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Switzerland were denied a fairytale start to their home Euros as a header from Ada Hegerberg and an own goal gave an unconvincing Norway three points.

Nadine Riesen’s first-half opener had fans spiralling, hope and ecstasy pouring from every corner of the ground, but their profligacy would prove costly as a moment of magic from Hegerberg and then Caroline Graham Hansen to force Norway’s second turned the game on its head.

As the Lionesses prepare to defend their title at Euro 2025 we trace the manager’s tenure, including her dismay after a 10-0 win

Finland secured their first victory at a Women’s European Championship in 16 years with a narrow win against 10-player Iceland. Katariina Kosola’s superb second-half strike proved enough after Hildur Antonsdóttir had seen red.

After all the buildup, the tournament finally got under way in the picturesque town of Thun. Sweltering under the heat of the Swiss summer, Iceland and Finland took to the field in the opening day’s early kick-off.

Defender aims to improve and grow successful culture with young squad during run to Club World Cup quarter-finals

Chelsea never won any popularity contests during the Roman Abramovich era. Calling them obnoxious is intended as a compliment. Infused with a champion spirit after appointing José Mourinho in 2004, Chelsea were renowned for their resilience and snarl, impossible to intimidate and more concerned with winning trophies than whether outsiders thought they were a great bunch of lads or liked their style of play.

Their mentality was unrivalled and lasted even after Mourinho left. Since Abramovich’s sale in 2022, though, Chelsea have gone down a very different road when it comes to building a dressing room culture. There are no ready-made talents arriving at Stamford Bridge and there have been plenty of times during the past three years when supporters have been left wondering why a team once marshalled by Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were so lacking in character.

• Jarrad Branthwaite signs five-year-contract with club

• Jarell Quansah swaps Liverpool for Leverkusen

Everton are closing in on the signing of the Villarreal striker Thierno Barry for a fee of around €32m (£27m). The France Under-21 international has a €40m release clause in his contract with the Spanish club but Everton have been negotiating for several weeks to lower the asking price.

A breakthrough has been made this week and, while the deal is not yet complete, the 22-year-old appears poised to become David Moyes’s second summer signing, following the £12.6m deal to sign Carlos Alcaraz permanently.

Having helped Tottenham win the Europa League the 34-year-old is stepping out on his own after building a library of coaching experience

For Ryan Mason, this opportunity has been a few years in the making. Since retiring from playing aged 26 after fracturing his skull – a horror injury that required 14 metal plates to be inserted into his skull, held together by 28 screws – he has built a library of coaching experience, working under José Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou. This season, after accepting his first full-time managerial role at West Brom, he has an opportunity to show his workings. “My last game was as a 25-year-old and I have had a seven-, eight-year apprenticeship, which in normal circumstances is quite a long time,” he says.

Nothing was normal about the end of Mason’s playing career. For a while there were 45 staples and he had a six-inch scar across his head. For about 10 days he had to be spoon-fed and being able to pick up a glass of orange juice was a major milestone. At the time he felt his career was in its infancy but stepping into coaching, initially in the Spurs academy, he discovered a new passion. “I definitely have a fire inside of me to be successful and fulfil the sort of dreams and ambitions that I had as a player,” he says.

• Former Wales star had stated interest last month

• Group is thought to include investors from the US

A consortium spearheaded by Gareth Bale has submitted an offer to buy Cardiff City, his home-town club. The former Real Madrid and Wales star believes he is the ideal candidate to turn around Cardiff’s fortunes after relegation to League One, the club dropping into the third tier for the first time since 2002-2003.

Bale and his team are awaiting a response from the Cardiff owner, Vincent Tan, but believe their offer is serious and fair, and are thought to be optimistic it could be accepted. Tan’s valuation of the club or whether he is open to selling is unclear but the Malaysian billionaire has invested more than £200m since buying it in 2010.

• Manager Slegers hails ‘great impact’ Kelly has made

• Australia full-back Carpenter moves from OL Lyonnes

Chloe Kelly has signed for Arsenal on a free transfer after her successful loan, which ended with a Champions League title. “Putting pen to paper on a permanent contract at Arsenal is a standout moment for me,” said Kelly, who is in Switzerland preparing for England’s Euro 2025 campaign.

“Learning from an incredible ­manager and continuing to build ­relationships with an excellent team is a journey I’m looking forward to continuing.”

Plus: top scorers for two clubs in one season, very old under-21 players and much more

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“Has a team won the Champions League without beating any reigning champions?” asks Paddy French. “And if not, which teams have beaten the fewest champions to win it? And which teams have beaten the most champions in winning the Champions League/European Cup?”

Let’s just clarify that Paddy is referring to reigning league champions, here, not reigning European champions, to which we had a few answers. Even in an era in which many Champions League teams are also-rans from the big leagues around Europe, the answer to the first question is no.

Pep Guardiola has plenty to think about over the summer after a last-16 defeat to Al-Hilal in the United States

A manager rejuvenated is no overblown assessment of Pep Guardiola, whose friendly wave to this correspondent during a morning training session at Manchester City’s Boca Raton camp was emblematic of a man who oozed energy and commitment for the challenge of elevating his side again throughout the Club. World Cup. Immediately after the winding blow of Monday’s 4-3 defeat by Al-Hilal in Orlando, the 54-year-old blended disappointment with a measured optimism, fairly pointing to how if chances had been taken then City would be facing off against Fluminense in Friday’s quarter-final, back at the Camping World Stadium.

Spain are expected to win the tournament for the first time but England have a Golden Boot contender in Alessia Russo

It feels as if Spain and a revitalised Germany have the wind in their sails to meet in Basel, even if Aitana Bonmatí’s illness is a real worry for the world champions. Spain will win out on the night. England know the ropes and cannot be ruled out but their path to glory looks complicated. Nick Ames

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

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

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

There is no shortage of contenders but who will finish as the tournament’s top scorer in Switzerland?

The race to be stop scorer at the Women’s Euros 2025 in Switzerland is a fascinating one. Spain, the world champions, have several players who can top the list: Esther González, Clàudia Pina and Salma Paralluelo. The beaten finalists in Australia and New Zealand – England – count Alessia Russo as their main threat but also have Beth Mead, Chloe Kelly, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp who can chip in with goals.

Germany and France also have high hopes of going all the way this summer and have, among their ranks, Lea Schüller, Jule Brand, Klara Bühl, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Sandy Baltimore and Kadidiatou Diani.

Get to know every single squad member at the tournament. Click on the player pictures for a full profile and ratings

Enthusiasm is palpable as fans buy in to a tournament where progress should be made on and off the pitch

In any downtime from ensuring Euro 2025 passes smoothly, Uefa staff can take a short walk to watch Nyon’s summer jazz festival in full flow. Rive Jazzy is in its fourth decade and there should be something for everyone. The Greasers will be on stage to set a tone before England face Wales on 13 July; this Friday anyone with a penchant for swing can turn up at Place du Molard to enjoy harmonies by the Hot Shooters.

The more pressing hope is that there will be plenty of those on Switzerland’s football pitches across the next 25 days. At its elite level, the women’s game has never before been blessed with the depth of quality it can showcase this month. There is justified optimism that no weak link will stick out like a sore thumb among the 16 contenders in this European Championship; at the top end a valid expectation exists that, while Spain are obvious favourites, at least three or four others are highly equipped to test that status vigorously.

Our cartoonist has created a fixture planner so you can keep track of all the results. Print it out and fill it in

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• Forward eligible for Club World Cup quarter-final

• Sunderland inquire about goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic

Chelsea have added João Pedro to their Club World Cup squad after signing the forward from Brighton in a deal worth up to £60m. Enzo Maresca has been looking to add a versatile player to his attack and will have more options after the 23-year-old’s arrival.

João Pedro, who has signed an eight-year deal, can play up front, as a second striker and on the left. The Brazil international scored 30 goals in 70 appearances for Brighton.

• Last 16: Real Madrid 1-0 Juventus (G García 54)

• Mbappé makes first appearance of tournament

Kylian Mbappé at last made his debut at this Club World Cup as the competition entered the knockout phase, coming on to face Juventus two weeks and four games after he was admitted to hospital with a stomach virus that led to him losing five kilos. But while the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami chanted the Frenchman’s name, roaring as he made his way to the halfway line, and stood to hand him an ovation when he entered the fray, the excitement overflowing, it was the kid heading in the other direction, for whom Rita Hayworth is family but most of them had not heard of a month ago, who had taken Real Madrid into the quarter-final.

For all the focus on the most famous names, for all that this month, this experimental event, needs them, every tournament has its revelation: this World Cup has a 21-year-old madrileño. “I knew this competition was the opportunity of my life,” Gonzalo García said after he again showed that it is one he is determined, and equipped, to take hold of. The Real Madrid academy striker, who had never started a game before arriving in the United States, scored his third goal here with a superb thumping header from a delicious Trent Alexander-Arnold delivery, doing what no one else could over 90 minutes here: beating the Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio.

• German side dispatch Monterrey 2-1 with Guirassy goals

• Bellingham booking rules him out of Real Madrid tie

Serhou Guirassy scored two early goals as Borussia Dortmund held on to defeat Monterrey 2-1 on Tuesday night in Atlanta to reach the Fifa Club World Cup quarter-finals. Karim Adeyemi assisted both goals to bring Guirassy’s tournament total to three.

Germán Berterame scored his third of the competition early in a much-improved second half for Monterrey that gave their German opponents some nervy moments, including Sergio Ramos’s header early in stoppage time that went narrowly wide of the top corner.

Using clever tactics and Messi clickbait, Egyptian creators racked up 14m views with highlights posted before kickoff. YouTube didn’t catch on until it was too late

This story was reported by Indicator, a publication that investigates digital deception, and co-published with the Guardian.

It was Thursday morning in America and something didn’t look right in the highlights of the Club World Cup match between Manchester City and Juventus.

Suzi Ragheb provided research support and translation of one of the videos in Arabic.

• Jason Whittingham was given Tuesday 6pm to sell shares

• Denies he is stalling sale announced at start of June

Morecambe’s owner, Jason Whittingham, has sacked the club’s board of directors a day after they announced they would put the club into administration during the protracted takeover process.

On Tuesday, the club’s board demanded that Whittingham’s Bond Group Investments complete a sale to Panjab Warriors – a deal announced at the start of June – and said they would call in administrators on Wednesday morning after a 6pm deadline was missed.

Sculptors discuss their craft and the pressure of preserving a player’s likeness and legacy for generation of fans

By Nutmeg magazine

At its heart, football is about community. A feeling of shared identity and purpose. A place where supporters gather to watch their team. The games, goals and moments that live on in the club’s collective memory through a shared act of will. The people responsible for these defining moments – shrewd managers, inspiring captains, prolific goalscorers – are increasingly immortalised in statues.

A sculptor is enlisted to preserve their likeness in a single definitive pose. The subjects take on a size and form, literally larger than life, befitting the impact they had on the club and community that chooses to honour them. According to the Sporting Statues Project, which is run by Chris Stride and Ffion Thomas, there are more than 100 football statues in the UK. The vast majority have been made since the turn of the millennium and there are even more in progress. They have exploded in popularity, becoming the established means of commemoration.

In the social media age, football is a fraction of the Portuguese Übermensch’s appeal and he is untroubled by his paymasters’ morals

The winners of next season’s AFC Champions League Two, Asia’s second-tier club competition, will receive about £1.8m. The winners of the Saudi King’s Cup will receive just over £1m. Prize money for the Saudi Pro League is not disclosed, but by the most recent available figures (for 2022-23) is in roughly the same area. Weekly attendances at the King Saud University Stadium, where top-tier ticket prices start at about £12, range between 10,000 and 25,000, although of course you also have to factor in pie and programme sales above that.

And so you really have to applaud Al-Nassr’s ambition in handing an estimated £492m to Cristiano Ronaldo over the next two years. Even if they sweep the board at domestic level, if they fight their way past Istiklol of Tajikistan’s 1xBet Higher League and Al-Wehdat of the Jordanian Pro League, if they extract maximum value from merch and sponsorships, you still struggle to see how they can cover a basic salary that comes to £488,000 a day, even before the bonuses and blandishments that will push the total package well beyond that.

Former Wales international admits he ‘will have to win the fans over’ on unveiling at National League club

Off the roundabout at the summit of Spring Hill, the billboard on Another Way that usually displays Forest Green Rovers’ next opponents is shouting about their new manager. “Welcome Robbie,” it reads in block capitals. A club famous for doing things differently have appointed Robbie Savage on a four-year contract, enthused by his sole, record-breaking season in the dugout at Macclesfield FC – the 50-year-old led the team to the Northern Premier League title after transitioning from the role of director of football – rather than fretting whether he is qualified for the job.

“I know there will be a bit of scepticism because I’ve only had one year in management,” says Savage. “I know I will have to win fans over. But I’m not scared of that. I got released from the biggest football club in the world [Manchester United] at 19, told I wasn’t good enough. But I’ve always proved people wrong because I’ve got a great work ethic. I spoke to Brendan Rodgers, Martin O’Neill and Sean Dyche and they all said: ‘What an opportunity.’ Everybody wants to help me so that goes to show I must be OK because they’re willing to help.”

Spending may seem scattergun but new weapons, from Liam Delap to João Pedro, will help Chelsea tackle low blocks

When Enzo Maresca became Chelsea’s head coach last summer, those who had studied the Italian’s tactics at Leicester predicted his appointment would accelerate the end of Ben Chilwell’s time at Stamford Bridge. “Enzo doesn’t play with a left-back,” a source said. “Chilwell won’t be able to do what Enzo wants. He just won’t play him.”

The prediction was spot-on, with Chilwell quickly discounted from selection. It was nothing personal, though. The logic was merely that Maresca does not play with a conventional back four in possession but wants one full-back inverting and the other shifting inside to play as an extra centre-back in a 3-2-4-1 system.

Former Chelsea manager answers your questions on life and work in the US, what she’s looking forward to in this summer’s Euros and pining for roast chicken

Read the first of Emma’s Guardian columns on the Euros

You seem like you’ve taken to the US like a duck to water. But what food or drink from back home are you missing? Antony, Staffordshire
I always miss a roast dinner, roast chicken. And the milk. The milk is different over there so when you have a cup of tea it’s just not the same because the milk is not the same. It alters the quality of the tea so that’s tough for me.

How’s life in America been treating you? Is the infrastructure for women’s football noticeably more developed there? And the million‑dollar question: what happens when your new team face England in the World Cup final in 2027? Tom Stubbs, Brussels
First of all, I love being there. The cultural approach to the girls’ and women’s game is more ingrained in the US because they’ve been doing it for longer in terms of providing opportunities. That’s noticeable. The US approach to women’s sport stands out, not just soccer, but with basketball, too. As for that hypothetical for 2027, well, you’re saying we’re in the World Cup final so I’m excited. If you give me that option today, I’ll bite your hand off. I want to be in the World Cup final competing to win a World Cup so, whoever you’re facing, it’s going to be a top, top side, and I don’t get emotional about it – it’s England but I’m repping the USA so my focus is on the USA.

Bayern winger on testing positive for Covid at Euro 2022 and why England may struggle to defend their title

“Maybe I did the homework, but maybe I didn’t – the important thing was to get out on the pitch again.” Klara Bühl is describing her time at school when she would come home, eat, possibly do some schoolwork before heading out again.

“Football was everything for me. We played at school and then next to the school there was a small astro pitch. I played there until training began at five o’clock and so it was every afternoon.”

A quarter-final collapse against Guatemala laid bare Canada’s lack of control, composure and tactical clarity under Jesse Marsch

What a joyous Sunday for the American football family. A rare one too. Has an international fanbase ever celebrated two sudden-death wins in the space of four sweet hours?

In a bitter Canadian irony, the only man inside the US Bank Stadium who could have spelled and pronounced schadenfreude on demand was the one on the end of it.

Fifpro Africa general secretary Kgosana Masaseng wants a reaction after all four sides from the continent made an early exit

It is a familiar take on the Club World Cup, but comes from a different perspective. “From the games I have watched, football has taken a lot away from the players,” says Kgosana Masaseng, the general secretary of Fifpro Africa.

“You are talking about teams that have just completed their domestic leagues, who were playing continental club championships. Players were also representing their national teams. So the schedule has been demanding. It has taken a toll and, now, there’s no break; it’s straight away into another competition.”

• Portuguese star will be 42 when deal ends in June 2027

• News brings recent transfer speculation to a close

Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new two-year deal at Al-Nassr, extending his stay with the Saudi Pro League team to June 2027, when the forward will be 42.

“Al Nassr Club Company officially signed a contract extension with Cristiano Ronaldo,” the Riyadh-based club posted on X. “[The] Al Nassr captain’s contract will be valid until 2027.”

Ignorance, hubris and exceptionalism have driven a once great football club to the edge of the abyss

By Get French Football News

Just five days ago, John Textor bounded down the corridors of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. “Victoire, victoire,” he cried as his side, Botafogo, stunned PSG in the Club World Cup. French football’s financial watchdog, the DNCG, brought him back down to earth on Tuesday as it confirmed Lyon’s relegation to Ligue 2.

“Everything is good financially,” said Textor before the DNCG meeting. This is not the first time that the Lyon owner has gone into one of these meetings with a sense of confidence swiftly eroded by the commission’s verdict. It was the same back in 2023 and in November last year.

With Paris FC promoted, European champions could lose their monopoly in city if out-of-town move goes through

“Ici, c’est Paris” has been the rallying chant of Paris Saint-Germain supporters since the beginning of the 21st century. It has also become an advertising slogan for the club, who appropriated it to the fury of the ultras, who had trademarked it and have launched a lawsuit in response. But fans and marketing consultants, unless they do not fear ridicule, will not be able to use it once PSG carry out their plan to vacate the Parc des Princes, their home since they were promoted to Ligue 1 in 1974.

“It’s over now,” PSG’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, told reporters in March. “We want to move.” This was confirmed in a statement on 10 June, the day the newly crowned European champions flew to California and the Fifa Club World Cup. “I like the Parc a lot,” Khelaifi, known in France as Nak, said of the 48,583-capacity arena. “Everyone loves it. But [if we stay], we’re dead. In Europe, all the big clubs have 80,000- or 90,000-seat stadiums. If we want to be at that level for our supporters, the stadium must be expanded.” And because an expansion of the stadium is out of the question, it is likely that “Paris” (as the club love PSG to be called in the media) will no longer play in Paris by the time the decade is over, but in one of two towns of the grande banlieue, Massy or Poissy. We will know which come November 2026.

Drama-biopic starring Steve Coogan will reignite a row that split Irish football fans but there are good signs for its artistic merit

Watching the teaser trailer for Saipan before its cinematic release later this summer called to mind that episode of Friends in which it is revealed Joey leaves his copy of The Shining in a freezer whenever it becomes too scary for him to continue reading. While 23 years may have passed since Roy Keane’s fabled eruption on the eponymous volcanic speck in the western Pacific, it is hard to get past the feeling that the makers of this drama-biopic might have been better off leaving the most seismic row in Irish football history and its accompanying media frenzy hidden among the frozen peas, ice-cream and portions of batch-cooked lasagne. Instead it is about to be sent out into a public domain where it will almost certainly reopen old and, in many cases, still festering wounds.

Everyone of a certain age with a passing interest in football has their own version of what happened in Saipan that they believe to be true, although the details often differ depending on who happens to be doing the telling at any given time. Over the years I have chatted to several former Republic of Ireland footballers who were present at the infamous team meeting where Mick McCarthy held aloft a copy of that interview given by Keane to the Irish Times and asked his captain to explain comments that were scathing in their criticism of the national association’s laissez-faire attitude when it came to preparing for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea in the immediate run-up to the competition.

The individual walk-ons at Club World Cup underline Fifa’s failure to understand that football is a team sport – just ask PSG

It is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn’t really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes.

Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino’s style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams.

After his rapid rise at Leverkusen, Liverpool’s new club-record signing is well set to step outside his comfort zone

When the Bayern Munich charm offensive starts in earnest, few players are impervious. When months of public flattery and declarations of interest in Florian Wirtz continued past the Rekordmeister’s title celebrations in Marienplatz and the departure of Xabi Alonso from Bayer Leverkusen, the whole of German football felt they knew which way the wind was blowing.

So it is an unpleasant surprise for Munich’s finest to see the red jersey Wirtz is holding up for the camera is not theirs, but that of Liverpool, who have signed him in a deal that could reach a British record £116m. Make no mistake: this is an authentic coup for the Premier League champions. How Wirtz came to choose a future in north-west England rather than southern Germany tells us much about the personality, as well as the player.

Our cartoonist visits Poenari Castle on Mount Cetatea to see what nonsense Vlad Dracula III has spouted this time

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The Germany v England final on Saturday brings together two stars in Nick Woltemade and Harvey Elliott

By WhoScored

Nick Woltemade enjoyed a solid season for VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, scoring 12 times and providing two assists. He really came alive in the DFB-Pokal; Stuttgart won the cup and he finished as top scorer. Having made his senior debut for Germany against Portugal in their Nations League semi-final earlier this summer, Woltemade has been outstanding at the Under-21 Euros in Slovakia. ​The 23-year-old leads the way for both goals (​six) and assists (​three) at the competition. Already a wanted man, Woltemade’s stock is on the rise this summer – and will soar if Germany win the tournament on Saturday and he collects the Golden Boot.

Club-by-club guide to each team’s opening and closing matches and when they make their shortest and longest journeys

• All the Championship the fixtures | League One | League Two

The Blues dominated League One last term, setting a record EFL points total. Birmingham will host the Championship’s opening game against newly relegated Ipswich, while a trip to Portsmouth will round off the season. Chris Davies’s team will undergo their shortest commute of the season on 26 November as they travel just under seven miles to West Brom. The trip to Middlesbrough on 8 November will be their furthest-flung fixture.

Twenty-four long years after their relegation, then tumbling lower into ‘the mud’, the club whose fans would not let them die witnessed their return to Spain’s top table

Somewhere in the middle of all those people, of all the shouting and the crying, the emotion and the endless embraces, Santi Cazorla said that this, this, was the dream of his life. It was the dream of all their lives. At 11.43pm on 21 June 2025, the man who was twice a European champion with the greatest generation Spain has ever seen, who has won at Wembley, the Camp Nou and the Santiago Bernabéu, was crouched at the side of the pitch at the Carlos Tartiere ready for one last run. And when the final whistle went – on this game and an entire era – he set off, 40 years old and a kid again leading them all on to the pitch and into primera.

From the touchline they followed, let loose at last. From everywhere else they did too, the stands where 29,624 fans had been through it again emptying on to the pitch. A quarter of a century later, Real Oviedo had returned to the first division. “It’s been many years in the mud,” Cazorla said: they had disappeared down to the second, third and fourth tier, twice they had almost disappeared entirely; here, against Mirandés in the playoff final second leg, the match he called “the biggest of my career”, they had conceded early, two goals down on aggregate, and were taken into extra time, tension tearing at them, even as they knew it was never going to be easy, but now they had actually done it; now they were back. In their centenary year.

Tony Bloom has already bought three players this summer and can act quickly thanks to in-depth background research

It may not have been Tony Bloom’s week at Ascot for once but at least the Brighton owner could console himself by securing yet another signing for his football team before the summer solstice arrived.

Confirmation of the Italy Under‑21s defender Diego Coppola’s arrival on the south coast as Lake Forest finished a disappointing fifth in the Queen Anne Stakes took Brighton’s buys to three and the club are expected to announce any day that Olivier Boscagli is joining on a free from PSV Eindhoven. In with Coppola, who has joined from Verona, have come Sunderland’s 19-year-old playoff hero, Tommy Watson, for £10m and the Greece Under-21s striker Charalampos Kostoulas for £30m. Talk about getting your business done early.

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What a beautiful tale … right? The full-time whistle brought those scenes we know well from the real World Cup. Players on their knees: the victors turning to the heavens, the losers sucked into the dirt. Simone Inzaghi looked a particularly happy chap just weeks on from his nadir, that Bigger Cup embarrassment with Inter against PSG. Manchester City, the European heavyweights, had just been defeated by his brave underdogs, Al-Hilal. Yes, those same longshots who two years ago tried to buy Kylian Mbappé from PSG for £259m, shortly after coming under the ownership of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The incongruity of the situation escapes no one – except, of course, Gianni Infantino and his flatterers. From his ivory tower, which he tours around the world, the president shows no concern for the fate the international calendar reserves for top players. His [Copa Gianni] proves, to the point of absurdity, that it is urgent to stop this game of massacre” – France’s professional footballers’ union (UNFP) hits out at the Fifa overlord amid growing concern over fixture congestion and player welfare, including that from Fifpro, which has called on half-time breaks being extended to 20 minutes in extreme heat.

If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around, does it make a sound? If a football team loses in a competition, and no one is watching, is it a shock?” – Darren Leathley.

From yesterday’s full email edition, many thanks for sharing with us the tale of Dorking’s Marc White and his dire attempt to recreate the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club (kids, ask your nan why that was even a thing). Can I just point out that due to the consequent ban, your caption on that photo of the guy clearly standing on a touchline shouldn’t be ‘he’ll be here all week’. That’s the one place he won’t be for a bit” – Jon Millard.

Re: this news story. ‘Footage of three-a-side game shows humanoids struggling to kick the ball or stay upright.’ The best Football Daily headline opportunity ever provided by Big Website! I don’t know where to begin” – Nigel Sanders.

The group stage has featured some great games and indelible moments, thanks mostly to the participants who took things seriously

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Inside the corporate monstrosity hides something that’s actually quite lovely and joyful and organic. It’s burrowed down real deep, beneath layers and layers of maximalist nonsense. But it’s in there somewhere, a good soccer tournament, cloaked by all the avarice and bombast, in spite of itself and those responsible for it.

It’s true: the Club World Cup and its new summer format haven’t been all bad. The group stage, which concluded on Thursday, offered fun and competitive teams. It served up a few genuinely enthralling games, especially in the clashes between the European and South American sides. The fans of some teams – the indefatigable singing and chanting of Boca Juniors’ and River Plate’s barras; the churning sea of red hopping up and down for the Urawa; the clapping and singing Wydad fans; the drumming and dancing Brazilians crisscrossing the nation in the wake of their four thriving clubs – injected the proceedings with exactly the kind of summer tournament folklore and fever you should hope for. We’ve even seen some kit design excellence – thank you, Botafogo.

I recently spent time coaching 80 girls at FC Midtjylland, the team where I began my career but had to leave in my teens as they had no women’s team

I will be on a plane on Monday with Denmark heading to Switzerland to take part in my fourth Euros, but before the tournament I went back to where it all began for me, to Danish side FC Midtjylland. I was there to spend time coaching 80 girls from the age of eight to 13.

More than 20 years ago, I began my own journey there and things looked very different then. There was no women’s team and no women who played football. For me to go back as a role model these girls gives me a lot of energy. There is no better way to ground yourself than to be reminded where you came from.

Emma Hayes is leaning on NWSL players for friendlies to plan for individual development and vet wider playing pool

While national teams in Europe, Africa and South America prepare for the biggest tournaments in their region, the US women’s national team convene this month for three friendlies with a unique approach. For back-to-back tests against Republic of Ireland followed by a meeting with Canada, nearly all of their Europe-based players are on vacation.

“We’ve left out the vast majority of players that are playing in Europe bar one, and that’s Naomi Girma,” said the head coach, Emma Hayes. “The rest of those players have been playing non-stop [for the] last two years without a summer break and this is the only opportunity they will get for a much-needed break. It also gives us the chance to play players who are playing domestically.”

Today’s tittle-tattle is planting a flag in the sand

As the Mill sifts through its daily churn, it tries to weed out excessive Manchester United content. But the Old Trafford soap opera is a law unto itself and Wednesday brings more excitable Marcus Rashford gossip, with reports of the striker sizing up a move to Bayern Munich. The Sun says that Rashford, who has been linked with Barcelona, is on the German champions’ radar and a bid for the striker could be in the offing, with United wanting £40m.

In potential United incomings news, Ruben Amorim could seize on Internazionale’s post-Champions League final upheaval and move for Davide Frattesi. The midfielder is yet to decide whether he wants to stay at San Siro, but United have been in touch with Inter, who are prepared to let him go for about €35m (£30m). Spurs have also been linked with Frattesi.

Plus: different crests on a club’s home and away kits, European clubs playing throughout summer and more GD chasms

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Spurs finished 17th this season, yet claimed a place in the Champions League. They aren’t the lowest-ranked Uefa qualifier, though, as I recall Millwall playing in Europe in the early 2000s. Which other English second-tier teams have played in Uefa European competitions?” asks Richard Amos.

We looked at this back in the 2011-12 season as Birmingham entered the Europa League by virtue of winning that year’s League Cup. They exited in the group stage, behind Club Brugge and Portugal’s Braga (the latter beaten finalists the previous year), despite reaching the magical 10 points total.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Will Unwin, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe to talk transfers and Premier League fixtures

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On the podcast today; the Club World Cup might have started to entertain? South American sides are enjoying themselves, Nicolas Jackson is not. It is, of course, impossible to forget the numerous off-pitch issues including Donald Trump invited Juventus to the White House, Fifa flip-flopping on anti-racism messaging and players not able to sit on the subs bench in ridiculous heat.

Half a dozen teams from outside their nation’s top flight who made it all the way to a domestic cup final

France’s secondary cup competition ran from 1994 to 2020, pushed by Ligue 1 sides who felt aggrieved by the Coupe de France’s great leveller of home advantage for its minnows. Paris St-Germain were the winners of the first and last editions of the League Cup and another seven in between. They lost one final, 25 years ago, to a team that were the antithesis of France’s spoiled ruling classes.

Best players, best managers, best matches, best goals, biggest flops and biggest gripes: our writers have their say

Mohamed Salah. The numbers don’t lie – 47 goal contributions in the Premier League was an outstanding return from the Egyptian, who seems to be getting better with age. Ed Aarons

Arne Slot’s first season could not have gone any better while Wolves fans drank to Vítor Pereira’s arrival

By winning the league, the Dutchman surprised pretty much everyone. He faced the daunting task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp and inherited the German’s squad, adding only Federico Chiesa, who barely kicked a ball in anger. Not much changed from the previous year, except Ryan Gravenberch became the designated defensive midfielder as Slot’s Liverpool looked to get on the ball as much as possible. Slot was never going to be a personality who generated headlines like Klopp did, keeping his cards close to his chest, but he always comes across as someone who is very personable and has brought the players closer together. Slot made Liverpool an efficient winning machine – rarely thrashing teams, often winning by the odd goal or two – and that allowed them to race to a second Premier League title. No one could compete with the Reds, which was partly down to rivals dropping their standards but most of it can be attributed to the fact Slot made his team superior.

Managers, teams and players who have disappointed over the campaign – including the reigning footballer of the year

Ruben Amorim’s average points tally of a point per league game since arriving at Manchester United in early November puts him just above Malky Mackay’s record at Cardiff and Paul Jewell’s Premier League record with Bradford, Wigan and Derby. While Sporting won the Primeira Liga title without Amorim, United have fallen down the table to 15th since the Portuguese took the reins from the interim coach, Ruud van Nistelrooy. Much of the ire towards United has been directed at the owners but on the pitch Amorim has failed to adapt his squad of expensive, experienced internationals into anything approaching a cohesive unit. The Europa League final defeat by Tottenham showed how much work is left to do.