England’s dream of lifting a first World Cup was dashed at the final hurdle after Olga Carmona’s first-half strike proved enough to secure Spain a 1-0 victory in Sydney.
Sarina Wiegman’s side still achieved a best-ever second-place finish, but that will be little consolation to the Lionesses, who came within inches of an opener when Lauren Hemp clipped the crossbar in the first half.
FIFA Best goalkeeper Mary Earps produced several fine saves to keep England in the contest, including the vital block to deny Jennifer Hermoso’s second-half spot kick as her determined team-mates tried to stage a comeback.
Our dream comes to an end at the final hurdle.
— Lionesses (@Lionesses)
That never came, and while the Lionesses had their chances the…
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery played down his side’s Champions League credentials despite thrashing West Ham.
Villa are just two points off Premier League pacesetters Manchester City and Arsenal following Sunday’s 4-1 win.
Douglas Luiz’s double and clinical finishes from Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey ended Villa’s Hammers hoodoo, for their first victory over West Ham since 2015.
They returned to fifth spot, just a point adrift of the top four, with games against Luton, Nottingham Forest and Fulham coming up next.
“There are seven teams contending. We are after seven teams; Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle,” said Emery, with fifth potentially offering a Champions League place this term.
“Dream, …
Arsenal are interested in signing Houssem Aouar from Lyon in the summer of 2023, according to . Aouar is out of contract at Ligue 1 club Lyon at the end of the season, and Premier League giants Arsenal want to agree a pre-contract with him in January and then snap him up on a free transfer next summer.
Aouar has been on the books of Lyon since 2009 and has come through the French club’s youth academy. The 24-year-old has made over 150 appearances in Ligue 1 for Lyon and has also played once for the France national football team.
The midfielder has made one appearance in Ligue 1 for Lyon so far this season. Aouar made 29 starts and seven substitute appearances in Ligue 1 last season, scoring six goals and providing four assists in the process. The France international …
Manchester United signed Patrice Evra from Monaco on a three-and-a-half-year contract, on this day in 2006.
The 24-year-old joined Sir Alex Ferguson’s side for £5.5million but endured a tough start to life in Manchester, with a nightmare debut against neighbours Manchester City four days later as he was taken off at half-time in a 3-1 defeat.
However, the France international soon made the left-back position his own at Old Trafford after Gabriel Heinze’s cruciate ligament injury earlier that season and he went on to feature 379 times for the Red Devils.
Evra won 10 major trophies with United, including five Premier League titles, three League Cups, the Champions League and the Club World Cup.
On Evra’s arrival at Old Trafford, manager Ferguson said…
While the Premier League might have taken an early fortnight break due to September’s international break, the rest of England’s elite professional tiers will steal centre stage.
With the likes of League One high-flyers Wrexham looking to extend on their unbeaten start, we have plenty of intriguing showdowns from across England’s third and fourth tiers respectively.
So, for those of you looking to stick on a Saturday acca, we have taken a look at some of the best English betting markets that are available.
Saturday, September 7th
BST 15:00 Wrexham vs Shrewsbury
While Wrexham might have only made their famous League One return for this season, the Red Dragons are in the midst of a public fairytale. Continuing on an astonishing rise and receiving …
Best odds: 8/5
Bookmaker:
NAC Breda and SBV Excelsior are set to battle fiercely for the final spot in next season s top flight as they clash in the first leg of the Eredivisie Promotion Play-off final at Rat Verlegh Stadion on Tuesday night.
The Pearl of the South displayed remarkable resilience and skill in their semi-final second leg to secure their place in this decisive round. Meanwhile, the Kralingers shattered several records during their dramatic encounter with ADO Den Haag, demonstrating their formidable form heading into the final.
NAC Breda
NAC Breda s journey to the final stage of the Eredivisie Promotion Play-offs is nothing short of remarkable, especially considering their eighth-place finish in the Eerste Divisie with 56 points from 38 ma…
The 2018-19 season was not one Manchester United fans would remember particularly fondly, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer s appointment provided cause for optimism.
United finished sixth in the Premier League but reached a Champions League quarter-final and gathered momentum in the second half of the campaign with Solskjaer at the helm.
Supporters could hope a number of the players at Old Trafford would be able to form the basis of a title-winning side in the coming years.
And so it proved this week as Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Ashley Young and Matteo Darmian got their hands on domestic silverware – in Inter colours.
That quartet played a combined 88 Premier League games for United in 2018-19 but this term turned out together for Inter, accounting for 107…
Ryan Mason has trust in the key decision-makers at Tottenham to get the big calls right this summer.
Spurs’ acting head coach Mason will take his squad to relegation-threatened Leeds on the final day in what is set to be his last fixture in charge.
Eighth-placed Tottenham remain without a permanent manager or managing director of football and could miss out on Europe for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign unless they better Aston Villa’s result and match Brentford’s on Sunday.
It all comes down to this…
— Premier League (@premierleague)
Crunch decisions are required by chairman Daniel Levy and the board, with a promise already made to supporters over the style Spurs will try to play next season.
Last Saturday’s program…
Gernot Rohr believes this World Cup has come four years early for his young Nigeria side, but hopes they can perform under pressure.
Nigeria begin a tricky Group D campaign against Croatia on Saturday, with clashes with Argentina and Iceland to come.
And while Rohr acknowledges the need to make the Nigerian public proud in these matches, he sees performances as the priority and expects an inexperienced group to deliver on that front.
We know this pressure. We have this all the time. We had it in the qualifiers, he told a pre-match news conference. I m sure we ll make Nigerians happy.
We have such a young team, maybe this World Cup is too soon for them. We have the youngest squad, so maybe 2022 will be their World Cup.
We want to make Nigerian p…
Vanni Sartini has asked Vancouver Whitecaps to take a more “aggressive” approach to beat Sporting Kansas City in MLS on Wednesday.
Vancouver sit seventh in the Western Conference with 19 points but after a run of six matches without a win in the competition, the teams below them are catching up.
The Whitecaps failed to mount a comeback in their latest defeat to Inter Miami, losing 2-1 at home, causing them to also lose ground on the teams above them.
Sartini expects a tough game against the side bottom of the table, saying: It s a team that are behind us in the standings and we know how important it is to win those games to put more distance because we re still in a playoff position that we need to keep.
It s always very hard to play there, the atmos…