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⚽️ World Cup kick-off time: 7pm ET/12am BST/9am AEST ⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Contact Beau Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, catch up on what to know about Côte d’Ivoire and Ecuador with our team guides. Côte d’Ivoire return to the world stage for the first time since the golden years of the early 2010s. They do not quite have the star power of old, but their squad…

The net rippled and Curaçao’s bench exploded in every conceivable ­direction, their giddiness underpinned by a lucid awareness of the goal’s place in history. Livano Comenencia had just equalised against Germany and an island of 158,000 inhabitants, represented here by an accomplished group born almost entirely in the Netherlands, could revel disbelievingly in the moment it had dreamed of. Realit…

Squad has evolved since 2024 but the European champions are happy to embrace the tag of tournament favourites Spain knew, now everyone else does too. It was almost 1.30am on 15 July 2024 when Álvaro Morata, the captain who had lifted the Henry Delaunay trophy, headed down the slope and towards the team bus parked beneath the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. A European champion now, he came with a big b…

Precious win gives Steve Clarke’s team a platform but nervy display against Haiti could prove a missed opportunity It felt so typically Scottish that even rare success on the World Cup stage delivered such paradoxes of emotion and analysis. In Ireland, sporting glory is routinely cherished without contradiction. Scots have far more of a tendency to apply “ah, but” as an addendum. So it proved fro…

Group 2: Scotland, 161-5, beat Ireland, 121, by 40 runs Kathryn Bryce struck 60 from 39 balls Scotland notched up a historic maiden World Cup win on Saturday, coming out on top against Ireland by 40 runs. The Scotland captain, Kathryn Bryce, struck a powerful 60 from 39 balls and followed it up with a brilliant one-handed caught-and-bowled to see off Alana Dalzell in the first over of Ireland’s c…

Rejected by Chelsea, honed by West Ham and a league winner at Arsenal, the midfielder has plenty from his footballing journey wishing him well at the World Cup Three years ago Declan Rice was the star guest at a Soho House event about the power of effective leadership. Tickets were in hot demand and Rice, who was due to play a European semi-final for West Ham two days later , could not understand…

Head coach failed to save club from relegation Wolves have signed Kieran Trippier and Raúl Jiménez Wolverhampton Wanderers have sacked Rob Edwards, the former Middlesbrough head coach they hired last November , after he was unable to guide the struggling Midlands club to Premier League safety. Edwards signed a three-and-a-half year deal when he was appointed and took over Wolves following the sac…

Knicks erase 29-point deficit to win Game 4 Anunoby scores winner with 2.3 seconds left New York take commanding 3-1 Finals lead The New York Knicks stared into the abyss and somehow found a way out. Facing a 29-point deficit in front of a shell-shocked Madison Square Garden crowd, New York completed the largest comeback in NBA finals history on Wednesday night when OG Anunoby’s tip-in off a Jale…

Olympic gold medallist diver reflects on the financial and emotional challenges since retiring from the sport and teaming up with his hero Tom Daley “It’s like I’ve already got an open wound and you’re stabbing me in it,” Matty Lee says as, deep into our second hour at a beautiful old Edwardian swimming pool in Leeds, we turn to Kirsty Coventry’s recent comments that athletes should not be paid a…

As a lifelong Knicks fan, the Public Enemy frontman knows how much New York craves an end to its 53-year NBA title drought I didn’t see the Knicks win their second championship in 1973 because I had to go to bed. That night, the Knicks beat the LA Lakers, but clinching game was on the west coast and it was a school night. I couldn’t watch it. I was 13 and in seventh grade. Back then things were d…

44-year-old victorious alongside partner Victoria Mboko Pair win 7-6 (2), 6-2 over Melichar-Martinez and Routliffe 1,375 days later, Serena Williams resumed her life as a professional tennis player to an uncharacteristic roar from a usually reserved Queen’s Club crowd filled to the brim. As she warmed up on the grass, flanked by a formidable, precocious partner in Victoria Mboko, Williams could n…

The batter is primed to take advantage of the home T20 tournament – she is determined to create memories for the nation Given how composed Alice Capsey has recently looked in an England shirt, it’s hard to imagine her getting nervous – but with only days to go until England’s World Cup opener on Friday against Sri Lanka, she admits she is struggling. “I doubt I’ll sleep very well [on Thursday],” …

As it happened: Spurs 115-111 Knicks French star leads Spurs to win with 32 points Knicks lead best-of-seven series 2-1 Trump given hostile reception by New York crowd The spectacle at Madison Square Garden on Monday night was such that the basketball almost took a back seat to everything else. The president in the suites . The mayor in the crowd. Movie stars along the sideline. The culmination o…

Other drivers are trying to remain upbeat but the Italian is untouchable on present form, and his Mercedes team principal is in awe Kimi Antonelli reached new heights at the Monaco Grand Prix , his talent and potential made abundantly clear as he became the race’s youngest winner. The question now in Formula One only six races into the season is increasingly whether anyone can catch the teenager.…

Swiss star wins with third fastest time in history Hodgkinson targets world record after defeat On a wild summer’s night in Stockholm, a woman ran the quickest 800m since the darkest days of the cold war. But, staggeringly, her name was not Keely Hodgkinson. Britain’s 800m Olympic champion had promised she was in personal best shape, and duly proved as good as her word. But she had no answer to t…

Mercedes driver goes 0.043 quicker than Red Bull rival Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton third, George Russell sixth Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli snatched pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix with an exceptional lap around the streets of Monte Carlo. In a gripping qualifying, the 19-year-old Italian was flawless in edging out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were thi…

The decision to extend Clarke’s contract before his side have proved they can finally progress to the knockouts could be a needless risk The summit of Scottish football provides a wonderful environment for those who value long-term career stops. Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football League, arrived at the then Scottish Premier League in 2009. Ian Maxwell, bizarrely…

Fan ran on to court during NBA finals opener Knicks guard appeared upset with fans Howard Bryant: Brunson the difference in Game 1 The NBA has banned two fans for life after an incident in which a man ran on to the court to take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama during Game 1 of the finals . In a separate case, ESPN reports that the league is investigating an incident during Wednesday night’s game …

Updates from the first day of the series at Lord’s Sign up for The Spin | Follow us on TikTok | Mail Tim Morning everyone and welcome to the first Test of the English summer. Ashes, what Ashes? There’s a lot to look forward to here. It’s the 150th Test at Lord’s, the first ground to reach that milestone. The next one looks like being Melbourne, some time in the 2040s, so here is one facet of cric…

We’ve looked at data from USA 1994 onwards to see how and when classic upsets take place – and what that could mean for this year’s competition This year, the biggest ever World Cup will feature 48 teams, an increase from 32, opening up the tournament to even more upsets, shocks and surprises. The vagaries of the World Cup draw have given rise to classic underdog victories over the years, from an…