⚽ Europa League updates from the latest round of games ⚽ Live scores | Follow us on Bluesky | And email Scott Utrecht 0-1 Nottingham Forest. Arnaud Kalimuendo is this close to his second goal, but can’t bundle home a corner whipped long from the left to the far post. Forest are on top and looking pretty comfortable. Basel: Hitz, Tsunemoto, Adjetey, Daniliuc, Schmid, Metinho, Leroy, Bacanin, Traore, Shaqiri, Otele. Subs: Salvi, Pfeiffer, Vouilloz, Koindredi, Broschinski, Soticek, Salah, Ajeti, Barisic, Ruegg, Cisse, Ze. Aston Villa: Bizot, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Digne, Bogarde, Onana, Guessand, Buendia, Sancho, Malen. Subs: Wright, Oakley, McGinn, Tielemans, Watkins, Garcia, Maatsen, Rogers, Kamara, Hemmings. Continue reading...

When you work in the game it is easy to get cynical but this week I’ve been consuming all the #limbs I can find For the second time in a week, I’m welling up. This time in a cafe on Northcote High Street in Melbourne at 9am. I punched the air when Kieran Tierney curled that one in. But Kenny McLean. From the halfway line. As the ball sails over Kasper Schmeichel my hands involuntarily shoot to the sky. What a moment. The commentary is amazing. Before long I’m watching it on a loop. The unwritten rule of not talking over each other goes out of the window. In fact it’s better. You want the comms to feel like you feel. On BBC Scotland, Liam McLeod, Steven Thompson and James McFadden absolutely nail it. McLeod: “They’ve given it away.” Thompson: “SHOOT SHOOT.” McLeod: “He’s gonna shoot.” (McFadden is grinning wildly.) Thompson: “OH HE’S DONE HIM, HE’S DONE HIM, HE’S DONE HIM.” McLeod: “HAS THAT GONE IN? OOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO THAT’S UNBELIEVABLE …” The fixed camera set on Thompson and McFadden is wonderous. Two grown men jumping up and down in unison like 10-year-old boys. They are just so happy. Continue reading...

Everton need more edge in attack, Potts lifts West Ham’s leaden midfield and Liverpool face a rampaging Haaland Premier League top scorers: the latest standings Time is running out for Richarlison. Injuries to Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani gave the Brazilian a consistent run in Thomas Frank’s starting XI but, with just one goal since the first league game of the season, he has not taken his opportunities. Now, with Kolo Muani fit, the former Everton striker has had to make do with a place on the bench and failed to impress against FC Copenhagen in midweek, missing a penalty that another striker, Dane Scarlett, won. Competition is fierce, even for a Spurs side that registered 0.1 xG in the defeat to Chelsea – the lowest by any Premier League team this season – and speculation has already begun before the January transfer window. Both Ivan Toney (who played under Frank at Brentford) and Dusan Vlahovic (whose contract at Juventus is up next summer) have been linked. Tottenham have money to spend so Richarlison must make the most of his minutes if wants to have a future at the club, as well as keep himself in contention for Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil squad with the World Cup coming up next summer. Michael Butler Tottenham v Manchester United, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT) Everton v Fulham, Saturday 3pm West Ham v Burnley, Saturday 3pm Sunderland v Arsenal, Saturday 5.30pm Continue reading...

We did not witness the making of history at Tynecastle Park. It remains far too early for that kind of thing. What this match did further emphasise is that Hearts are at least in with a serious opportunity of ending Scottish football’s four decade-long title duopoly. Make that eight points of a lead for Hearts over Celtic, whom they comfortably swatted aside here. Catch them if you can. Three second-half minutes were key, after an opening period that was closely contested. What was so notable after Hearts surged 3-1 ahead was how stress-free the remainder of the game was for the hosts. Alexandros Kyziridis scored Hearts’ second, cutting in from the left before thumping a right-footed shot past the motionless Kasper Schmeichel. Soon there was further euphoria in the stands, Dane Murray upending Cláudio Braga for a penalty that Lawrence Shankland tucked away. Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, cut such a disconsolate figure; he hardly has his troubles to seek. Full report to follow Continue reading...

Dragan Stojkovic resigns as boss of England's group rivals Serbia immediately after his side's 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat by Albania on Saturday.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said he neither remembered nor is interested in Hansi Flick's complaints about the national team's handling of Lamine Yamal.

While a draw at Leverkusen changes little on paper, it could be vital for the beleaguered visitors and their interim coach A week is a long time in the Bundesliga but, for Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach, if Sunday afternoon is anything to go by, this season promises to contain the lessons of several regular years. For Leverkusen, having had such an invigorating liftoff on Kasper Hjulmand’s debut with a win over Eintracht Frankfurt, it was a reminder of how much work there is still to do. But for Gladbach, it was confirmation that yes, there is at last the first shard of light at the end of the tunnel. Last weekend Gladbach – five times Bundesliga winners, not to mention double Uefa Cup champions in the glory years of the 1970s – were humiliated at home by Werder Bremen, beaten 4-0 and getting off lightly, with Werder’s own 3-0 home loss to Freiburg on Saturday underlining just what a bad defeat that was. After the firing of the former Leverkusen boss Gerardo Seoane and the trip to face the 2024 champions, the Monday morning mood could not be more different. Continue reading...

Qarabag fight back from 2-0 down to beat Benfica Union Saint-Gilloise win at PSV on league phase debut It was a dramatic opening night in the Champions League, with Juventus and Borussia Dortmund sharing eight second-half goals while Qarabag shocked Benfica. Dusan Vlahovic and Lloyd Kelly scored in stoppage time to inspire a dramatic Juventus escape, as they secured a 4-4 draw in a game where all eight goals came after the break. Continue reading...

A brace from Alejandro Grimaldo helps Bayer Leverkusen overcome the sending off of captain Robert Andrich and Ezequiel Fernandez to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 in the Bundesliga, in new manager Kasper Hjulmand's first game in charge following the sacking of Erik ten Hag.

It was the night when Thomas Tuchel located the ignition point for his England tenure, when all of the grumbling that had followed him to Belgrade seemed to float away. The head coach needed a result to allow his team to take control of this World Cup qualifying group – and a performance, too, after the flatness of much of what had gone before. Tuchel got both, his players a class apart from the first whistle, Serbia left to look dishevelled, their problems everywhere. It is a troubling moment for their country, anti-government protests gaining in intensity and there were chants of that nature here. Dragan Stojkovic, the manager, is under heavy fire. Where now for him after this? Continue reading...

Luis de la Fuente’s European champions are in sublime form as they build up to next year’s tournament “It’s all about rondos. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day,” Xavi Hernández once said, but nobody expected it inside the opposition’s penalty area. And yet here was Spain’s new generation, European champions such as his, doing exactly what he demanded – “Pum-pum-pum-pum, always one touch” – just a few metres from Ugurcan Cakir’s goal. Which, when the whole perfect sequence finally played out in Konya, Turkey, is where the ball concluded its journey. The question now is where they will conclude their own. Can they, like Xavi’s generation, the most successful in history, follow the European Championship with a World Cup? Watching them play on Sunday night, nine months before the tournament’s opening at the Azteca stadium, the answer can only be yes. Watching the second of the six goals they scored, especially. Continue reading...

A penny for the thoughts of Christian Eriksen. Denmark could justify leaving the 33-year-old out of their squad for the meetings with Scotland and Greece on the basis he remains unemployed. Yet as Denmark huffed, puffed and failed to unpick a magnificently drilled Scotland defence, the issue of what Eriksen could have contributed was such an obvious one. Denmark in this form will not play at next summer’s World Cup. Steve Clarke’s Scotland were well worthy of their point. But for a lack of composure in front of goal, they would have departed Copenhagen with all three. The winners from this opening night of a truncated section were the Greeks, who swept Belarus aside, but Scotland richly deserved their full-time ovation from an appreciative support, while Denmark were booed off. Continue reading...

Guirassy scores double in 3-0 victory over Union Berlin Juventus scrape 1-0 against Genoa after Vlahovic header The Borussia Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy scored once in each half to help steer the hosts to a 3-0 victory over Union Berlin on Sunday and notch their first Bundesliga win of the season. The 29-year-old has now netted in his seventh consecutive Bundesliga match, with only two players in Dortmund history having achieved a longer streak. The Guinea international missed two golden chances early in the first half, including a one-on-one with the goalkeeper Frederik Rønnow. But it was third time lucky just before half-time when Yan Couto found the striker with a superb pass. Guirassy then scored his third goal in two league matches in the 58th minute after a one-two with Maximilian Beier and a smooth chip over Rønnow, before the substitute Felix Nmecha sealed the win. Juventus scraped a 1-0 win away to Genoa in their Serie A clash, with Dusan Vlahovic coming off the bench to score for the second successive game. Vlahovic, who also scored in the opening-day victory over Parma, looked set to leave Juventus in the close season, with the club eager to sell the striker rather than lose him for free when his contract runs out next year. Yet for now the Serbia international is proving vital at this early stage of the campaign. This story will be updated Continue reading...

Beyond midnight, many miles beyond the borders of Europe, Temirlan Anarbekov was writing his name into Celtic infamy. The 21‑year‑old rookie goalkeeper had made the penalty shootout saves that guided Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty into the Champions League group stage. Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda each saw attempts saved by a keeper turned to in emergency. Kasper Schmeichel, his opposite number, could only offer congratulations as Celtic incurred the heavy cost of a poor performance over 210 goalless minutes before their lack of composure from the spot. Continue reading...