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Thanks John, afternoon everyone. I’ll start with a very modern story from Spain.

La Liga on Monday condemned threats and intimidation by Sevilla fans aimed at their own players and directors after they fell to a third straight league defeat.

Sevilla, 17th in the Spanish top flight, lost 1-0 away at bottom side Real Oviedo on Sunday and some supporters met the team at the airport on their return to insult them, while others wearing masks were at the club training ground.

Chelsea’s hopes of retaining two of their three titles remain alive after Veerle Buurman’s wonderful drive and strike earned the Blues a 2-1 win in an end-to-end battle with Tottenham, securing a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.

Sonia Bompastor’s side needed a result after a frustrating week, having crashed out of the Champions League despite a battling 1-0 win against Arsenal in the second leg of their quarter-final tie. They were good against the Gunners, and unlucky to have had a Buurman goal incorrectly ruled out in the first leg, but they were lacking in the final third.

Two ‘factory’ teams of German football proved that there is plenty at stake in the Bundesliga after a 6-3 win for Leverkusen

They said nobody cared enough for the stakes to be this high. If discussion over the destination of the title (and second place for that matter) has been and gone, there is plenty more in the Bundesliga tank and for Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, two clubs who will never hold universal approval despite producing teams to thrill us and break the Bayern monopoly in the last two decades, that is truer than for most.

Before RB Leipzig were around to corral all the disapproval of German supporters at large, there was El Plastico. As the two ‘factory’ teams of German football, grown from Bayer and Volkswagen respectively rather than from a fanbase, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg have endured a lifetime of rival fans looking down their noses at them, judging them as not organic or real enough.

Conversely this fixture, if derided by some, has produced a string of memorable games; the 5-4 win for Wolfsburg at the Bay Arena in 2015 during current coach Dieter Hecking’s successful first spell, sealed by Bas Dost’s four goals, or the typically later-than-late Leverkusen 4-3 in September 2024 dusted by Victor Boniface’s stoppage-time winner. So when Bild’s headline called this “the wildest plastico of all time,” they really did mean it was something special.

Tension and huge potential consequences can often make for a stilted, cautious spectacle. Not here. For Wolfsburg, there was an element of predictability in that it was a 20th successive game without a clean sheet – and they didn’t look like keeping one for an instant. Still, the record – the worst defensive run in the club’s history since a previous Hecking side did the same in 2014 – wouldn’t have mattered at all had Die Wölfe held the 3-1 lead with which they approached half-time, having seemingly found some nerve to help their desperate situation at the bottom of the table.

In that first half, Hecking would have been delighted. If there had been a thick volume of hard luck stories over recent weeks, Wolfsburg had no time to listen to them here. After Jonas Wind’s opener, they were unhappy with the penalty awarded to Leverkusen when Joakim Mæhle feathered a slight touch on Ibrahim Maza in the penalty area – converted for the hosts by Alejandro Grimaldo – but literally seconds later Mæhle himself stepped up to blast Wolfsburg back in front with a rocket from long range. When Christian Eriksen converted a Wolfsburg penalty shortly after it was 3-1 and finally the strugglers were showing real fortitude. There was light, at last, at the end of the tunnel.

Instead, the inevitable Grimaldo brought Leverkusen back into the match by finishing a smart move just before half-time, enabling his coach, Kasper Hjulmand, to make the changes at the break to turn the match, and perhaps to change his own fate at the helm. For if we look at Wolfsburg’s moment of crisis, the home side were facing one at 3-1 down. “A change of coach is not a scenario we are considering,” Leverkusen’s sporting director, Simon Rolfes, had said before the game but losing at home to a team in the bottom two – to severely compromise Die Werkself’s chances of a return to the Champions League – would have sorely tested that stance. It wouldn’t have been the first time Rolfes has been forced into an abrupt pivot this season.

That, incidentally, is what Hjulmand used to really change the momentum; taking off Equi Fernández, bringing on Patrik Schick to join Christian Kofane up front and really attacking in a season where Leverkusen have often looked too tentative. Schick equalised from another spot-kick before Edmund Tapsoba put the hosts in front. The excellent Maza added another and substitute Malik Tillman made it six after a brilliant slalom along the byline by Ernest Poku.

Kosovo’s Vedat Muriqi broke down in tears after a late winner that took his side out of the relegation zone

For one magical moment in the sunshine and the spotlight, the roughest man in Spanish football was the smoothest, the toughest, its most vulnerable. With his ponytail and the stubble covering a face that’s been lived in, they call Vedat Muriqi the Pirate and he’s supposed to have the turning circle of a galleon. But here there was grace, all 6ft 4in and 14st 8lb of him moving as if he were wearing slippers, not a pair of size 15s. The first touch, with the left, couldn’t have been softer; the second, with the right, couldn’t have been harder, all that emotion unleashed with the violence. The ball crashed into the net and the Kosovan crashed on to the turf, where he wept.

Muriqi had just scored the goal that may have brought the league title race to an early close, Mallorca defeating Real Madrid 2-1 with his 91st-minute goal a couple of hours before Barcelona went to Atlético Madrid and won in the 89th. But that wasn’t why he lay there, everyone going wild around him. It wasn’t why his face was hidden but his feelings couldn’t be, huge frame heaving. Muriqi was sobbing so hard it was a wonder Son Moix didn’t shake with him; some of the 23,015 inside it certainly did. Teammates came to him, embracing him briefly from behind then leaving him to let it out: first Omar Mascarell, then Sergi Darder, then Johan Mojica.

From exposed anxieties to unexpected heroes, this weekend’s cup contests papered over a weird three-week Premier League break

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The soccer calendar has been particularly quirky this year. There’s always an international break in March, but because this year’s edition involved World Cup qualifying play-offs, most games were scheduled for the Thursday and the Tuesday, which meant there was very little soccer played over the weekend; barely even a smattering of friendlies.

For a Saturday in early spring, it all felt very weird; it was a day for pacing the floors, wondering how on earth people who don’t like soccer fill the time. And with the Carabao Cup final falling the previous Sunday, and the FA Cup sixth round this weekend, that has meant a three-week hiatus in the title race. Which has been disorienting and, perhaps, not entirely to Arsenal’s benefit.

• Right-back is recovering from hamstring injury

• He could be back at the end of April or start of May

Reece James could boost England’s World Cup hopes by returning from a hamstring injury at the start of next month.

The Chelsea defender has been out since picking up a problem during last month’s defeat by Newcastle, raising doubts over whether he will be fit to represent his country this summer. There were initial fears that James, who had not sustained a hamstring injury since November 2024, was facing up to two months on the sidelines and was in danger of not playing again this season.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Dan Bardell and John Brewin to discuss the weekend’s FA Cup Quarter-final games

• Captain deserves good farewell, says assistant manager

• Silva has interest from Barcelona as contract ends in June

Pep Lijnders has revealed that Bernardo Silva will leave Manchester City in the summer, with the assistant manager hoping the captain is given a fitting farewell.

The 31-year-old Silva, whose contract expires in June, has been in impressive form this season but Lijnders stated it will be his last for City.

Targeted after Italy’s failure and for his dive in the Derby d’Italia, Alessandro Bastoni returned to form against Roma

Italy were too afraid to play a World Cup qualifying playoff at San Siro, hosting their semi-final against Northern Ireland in Bergamo instead. Gennaro Gattuso explained it as a choice to protect his players, noting that the nation’s biggest football stadium was home to two rival clubs – Milan and Internazionale – and suggesting this dynamic might lead fans there to turn more quickly on players who struggled.

Instead, on Sunday, it was San Siro that offered comfort to one who has become the scapegoat for yet another collective failure. Italy made it past Northern Ireland only to lose to Bosnia on penalties in Zenica. Alessandro Bastoni’s first-half red card, at a time when his country were winning 1-0, was a pivotal moment in the game and perhaps his entire career.

The quadruple dream may be dead but Arsenal are now just four games from achieving an unprecedented nonruple

And then there were two. As the clock ticked down at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday night even the stray yellow balloons on the pitch had begun to take on a weirdly mocking quality.

The balloons were almost too much, like metaphors-for-hire in an arthouse film, popping up in shot every time Arsenal tried to transform another spell of mechanical pressure into creative, incisive football. Your dreams? Your dreams are just air inside a polymer shell. Your dreams are a squeaky veneer. Even when you try to take agency over your dreams, or at least stamp on them before a set piece, they will scoot away and bobble about annoyingly near the corner flag.

Italy have been left behind with man-marking approach, and if Germany go down this path it could happen to them too

In Germany, coaches used to say: “Follow your opponent right into the loo!” That was the call to man-mark. So defenders weren’t meant to think too deeply. This retro tactical approach has been making an unexpected comeback since Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024 using this method.

Against a team with a significantly superior individual quality, you naturally don’t stand a chance with man-marking. Atalanta had to learn that the hard way in the Champions League last 16. Bayern enjoyed absurdly vast spaces and scored 10 goals. Rarely has a knockout-stage match been so one-sided.

JT Batson is hopeful the influx of funds and interest around the home World Cup will have a transformative effect on American soccer

US Soccer chief executive JT Batson has set the men’s and women’s national teams the ambitious target of becoming America’s favorite entities in sports.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Batson added mass popularity for Mauricio Pochettino’s and Emma Hayes’s teams to US Soccer’s goals ahead of this summer’s men’s World Cup, a list that already included making soccer the biggest participation sport in every community in the country.

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• Hearts point clear of Rangers with six games left

• Celtic stay in contention with 2-1 win at Dundee

Hearts reclaimed their status as Scottish Premiership leaders but missed the chance to restore their three‑point cushion after being held to a 2-2 draw by the bottom side, Livingston.

The Jambos had been knocked off the top for the first time since September after Rangers edged ahead of them on goal difference by defeating Dundee United on Saturday.

• PSV hold 17-point lead to clinch title with five games left

• Inter edge towards winning Serie A with Roma thrashing

PSV Eindhoven were crowned on Sunday as Dutch champions for the 27th time, with five matches left of the season, after second-placed Feyenoord’s 0-0 draw with Volendam.

PSV hold an unassailable 17-point lead at the top of the table after bouncing back from successive defeats with a 4-3 victory against Utrecht on Saturday.

• Nine clubs yet to secure front-of-shirt commercial deals

• Several may begin the campaign without a shirt sponsor

Nine Premier League clubs have yet to secure front-of-shirt commer­cial deals for next season and 12 have not signed contracts, leading to increasing concerns that several may begin the campaign without a shirt sponsor.

The imminent ban on shirt advertising from gambling companies is having a significant impact on all clubs’ commercial returns, other than those in the big six, with an executive at one club telling the Guardian that the collective loss of income from shirt deals could be as high as £80m next season.

• Brighton two wins away from first major trophy

• Liverpool edge out Charlton in extra time

Arsenal made a surprise exit at the quarter-final stage of the Women’s FA Cup for the second successive season as Brighton stunned the record 14-time cup winners at Borehamwood.

Liverpool managed to avoid it becoming a day of shocks as they struck late in extra time to eventually find a way past a stubborn Charlton Athletic side, but they was no such joy for Arsenal, who paid the price for a performance that was well below their best.

• Don Garber spoke to reporters at Miami’s stadium debut

• ‘It’s going to be a premier event and premier pricing’

The commissioner of Major League Soccer, Don Garber, said Fifa has been “smart” about its ticket pricing strategy for this summer’s World Cup, the effect of which has raised prices significantly across all games of the tournament to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada this summer.

Garber made the comments in Miami, where he attended the inaugural fixture at Inter Miami’s Nu Stadium and spoke to reporters before kick-off. Asked by the Guardian whether high prices resulting from Fifa’s dynamic pricing model undermined the domestic league’s efforts to grow the game and attract new fans, Garber reasoned that the cost attached to tickets matched the event’s exclusivity, and said Americans were used to that.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nick Ames and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan to preview the weekend’s action.

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Kirby’s class helps stun Arsenal, Palmer shows leadership potential for Chelsea and teenager Shaw makes her mark for Liverpool

Securing their Premier League status for another year remains a priority for West Ham and Leeds this season, so the eight changes Nuno Espírito Santo and Daniel Farke made between them for this tie, which developed into a drama-drenched classic, was understandable to a degree. Still, in Ao Tanaka, Leeds have a gem of a fringe player, who looked eager to make something of his opportunity. The Japan midfielder has not started in the league since 14 December, but Leeds fans have consistently called for him to have more involvement and he showed why with a tremendous opener at the London Stadium, which was all of his own making. In stark contrast to Tanaka’s performance was that of Max Kilman, who has not been trusted to start for West Ham since 3 January when they were beaten 3-0 by the bottom club, Wolves. The centre-back looked rusty and gave away what should have been a clear penalty with a poor challenge on Anton Stach – he was even booed by his own fans at points in the game. Dominic Booth

Thirty five-year-old reflects on his players overcoming adversity to climb towards new heights in the WSL and his evolution as a coach

Martin Ho is ready to chat, after being playfully reprimanded by the waiter in a south London cafe for leaving a lone tomato on his plate. “It’s got more vitamin C in it than orange juice,” the waiter quips as he clears the table.

It has been quite the season for the 35-year-old Tottenham head coach, who took charge in July of a side that looked rudderless and despondent as it limped to an 11th‑place finish in the Women’s Super League, one season on from finishing sixth and reaching an FA Cup final.

In the era of VAR where most goals get picked apart, strikes from distance offered a much-needed immediate emotional hit

In an era where the sport’s biggest moments are scrutinized in slow-motion to find an inch of infraction, the long-range goal has become a necessary thrill. VAR only comes into play if a loitering teammate is caught between the shooter and goalkeeper. They also hatch a comfortingly familiar point of debate: was there anything that could’ve been done to save it?

We can safely count Zavier Gozo’s wonder goal this weekend among the unsaveable. The Real Salt Lake homegrown has been one of the best players in Major League Soccer’s early weeks, a 19-year-old danger down the right flank who can slot in as a winger or wing back with similar impact. He’s quickly become one of the most proven progressive dribblers in the entire US player pool, and has shot up the scouting priority queues of several major European clubs.

Spotlight intensifies on Liverpool’s coach, but what of a group of players who in effect surrendered against Manchester City?

Budapest or bust it is, then, for Liverpool’s hopes of silverware this season and quite possibly Arne Slot’s prospects of remaining in his job, although thoughts of this team reaching a Champions League final appear ludicrous in light of their gutless exit from the FA Cup.

A pity whistle on 90.04 from the referee, Michael Oliver, sounded an appropriate death knell for a pitiful performance by the fading Premier League champions. So much for a shot at redemption for Liverpool and Slot as a defining period of five matches in 16 days commenced in humiliating fashion.

Most of what has gone wrong this season can be put down to poor recruitment – but the manager must share the blame

Even when the fixture list was revealed last summer, it was perhaps predictable that the middle of March would represent the crisis point for Newcastle. If they had reached the Champions League quarter-finals and won the Tyne-Wear derby at St James’ Park, a lot of other frustrations could have been forgotten. Even better, that game against Sunderland would have had to be postponed had Newcastle reached a third Carabao Cup final since 2023.

Those days of celebration a year ago feel a long time ago now, but the mood could easily have been very different. Newcastle were the better side in the home leg against Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League. Only the concession of a daft late penalty denied them victory and they were a persistent threat on the break in the first half of the away leg. Only in the second half of the second leg did the game get away from them: a 7-2 defeat made the difference between the sides seem much greater than it actually was.

Mauricio Pochettino faces several tough decisions to name a squad for the 2026 World Cup hosts

A full 24 matches into the Mauricio Pochettino era, we have arrived at the moment of truth. The US men’s national team’s 2026 World Cup roster will be named on 26 May, and the team’s two recent friendlies (a 5-2 loss to Belgium and a 2-0 loss to Portgual) have given Pochettino plenty to think about as he makes his selection.

We here at the Guardian have made our picks as well – based a little on our own preference, but still within the realm of what Pochettino may do. Separately, the three of us made our 26-man rosters. Any player who we agreed on got the “on the squad” designation. Anyone we differed on is listed as “up for debate”, with other notable exclusions listed as “out of the picture”.

• Police investigate chants heard at Barcelona friendly

• Spain’s coach and justice minister condemn behaviour

Lamine Yamal has criticised chants by Spain fans during a friendly against Egypt in Barcelona that police are investigating for Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Spain supporters chanted “who doesn’t jump is a Muslim”, prompting Yamal to respond on Instagram. He wrote that the chanting “was aimed at the opposing team and was not something personal against me, but as a Muslim it is still a lack of respect and something intolerable. To those who sing these things: using a religion as a form of mockery on a pitch shows you up as ignorant and racist.”

Manager and team had hit rock bottom, but together they found redemption and are heading to North America

A manager down on his luck after a second failure in quick succession, wondering what the future would hold. A national team struggling at the bottom of their qualifying group given a second chance through the vagaries of the Nations League. That national team happens to be the country where the manager made his name, inspiring a team from a town with a population of 50,000 to win the Swedish Cup.

So the two get together, doubting manager and doubting country, and somehow, less than six months after the nadir, they are going to the World Cup finals.

Minnows have all but sewn up the Swiss Super League title with seven games to go having been favourites to go down

The FC Thun heroes do not hide their amusement and amazement when speaking about what has been an incredible season. They giggle when asked if they could possibly have expected such a scenario. They know that the situation is surreal and illogical. The words “incredible” and “unbelievable” are used frequently.

When Thun were promoted in May to the Swiss Super League, they were predicted to struggle. The Berner Zeitung journalist Adrian Horn says: “A lot of pundits identified them as No 1 relegation candidates. Expectations were very low, and fans thought that avoiding relegation would be a major success.”

Sublime stint at Bayern Munich has made home audiences appreciate a man who isn’t flash or twinkly but is his country’s best footballer

Everyone has their favourite mental comfort food, the stuff that makes you feel good in troubled times. Maybe you like baking bread and listening to history podcasts about Nazi atrocities. Maybe it’s watching Notting Hill in a Hugh Grant mask.

Perhaps you love to unwind by sitting in your walnut-panelled library and reading Catullus, naked, covered in Doritos crumbs, with a plastic bag over your head. Or enjoy nothing better than doomscrolling in a state of late-night brain-death, before accidentally subscribing to a mystery supplement that will rid you of all the horrific writhing parasites inside your body, because the advert had a really convincing animated graphic that made you hate yourself.

For examples of how little a team’s form in the World Cup run-in matters in the tournament itself, look no further than the US

The last time the United States men’s national team entered into the final stretch of their preparations for a World Cup on home soil, the results were dire. From January through April of 1994, the Americans, who were mostly sequestered in a full-time training camp, played 12 games and won just twice. They even managed to lose to Iceland, who were a total non-factor in global soccer back then.

Then, that ’94 team went on to survive the group stage and narrowly lose to eventual champions Brazil, 1-0, in the round of 16. They delivered on expectations in spite of their deflating run-in.

Brighton fans have fond memories of the Italian, hailed as a genius by rivals, but his time on the south coast went sour

Things may have ended on a sour note but there is a reason why a giant picture of a beaming Roberto De Zerbi adorns the wall outside the home dressing room at the Amex Stadium. It was taken in 2023 at the end of the Italian’s first season at Brighton after he had led the club to sixth in the Premier League – their highest finish – and taken them into Europe for the first time.

Three years later, memories of De Zerbi remain strong among Brighton supporters. It is a legacy that Fabian Hürzeler has found hard to emulate since succeeding De Zerbi, who fell out with the club’s owner, Tony Bloom, over squad recruitment.

Roberto Baggio proposed an overhaul of talent pathway in 2011 but it was never acted on and the national team’s approach now is just not working

The decline of Italy’s footballing expectations can be read in the headlines that greeted their third consecutive failure to qualify for a men’s World Cup. When the Azzurri lost their playoff against Sweden in November 2017, La Gazzetta dello Sport defined it as “The End” and an “Apocalypse”. After defeat by North Macedonia in 2022, Il Corriere dello Sport saw a country sinking “Into Hell”.

On Wednesday both newspapers led coverage of elimination by Bosnia and Herzegovina with a simpler, perhaps sadder, “Tutti A Casa” – Everybody Go Home. What else is there left to say? Italians understood long ago that 2018 was not some aberration but the continuation of a trend, their team having failed to reach the tournament’s knockout stage in 2010 or 2014.

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Only half of the 26 places appear nailed-on and some players benefited from missing the Uruguay and Japan games

Jordan Pickford remains the undisputed No 1. Harry Kane is irreplaceable up front. Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson look certain to start in midfield, nobody has emerged as a realistic challenger to Bukayo Saka on the right and Jude Bellingham’s hopes of grabbing the No 10 spot were done a world of good by other challengers failing to impress against Japan and Uruguay.

Relegation battle has exposed Spurs’ institutional flaws with the stupidity of the interim hire still startling

Probably Tim Sherwood put it best, speaking on Sky Sports about the through-the-looking-glass world of Tottenham Hotspur and magic bean relegation remedies. “They need an arm round the shoulder,” Sherwood said. “I’d tell Xavi Simons he’s the new Luka Modric. Obviously he’s not but I’d tell him he was. I’d tell him: ‘Save us from relegation and you can go to Real Madrid next season.’ Obviously he won’t but I’d tell him that.”

Sherwood has had a good Tottenham crisis period. “The Premier League has smacked him in the mouth,” was his verdict on Igor Tudor, pre-sacking. While every proper football man will like the sound of this, of the Premier League being large and unassailable, Tudor deserves a little sympathy.

Rasmus Højlund is back among the goals at Napoli while Jakub Kiwior has helped make Porto solid in defence and Largie Ramazani has given Valencia a creative spark

The Dane, like many others, struggled under Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford and was packed off to Naples. He scored on his debut, a 3-1 win over Fiorentina, and has been consistent since, netting 10 goals in 26 games for Serie A’s third-placed team. “Now it’s portrayed as if I’m back and just doing really well,” Højlund, who cost United £72m when they signed him from Atalanta in August 2023, said to Denmark’s TV2 last week. “But inside myself my thoughts are in a completely different place. I’m self-critical. I still want to be even better, more involved in the games and score more goals, but it’s fun to observe how the image of me is constantly changing.”

Players are not covering the distances of old – they are not being lazy but adapting to demands of an arduous campaign

There is nothing English football admires more than honest endeavour, which is perhaps a consequence of the league’s origins in the industrial cities of the north and Midlands. “He put in a shift.” “She did her job.” “He gave his all.” The language of football is the language of the pit or the factory floor.

All top-level players these days are supremely skilled, but still we demand that they be exhausted by the final whistle, legs leaden with effort, hair soaked with sweat. Which was why it seemed to cause such consternation when Alan Shearer mentioned on Match of the Day last Saturday that Chelsea have run less than their opponents in every Premier League game they have played this season.

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The Championship – a league so chaotic it makes a piano falling down some stairs resemble a Zen garden – resumes with an old-fashioned Easter weekend double header. Automatic promotion, playoff places and the drop into the abyss all remain up for grabs, with only beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation rubber-stamped as the contenders jockey for position on entering the home straight. Not a Stone Island jacket will go unworn as fans of all 24 clubs proudly get the badge in before heading off to support their teams over a hectic bank holiday schedule. At the top, Frank Lampard’s Coventry City are in the box seat for automatic promotion, with an 11-point cushion between them and Ipswich Town in third. They will fancy their chances of at least maintaining the gap in tomorrow night’s televised Geographically Quite Near Each Other But Not Really A Derby derby against, er, Derby County. With no Good Friday game due to Southampton’s weekend FA Cup appointment with Arsenal, Ipswich will have additional time to de-Farage Portman Road for Monday’s visit of Birmingham.

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NWSL newcomers attracted more than 60,000 fans to Mile High Stadium for landmark fixture against Washington

On Saturday in Denver, the NWSL set a new single-game attendance record for the second time in less than a year. This time, it was the league’s 16th franchise, Denver Summit, who did the honors in their first home game, hosting 63,004 fans at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium (home to the Denver Broncos). The league’s new milestone eclipses the previous record by about 23,000.

Denver’s entry into the NWSL has been a fast-paced and ambitious whirlwind. They were officially announced as the league’s 16th team in January 2025. Three days later, they became the fastest expansion franchise to sell 5,000 season tickets, with 5,280 sold in three days. They went on to sell out their 8,500 season-ticket allotment in short order, adding thousands to a waitlist.

The expansion of this summer’s 48-team tournament mean Tuesday’s games will be the best we see until the round of 16

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There is always a slightly odd rhythm to the World Cup. The final round of qualifying games is almost invariably more exciting than the early games at the tournament itself, and now with 32 teams making it through the group stage and into the knockout rounds, that is likely to be even more true for the 2026 edition. Those final qualifiers in November were thrilling and meaningful – Troy Parrott’s hat-trick! Scotland scoring two absurdly good goals in the same game! DR Congo beating Nigeria on penalties as bottles rained down from the stands! Honduras failing to score against Costa Rica! – and Tuesday will be too as 12 teams battle for the six remaining slots.

But for those not involved in World Cup playoffs, there is an unsatisfying phoniness to the friendlies they must play instead, with experimental line-ups and weary players going through glorified training exercises. While it’s never good to be letting in five goals, neither the USA nor Ghana should be too concerned about the defeats to Belgium or Austria.

The defender, a sole link between the past and present, is focused on nurturing young talent to help her country realise its 50-year plan

“Ranking!?” Saki Kumagai says with a laugh. In the afterglow of her team’s Asian Cup triumph in Australia, the veteran Japan defender is asked about where this trophy sits among the many other titles she has won throughout her staggering 17-year career.

But she just smiles and shakes her head. “I never compare my titles,” she says. “Yes, I won some trophies in my career. But this team is from a different generation, so [winning] a trophy in this tournament, that was the really impressive thing for me.

Quiz time! Can you identify the British football stadiums pictured in the matchday images below?

• This article was amended on 3 April 2026 to correct the spelling of the Wrexham stadium, Cae Ras.

Marc Skinner laments City’s advantage after Vivianne Miedema shines and Brighton welcome back Kiko Seike

With her hat-trick in Arsenal’s 5-2 win over Tottenham, Alessia Russo took her tally to 25 goal contributions in 31 games this campaign. It is a notable return from a player in her prime, not just in her buildup play, but also her finishing. Arsenal’s attacking dominance – they have scored 18 goals in their past five games – is down to the fact that many of their attacking players are in form. Stina Blackstenius has three goals in her past four games while Caitlin Foord also scored on Saturday, her first appearance since returning from the Asian Cup. Renée Slegers has spoken about the versatility in the type of goals her side produces and the need to be ruthless in both penalty areas. Spurs’ two goals meant an end to Arsenal’s 106-day streak of not conceding in the WSL. While all runs must come to an end, Arsenal still boast the meanest defence in the league. Sophie Downey

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Freddie Cardy and Emma Sanders to discuss the Champions League and Sarina Wiegman’s latest England squad

On today’s pod: Arsenal are into the Champions League semi-finals after knocking out Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, while Manchester United couldn’t overcome Bayern Munich as the German champions also progress into the last four.

Plus: Sarina Wiegman’s latest England squad, a review of the weekend’s WSL action, and congratulations to Bournemouth for winning the FAWNL Cup for the first time.

Plus: qualifying for the World Cup with no more than two wins, a 20-0 victory and scratching a 34-year itch

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“The Bundesliga table shows Bayern Munich on 70 points with an eye-popping goal difference of +72,” pops Chris Fryer. “Has any club won the league with a greater goal difference than points tally?”

Bayern Munich have won 22 and lost one in the Bundesliga this season. That was a 2-1 defeat against Augsburg, which means their 22 victories have produced a goal difference of +73. In other words, their average margin of victory is an absurd 3.32 goals.

0.388 Rangers 1898-99 (Scottish First Division)

0.353 Hearts 1957-58 (Scottish First Division)

0.200 Liverpool 1895-96 (Second Division)

0.176 Ajax 1966-67 (Eredivisie)

0.09 Birmingham 1892-93 (Second Division)

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

• 2024 edition | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

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

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

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