said Agüero reminded him of himself, phoning one day to apologise for not playing him more. “I was a dickhead,” Maradona said.

Sometimes it can feel like the one person who never said Agüero was good was the one person he really wanted to. When the former Manchester City striker announced he was retiring at the age of 33, forced to stop by a heart problem, all the stress accumulated beneath the surface since his debut at 15, his dad called and said he had never seen a better footballer. He had played 786 games and scored 427 goals by then. “You waited until I retired to tell me that?!” Agüero replied. “I was happy and sad at the same time,” he says. “At last, he said something good.”

Most fans who visit Buenos Aires want to watch Boca or River. I plumped for reigning champions Vélez Sarsfield

By The Football Mine

When imagining a football match in Buenos Aires many fans visualise La Bombonera shuddering to its foundations by the jumping mass of blue and yellow Boca Juniors supporters or the majestic Estadio Monumental bedecked in streams of ticker tape when hosting Argentina’s victory in the World Cup final in 1978. Last Sunday, the Monumental was at full capacity as 85,000 fans watched River Plate beat Boca 2-1 in a tense Superclásico. However, a few weeks ago my experience of going to a football match in Buenos Aires was very different indeed.

As I discovered when planning my trip to Buenos Aires, gaining admission to one of the Argentinian capital’s largest clubs, such as Boca or River Plate, is by no means straightforward. Both clubs have significant numbers of members, with more than 340,000 each (only Real Madrid have more). These socios have priority when it comes to buying tickets so there is limited availability. One of the only ways to buy tickets in advance is through a third party, who charge $150 upwards. Kick-off times are only announced a week or so in advance, which makes life even more complicated.

The Watford Women manager on being included on the Football Black List, Hope Powell’s importance and the reasons she quit playing at 26

When Renée Hector was getting the football bug as a youngster playing at Stevenage Borough Vixens, she idolised England internationals such as Alex Scott, Rachel Yankey and Anita Asante. But the only black female coach she felt she could relate to was the England manager, Hope Powell. From the moment Hector moved to Watford’s centre of excellence, aged 10, managing the club’s women’s team was her ultimate dream, inspired by Powell, and she fulfilled that ambition this season in her first year in charge of the Women’s National League Premier Division side, at the age of 29.

Hector’s playing career was cut short at 26 by an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but she was determined to turn that into something positive and progress her coaching career faster than expected. Last month, she was recognised on 2024’s Football Black List, which honours the most influential black people in the game. Hector is in elite company in a select list of five alongside the England coach Ashley Cole, Nottingham Forest’s Nuno Espírito Santo, Port Vale’s Darren Moore and the Arsenal and England youth coach Carly Williams.

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Having had time to reflect on Arsenal’s semi-final defeat at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in Bigger Cup, Football Daily has arrived at the conclusion that there are a couple of ways to frame the exit of Mikel Arteta’s side. The first is to say that, despite being plagued by long-term knack to key personnel and endlessly persecuted by referees at home and abroad, they played extremely well for long periods across both legs and were perhaps unlucky to come up against a mighty state-owned behemoth. A mighty state-owned behemoth that is backed by limitless financial resources and is able to field a goalkeeper who is in the form of his life, and who had his task made a little easier by the fact that Arsenal were forced to field a side with no recognised centre-forward in both matches. Yes, that sounds fair.

I know Atlético Madrid were supposed to be looking to sign him, but after Wednesday night’s performance in Paris, will anybody want to fight for the right to Partey?” – Declan Hackett.

Following another barren season for Mikel Arteta’s team, may I suggest they have a nickname similar to the Neverkusen epithet foisted upon Bayer at the start of this century? ‘Nahrsenal’ perhaps” – Duncan Roberts.

Re: yesterday’s Memory Lane (full email edition) and Ron Springett being unveiled as the new Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper. Is this the first (and potentially only) example of a new signing being unveiled before the press pack and performing keepy-outies? Admittedly he does appear to be nowhere near his goal or even in the 18-yard box but anyway …” – Derek McGee.

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 Copa do Brasil is back after a nine-year break but there are concerns about Brazil’s top flight before a first World Cup in South America

After a nine-year hiatus, fans of Brazilian women’s football will once again be able to support their clubs in the Copa do Brasil. The cup will bring together 65 clubs from the three divisions of the national women’s football league, starting with a preliminary round on 21 May and concluding with the final in November. It is a return that has long been requested by the women’s football community in Brazil in order to expand the calendar for lower-division clubs and gives high-profile teams such as Flamengo, Corinthians and Santos another opportunity to compete for silverware.

However, all is not rosy on the Brazilian club scene only two years before Brazil are to host the Women’s World Cup for the first time. There have been a few years of growing sponsorship and visibility in the top tier, the Brasileirão A1, but this season has exposed the challenges facing the game.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back in to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

Union captain Lisa Heiseler, who has been at the club since she was 13, talks about promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga

“I can’t describe how I feel,” Lisa Heiseler says as she reflects on a momentous weekend for Union Berlin Women. Just three days after her side secured a historic promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga, the captain is clearly still processing everything that has happened to her and her teammates.

27 April 2025 will be a date for ever etched in the memories of Union Berlin’s women’s team and their supporters. A 6-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in front of more than 14,000 jubilant fans at the Stadion An der Alte Försterei saw Ailien Poese’s side secure promotion with three games to spare, one that will see them play in the top echelon of German football for the first time and at the first time of asking.

In a freakish season at the top and bottom of the league, competing incentives for the rest are unusually fractured

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As Eddie Howe delivered his post-match press conference after Newcastle’s draw against Brighton on Sunday, Chelsea, his club’s rivals for Champions League qualification, took an early lead against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Howe gave a wry smile and was immediately asked whether it annoyed him that Liverpool had made six changes to their lineup from the side that had sealed the league title against Tottenham last week. Being Howe, and therefore both unflappable and impossibly earnest, he replied that team selection was their business: “Liverpool have got to do what Liverpool have got to do for them. I’m not involved in their football club, so I’ve got no opinion on that.”

And of course he was right to say so, partly because it’s true and partly because criticising other managers’ team selections is a slippery slope. All clubs have their own priorities and their job is to do what is right for them, with all due nods to the integrity of the league and satisfying those who have paid for tickets or broadcast rights. Liverpool have won the title early: giving fringe players a run out is a prerogative they have earned, and it’s not their concern how that affects other sides. But at the same time, Chelsea were given an easier game than they probably would have been had they met Liverpool a week or two earlier before the league title was wrapped up.

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Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have given Football Daily plenty of ammunition over the years, but with both sealing their place in a European final on Thursday with comfortable victories in their respective semi-finals, this is not meant to be a snide missive about their latest achievements. Sure, Athletic Club can only recruit players from an area the size of Wales, were missing their first-choice centre-back Dani Vivian through suspension, their best three attacking players through injury (Iñaki and Nico Williams, plus Oihan Sancet), were 3-0 down from the first leg and still gave United’s band of global internationals a frightful scare by taking a first-half lead at Old Trafford. But fair play to United, they roared back in the second half, and ended as comfortable winners, 4-1 on the night and 7-1 on aggregate. In reaching the final, Ruben Amorim has a real and tangible reason to be proud of his team, and it’s also nice to see Mason Mount being good at football again.

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily. Can I suggest that after Arsenal provide a guard of honour on Sunday, Liverpool repay the compliment twice to acknowledge the titles Arsenal would have won in the last two seasons if it wasn’t for the pesky ‘team with the greatest number of points is first’ nonsense?” – Dominic Hodgson.

One point that yesterday’s Football Daily omitted – Arsenal got further in Bigger Cup than rivals Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester City. I rather suspect that Mikel Arteta would be mildly pleased if you now referred to the semi-finals as the new ‘Round of Arsenal’” – Mike Wilner.

Apologies to anyone who watched Salford (yesterday’s Class of 25, full email edition) in the Northern Premier back in the day, but Salford City? Salford City? The answer to the problems with football in that area of Manchester is Salford City? I’m no fan of FC United, to be honest (the angst is wearing), but if jaded millionaires really wanted to make a statement and pose an existential crisis to the club that made them and yet is tanking under a leveraged buyout, there was one obvious choice. But no, they went for the vanity-stroking path of high fives with Tom Brady and Ryan Reynolds in a dull Netflix documentary about the Championship playoff struggle. Tell me, one Salford fan, that you view United as an actual rival, and don’t just check your phone for updates about Josuha Zirkzee” – Jon Millard.

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Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Paul Watson as Spurs and Manchester United progress to the Europa League final

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On the podcast today: there’s very little jeopardy for either Spurs or Manchester United, who both deservedly progress to the Europa League final with comfortable two-legged wins over Bodø/Glimt and Athletic Club, respectively.

PSG and Inter will play for the crown at the end of the month but there were plenty of twists and turns before the finalists were decided

Inter