Southampton spy chance to advance after goalless draw at Middlesbrough

The chants from Middlesbrough fans about Southampton’s spying are likely to linger in the memory far longer than a playoff semi-final that promised far more than it delivered. While Southampton will start Tuesday’s second leg as favourites, Boro cannot be discounted after dominating large tracts of a tie thoroughly overshadowed by a spying scandal. Slate grey rain clouds shrouded the Cleveland Hills and it seemed emblematic of the chill gloom enveloping the visitors after Middlesbrough accused one of Southampton’s analysts of spying on a training sessions and resulted in a misconduct charge

Fernández ends Chelsea’s run of defeats as lacklustre Liverpool are booed off

The optimistic take is that Chelsea avoided equalling their worst run of league defeats since 1952 and warmed up nicely for next Saturday’s FA Cup final with a merited draw at Liverpool. Optimism, however, was thin on the ground at Anfield where boos greeted the full-time whistle and Arne Slot’s decision to introduce Alexander Isak for Rio Ngumoha. His team are crawling towards Champions League qualification with dissent for company. Enzo Fernández’s fortunate free-kick cancelled out an early strike from Ryan Gravenberch in a mediocre contest between two teams enduring mediocre campaigns. The

LIVE: Manchester City vs Brentford – Premier League

Follow our live build-up, with full team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream as City chase Arsenal.

Crystal Palace to offer Andoni Iraola lucrative deal to succeed Oliver Glasner

Spaniard will leave Bournemouth at end of the season Chelsea and other Premier League sides also interested Crystal Palace are stepping up their attempts to convince Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola to take over from Oliver Glasner and are set to offer him a lucrative three-year contract. It is understood that Palace have made Iraola, who confirmed last month that he will be leaving Bournemouth at the end of the season, their preferred target and held initial talks with the Spaniard’s camp in the past few weeks. Continue reading...

'We can breathe, but nothing is safe' - Okafor adamant Leeds need more

No Swiss player has scored more goals in a single Premier League campaign than Leeds forward Noah Okafor. In fact, among those to play 200+ minutes since the start of February, Okafor has the best goals-to-minutes ratio of any player in the division.

Sunderland v Manchester United, Fulham v Bournemouth, and more: football – live

⚽ Brighton v Wolves rounds out Premier League 3pm BSTs ⚽ Live scores | Latest tables | Follow on Bluesky | Mail Barry WSL: Manchester City won the title without playing and with a game to spare when Arsenal failed to beat Brighton in midweek. This afternoon, Aston Villa are hosting Arsenal in the only Women’s Super League match being played this weekend. Alessia Russo and Frida Maanum have struck three goals between them to give the visitors a commanding lead at Villa Park, where a win for Arsenal will guarantee them a place in next season’s Champions League qualification rounds. With

‘Keep fighting for the badge’: Arbeloa makes passionate defence of Real Madrid fight duo

Coach insists he is ‘proud’ of Valverde and Tchouaméni Tchouaméni is in squad for Sunday’s game at Barcelona Álvaro Arbeloa insisted Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni should be given the chance to “keep fighting for the badge” after a second dressing-room bust-up in two days left the Uruguayan on the floor and needing to be taken to hospital for stitches in his head. The morning after Real Madrid fined the players a record €500,000 each for the incident and the morning before they face Barcelona in the clásico , the coach gave an extraordinary press conference in which he claimed the dr

Red Roses thrash Italy in Parma despite conceding 33 as Packer scores four

Marlie Packer scored four tries as England's Red Roses recorded a dominant 61-33 Women's Six Nations Round 4 victory over Italy in Parma to remain on course for another Grand Slam.

Women's Six Nations LIVE! Unbeaten Red Roses travel to face Italy in Parma

Writers on their World Cup Panini collecting days: ‘We all remember the playground twerp’

The much-loved football sticker album is to be discontinued after 2030. Guardian writers recall their thrills and frustrations With this summer’s World Cup already mired in controversy over politicisation , potential travel bans and rows over ticket prices , fans were dealt another piece of sad news this week: the tournament’s much-loved Panini sticker album will be discontinued after 2030. Guardian writers recall their Panini memories from years gone by. Continue reading...

Bournemouth close in on European place with crucial win at Fulham

Bournemouth strengthened their grip on a European place and extended their extraordinary unbeaten run to 16 games with a 1-0 victory at Fulham, in which both teams had a player sent off.

Man Utd miss chance to secure third in Sunderland stalemate

Manchester United missed the chance to secure third place in the Premier League as they were held 0-0 at Sunderland.