The Guardian

England need to be wary of a united Ståle Solbakken side who know their strengths before the World Cup quarter-final England fans are going to have to be really patient on Saturday night because this World Cup quarter-final against Norway will feel like a grind and I would not be surprised if the match goes the full distance and we see 120 close-fought minutes. Let me be clear: this will not be a…

Current Lord’s Test will be her final appearance “I’m privileged to have gone on this journey’ Heather Knight will retire from international cricket at the end of this week’s Test match against India at Lord’s. Knight, who has made a record 320 appearances for England, has joined teammate Tammy Beaumont in calling time on her career at the end of what is the first women’s Test match at the home o…

Midfielder has risen from the bench to come up with the decisive goal in past two games – Spain’s first World Cup knockout victories since they won the tournament in 2010 “I look behind me and I see Mikel Merino and I think: ‘I’m calm as can be,’” Luis de la Fuente said when at last the heart rates had returned to normal. Everyone else’s heart rates, anyway. In those moments when time is running …

Replacement keeper Lammens made crucial error Garcia: ‘Only players who are 100% fit can play’ Rudi Garcia came under a barrage of fire for replacing his injured first-choice goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, in Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final defeat by Spain on Friday, adding to questions about the coach’s ⁠future. Courtois felt he could continue ⁠despite a twinge in ​his leg, but Garcia insisted …

Seventeen-year-old becomes first Australian to reach boys’ final since Alex de Minaur 10 years ago – and he’s done it without dropping a set One of the perks of being a successful junior at the business end of a grand slam event is that you often get to practise with some of the men who are deep in the main draw. For Cruz Hewitt at Wimbledon, that meant Arthur Fery. The 17-year-old Australian jum…

With the head coach having released the handbrake, his side were far superior compared with four years ago in Qatar against the same opponents The scorelines may have been exactly the same, but the stylistic gulf in France’s two World Cup knockout performances against Morocco could not have been greater. In the space of just a single tournament cycle, Didier Deschamps has embraced a vastly differ…

Attendance and viewing figures at T20 World Cup hit an all-time high – and the sport’s appeal is pushing boundaries Women’s cricket is growing faster than the men’s game in many areas of the world, according to the International Cricket Council chief executive, Sanjog Gupta, who has defended his organisation’s reliance on the Indian market for driving expansion. The first women’s Test to be playe…

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Imposing head coach is a details man who has got the balance of squad spirit right at the World Cup, and is even proving a hit on Mumsnet Let’s set the world on fire. There’s a section in Bill Buford’s classic football hooligan study, Among the Thugs, where he describes being part of a phalanx of England “faces” steaming through the centre of mid-1980s Rotterdam towards some kind of meet, while t…

Tottenham’s strategies have changed over the years and this summer’s transfer splurge marks a sharp turn away from the Levy years A couple of weeks ago, Sotheby’s in London concluded one of its biggest art auctions. In all, the sale of 25 modern and contemporary works raised almost £300m. Seated Nude With Necklace, by Modigliani, went for £41.5m; La Belle Promenade, by Magritte, went for £13.5m. …

Britain’s Paralympic dame is quitting after a stellar career that began in the swimming pool as a 14-year-old before five Games hoovering up cycling gold medals “This is the first time that I will speak about the next chapter,” Dame Sarah Storey says in a quiet corner of a busy cafe in Macclesfield as, after a remarkable career in which she won 74 world and Paralympic medals as the most successfu…

Figures who worked with striker in his formative years recall a self-belief – even when his talent did not stand out There is another version of reality in which Harry Kane is not England’s greatest goalscorer but a goalkeeper. On his first day at Ridgeway Rovers, his first club, the coach Dave Bricknell asked whether anyone fancied going in goal. A six-year-old Kane threw up his hand – and he wa…

Ninth seed beats fellow Czech 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 Muchova falls short in second major final As one of her worst nightmares on a tennis court appeared to be unfolding before her disbelieving eyes, Linda Noskova walked solemnly to her chair with both index fingers plugged into her ears. She was attempting to block out the roars of a booming Centre Court crowd, which had erupted in jubilation at her failu…

⚽️ World Cup kick-off: 5pm EDT/10pm BST/7am AEST ⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Scott So how did we all get here? To tell the story properly, let’s go back to the beginning and reacquaint ourselves with both squads. In truth, not too much has changed since then … other than we’d need to crowbar in a bit about golf at the end of the England page. Oh Harry. Some more on the con…

South Africa 42-28 Scotland Scots run in four tries to earn bonus point A breathless match, all the more so given the thin air of Pretoria, but South Africa march on with another full house of points. Scotland were brilliant in scoring their four tries, their pace and skill regularly making mugs of their hosts, but power remains the thing the Springboks do better than anyone. At this altitude, it…