Scott Murray's Blog, page 161
July 30, 2016
US PGA Championship 2016: day three, as it happened
Rain and lightning wiped out most of the day’s play, though Kevin Kisner and Padraig Harrington shot 65s before the weather turned sour.
Official PGA leaderboard
11.02pm BST
Finally, the inevitable announcement: play has been abandoned for the day. It’s going to be a long one tomorrow. And possibly Monday. And Tuesd... no, let’s not even go there. Let’s just see how things pan out in the morning, and take it from there. It’s been a frustrating day for just about everyone except Kevin Kisner and Padraig Harrington. Here’s to a more pleasant Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed, and be sure to join us for the conclusion of the third round at the very least. Nighty night everyone, keep safe and dry!
10.45pm BST
The course is flooding under heavy rain. Given there’s only a couple of hours of daylight left, the PGA really should put the players out of their misery today. But they’re still hanging on. “Why would the PGA give Baltusrol the tournament in late July?” wonders Stu Matthews. “Sure it’s a great historic hard course but did they not consider this area of New Jersey has a 44% chance of precipitation on any given day, as well as a 19% chance of thunderstorms any given day? Plus it’s hotter than Donald Trump’s armpits? Guess they wanted a six-day tournament and that’s what they’ll get.” And here we all were worrying about the Olympics turning into a farce.
10.26pm BST
There was, of course, some play earlier. And though the leaders didn’t get the chance to clack a Titleist in anger, there’s been some slight movement on the leaderboard:
-9: Walker, Streb
-7: Grillo, Day
-6: Stenson
-5: Kisner (F), Kaymer, Reed, Koepka
-4: Harrington (F), Simpson (6), McGirt (2), Summerhays (2), Matsuyama, English, Fowler, Donaldson
10.20pm BST
While we wait for the PGA to call time on day three ... here’s proof that, three hours after play was suspended, I’m not just shouting down a freshly dug hole in the back yard. A reader! It’s Simon McMahon: “Might as well include Wednesday while we’re at it.” He’s either dejected, resigned or excited. Difficult to say.
10.13pm BST
Thing is, the weather forecast isn’t too great tomorrow, either. Or Monday! The chances of the PGA’s holy grail, a Sunday finish, look pretty darn slim right now. But even getting the job done on Monday isn’t a given. This is all worst-case scenario stuff, but just so we’re aware of the infinite possibilities.
10.10pm BST
No official confirmation yet, but word from Baltusrol is that it might not be long before the plug is pulled on day three. One hour, they said. Nothing to see here!
9.43pm BST
This second band of dangerous weather appears to be taking its sweet time to arrive at Baltusrol, never mind pass through it. A suggestion that it still might be 30 minutes to an hour away. That really doesn’t augur well for any more play today. There are only four hours of daylight left, if that. Shave off an hour or so for the players to warm up and get back into position on the course ahead of a resumption, and we’re beginning to cut it a bit fine. The PGA will desperately want a Sunday finish, but cramming in 36 holes for the leading groups tomorrow might be pushing it, especially as the weather isn’t going to be perfect then either. Play on Monday is a distinct possibility now, just as it was here in 2005. Can the PGA manage to squeeze in a few holes of play tonight? Hmm. One hour, they said!
8.49pm BST
“If we don’t get too much rain [during the aforementioned second cell of bad weather] we hope to get out in a little while.” Kerry Haigh, the chief championship officer of the PGA, there. So we obviously still need to hang about for a bit, but providing the course doesn’t take too much of a battering when the rain comes through, there is hope for more play today!
8.44pm BST
The PGA are “cautiously hopeful” that we’ll get some play again today. A bit more realistic than that “one-hour” suspension, huh. The first cell of bad weather has passed, and we’re now in a lull, but there’s no point getting everyone out again yet because another cell of rain and lightning is coming along in roughly 30 minutes. But that may not hang around too long, and after that, it could be quite calm for some time. They’re still hoping to finish tomorrow, one way or another. Though it all rides on getting at least some more golf in today. Fingers crossed.
8.14pm BST
It really is pelting down now. Stair rods. We could be a while. Sit tight.
8.10pm BST
That PGA announcement of “approximately one hour” looks pretty damn optimistic right now. Rain has arrived at Baltusrol, but no thunder yet, and the serious stuff on the satellite maps is still heading towards the course. The 2002 champion Rich Beem, in situ in his day job for Sky Sports after shooting 72 today - he’s +3 - suggests we could be waiting for a couple of hours at least. Everyone’s hopeful of getting some golf later on, but finishing the third round tonight is almost certainly a pipe dream now. That could mean a very busy Sunday, with an early start, split tee times, threeballs and all sorts, but a Monday finish isn’t beyond the realms. Anyway, first things first: so much for that “one hour”. Tick, tock. We’ll keep you posted.
7.28pm BST
The players are making their way back to the safety of the clubhouse. Frustrating for all of them, frustrating for all of us, frustrating for the 45,000 paying punters at Baltusrol, many of whom will soon be getting soaked through. It’s especially frustrating for Marc Leishman, though. He’s with Russell Knox on the 18th green. The pair know the klaxon is about to sound, and any shot hit afterwards incurs a penalty. So Knox, having nearly drained a 50-footer for birdie, sprints to the hole to tap in. He’ll sign for a 67. He’s -3. Leishman lines up a putt from eight feet for his 67 - and there goes the horn. He’ll have to come back when play restarts. They enjoy a good laugh, but the Scot will find that more humorous than the Aussie. Play is likely to be suspended, according to a PGA announcement, for “approximately one hour”. We’ll see. Back with more, when we have it!
7.19pm BST
Bubba finds the par-five 18th in two effortless strokes, then takes three miserable putts for his par. That kind of mirrors his round. A level-par 70, and after a fast start, he’s ended up going nowhere. Back on 2, the in-form William McGirt, who recently won his first Tour event at the age of 36, rattles in a 25-footer across 2: he’s -4. Jordan Spieth sends his second into 2 pin high, 20 feet from the flag, and the second his ball lands, the klaxon sounds. Play has been suspended due to threat of lightning. We knew it was coming.
7.11pm BST
Spieth lashes out of the fairway bunker at 1, finding the centre of the green. He’s left himself a huge birdie putt, a 40-footer with a large right-to-left break, but he’s so close to knocking it in. That’s a fine par, and so nearly an outrageous start to his round. He stays at -3. But some spectacular stuff up on 2, where Daniel Summerhays, from the middle of the fairway, wedges high towards the flag. One bounce, 12 inches from the cup, and it disappears down the hole! Eagle! An eventful start, given he’d dropped a stroke at the opening hole. He’s -4. After a top-ten finish at Oakmont, he’ll be dreaming of another high finish at a major. Or something better?
7.03pm BST
Jordan Spieth, who had a very average Thursday but a much more impressive Friday, has worked his way back into this competition. At -3, six off the halfway lead, he’ll be hoping to add the PGA to a precocious portfolio that already contains Masters and US Open victories. Driving into the bunker down the left of 1 isn’t the start he was after, then. He’s battled well this week, scrambling brilliantly; more of that genius is required from the get-go. Elsewhere, Bourdy hands his birdie straight back to the field on 3. He’s -3 again. His playing partner, the 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott, is going along in bizarro style: bogey at 2, birdie at 3, and he’s also where he started at -3.
6.50pm BST
Par for Kevin Kisner on 18. He doesn’t quite hit his 15-foot birdie effort, but that’s a brilliant 65 anyway. He’s -5, and the new clubhouse leader. Back on 2, Gregory Bourdy teases a 30-foot right-to-left curler into the cup for a birdie that takes him to -4. On 1, Billy Hurley III drains one of similar distance for an opening birdie that raises him to -4. Back-to-back birdies for the 2012 US Open champ Webb Simpson at 3 and 4: he’s -4. And birdie for John Senden on 3; he’s -3. It’s all happening, though for how much longer remains to be seen: a weather warning has been posted on the leaderboards, with a thundersquall coming at Baltusrol from the south-west. Here’s hoping it somehow bodyswerves New Jersey, but the forecast isn’t great. If there is a weather delay, fingers crossed it’ll be brief, because this is already a fantastic day’s golf, and none of the leading bunch have hit a shot yet.
6.45pm BST
More bother for Beef, who is falling apart like an overdunked Arby’s French Dip. He’s driven into a fairway bunker down 8. He then pulls a wild second over the bunkers to the left of the green. He’s in thick filth, with a downhill lie, and snookered by sand. With not much green to play with on the other side, he tries a cute one over the bunker but doesn’t reach the putting surface. His ball snags in the fringe, and he duffs his chip out of that. He nearly curls in the left-to-right bogey putt from 15 feet, but that’s a double on one of the shortest par fours at Baltusrol. That’s golf, ladies and gents! He crashes down to +1.
6.37pm BST
Bubba’s round has unravelled completely. It’s three bogeys in four holes now, the latest the result of a heavy chip from the fringe at 15. He’s unable to make the ten-footer coming back, and he’s back where he started at level par. And it’s a similar story for Beef, who gets a flyer out of thick rough to the side of 7. What’s supposed to be a short chip sails 40 feet past the hole, and he’s not raking in the par putt. He’s come full circle, back to -1.
6.31pm BST
Hats (and sponsored caps) off to Francesco Molinari! The erstwhile Ryder Cup hero started out with a double bogey, dropped another shot at 3, then bogeyed 11. No matter! He’s just rolled in a birdie putt on 18, and that’s his sixth bird in a row. A feat right up there with Jason Day’s seven in eight yesterday. That really is an astonishing run! His earlier travails mean he’s too far back to be a factor in this championship - he ends the third round at -1 - but that’s some way to card a 68. He walks off the green with a huge grin across his mush. “Wooooooo!” trills the irrepressible Butch Harmon on Sky. “That’ll make your lunch feel fantastic!”
6.26pm BST
The veteran steady-eddie Steve Stricker is famed for his brilliant putting. But his all-round short game ain’t too scruffy. He splashes out delicately from a bunker at the front of 7, sending his ball bouncing softly towards the cup, and eventually rolling quietly in. The crowd make up the volume. He leaps out of the bunker with a huge smile on his face. That’s his second birdie of the day, and he’s up to -2. Meanwhile it’s three birdies on the bounce for Kevin Kisner, who slides in a 15-footer on the long par-five 17th, and he’s -5. If he can do something magical on the last, he could be right in the mix tomorrow should any late stormy weather disrupt the leaders. A lot of the field will still fancy their chances here. Hmm, stating the obvious. That’s why they call it Moving Day, isn’t it.
6.21pm BST
Beef in a spot of bother down the right of 6. He’s driven into tight rough, but he clips his ball to the back of the green, then very nearly teases in a huge left-to-right curler from 30 feet. He taps in for his par. Bedlam, brouhaha, bedlam. He stays at -2. A penny for the thoughts of his pal and compatriot Andy Sullivan, who is going round with him in steady pars, and very much the sideshow today. I guess he won’t mind too much, the heat off. Meanwhile, last year’s Open runner-up Marc Leishman is going well: birdies at 8, 10 and now 13, and he’s zipping up the leaderboard to -3.
6.13pm BST
A fine end to a very fine round by Padraig Harrington. The 2008 champion - Po’ Sergio! Po’ Sergio’s a-cold! - pings a fairway wood into the heart of 18. He doesn’t give his 25-foot eagle putt any chance of reaching the hole, a poor effort, but he digs deep to knock in the six-foot birdie chance, and that’s a stunning 65 from a player who will be 45 next month. The years, rolled back, right there. He’s -4 overall, and the new clubhouse leader. Meanwhile the 2015 Players Championship nearly man, Kevin Kisner, is going very well indeed. The 32-year-old South Carolinian has just birdied 15 and 16. Having gone out in 32 strokes, he’s four under for his round, and -4 overall.
6.07pm BST
Bubba very nearly chips in at 12, over the valley by the green from distance, but the ball rolls eight feet past, and he doesn’t make the par putt. He’s back to -2. And in double-quick time, he’s fallen to -1, failing to get up and down from the fringe at the back of the 13th green, his punched wedge far too tentative, though he probably shouldn’t miss the four-footer he’d left himself. Beef meanwhile hoicks his approach at 5 down a massive swale to the left of the green. A long chip up awaits. He sends one scampering up at speed, the brakes screeching on right by the hole, a fine touch. He saves par, and arrests what looked like some worrying backwards momentum. Here’s Hubert O’Hearn: “From the Department of Horrible Puns: I am waiting, just waiting, for an announcer to say ‘Beef ruminates over his putt.’ Right. I’ll shut up now.”
6.01pm BST
Bogey for Beef at 4, the result of a tee shot pushed into the meat of the green on the right. Problem is, the pin’s back left, and the putting surface is larger than a classic Arby’s roast beef sandwich. He can only lag up to ten feet, and can’t knock the second putt in. He’s back to -2, though the crowd holler in exactly the same style. Beeeeeeeeef! It doesn’t matter what he does. He could run round in circles with his trousers round his ankles, like a toddler, and the crowd would love him just the same. I hope he makes it to the Masters next year.
5.53pm BST
Since that early birdie burst, Bubba has been going along in a very strange fashion. In other words, a long run of pars. He’s still -3 overall, through 11. But what a par save at 10: having dumped his second into a bunker on the left, shortsiding himself, he splashed past the pin to 10 feet, the best he could do, and stroked in the saver. There’s a possibility this run might come to an end soon, though. He hooks his tee shot into thick oomska to the right of a swale at the par-three 12th, then turns to berate some clown who had critiqued his sweet style mid-downswing. “Hey buddy!” begins Bubba, before the microphone perhaps wisely cuts out. Hopefully that was the precursor to a fully descriptive return volley of abuse. The two-time Masters champ would be well within his rights.
5.43pm BST
Thing not to forget about Beef, amid all the cult-hero carry-on, is that he’s a damn fine golfer. From the centre of 3, he whips a short iron straight at the flag, tucked away behind a bunker on the left. Not a big landing zone there, he had to get that spot on. That’s six feet from the pin, a chance for a second birdie of the day. And he strokes it in. He’s up the leaderboard to -3 already. Meanwhile an opening birdie for Branden Grace, who moves to -3. And birdie for Phil Mickelson at 18, and Lefty signs for a 68. He’s -1 for the tournament.
5.33pm BST
Beef - now sponsored by French Dip specialists Arby’s, though in a perfect world he really should be sporting the smiling-golf-glove corporate identity of Hamburger Helper - lands his second at 2 ten feet from the cup. But the ball spins back hysterically and he’s left with a 25-footer for birdie. He very nearly makes it, the ball curling an inch wide left of the hole. Not quite. He stays at -2. Back on 1, his compatriot Paul ‘Chick-fil-A’ Casey makes birdie, and he’s -3.
5.22pm BST
Phil Mickelson livened up proceedings yesterday with a magical mystery tour down 1, winging a drive OB, knocking his provisional under a bush, and nearly sending another shot into someone’s back garden. This isn’t quite as memorable - the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, perhaps - but he’s just hoyed his second at 17 from the middle of the fairway into the hospitality tent on the left. Someone in the drinker pockets the ball as a souvenir, but no worries, he gets a drop outside anyway. Then he whips an iron from the dirt track to 12 feet! He can’t quite make the birdie effort, as it skates the left of the cup. Par, but in the true Mickelson style, it’s a very singular one. It’s all too much. Meanwhile there’s another birdie for Padraig! He knocks his second at 14 to 18 inches, and tidies up to move to -3. And a birdie for Beef on 1, after sending his approach pin high to 15 feet. He’s -2!
5.09pm BST
A birdie for Justin Rose at the last, and he’s signing for a very impressive 66. He rises up the leaderboard to -2. Charl Schwartzel gets a piece of that action too: a 66, and he ends the third day at -2. They’re the very, very, very early clubhouse leaders. For what that’s worth. Back on the first tee: bedlam, bedlam, bedlam! Mr Andrew Johnston, apparently, though the crowd aren’t having a bar of that officious nonsense. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeef! He crashes his opening drive down the middle of 1, then turns, smiles warmly, and waves his driver modestly at the gallery by way of thanks for all their support. Affection rolling down from the grandstand. He doesn’t have to do much to get them going, does he? Likeability! You either have it, or
you’re a journalist
you don’t.
5.00pm BST
Some other early low scorers: Padraig Harrington, the 2008 champion, carded birdies at 5 and 6, then another at 12. He’s -2 overall, and it could have been even better: he’s just been the width of a dimple away from draining a 35-foot birdie effort across 13. The 2013 US Open winner Justin Rose meanwhile only just survived the cut at +2. He’s currently on his way up 18, having started slowly with bogey at 1, then responded with birdies at 3, 4, 15 and 17: he’s -1. His playing partner, the 2011 Masters champ Charl Schwartzel, is three under for his round too. He made four birdies in a row at one point, 10 through 13. The conditions are very conducive to low scoring right now. The likes of Jason Day will be champing at the bit, and hoping thunder doesn’t roll in later to disrupt their rhythm.
4.50pm BST
Bubba can’t make his birdie putt. He looks genuinely affronted that it didn’t drop, but it was a trickly left-to-right slider. Don’t beat yourself up, Bubba; that’s par, and still a fine start to your round. Also going along nicely indeed: the US-based Scot Russell Knox. Three birdies on the bounce, at 3, 4 and 5, and he’s also fizzed up the leaderboard to -3. The early signs suggest some good scores are out there. Whether scoring can be as low as yesterday remains to be seen. The greens, which have taken on plenty of rain over the past day or two, are still receptive. That should remain the case all day, as it’s pretty humid in New Jersey. But the PGA have made sure to tuck away a few of the pins today, especially on the front nine. Par is only 70 at Baltusrol, and I guess nobody wants the first-ever major-championship 62 to happen on their watch. Robert Streb came very, very close yesterday; if he’d hit a very makeable putt on 8, his penultimate hole, he’d have broken new ground.
4.41pm BST
Ah to hell with waiting, we might as well get on with it, because the fever’s already kicking in. Someone, please, call Dr Golf! Anyway, what could be the reason for this heightened emotional state? The early-round shenanigans of Bubba Watson, that’s what! He’s off to a flyer this morning. A shot picked up at 2, then an atmosphere-crackling putt from the fringe at the signature par-three 4th. Two early birdies, then another after wedging to three feet at 5. Having started at level par for the tournament, he’s -3 already. And he’s just set himself up for another chance at 6, with a big drive and a wedge to ten feet. The crowd are well up for this carry-on. A cauldron of anticipation. They’re in the New York groove.
12.19pm BST
There are some seriously in-form players at this PGA. Yesterday’s second round saw Robert Streb become only the 28th man in history, albeit the third in the last 16 days, to shoot 63 at a major. He finished tied for tenth last year, so his last four rounds at the PGA make for some good reading: 67-67-68-63!
Then there’s the defending champion Jason Day. On one stretch during his 65 yesterday, he carded seven birdies in eight holes. Here’s the defending champ’s last ten rounds at the PGA: 69-65-69-72-68-67-66-67-68-65!
Related: Rory McIlroy laments ‘pathetic’ putting after early exit from US PGA
Continue reading...
July 15, 2016
The Open 2016: day two – live!
Day two tee times at Royal TroonEmail scott.murray@theguardian.com with your thoughts
9.40am BST
A fifth birdie of the day for Charl Schwartzel. He rolls one across the 7th from 30 feet and suddenly he’s -4 and right in the mix. Lee Westwood has picked up his first birdie today on 4; he’s -1. Meanwhile Kevin Na started slowly - no jokes please - with bogeys at 1 and 4. But he’s bounced back with three birdies on the bounce, at 5, 6 and 7. He’s -2 overall.
9.37am BST
So Dustin, having missed a three footer for birdie on 1, knocks in a 20-footer on 2 to move to -1. That’s golf, right there. His playing partner Martin Kaymer was in all sorts of trouble from the get-go, finding rough from the tee, then dumping his ball in a bunker 60 yards shy of the green. Getting up and down from there was always a pipe dream. He’s back to -4.
9.30am BST
Andrew Johnston is being his usual entertaining self. Beef followed up his bogey at 1 with another at 2, but he’s turned his round through 180 degrees, carding birdies at 3, 4 and 5. He’s up to -3 for the tournament. Kjeldsen lands his second at 7 in the bunker to the left of the green, but splashes out to ten feet - the best he could do - and strokes in the par saver. But up on 4, Mickelson reaches the green in two, hits a not particularly good eagle effort to eight feet, but knocks in the birdie effort, and he’s extended his lead at -9.
9.19am BST
Mickelson isn’t too far away from steering in a huge right-to-left curler on 3 for his first birdie of the day. But he’ll have to settle for par. Smiley Matt Kuchar has made it three birdies in a row at 4; he’s -3. The defending champion Zach Johnson has teed off, and whistled his opening shot into the thick rough down the left. Better there than the bunker he nearly went into, at least. Up on the green, his namesake Dustin misses a tiddler for a momentum-gathering birdie. He walks off in a daze, still level par for the tournament. He looks as though the US Open / Bridgestone whirlwind has taken a lot out of him.
9.09am BST
The first serious shake-up of the leaderboard has taken place. Another birdie for Francesco Molinari, this time at 6, and he’s into a tie for fifth at -4. He’s very close with a long rake across 7, too. Meanwhile Soren Kjeldsen rolls one in from 40 feet on the par-five 6th, and he’s within two of Mickelson’s lead, in sole possession of second spot!
-8: Mickelson (2)
-6: Kjeldsen (6)
-5: Kaymer, Reed
-4: Molinari (7), Z Johnson, Bradley, Thomas, Stricker, Horschel
9.05am BST
It’s back-to-back birdies for Matt Kuchar, who makes another at 3. He’s -2. His playing partner, the 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, is following him shot by shot. Mind you, his birdie putt at 3 would be halfway to Turnberry now had the hole not got in the way. G-Mac is +2 overall. Another bogey for Tony Finau, who misses a short putt at 9 and reaches the turn in 38; he’s back down at -2. He should have done better. But Charl Schwartzel is tearing the place up! He’s followed up his birdies at 1 and 3 with a couple more at 4 and 5, the latest the result of an 18-foot rattle after a pin-high tee shot. Stunning stuff! All of a sudden, he’s -3 overall, and though the course is obviously playing much harder this morning, the South African star is living proof that the stronger wind isn’t totally restrictive.
8.58am BST
Andy Sullivan very nearly drains a long putt from off the front of 1 for birdie. But he’ll have to do with a par that keeps him at -4. A bit of trouble for Kjeldsen at 5, stuck in a deep bunker at the front of the green. You can only see his hat. But he splashes out brilliantly to a couple of feet, and saves his par. He’s still -5. His playing partner Bill Haas drops a shot, though, the legacy of a poor tee shot. He’s back to -3. And on 2, Mickelson’s approach is short and wide right, and his chip onto the green isn’t all that, kicking off to the right and leaving a 12-footer for his par. A nervy one. But he hits it with confidence, and the right-hand edge of the cup snaffles the ball down. He’s still at -8. But why couldn’t the right-hand edge of the cup snaffle the ball down yesterday on 18?!?
8.48am BST
A birdie for Soren Kjeldsen on the relatively easy par-five 4th, and the Dane joins Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer in a tie for second. Tony Finau drops back to -3 after seriously underhitting a chip into 7 and leaving himself too much to do for his par. Charl Schwartzel looks as though he means business today: another birdie, this time at 3, and he’s into red figures for the tournament. And an early birdie for Matt Kuchar, at 2. He’ll be buoyed by that, after an appalling finish to his round yesterday: three short putts missed at 16 and 17 followed by bunker problems at the last. He’s back to -1 for the championship. “I’m with Phil, whatever,” writes
Tony Blair
Ed Ed. “And I’m also with Phachara Khongwatmai, come what may. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the cheap pun.)”
8.42am BST
A staunch start by Lee Westwood. He started awfully yesterday, out in 38, but rescued his round with birdie at 12 and eagle at 16. He signed for a level-par 71. So today he’s taken a flyer through 1 with his second, and his chip coming back wasn’t much cop. But in goes the 12-foot saver. Par. His playing partner Ernie Els, meanwhile, who also carded a bang-average 71 yesterday, is getting used to opening-hole disasters in majors. He took four putts from no distance at Hoylake a few years ago, and famously melted down at Augusta earlier this year with six putts from three feet. Now, attempting to chip over a greenside bunker, he’s decelerated and dumped his ball in the sand. He gets up and down, but that’s a needless bogey; he’s +1. The third member of a storied group, Lefty, lags up from 50 feet to three, and tidies up for his par. He looks happy enough as he wanders off to the teebox at 2.
8.34am BST
A slow start for Beef. Andrew Johnson shot 69 yesterday, but he’s played the opening hole very gingerly. Most folk finding themselves just off the green so far today have putted up in the Scottish style, but our big bearded hero took out his wedge, and didn’t get it particularly close. He then pulled an appalling five-foot putt left of the hole. It was missing from the moment it left the blade. He’s back to -1. Coming behind him, it’s Lefty, who finds the green with his second, but he’s right at the back with the pin at the front. A club too much. He bounds up the fairway with a smile, but he’ll need all his lagging skills - much practised and very much on display several times yesterday - to get away with par here. That’s the news. Over to Gary Naylor with the weather: “I grew up in links country (the stretch of coast between Liverpool and Southport) and literally never took any notice of the weather forecast as it was hardly ever right. Even a mile inland, conditions could be completely different and we would go from ‘summer’ to ‘winter’ when the wind shifted.”
8.28am BST
The leader is out and about! It’ll be interesting to see how Phil Mickelson reacts to coming so close to that epochal 62 yesterday. How that birdie putt on the last didn’t drop is one of the great unanswered questions in the fields of physics and spirituality. The poor man was close to tears when he was being interviewed about it on Sky Sports last night, admitting that feeling so upset after shooting a record-equalling 63, and building a three-shot lead in the Open, was a very conflicting experience. I’m sure he’s recovered, but sport’s a funny thing, there’s just an outside chance that it’s shaken him a bit. Creaming his iron down the middle of 1 suggests he’s regained his equilibrium, no problem. Another birdie blitz before the weather comes in? You wouldn’t put it past him.
8.20am BST
Early moves. A birdie for Bill Haas on the opening hole moves the US star to -4, four shots off Phil Mickelson’s lead. Francesco Molinari has birdied 2; he’s -3. KT Kim picked up a stroke at 3 to move to -1. The 2012 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel hit a gorgeous approach at the opening hole, an aggressive line over the bunker guarding front left to the pin just behind, and was rewarded with a birdie that takes him back to level par. Tony Finau has perhaps been the most interesting so far: he failed to get up and down from the back of 3 and bogeyed, birdied the first par-five at 4, then hit an awful tee shot at the par-three 5th, short and right, only to swish an elaborate lob over a bunker that was snookering him to a couple of feet for par. So he’s still -4 after all that. The wind’s not too strong yet, so until it picks up, there are chances for some of these early starters to make hay. Phil Mickelson’s out in ten minutes. Just sayin’.
Incidentally, some of the players are wearing black ribbons in memory of those who lost their lives in last night’s atrocity in Nice. The French flag next to the main leaderboard has been respectfully lowered to half mast.
8.10am BST
The weather is obviously going to be quite a factor today. At the Open, that’s exactly how it should be. The twin threats of wind and rain have arrived, causing conditions which are probably best described as changeable. This morning’s wind won’t be super-strong, but the players might have to fight it on the front nine, making the opening holes a much trickier proposition than they were yesterday. They’re certainly playing longer. Later on, stronger crosswinds are expected to come into play, which will keep the field on its collective tootsies all right. Sustained showers will arrive late morning and mid-to-late afternoon. And there could be periods of calm at the tail end of the day. So that’s all bases and eventualities covered. Apart from sun. But hey, we’ll always have Thursday.
HACK HAND-WASHING DEPT.: All of this comes with the usual caveats and disclaimers: you can never quite second guess the weather at the Open, let’s see how things develop as the day goes on, the Met Office’s seaweed might be broken, etc.
5.52pm BST
Good morning. The beauty of links golf? No two days are ever the same. Troon’s defences were down yesterday, as Phil Mickelson came within the width of a dimple to a record-breaking 62; a third of the field were under par. But today? Here comes the wind and rain! It’ll be different, for sure. But no less entertaining. The best players in the world, versus classic Open conditions. It’s on!
The first-round leaderboard:
Continue reading...July 14, 2016
The Open 2016: day one – live!
9.32am BST
The Masters champion Danny Willett announces his attacking intentions from the get-go. Is he the first player to unsheathe the driver on 1? He might be, you know. He nearly drives the green. What a statement! His partners Jason Day and Rickie Fowler settle for irons. Three birdies in a row from Thorbjorn Olesen, who announced himself with a top-ten finish at the 2012 Open at Lytham. Shots picked up at 5, 6 and 7, and he’s -3. Spieth and Rose meanwhile will have a look at birdie on 2, both hitting gorgeous approaches to ten feet. But once again Spieth doesn’t hit his putt, and he’s still level par on a morning of low scoring. As is Rose, who lips out. Still, it could be worse: Lowry dumps his second into a bunker at the front, and can’t scramble his par. He’s +1, and already the conclusion of the third round at Oakmont seems a long time ago.
9.23am BST
The leader Thomas, going for the 601-yard par-five 6th in two, lashes a long iron into deep rubbish down the right. On Sky, Butch Harmon suggests that Thomas only has one fault: a tendency to lash the cover off the ball with every shot. He needs to play the occasional three-quarter shot, within himself, if he’s not to find trouble more often than is strictly necessary. Back on the opening hole, it’s pars all round. Lowry and Rose are happy enough, though Spieth should be making birdie, missing a tiddler and passing up the chance of a fast start. Meanwhile it’s back-to-back birdies for Kevin Chappell at 6 and 7, and he’s -3.
9.13am BST
Reed follows up his eagle with a 20-foot birdie effort fairly whacked into the back of the cup at 5. He’s -3, as his playing partner Byeong Hun An, who is matching him stroke for stroke. The Korean has just teased in a 30-foot left-to-right curler. Also at -3: Sweden’s David Lingmerth after birdies at 1, 4 and 5. Lingmerth equalled Tony Jacklin’s 1970 Open record by going out in 29 last year at St Andrews. It would appear he’s in the mood again.
9.06am BST
Justin Thomas: nobody’s perfect. He clips a delicious tee shot at 5 pin high, leaving himself a 15-footer for a fifth birdie on the bounce. But he doesn’t hit it, the ball dying off to the left before the cup. He’ll have to make do with his first par of the day. The early leader stays at -4. An eagle for Byeong Hun An on 4, a hole that’s playing super-easy today. He’s -2. And back on 1, here comes a superstar group: Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry. Three easy irons. Rose’s squeaks off into the semi-rough down the right, but they’re all fine.
8.59am BST
Birdie at 9 for Marcus Fraser of Australia, too. That follows the one he picked up at the Postage Stamp, and an earlier effort at 4. He’s out in 33 like his playing partner Lee. Up on 11, Donald can only hack out from the rough on the right, and he’s always chasing par. Bogey. Leishman makes a steady par - you’ll take those all day on the Railway hole - but Monty hits a hot putt from just off the front, and he can’t make the long one he leaves himself coming back. He’s back to -2; Donald to -1.
8.56am BST
Justin Thomas is making his Open debut, and the 23-year-old American is the proverbial duck to water! If he’d given his 30-foot putt on 4 one more joule of energy, he’d have made eagle. As it is, that’s just a fourth birdie in four holes. Four birdies from four holes! He’s the leader of the Open, at -4 a shot ahead of the field. His playing partner Kiradech Aphibarnrat dropped a shot at the 1st, but has just stroked home an eagle putt to move to -1. Lee meanwhile has parred 8 and 9, making it to the turn in 33.
8.50am BST
Jim Furyk shot a 66 on the final day at Oakmont, and he’s taken that major form across the water. He’s slightly lucky that his wood into the par-five 4th doesn’t topple into a bunker at the front, but his ball tricks its way onto the edge of the green, and he lags his long eagle putt to a couple of feet. Birdie, and he’s -3. Birdes at 4 and 5 for Alex Noren; he’s -2. And pars all round for Monty, Luke and Marc Leishman at the difficult 10th, but Donald has hoicked his tee shot at the hellish 11th into thick stuff down the right. Birdie for the 2001 hero David Duval on 5, by the way; he’s under par for the tournament.
-3: Montgomerie (10), S Lee (8), Gregory -a- (6), Furyk (4), Thomas (3)
-2: Donald (10), Fraser (8), Noren (5), Reed (3)
8.43am BST
Here’s the always entertaining Patrick Reed, from the centre of 3. He’s started with a couple of pars, but he’s taken a lob wedge and sent his shot straight at the flag. Two bounces, and it does a Calcavecchia, slam-dunking into the cup! The first eagle of this year’s Open, and he’s -2! Meanwhile the Paul Dunne de nos jours, Scott Gregory, joins wizened old pros Monty, Lee and Thomas, on top of the leaderboard! A birdie at 6, and he’s -3 too.
8.38am BST
Monty effectively out on his own? Scrub that! Justin Thomas has made it three birdies in a row at 3! That’s some start by a young player who is sure to make an impression on a major sometime soon. This could be his breakthrough tournament. Meanwhile Sanghee Lee got one hell of a break at 7; a good lie in an otherwise tight spot up the bank. He still had to get up and down, mind, and pitches rather brilliantly to ten feet, before completing a stunning scramble by stroking in his par putt! That’s an astonishing break, but hats off for taking advantage of it. Superb stuff.
-3: Montgomerie (9), S Lee (7), Thomas (3)
-2: Donald (9), Palmer (6), Gregory -a- (5), Furyk (3)
8.32am BST
Monty leads the Open! He creams his approach at 9 to six feet, and that’s five birdies in seven holes! He reaches the turn in 33, having double-bogeyed the opening hole! What a performance this is from the Troon club member. He’s -3 alongside Lee, though the leader, in awful trouble on 7, won’t be there for long. Monty is effectively out on his own. This is some performance from a player who, that second place in 2005 apart, hasn’t got the great Open record he should have. Leishman meanwhile can’t get up and down from the bank, and that’s a double bogey that takes him back to level par.
8.28am BST
Trouble ahoy! Troon may be there for the taking this morning, but the old links is still going to punish wayward shots. Branden Grace has been one of the hot tips coming into the tournament. But he’s hoicked his second at the opening hole into one of the little bunkers guarding the front of the green. He’s found the one front right. That’ll be a test. Leishman meanwhile is in trouble at 9. He sends his second under a bush to the right of the green. He manages to punch it out, but only straight across the green and down the bank on the other side. And the leader Lee, from the centre of the par-four 7th, pushes an appalling second right of the green. His ball springs off a path and slam-dunks into a high and very grassy knoll to the back-right. He’ll do well to find that, and even if he does, he’ll have one hell of a chip back, because on top of everything else he’s shortsided.
8.21am BST
The leader Lee is about 18 inches short of racking in a 40-footer for another birdie on 6. He stays at -3. Darren Clarke missed another short one on 2 to drop to +1, but he’s picked it straight back up at 3; that should steady the old boy, who was looking a bit miserable after that scrappy start. Justin Thomas meanwhile opens with a pair of birdies to join the group at -2. And the amateur Scott Gregory should have grabbed a share of the lead, but he’s pulled a short birdie putt at 5, so remains at -2.
8.15am BST
The first shot at the Postage Stamp of this Open is hit by Monty. And it’s a beauty, bumped off the banking to the left, his ball rolling to six feet. Donald finds the putting surface, just about, though he’ll be left with a long putt up the narrow green. Leishman meanwhile sends his tee shot right, and it’s gathered up by the bunker. He plays a gorgeous escape, though. It looks as though he’s flown his ball straight across the green and into the sand on the other side, but he’s used the bank in front to slow his ball and send it rolling back towards the pin. He’ll tap in for a fine par save. But in the meantime, Donald rakes in a monster from the front for his birdie, while Monty strokes in for his. They’re all -2! The Postage Stamp already delivers! That was marvellous entertainment. Another birdie meanwhile for the amateur Scott Gregory, incidentally, this time at 4.
-3: S Lee (6)
-2: Montgomerie (8), Leishman (8), Donald (8), Gregory -a- (4), Furyk (2)
8.08am BST
Gentleman Jim Furyk’s putter looks hot today. He rolls in another beauty from distance, this time at 2, and that’s a birdie-birdie start! He’s -2. Three lovely 25-foot putts on the par-four 7th, Donald, Leishman and then Monty. But none of them drop, all three scraping the side of the hole. Pars. We’re about to get our first look at the Postage Stamp!
8.02am BST
A fast start for 2003 US Open champ Jim Furyk, who rolls in a long one on the opening hole for his birdie. His playing partner, the 2011 Open winner Darren Clarke, finds himself in an instant funk, missing a tiddler for his birdie after playing the hole perfectly. On 5, the leader Sanghee Lee strokes a fine tee shot to 15 feet, but doesn’t hit the birdie putt. He stays at -3. And the first double bogey of the week is made by Danny Lee at 2, dropping like a stone to +1. There are currently more players under par than level or worse. The course’s defences are down until that wind picks up later. Quite a few of the tournament favourites are coming out soon - Grace, Oosthuizen, Spieth, Rose, Lowry, Willett, Fowler, Day, McIlroy, Matsuyama, Bubba, all within the next 90 minutes or so - and they’ll be smacking their lips in anticipation.
7.54am BST
How Monty must be ruing that opening meltdown, the double bogey from the bunker at 1. Because otherwise, he’s playing very, very well. From the centre of the 6th, he sends his wedge screeching to a halt a couple of inches from the cup. It nearly drops for a spectacular eagle, but spins back to a couple of feet. He’ll knock that in to move to -1, a brilliant response to a dreadful start. Perhaps, golf being the mental game it is, the early disaster eased his nerves and loosened him up. Anyway, marvellous stuff, Monty. Keep on keepin’ on. Leishman nearly drains a 25-footer but has to make do with par. He stays at -2; hey, he’d have taken that when he was watching his drive whistle towards the gorse. And a fine up and down from a bank on the right by Donald, and that’s a birdie. He’s into red figures like both of his playing partners.
7.49am BST
Marc Leishman has started fast, but he’s just lashed his drive at the par-five 6th into appalling filth down the right. Expect a few lost balls this week; if the spotters don’t see them fly in, they’ll take some finding in the thick, tangled rough. This one’s sourced easily enough, mind, as he’s got a lucky break on a flat patch. He lashes his ball back onto the fairway, up towards the green. Had he kept straight off the tee, he’d have had a chance to scamper on in two. Meanwhile back on 4, Lee birdies the first par five, rolling in a gentle right-to-left slider from 12 feet, to move into the lead at -3. He swans off the green wearing a beatific smile. He’s leading the Open!
7.40am BST
Another spot of trouble for Donald, who hoicks his tee shot at the par-three 5th into thick nonsense to the front right of the green. He whips his ball out to six feet, a lovely effort from where he was. But he can’t make the par saver, and he’s back to level par for the tournament. He’ll be unhappier than Monty, but only marginally so, because the big man stroked a wonderful tee shot to five feet, then prodded a very tame putt right of the cup. It was never going in. He stomps off the green he knows so well with a face on. He stays at level par. And in other veteran news, Sandy Lyle is now propping up the leaderboard having followed up his bogey at the opening hole with another at 2. Oh Sandy!
7.32am BST
“There’s nobody better around the greens than Luke Donald. He’s got an incredible touch.” Ian Poulter in the Sky studio there. And right on cue, from the back of the par-five 4th, Donald fluffs his attempted chip up onto the green. It rolls back down towards his feet. Welcome to the world of punditry, Ian. Donald has to settle for par on a hole that’s offering easy birdie pickings. But it’s another birdie for Monty, who was in a little trouble off the tee but made it to the centre of the green in regulation and rolled in a straight 20-footer. He’s back to level par after that horror start! And Leishman birdies the hole too, to join Lee in the lead at -2. We’re less than an hour into play, and already there are seven players in red figures.
-2: Leishman (4), S Lee (3)
-1: Donald (4), Fraser (3), Palmer (2), Gregory -a- (1), D Lee (1)
7.24am BST
Sanghee Lee, making his debut at the Open having qualified after being one putt from victory at the Mizuno Open in May, is the first player to -2. He’s started with back-to-back birdies. Ryan Palmer rolls a 25-footer into the cup at 1. Marc Leishman is -1 again too: his eventful start continues with a 30-foot left-to-right breaker from the back of 3. Monty grabs a shot back after sending his second screeching to a halt, eight feet from the flag, and nailing the putt. And back on 1, it’s a perfect start for young Gregory, who birdies as Duval pars and Lyle drops a shot. There were three amateurs in the top 30 last year; could another fairytale be on the cards? A long, long, long way to go. But where’s the fun if you can’t dream?
-2: S Lee (2)
-1: Leishman (3), Donald (3), Palmer (2), Gregory -a- (1)
7.17am BST
Scott Gregory, the amateur champion, is out and about. The 21-year-old, wide-eyed in wonder, creams an iron down the 1st. A perfect start. He betrays a few nerves by waving shyly to the gallery as he receives a warm round of applause. He’ll be dreaming of going out in the last pairing on Sunday. Hey, Paul Dunne’s blazed a trail. Whatever happens, he’ll remember this week: he’s playing the first two days with a pair of genuine legends, the 1985 champion Sandy Lyle, and 2001 winner David Duval. All three are on the fairway. God speed, folks.
7.07am BST
This is a day for low scoring. Certainly in the morning. The conditions are magnificent. Someone’s going to post something low, surely. Donald sends his second at 2 pin high, and on the slow green fair rattles an aggressive putt towards the cup from 20 feet. It just shaves the left of the hole. He’ll stay at -1, though Leishman hands his birdie straight back. Monty pars. Meanwhile behind them, Sanghee Lee birdies the opening hole to reach the top of the very, very, very early leaderboard. The birdies are going to be flying in this morning, so don’t expect miracles. But let’s get on top of it while we can.
-1: Donald (2), S Lee (1)
E: Leishman (2), Alker (1), Fraser (1)
+2: Montgomerie (2)
7.00am BST
As for the weather, it’s looking pretty good all day in terms of temperature. The wind will pick up a little after lunch, to 12mph or so, so the morning starters have quite an advantage today. The lads out later will be playing into the wind on the back nine, making a tricky section of the course even more of a test. A fast start is essential. The greens are slow by Tour standards, 9.11 on the stimp, though there’s method in the R&A’s madness: the winds are expected to pick up later in the week, and they don’t want balls blowing all over the place on glacial putting surfaces.
6.57am BST
A wonderful chip from Monty, up and over the sand to a couple of feet. But he’s tapping in for a double bogey, a disastrous start. Thing is, for a minute back there, it looked as though things might pan out even worse, as he stood with hands on hips, fuming, contemplating how to get out of the sand at the second attempt. He definitely thought about going for the green again with his third shot, which could have ended horribly. In the end, he took his medicine. But what a sour taste it leaves. Donald and Leishman roll in their birdies, the first of this year’s Open, and already the course has shown that there are shots out there this morning - providing you keep out of the sand. Oh, and the rough. And the gorse.
-1: Donald (1), Leishman (1)
+2: Montgomerie (1)
6.50am BST
And there’s drama on the very first hole. Monty underhits his second shot, slam-dunking his ball into a pot bunker guarding the front of the green. Donald and Leishman may have made it look easy, but it’s most certainly not. He tries to blast his ball up and out, onto the green, but it just rises and flops back into the sand. And it’s plugged this time, in front of a high face. He’ll have to play out sideways, which he does, into the rough to the left of the green. Monty has played this course a million times, but he’s in awful trouble, facing a tricky chip over the bunker he’s just escaped from.
6.46am BST
Monty is playing with last year’s runner-up, Marc Leishman, and Luke Donald, the former world number one. Donald is only here because Jaco van Zyl withdrew. He’s not really been a factor in the majors since failing to make much of an impression on the final day’s play at Merion in the 2013 US Open, thoroughly upstaged by Justin Rose. He’s clipped a delicious second into the 1st, though, leaving himself a ten footer on greens that are playing fairly slow, don’t have dramatic undulations, and will be offering up quite a few birdie putts. Leishman follows him with an even better one to eight feet. Both will have a good look at birdie.
6.39am BST
Here we go, then! One of the great sporting events of the summer is underway! It’s a gorgeous morning at Troon. The sun is flitting across the links, there’s no wind, not a cloud in the sky, it’s perfect. And the great beauty of the Open is that it just kind of starts. No national anthems, no fly-pasts, no ceremonial hoo-hah. Not even much of a crowd at such an early hour. Just a quick welcome from the starter, a swing, a swish and a clack, and we’re off. On the tee, from Scotland - and Troon - Colin Montgomerie! He’ll take the first shot of this Open. “It’s a real honour for me, the family and all the members. I’m the only member of the club playing here this week, so I treat it as a great honour. It’s more than a shot, though. I’m trying to get in the fairway and make birdie. I’ve got to be realistic, I just want to make the cut, so I can walk down the last on Sunday.” He doesn’t get it in the fairway. His iron leaks off a little to the left, in the light rough, but no huge drama. We’re off! It’s on!
9.38am BST
Hello, good morning ... and welcome to the Guardian’s up-with-the-lark coverage of the 145th Open Championship, the ninth to be held at Royal Troon.
Norwich-born Arthur Havers won the first Open to be held at this famous old Ayrshire links, way back in 1923. No mean feat: he held off golf’s first superstar, the defending champion Walter Hagen, by a stroke, holing out from a bunker at the last. Then in 1950, the great Roberto de Vicenzo of Argentina set a new championship record of 281, though it wasn’t enough to see off legendary South African Bobby Locke, who soon after posted 279 and became only the third man behind Hagen and Bobby Jones to win consecutive Opens.
Continue reading...July 7, 2016
West Germany v France: World Cup semi-final 1982 – as it happened
Get in the mood for the Euro 2016 semi-final with this retro MBM report of the controversial epic between the sides in 1982, taken from the pages of And Gazza Misses The Final
Germany v France: Euro 2016 semi-final – live2.41pm BST
This retro report is from And Gazza Misses The Final, the story of the World Cup told in MBM. A heady mix of famous drama and forgotten whimsy, it’s worth every penny, partly because you can now get it for £0.01 on Amazon. Special editions on Manchester United and Liverpool are in the pipeline, pending the small matter of finding a publisher.
2.41pm BST
Hrubesch scores! He rolls the ball to his right as Ettori dances the other way, again not diving. Stielike, with his top off, hugs Schumacher for dear life. Not only has the Real Madrid man avoided ignominy, he will play in a World Cup final on his home ground on Sunday. Don’t expect too much home support, mind, Uli, your lads have possibly gone past the point where they can salvage this particular charm offensive.
2.38pm BST
BOSSIS MISSES! West Germany 4–4 France West Germany are one kick away from the final! Schumacher has saved from Bossis! He sidefooted it low to the left, but Schumacher went the right way and made an excellent save. Schumacher definitely moved before the ball was kicked, although Ettori has been up to that as well. Schumacher raises his right arm in triumph, heroics that stick slightly in the craw.
2.36pm BST
RUMMENIGGE SCORES! West Germany 4–4 France Rummenigge scores easily, placing the ball in the bottom-right corner. And again Ettori did not dive. This really is a bizarre approach to saving penalties. So now we go to sudden death. Schumacher, waiting for the next French penalty taker, is talking to the referee Corver. Corver says something and Schumacher chuckles before moving back to his goal. The Battiston family, watching on TV, must love that scene.
2.35pm BST
PLATINI SCORES! West Germany 3–4 France Platini scored a penalty in normal time and he scores again, going the other way this time with a calm sidefoot to the right. Schumacher went the wrong way. Rummenigge has to score or France will be in the final.
2.34pm BST
LITTBARSKI SCORES! West Germany 3–3 France Littbarski, the youngster, scores with a brilliant penalty, sidefooted high into the top-right corner. Ettori came out and started to move the right way but again he didn’t dive.
2.34pm BST
SIX MISSES! West Germany 2–3 France Schumacher has saved from Six! The TV cameraman missed it; he was focusing on Littbarski hugging Stielike, when suddenly Littbarski jumped around in excitement. The camera cut to the goal, where Schumacher was picking the ball up after saving from Six! No joy for Six, who collapses to his knees! We still don’t know what happened, except that Schumacher dived to his right and saved.
2.32pm BST
STIELIKE MISSES! West Germany 2–3 France This time Ettori not only dives, he goes the right way and saves it! It was not a great penalty from Stielike, sidefooted at breast height to his left but nowhere near the corner. Ettori – who moved illegally off his line before the kick was taken – beat the shot away. Stielike’s hands are glued to his face.
2.32pm BST
ROCHETEAU SCORES! West Germany 2–3 France Only Giresse’s penalty has been anywhere near the corner, but the keepers keep diving the wrong way. Rocheteau sidefoots to his right to put France ahead.
2.31pm BST
BREITNER SCORES! West Germany 2–2 France Breitner scores with a nonchalant clip high into the net, with Ettori again not diving – just like Jan Jongbloed when Breitner scored in the final eight years ago.
2.30pm BST
AMOROS SCORES! West Germany 1–2 France For the third time the keeper goes the wrong way. Schumacher moved to his right, Amoros placed it high to his right.
2.30pm BST
KALTZ SCORES! West Germany 1–1 France Ettori doesn’t even dive, dancing a few steps to his right before realizing Kaltz has sent him the wrong way with a low sidefoot.
2.29pm BST
GIRESSE SCORES! West Germany 0–1 France A confident penalty, sidefooted low to the left as Schumacher goes the other way.
2.25pm BST
That’s it! An awesome and controversial match comes to an end, and now we will have the first ever penalty shoot-out in the World Cup. The purists won’t be happy but it’s a damn sight better than drawing lots. The players look unbelievably tired as they take some water. And we’re off . . .
2.25pm BST
120 min West Germany win one last corner, Tigana has cramp and limps back to the box. Kaltz swings it deep, Fischer finds a bit of space ten yards out to head it towards goal and the heroic Trésor heads it clear with Hrubesch flying towards the ball just behind him. France break through Rocheteau and Six, who evades Breitner splendidly near the halfway line and plays it to the right for Tigana. He ignores his cramp for a few seconds, struggles to the edge of the box and then slashes well wide under pressure from Stielike.
2.23pm BST
118 min Tigana plays a tired pass inside the West Germany box and the Germans break. It’s fed to Rummenigge, who swaggers forward and clips a through-pass towards Fischer with the outside of the right foot. Trésor gets there first in the D and stabs it back towards Ettori – not knowing that Ettori had moved forward towards the ball himself. Thankfully for France it was close enough to Ettori that he could dive to his right and claim the ball. That would have been a crazy way to decide his match. The camera cuts to the bench, where the splendidly expressive coach Michel Hidalgo puffs out his cheeks in relief.
2.20pm BST
115 min Beautiful play from Littbarski, whose quick feet take the piss out of Amoros and Platini before his cross is claimed by Ettori. West Germany are playing with much the greater urgency. Maybe they don’t want this to go to a penalty shoot-out after the trauma of the Euro 76 final.
2.19pm BST
114 min Janvion, misjudging Schumacher’s long throw out, leaps to deliberately handle the ball and stop Fischer breaking in behind him. The referee allows play to go on and Fischer picks up the loose ball. He runs to within 25 yards of goal before cutting infield from the right, away from Janvion, and whistling a left-footed shot fractionally wide of the far post! The referee has given a goal-kick, although Fischer seems to think it should have been a corner. If Ettori did get something on that it was an outstanding save.
2.16pm BST
111 min Germany are all over France at the moment, the scent in their snout. Rummenigge, who has been majestic since coming on, sparks another attack by moving disdainfully past Lopez just inside the West Germany half. He flicks it to Dremmler, who moves it down the line to Rummenigge. He gives it back to Dremmler with a first-time backheel, and his cross towards Littbarski is splendidly headed away by Trésor.
2.13pm BST
Klaus Fischer equalizes with a wonderful overhead kick! What a goal! Rummenigge, 40 yards out, waved a square pass to Bernd Förster, who moved forward and found Littbarski in a bit of space on the left. As Bossis came to meet him he stood up an excellent cross beyond the far post, where Hrubesch leapt imperiously above Janvion. He was off-balance and unable to go for goal but managed to steer the ball back across the six-yard line. Fischer fell backwards, stretched a telescopic leg away from goal and steered an overhead kick just inside the post! That was the only place he could score because Ettori, along with Trésor and Amoros on the line, had everywhere else covered. Platini responds to the goal with a brief, magnificent tantrum, waving his hands over his shoulder with such fury that he almost knocks himself off his feet. Fischer is the world leader in overhead kicks, so much so that in West Germany they call him Herr Fallrückzieher, or Mr Falling Kick. His overhead kick against Switzerland was voted goal of the decade – but this is on a whole new level. What a goal and what a recovery. Germany had 21 minutes to score two goals; they needed only nine of them, and in that time they had a goal wrongly disallowed. This is an outrageous comeback even by their standards. They haven’t just come back from the dead; they’ve come back from a cremation!
2.11pm BST
106 min France start the second period of extra time – and Platini tries to score from the kick-off! It was touched off by Six and Platini’s attempt to outdo Pelé struck one of the advancing German players.
2.09pm BST
Are there any other directions in which this game can turn?
2.09pm BST
104 min How did that stay out? Rummenigge, who has grabbed this game by the scruff of the balls, played in Breitner on the right-hand side of the box. He could probably have gone for goal but instead whistled a cross all the way across the face. It’s not often you say it about Breitner, and you’d be loath to say it to his face, but he took the wrong option there. 105 min: Another cross flashes right across the France goal! This time it was Littbarski. He received Kaltz’s throw, rolled Amoros brilliantly to get into the area and then smashed it right across the face. There were two German players waiting in all sorts of space for a cutback. Rummenigge motions kicking the ball into the net, a nice idiot’s guide to what might have happened. Another player, Stielike, charges over to give Littbarski a spectacularly heartfelt bollocking. Littbarski’s cross was the last kick of a sensational first period of extra time.
2.08pm BST
Olé? Oh shit more like: West Germany are back in it! That France move broke down and within seconds Rummenigge scored at the other end. Stielike got away with showing his studs to Bossis on the halfway line and worked the ball neatly out to the left with Rummenigge and Littbarski. Littbarski, on the left of the box, curled a low ball towards the near post, where Rummenigge, under considerable pressure from Janvion, twisted his body ingeniously to flick it past the advancing Ettori inside the near post. That’s an expert finish indeed. The angle and height of the cross meant he had to lean backwards horizontally into Janvion, with both feet off the floor, and then, while twisting in mid-air, soften his right foot to ease the ball round the corner as Ettori spread himself.
2.05pm BST
100 min Littbarski takes off his shinpads and tosses them impatiently over the touchline. Seconds later Fischer has a goal disallowed for a non-existent offside! Dremmler’s cross from a narrow position was headed emphatically into the corner by Fischer, who ran off the back of Janvion and towered majestically near the penalty spot. Fischer was at least three yards onside when the pass was played. Rummenigge on the far side might just have been in an offside position, though I don’t think he was. West Germany seem hard done by there. 102 min: Platini almost makes it 4–1 with a fierce free-kick that goes through the wall and bounces up to hit Schumacher in the chest. There was nobody following in and Schumacher claimed it at the second attempt. France then put together a patient passing move, every pass met with an olé.
2.04pm BST
Alain Giresse has put France into Sunday’s final with Italy with another beautiful goal! We sometimes say that players have two right feet; well Giresse’s right foot has two insides, because he has been using the outside all night to great effect – but none greater than this. Rocheteau and Platini moved the ball across the face of the area, finding Six on the left. He teased Kaltz and then stabbed a gentle pass back to Giresse, lurking on the edge of the area. He stomped towards the ball and cut across a technically immaculate shot that swerved back and pinged in off the inside of the near post. Schumacher had not a solitary prayer.
2.02pm BST
97 min Desperate times call for obvious measures: Rummenigge replaces the surprisingly fatigable Briegel, who doesn’t drink Carling Black Label after all. It’s the last throw of Germany’s dice, although it’s quite a throw to have.
1.59pm BST
94 min Littbarski nearly equalizes straight away. Amoros, with a combination of weariness and maybe a little arrogance, ignored the option of a backpass to Ettori and tried to run the ball out of defence near the touchline on the left. Littbarski won the ball with an immaculate tackle, declined to go down in the area despite a tug on the shorts from Amoros and had his shot blocked by the sprawling Ettori, who had been completely out of position after running to the left edge of the area expecting a backpass from Amoros. Ettori had to dance back across goal with Littbarski and spread himself to save.
1.58pm BST
Or maybe not, because Trésor has given France the lead with a brilliant goal! Briegel was penalized, maybe a little harshly, for a foul on Platini just outside the area on the right wing. Giresse’s clipped free-kick hit the head of Dremmler in the wall and looped invitingly towards Trésor, in a bizarre amount of space near the penalty spot. He probably had time to bring the ball down but he had a far more effective option in mind: a screaming volley on the half-turn that scorched into the net! We knew France’s defenders could play but this is ridiculous: Bossis has been gallivanting around like a Beckenbauer tribute act, Amoros hit the bar from 30 yards and now Trésor has scored a stunning volley.
1.55pm BST
91 min West Germany begin extra time from left to right. We might be 30 minutes away from the World Cup’s first-ever penalty shoot-out.
1.49pm BST
A wonderful match will go to an extra half-hour, although goodness knows how: both sides could have won it in injury-time there.
1.48pm BST
90+3 min This is unbelievable! Tigana tried to run the ball out of trouble and was dispossessed by Breitner. He scampered to within 20 yards and then hit a low shot across goal that bounced just in front of Ettori. He couldn’t hold it diving to his left, and the ball slithered tantalizingly out in front of goal. It was a race between Fischer and Ettori, who scrambled desperately to his feet. Ettori got there by a split-second, if that, throwing himself forward to punch the ball behind for a corner like a father diving in front of a car to save a baby. He got a kick in the head from Fischer for his trouble. That is a sensational recovery from Ettori. All that training goalkeepers do – every single boring drill where they make a save and bounce straight up to their feet to make another – has been justified in injury-time in a World Cup semi-final.
1.46pm BST
90+1 min Manuel Amoros, the young full back with Spanish parents, almost wins the match with an unbelievable effort in injury-time. He ran forward thirty yards with the ball and then, with German defenders backpedalling, spotted immortality in the far top corner. He so nearly found it by cutting across a stunning 30-yard shot that swerved away from Schumacher and smashed off the crossbar. What an effort! The strike started well outside the line of the near post but swerved away so much that it hit the bar just inside the far post with Schumacher leaping desperately. He would not have got there. Rocheteau, on the turn, splattered the rebound over the bar from 12 yards. That was almost one of the great World Cup fairytales from a player who only won his first France cap in February.
1.45pm BST
90 min Germany win a corner on left. Breitner’s delivery is beyond Hrubesch, but Ettori at the far post drops it and is fortunate when it comes back to him off Lopez.
1.43pm BST
88 min With one of the Försters down receiving treatment, players from both sides neck a few Monte Verde chasers. They’ve earned them.
1.41pm BST
86 min Tigana somehow finds the energy for yet another run. He beats Breitner on the halfway line, runs to within 30 yards and then angles over a devilish, dipping cross towards the far post – where Rocheteau and Six get in each other’s way! Oh, you pair of goons. Rocheteau, who was leaping backwards on the six-yard line, didn’t know Six was behind him; Six’s view was impaired and he ran ahead of the ball, which hit the covering Kaltz and bounced behind for a corner.
1.36pm BST
81 min Platini and Lopez combine to find Six in space on the right. He coaxes a gorgeous, teasing ball in between the defenders and keeper. Schumacher and Rocheteau go flying towards it on the six-yard line. Rocheteau gets there a split-second ahead of the keeper and his header hits the chest of Schumacher before dropping tantalisingly in front of goal. Rocheteau might have been able to get there but his collision with Schumacher knocked him away from the ball and Stielike was able to smash the ball away. Actually, it probably wouldn’t have counted – it seems the referee has given a foul to Germany, which is ridiculous. Rocheteau and Schumacher were both entitled to go for that, and Rocheteau got there first.
1.35pm BST
80 min Another chance for Germany! France failed to get the ball away on a few occasions, when Dremmler burst round the outside of the defence on the right. His dipping cross towards the six-yard line somehow beat both Fischer, sliding in with Janvion at the near post, and Littbarski at the far.
1.34pm BST
79 min Germany, who have been under pressure for much of the second half, almost steal the lead. Breitner, waiting for the right option, pirouettes 270 degrees just outside the D before playing an angled through ball for the onrushing Briegel. He slips the sliding Lopez just inside the area and then smashes a shot from a tight angle that smacks off Ettori’s knee and behind for a corner. Ettori has had a dodgy tournament but that was a hugely important save.
1.33pm BST
78 min Amoros runs 60 yards down the left, slips past Kaltz and passes it square to Six, ten yards out just ahead of the near post. He takes a touch but then, with defenders converging, mis-hits a feeble shot that Schumacher plunges to save. There hasn’t been much joy of Six for France in this game; he has been frustratingly fitful once again. The pass was slightly behind him but he should still have done better.
1.28pm BST
73 min Magath, aged 81, is replaced by the hulking blond Horst Hrubesch, the man who scored both goals in the win over Belgium in the Euro 80 final and who bonded with his manager Jupp Derwall earlier in the tournament by calling him ‘a coward’.
1.26pm BST
71 min Briegel wins a battle of strength with Tigana, the decathlete against the athlete, and plays the ball into Dremmler. He plays a crisp one-two with Magath, back-pedalling into the area to receive the return pass before striking a good cross-shot that is well held by Ettori, plunging to his right. He had to hold that with Fischer waiting for the follow-up.
1.20pm BST
65 min Trésor flies through the air to win the ball off Kaltz. He’s penalized by the referee, presumably for showing his studs. The referee has a word with Trésor. While he’s doing so, Platini rubs Trésor’s head as if to say, ‘Get in there!’ This is in danger of boiling over. One day you’d hope players will get immediately sent off for that sort of tackle, though in the wake of the Battiston incident it’s probably not fair to point the finger at France too firmly.
1.19pm BST
64 min France, who have been much the better team since half time, have picked up where they left off before Battiston’s injury. Platini goes down in the area after a challenge from Briegel. It looked like a dive, and Corver waves his hands at Platini to say, no more, a hard-ass gesture that would be impressive had an unseen assault not just occurred on his watch. France get a corner anyway, from which the substitute Lopez almost scores! Schumacher came a long way to meet Giresse’s corner and got nowhere near it. He was beaten to the ball by Lopez, on the six yard line, who looped a header over the bar.
1.16pm BST
61 min Lopez comes on for Battiston. Play is going to restart with a goal-kick! No penalty, no red card, nothing. That is astonishing and disgraceful.
1.15pm BST
60 min The stretcher is finally on, almost three minutes after the collision. Battiston still doesn’t seem to be moving. His right hand is draped limply over the side of the stretcher. Platini takes that hand and holds it as Battiston is carried off. This is desperate.
1.14pm BST
59 min Giresse and Janvion run to the touchline to talk to their manager Hidalgo, who is waved back to his station by a stunningly pedantic FIFA official. Hidalgo pleads for a bit of sanity and humanity, realizes there will be none of that and then throws his hands over his shoulder in disgust before flouncing back to the bench, a gesture so Gallic that if you saw it in a film you’d accuse the director of excessive stereotyping.
1.13pm BST
58 min Schumacher has left the scene of the crime and is waiting to take a goal-kick, bold as brass, chewing gum impatiently as if everyone else is holding him up, rather than attending to a man he assaulted. That’s at best clueless and at worst appallingly callous. Also, surely it can’t be a goal-kick? But then the referee doesn’t seem to have given a penalty. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to tell.
The referee and Platini wave for a stretcher, with a number of other players surrounding the prostrate Battiston. There is a suggestion he may have lost some teeth. Platini waves his hands to the referee as if to say: What kind of business is this? Astonishingly, the referee hasn’t given a penalty. There is a chance that, because the tackle was so late, the referee followed the ball as it drifted past the post and missed Schumacher’s assault. It’s the only explanation. Although that doesn’t explain why the linesman missed it as well.
1.12pm BST
57 min Battiston has missed a great chance to put France ahead and, in the process, been flattened by Schumacher. Bossis, just inside the West German half on the right, won the ball and played it short to Platini. He turned, spotted Battiston haring through on goal and sprayed a nonchalant pass into the considerable space between Kaltz and Stielike. Schumacher, sensing the danger, charged out from goal. As the ball bounced up on the edge of the box Battiston took the shot first time and drifted it just wide of the far post – but as he did so he was flattened as Schumacher leapt into him. That has to be a penalty to France! It looks even worse on the replay: as Schumacher twisted his body in mid-air, his elbow smashed into the face of Battiston, who flopped sickeningly to the turf and bounced over on to his back. It was particularly horrible because both men were running at full pelt. It was also appallingly late: the ball had travelled seven or eight yards before Schumacher hit Battiston.
Battiston is lying on his back and the level of French concern suggests he may be unconscious. Once he is tended to, surely Schumacher will be sent off. Never mind a red card; he could get a stretch in the clink for that.
1.11pm BST
56 min The French fans behind the goal take a good 30 seconds to give the ball back after that Platini shot. When they do, Schumacher runs towards them and fakes to fling the ball back into the crowd before putting the ball down to take the goal-kick.
1.10pm BST
55 min Platini goes on a bewitching slalom from the left, past Kaltz and Stielike, but having made a decent shooting chance he wafts high over the bar from inside the D.
1.09pm BST
54 min The marvellous Giresse drilled a long, angled pass from the left. Rocheteau jumped for it with Bernd Förster, the last man, and when the ball broke loose he dragged it past Schumacher and into the net. But by then he had been penalized for a foul on Förster. He may have jumped into him, although it doesn’t look particularly bad. We haven’t seen a replay so it’s hard to tell. France’s lack of complaints probably tells a story.
1.08pm BST
53 min What a chance for France! Kaltz, just inside his own half, plays a lamentable square pass reminiscent of Toninho Cerezo’s against Italy on Monday. Briegel gawps at it, expecting somebody else to go and get it. Tigana nips in and, with Germany’s defence all over the place, slides a through-pass for Platini – but he is flagged offside. That was effectively a two-against-one break. Tigana waves his hand in disgust at Platini and mouths his frustration for the purposes of additional clarification. Platini fixes Tigana with a comically stern look in response. If Platini had waited a second longer he would have been through on goal. That said, he may well have timed it perfectly – another look suggests the linesman might have got it wrong, although it was a tough call.
1.05pm BST
50 min The first substitution: Patrick Battiston comes on to replace the injured Genghini.
1.04pm BST
49 min It’s been a scrappy start to the half, with a few fouls and a bit of residual tetchiness from the end of the first half.
1.00pm BST
46 min Bernd Förster starts the second half with a ridiculous flying tackle on Rocheteau, for which he is booked. Rocheteau chested the ball up in the air and Förster tried to come round the side of him with a flying kung-fu kick. He didn’t connect with that but his momentum knocked Rocheteau over.
12.45pm BST
A brilliant game of football. More please!
12.45pm BST
45+1 min Karlheinz Förster wins the ball off Rocheteau down the right and sends over a superb curling cross towards the six-yard line. Littbarski gets between Janvion and Amoros but then plants his header straight at Ettori, who saves at the second attempt. Littbarski should have scored, although it might not have counted: the whistle went for something, presumably offside.
12.42pm BST
43 min Breitner’s curving pass over the top finds Briegel, almost by the right touchline in the area. He should go with his right foot, but instead he whirls his left like an arthritic ninja to send the ball towards the near post. Ettori, who had his angles right, pats it behind.
12.40pm BST
41 min After five minutes of feistiness, France remind us that this is a football match with a stunning counter-attack that almost leads to one of the goals of the tournament. It starts with Giresse and Tigana riskily playing their way out of trouble inside the French area. Tigana pushes it forward to Six, who runs 30 yards and waves the ball to Rocheteau on the left with the outside of the foot. Rocheteau runs at Bernd Förster, teasing him with a series of touches and hip movements until he gets into the area on the left. Then, as Kaltz comes across, he stabs it back outside the box to Platini. He storms on to the ball, 20 yards out, and cuts across a beautiful shot that swerves and whistles just wide of the far post. That took 15 seconds from Giresse’s touch in his own area to Platini’s shot curving wide. You could have set that move to Beethoven. Actually you could have set it to ‘Happy Talk’ and it would still have stood as a work of art, it was so beautiful.
12.39pm BST
40 min This is getting a bit nasty now. Kaltz, marauding down the right, is clattered by Genghini, a challenge of endearing incompetence. Genghini is booked.
12.38pm BST
39 min Tigana’s dangerous, bouncing cross is chested nonchalantly back to Schumacher by Briegel, six yards from his own goal. Six slides in from behind on Briegel and then Schumacher’s forward momentum takes him on top of Six, whereupon he pins him like a wrestler and drags his elbow a little to clarify precisely what he thinks of Six’s challenge. Briegel stands over Six, looking at him almost quizzically, as a cat might look at a mouse that hasn’t quite died, and then seems to give Six a little rabbit kick. As Six gets to his feet, Schumacher shoves him away angrily. Six puts his hands out in apology – he didn’t actually do anything wrong – but Schumacher waves his hand in disgust. Platini motions for Schumacher to simmer down because the keeper really needs to. He’s off on one.
12.35pm BST
36 min Of all the people to get the first yellow card in this match, it’s Alain Giresse, for kicking the ball away after he was penalised for handball.
12.35pm BST
35 min Amoros’s low cross is flicked behind his standing leg by Six and Karlheinz Förster cushions a short-range backpass to Schumacher. As Schumacher takes the ball he rolls forward and rams into the thigh of Platini, who winces and holds the back of his right leg as he hobbles away. He should be fine.
12.30pm BST
31 min France have a bit of a strut now. Six’s drilled left-wing corner goes all the way across to Bossis on the edge of the area. He kills the ball like a playmaker, never mind a defender, and arrogantly lays it back to Genghini, whose sizzling half-volley tattoos a West German thigh and deflects wide for a corner.
12.27pm BST
Platini tucks the penalty away with authority, sending Schumacher the wrong way and sidefooting it low to the left. He celebrates with an instinctive, childlike leap of joy, both hands raised to the sky, before he is mobbed by teammates.
12.26pm BST
27 min The free-kick that was given for Kaltz’s foul on Genghini leads straight to a penalty. Giresse flicked the dead ball lazily into the area with the outside of his right foot towards Platini, who did superbly to win the header above Magath and Dremmler. He nutted it back across the face of goal, where Rocheteau went down under challenge from Bernd Förster. Förster did hook the ball clear eventually but the referee signalled that he was holding Rocheteau; replays suggest he was probably right. Stielike, unsurprisingly, does not entirely concur with this viewpoint.
12.25pm BST
26 min Kaltz nibbles away at Genghini, who responds with a sly kick to the back of the leg while Kaltz is being spoken to by the referee. The two men are about to start a Hegelian dialectic when the referee gets in between them.
12.21pm BST
22 min That’s eight goals in 13 internationals for Littbarski, who only made his West Germany debut last October. It was beautifully made by Breitner, who was playing at left-back in West Germany’s 1974 World Cup winners but now patrols midfield like an old don. Platini heads well wide from 18 yards.
12.17pm BST
West Germany deservedly strike first. Breitner opened the game up with an impatient run through France’s midfield before flicking a penetrative through-pass to Fischer, who had pulled cleverly away in between Trésor and Amoros. He overran the ball a fraction with an accidental second touch, allowing Ettori to come out and plunge at his feet – but the loose ball came to Littbarski, who spanked a low shot through a posse of bodies and into the net from the edge of the area.
12.15pm BST
16 min A long, angled free-kick is drilled towards Rocheteau, just inside the area and facing away from goal. It’s at face-height, so he improvises delightfully: he leaps forward, twists his body in mid-air and softens his chest to steer a flying chest pass, straight into the path of Genghini, who lashes the bouncing ball over the bar from the right of the box. Schumacher administers a finger-pointing bollocking to one, possibly more, maybe all of his team-mates.
12.14pm BST
15 min: LITTBARSKI HITS THE BAR! With France still organizing their wall, Breitner touched the ball off to Littbarski, who clattered the bar with a fierce shot. Ettori was beaten and the ball hit the bar with such force that it rebounded well outside the box.
12.13pm BST
14 min A truly absurd hack at Fischer from Janvion gives Germany a free-kick 35 yards out. That leads to another free-kick 20 yards out when Platini brings down Briegel. This is in a good position, just a few yards left of centre…
12.12pm BST
13 min France are coming into the game now. A dangerous cross from Amoros is taken away from the flying Rocheteau by the head of Bernd Förster. That leads to a corner on the right, from which Giresse plays a one-two with Rocheteau before clipping in an insouciant cross with the outside of his right foot. Bossis, unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box, just couldn’t leap high enough and Schumacher climbed over him to punch clear.
12.07pm BST
8 min A delectable example of the telepathy between – and economical brilliance of – Platini and Giresse. Platini draws two Germans towards him and pokes a pass forward to Giresse, in space 25 yards out. He turns, draws two more defenders towards him and teases a short through-pass towards Platini, who had kept running. He would have been clear on goal but for a superb stretching block from Stielike on the edge of the area.
12.03pm BST
4 min After a superb surge by Briegel, the former decathlete, Dremmler’s shot is deflected wide from 25 yards. West Germany have come out of the blocks like Alan Wells here.
12.01pm BST
2 min A breakneck start from Germany. Littbarski, one of the unexpected stars of the tournament, wriggles dangerously into the box before being crowded out. France finally get a kick when Kaltz falls on his arse. Platini is caught a touch late by Dremmler and hops around theatrically in pain like a demented kangaroo.
12.00pm BST
1 min The game finally gets under way with West Germany kicking off from left to right. For those listening on radio, they are in white, France are in blue.
11.56am BST
The teams are out! There’s a long delay before kick-off, with the West Germans idly kicking a ball between themselves. Nobody on either side looks remotely stressed. It’s a World Cup semi-final!
11.41am BST
West Germany, several of whose players have been suffering with stomach complaints this week, and whose captain Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is only fit for the bench because of the thigh injury that’s been troubling him all tournament: Harald Schumacher, Manfred Kaltz, Hans-Peter Briegel, Bernd Förster, Karlheinz Förster, Uli Stielike, Felix Magath, Paul Breitner, Klaus Fischer, Wolfgang Dremmler, Pierre Littbarski.
France plump for Six instead of Soler, but otherwise this is the lot who stroked four goals past Northern Ireland: Jean-Luc Ettori, Manuel Amoros, Maxime Bossis, Gérard Janvion, Marius Trésor, Alain Giresse, Bernard Genghini, Didier Six, Jean Tigana, Michel Platini, Dominique Rocheteau.
10.32am BST
It’s fair to say that neither of these teams started this tournament particularly well. France found themselves a goal down within 27 seconds of kick-off in their first match, against an England team that notoriously struggles for goals. Ooh la la. From that position, the only way was up. And so it was proven. France put away Kuwait and drew with Czechoslovakia in a game mainly notable for Antonin Panenka’s last act in international football (a penalty, naturally) and Manuel Amoros clearing off the line in the last minute to keep France in the competition.
In the second group stage, they lucked out, drawn with Austria and Northern Ireland, and didn’t look the gift horse dans la bouche, beating both teams by causing death by intricate passing (although it’d have been interesting to see what would have happened if Martin O’Neill’s unfairly disallowed early goal for the Irish had stood). Still, Michel Hidalgo called that performance against Northern Ireland the best of his six-year reign and here France are, in the semis, a team top-heavy with elegant talent – that midfield of Platini, Tigana, Giresse – doing just about enough to paper over the cracks of a brittle defence.
Continue reading...May 17, 2016
Hull City 0-2 Derby County (agg 3-2): Championship play-off semi-final – as it happened
Hull made it to Wembley, though Derby very nearly pulled off the greatest play-off comeback.
9.46pm BST
The pitch floods with celebrating Hull fans. A few orange smoke bombs go off. Hey, no pyro, no party. The Hull players scamper down the tunnel, more in relief than joy. They weren’t very good tonight. Derby by contrast were relentless in attack. But the hosts dug in during the second half when they had to, and of course they were the better team in the first leg. Deserved winners, then, of a semi-final which had a very similar rhythm and narrative to the Sheffield Wednesday-Brighton affair. Commiserations to Derby County, who like Brighton last night failed to complete a comeback but nevertheless did themselves proud. They too would have been a mighty fine addition to the Premier League. But it’s not to be. Meanwhile congratulations to Hull City, who are one day of Wembley wonder away from a place in next season’s Premier League. The final should be a blast! Hull or Wednesday? It’s too tough to call!
9.40pm BST
And that’s that! Now it’s the turn of the Hull supporters to sing the “Sheffield Wednesday we’re coming for you” song! They’ve made the play-off final on Saturday week after a very nervous performance. But the tie was won in the first leg. Derby were magnificent tonight. But not quite magnificent enough.
9.38pm BST
90 min +5: Snodgrass is replaced by Maguire, clock management at its finest.
9.38pm BST
90 min +4: Carson is nearly caught upfield as Hughes can’t get his shot away on the edge of the box. Clucas breaks up the right, but loses control with the goal unguarded.
9.37pm BST
90 min +3: A simple ball looped down the middle into the Hull box. Dawson, in a panic, heads backwards and out of play for a corner. That was unnecessary. Carson comes up for the set piece.
9.35pm BST
90 min +2: Diame is replaced by Clucas.
9.35pm BST
90 min +1: Martin loops in a cross from the left, but there are no blue shirts in the box. Quite understandably, Martin wants to know where the hell everyone is at this late stage.
9.34pm BST
90 min: Derby move into the Hull half, but can’t get anything going in the final third. Hull holding their shape. The last throw of the dice for Derby, as Olsson is replaced by Camara. There will be four added minutes.
9.33pm BST
88 min: Hendrick rather clumsily bowls Meyler to the floor as the Hull man chases down the right. A free kick. The ball lands at the feet of Snodrass, who bowls down the inside-right channel and goes over in the environs of Hughes. A claim for a penalty, which the referee isn’t interested in. A clear dive.
9.30pm BST
87 min: Ince curls one in from the right. It’s not a million miles away from Bent, but the ball sails through to Jakupovic.
9.30pm BST
86 min: Bryson rolls a ball down the middle and nearly gets on the end of Martin’s return flick, but Dawson reads the danger, intercepts and clears.
9.29pm BST
85 min: Meyler tries to release Odubajo into space down the right, but the ball drifts out of play. Derby need the ball, and quick, but Hull are refusing to gift them anything here.
9.27pm BST
84 min: Hull play Derby at their own midfield possession game. The clock ticks on. Time is not Derby’s pal.
9.26pm BST
82 min: Derby haven’t seen much of the ball in the last five minutes, so a period of possession in the middle of the park gives them a much-needed foothold back in the game. They also replace a knackered looking Russell with Darren Bent.
9.24pm BST
80 min: “Come on City! Come on City!” Another corner for the hosts down the right. Snodgrass takes. Davies bends down but flicks his header high over the bar from 12 yards. It’s been a decent spell for Hull, who despite it all are ten minutes (plus stoppages) away from Wembley.
9.22pm BST
79 min: Derby are beginning to look tired, having put in so much effort. Shackell takes down a long ball, and has a simple clearance to make, but fresh-airs the kick and lets the ball run out of play for a corner. Thankfully, from the big defender’s perspective, the set piece comes to nothing.
9.21pm BST
77 min: This is a bit better from the home team. Snodgrass skitters down the left, reaches the byline, and sees his low cross whistle back past his lugs by Shackell. A throw deep in Derby territory the only reward, and it leads to nothing. But they’re still leading this semi-final on aggregate, and time’s running out for Derby County.
9.19pm BST
76 min: Elmohamady chases down the right, with Derby looking light at the back, but overruns the ball. No space. Goal kick. Hull are doing nothing in attack.
9.19pm BST
74 min: Ince has a blast from 25 yards. The ball sails on a reckless arc over the left-hand corner flag. The home crowd enjoyed that, a release from the tension.
9.18pm BST
73 min: Martin, on the edge of the D, takes a pass from Ince, out on the left. Ince cuts inside and picks up a flicked return, and is about to shoot when Davies clatters him in the legal style. What a challenge! Hull looked to have been opened up there.
9.15pm BST
71 min: Keogh strides forward and plays a fine ball down the inside-left channel for Ince, who would have got a shot away had he made for the box in a straight line. But he chooses to cut inside, and has to make do with a corner instead. No matter, because it very nearly leads to a goal, Martin picking up the ball with his back to goal on the left-hand corner of the box, turning and curling one towards the top right. It’s heading in, brilliantly, but it’s met by a strong fist from Jakupovic. Marvellous save!
9.13pm BST
69 min: Derby knock it around the middle of the park awhile. Eventually Hughes takes up possession, drops a shoulder, and has a look from 25 yards. It’s high and wide. But Derby are pressing, and pressing hard. They don’t appear to be in the mood to spend the summer wondering.
9.12pm BST
67 min: Martin strokes a ball down the inside-left channel. Ince takes it down, and looks to make good towards the box. He’s crowded out by Dawson. He should have laid the ball off to his right, where Russell was in space. Hull don’t look comfortable at all. The KC is bubbling and boiling with nervous tension. This is superlative entertainment. It could go either way. You can’t take your eye off it for a second. And other clichés.
9.10pm BST
66 min: Derby are doing their best to stretch Hull this way and that. Christie bombs down the right and crosses deep. So deep that Olsson has to stretch to keep it in on the left. Olsson then curls high to the far post. Jakupovic rises to claim.
9.08pm BST
64 min: Derby are on the front foot again. Hughes probes with baroque intent down the right. He can’t quite prise Hull open. Then Ince has a crack from 25 yards. It’s straight at Odubajo.
9.06pm BST
63 min: Hull are going direct. Now Diame takes the ball down and powers with extreme prejudice down the middle. He shoots from long range, the ball bobbling harmlessly wide right of Carson’s goal.
9.06pm BST
61 min: A long hoof down the middle of the park by Hull. Hernandez dummies and very nearly releases Snodgrass on goal. It would have been that simple. But Shackell extends a leg and pokes the ball back to the keeper, just when Snodgrass’s eyes were widening.
9.04pm BST
60 min: Weimann has jarred his knee. A shame, because he’s played very well tonight. He’s replaced by Tom Ince who, having been dropped, has spent most of the evening sitting on the bench with a face on. Now’s his chance to walk it like he’s sulked it.
9.03pm BST
59 min: Hughes and Hendrick combine well down the right. Some intricate dribbling. Hull afraid to put the foot in. Hendrick then loops towards the far post for Martin, but there’s a little too much juice on the cross. Derby are desperate for the equalising goal in this tie, but they’re not playing desperate football. They’ve been very easy on the eye tonight.
9.01pm BST
57 min: Hernandez, on the left-hand corner of the Derby box, chests down a long throw, turns, and lashes a fine dipping effort towards the top right. Not quite, but full marks for ambition.
9.00pm BST
56 min: Shackell is booked for a cynical trip on Odubajo as the Hull man considers breaking into some space in the midfield. He can have no complaints.
8.59pm BST
55 min: Another lull in proceedings, which once again should do Hull a favour. Derby still look the sharper side. “I’ll see your Hull city centre in 1969 and raise you Bury town centre in 1965,” writes Phil Thorp. “A far better production if I may be so bold. Oh, and if you’re looking for a link, Hull knocked the mighty Shakers out of the FA Cup this season and we beat Derby County 6-0 in the highest scoring FA Cup final in 1903.”
8.57pm BST
53 min: Hernandez tries a snapshot from 20 yards. It smacks Keogh in the face. Odubajo picks up the rebound, and takes the opportunity to go over a leg hung out by Hughes. Street smart, and a free kick in a dangerous position. Snodgrass makes a play straight out of Martin’s big book, smashing the set piece straight into the wall. What a waste.
8.55pm BST
51 min: Martin blooters the free kick straight at the wall. Hull, let off the hook, clear. Steve Bruce has seen enough. He replaces Huddlestone with David Meyler.
8.54pm BST
50 min: Hughes comes straight at Hull down the centre, yet again. Odubajo has no option but to tug him back, on the edge of the D. He’s booked, and it’s a free kick in a very, very dangerous position.
8.53pm BST
48 min: Derby should be level! Martin dribbles down the left, then slides Weimann further along the flank. Weimann enters the box and centres low and hard towards Bryson, six yards out. Bryson must score! But he can’t get his legs working properly, allowing the ball to smack him in the troosers. Weimann tries to recycle the rebound, shooting form a tight angle. But it’s wide, and he’s offside. What a chance for Bryson!
8.51pm BST
47 min: Elmohamady powers down the right, the most direct Hull dribble of the evening so far. He ends up crossing deep towards Diame, but Keogh heads clear without fuss. Then Odubajo has a go from the same flank, but Carson snaffles that one. Much better from the Tigers already.
8.49pm BST
Two down, then, just the one to go. Can Derby really pull this off? Remember: no team has ever come back from three goals down in a two-legged play-off rubber. If they keep playing like they did in the first half, anything’s possible. Especially if Hull don’t raise their own game. The home side will have received some beneficial advice from Steve Bruce during the break, I’ll be bound, and in the trenchant style to boot. So they should come out with renewed purpose. Derby get the ball rolling again.
8.35pm BST
Half-time entertainment: A drive around Hull in 1969. Well, why not? Peckinpah on at the cinema, Littlewoods and Ratners still open for business.
8.34pm BST
A free kick for Hull out on the right. Snodgrass sends it straight through the Derby box. And that’s that for the first half. Well, well, well. “Sheffield Wednesday, we’re coming for you,” sing the away support. Derby still need one more goal to level things up, of course. Probably worth mentioning now that away goals matter not in this tournament. For some reason it didn’t seem that important earlier. It certainly does now! It’s going to be some second half. No flipping!
8.31pm BST
45 min: Space for Christie down the right. He’s got men in the middle, but opts to float his cross into the area, allowing Jakupovic to gently pluck the ball from the sky.
8.30pm BST
43 min: A break in play with Olsson down, the Derby left back having taken a knee in the back from Elmohamady. Entirely accidental. It looks as if he’ll be OK; there are smiles. Hull happy to see the clock tick round towards the 45-minute mark.
8.27pm BST
41 min: Hughes embarks on another trademark dribble, this time down the left. He eventually runs out of space, and it’s a goal kick, but once again Hull were in a defensive panic. This is a collective breakdown. They need to find their equilibrium. Half time can’t come soon enough.
8.26pm BST
39 min: Odubajo is on a one-man mission to raise his team’s spirits. He powers in from the right and lashes a rising shot towards the top left. Shackell, not entirely in control, but deserving of some luck this time after his own goal on Saturday, helps it over the bar. The resulting corner comes to nothing. The Derby fans are bouncing around like billy-o, the spirit of Tigger in travelling football-fan form.
8.25pm BST
38 min: Hull, shellshocked Hull, try to pick themselves up. Odubajo burns down the right and enters the box alongside Olsson. He goes down under a shoulder charge, far too easily, and though the entire KC screams penalty, the referee isn’t having a bar of it. They’re rattled.
8.23pm BST
Eh, scrub that! Martin picks up the ball in the middle of the Hull half, and spreads a pass wide left for Olsson. He fires low into the six-yard box. The ball clanks off a spreadeagled Davies, and is then lashed into his own net from a couple of yards by a confused and highly anxious Robertson! The play-off comeback of all play-off comebacks is on!
8.21pm BST
35 min: Diame goes on a power skitter down the inside-right channel, but drags a 20-yarder wide right of the target. This is a little better from Hull now, who are slowly working their way back into this game.
8.20pm BST
32 min: But for all Derby’s excellence, one mistake is all it would take to burst their bubble. They suddenly get in a collective funk as Snodgrass lashes a low ball into their box from the left wing. Hernandez, on the penalty spot, looks like having a clear shot for a second, but can’t sort his feet out. The ball breaks back to Livermore, who belts low, hard and just left of the post. The resulting corner - the result of a deflection - comes to nothing. Sudden bedlam, and the Hull fans find their voice again!
8.17pm BST
30 min: Hendrick tries to pitching-wedge a chip over the wall and into the top right. Nope! It rebounds to Bryson, who whistles a shot inches wide of the left-hand post from 25 yards. So close to the second!
8.16pm BST
29 min: A common-or-garden long ball down the middle, and Hull are once again in a panic. Martin takes the ball down with his chest, runs towards the box, and is brought down by Livermore, to the right of the D. Livermore is booked, and this is a free kick in a very dangerous position.
8.14pm BST
27 min: They’re still snoozing. Derby go straight up the other end and once again look dangerous, Weimann releasing Russell down the left. The resulting cross flies out of play to the right of the goal, though had it been even half-decent, Martin was lurking in the area with a view to causing all sorts of trouble. Smelling salts for Hull!
8.13pm BST
26 min: Another rare Hull sortie. Livermore strides in from the right, and converts for three rugby points. That rising shot, from 25 yards, was never going in. But Hull have been so poor they need something, anything, to wake themselves up.
8.12pm BST
25 min: Now it’s Hendrick’s turn to go dancing down the middle of the park. Hull are collectively frightened to make a tackle. He slips the ball to the left and very nearly releases Hughes into the area, but the pass has a little too much weight on it. Hughes is forced towards the corner, where he eventually loses control. But once again, Hull’s back line threatened to open up there. This is a very impressive performance by Derby so far. But then they were the better team in the opening exchanges last Saturday, too, and look how that ended.
8.09pm BST
23 min: A long ball hoicked down the Derby left. Odubajo should clear with ease, but he faffs around. So ponderous. And he very nearly allows Weimann to tear past him, making off towards the box. But the full back wakes from his slumber just in time, and gently nudges Weimann out of the road before shepherding the ball out.
8.08pm BST
21 min: Weimann, who hasn’t stopped running, earns a corner down the left. Russell’s corner finds the head of Keogh, eight yards out. Fortunately for Derby, the Derby captain doesn’t connect properly with his header. Hull clear. In the midfield, Bryson picks up possession and is immediately cleaned out by Snodgrass. An awful slide tackle, nowhere near the ball. A booking, all day long, and a sign of Hull’s mounting concern and frustration. Easy to forget that they’re still two goals clear in this semi-final.
8.06pm BST
19 min: Hull are struggling to get out of their final third. A lame Snodgrass clearance - with the outside of his left boot! - falls to Hendrick, 25 yards out. Hendrick tries to dispatch it back into the net, but his screeching, dipping, first-time blast is without accuracy. The home support, though, are extremely nervous right now. Plenty of air sucked in as that one left Hendrick’s boot.
8.04pm BST
17 min: Hughes, showcasing delightful close control, slaloms down the middle through an orange thicket. He nears the box, then lays off to Russell, who is immediately upended by Livermore. A free kick, which Russell takes himself. He gets the ball up and over the wall, towards the top right. It whistles inches wide. Jakupovic almost certainly had that covered had it been on target, but he’d have been forced to palm it round. Derby are giving Hull serious pause for thought here.
8.01pm BST
15 min: A lull, which does Derby no favours and allows Hull to take a breather. They’ve looked nervous since the get-go. The bulk of the KC has responded in kind. The away fans are making the bulk of the noise.
7.59pm BST
13 min: Once the second throw is taken, Odubajo whips a delightful mid-height cross through the Derby box. Diame is inches away from stooping to nut home from six yards, but the pace of the cross beats him. Much better from the hosts.
7.58pm BST
12 min: Hull finally launch a sortie into Derby territory. A couple of throws from the right by Odubajo. The Hull man takes an age over the second, and is bollocked for timewasting by referee Michael Oliver.
7.56pm BST
10 min: Hull were kind of asking for that. They’ve been ludicrously passive so far. And they’re still sitting back, allowing Derby the run of the place. Olsson romps into space down the left, and fires a brilliant low ball through the six-yard box. Fortunately for the snoozing home side, there’s nobody in blue taking a chance in the centre. Hull need to wake up, and quickly!
7.54pm BST
Is this on? It’s on! And it’s so simple! Christie bombs along the right wing. He eats up most of the pitch, then crosses deep. Martin rises high at the far post and heads down for Russell, whose initial header from six yards is blocked by Davies. But the ball falls back to his feet, and he tucks away the rebound from a couple of yards!
7.52pm BST
6 min: Hull are more than happy to sit back and let Derby faff around in the midfield. It’s totally understandable, though they’ll not want to allow the Rams to work their way into a passing groove. Russell finds a little pocket of space, 30 yards out down the inside-left channel. He looks for the top right, but though he connects well, it’s belted miles over the bar.
7.50pm BST
4 min: All a bit scrappy during the early exchanges. Derby are seeing more of the ball, though nothing comes of their possession, other than a speculative Hughes shot that is currently bobbing up and down the Humber.
7.48pm BST
2 min: Derby knock it about the back awhile. Eventually Shackell launches it long, down the right. Snodgrass shepherds the ball out of play, though Christie, pressing hard, at least keeps him honest.
7.46pm BST
The home side get the ball rolling, and immediately dispatch it into the stand down the right. The only way is up.
7.45pm BST
The teams are out! Hull are in their trademark tiger orange-and-black kit, while Derby have opted to wear their third-choice blue. There’s a fine atmosphere at the KC Stadium, tiger flags a-fluttering. Plenty of expectancy among the home support, though to be fair to the away section, there’s a lot of noise over there too, despite the terrible hole their team has fallen into. We’ll be off in a minute! “If you were going to flutter a tenner on the footy tonight, which do reckon is more likely: Derby turning this round or Man Utd getting the 19 goals they’re looking for?” asks Robin Hazlehurst. “I don’t suppose either is very likely, but I’ve heard tell you could have got long odds on Leicester winning the title a while back, so you never know.” Claudio and his lads have indeed proved that anything is possible. Mind you, the record score in the top division is 12-0, last achieved in 1909 when Nottingham Forest beat Leicester (they’re up and down all right). So if Louis van Gaal’s side win by a 19-goal margin tonight, expect a controversy so big it’d make Totonero - which saw Milan and Lazio relegated, and Paolo Rossi banned for two years - look like being overcharged a couple of pence for a tin of soup at Sainsbury’s. So lump on Derby! Though remember investments made at your local turf accountant can go down as well as up.
7.41pm BST
Darren Wassall speaks! “I hope Weimann and Hendrick score some goals! We needed to freshen it up after Saturday, we’ve got to do something. We need the rub of the green, a little bit of luck. We also need to show passion, drive, desire, enthusiasm and determination, which we had done, in abundance, up until last Saturday. That wasn’t the Derby County I’ve sent out for three months. We’ve had some brilliant displays and scored some great goals. We’ve got to show the nation that we’re better than we were.”
7.40pm BST
Steve Bruce speaks! “We’ve given ourselves an outstanding chance, of course. But this is a game of football. There was nothing in it for 25 minutes at Derby, and one goal changed it all of a sudden. We’ve got to guard against complacency. We can’t take anything for granted. We’ll take the same approach as we did on Saturday. They’re a big club with a huge support and good players. We can fear a backlash, and we’ve got to be ready for it.”
7.05pm BST
Unsurprising Stat dept. No team in the entire history of the Football League play-offs, stretching back to 1987, has taken a three-goal lead into the second leg of a semi-final tie and failed to reach the final. Great news for Hull. Derby have it all to do. They’ll need to channel the spirit of early April if they’re to cause a huge upset tonight: that’s when they went on a four-match winning run, scoring four against Hull and Bolton, and three at Bristol City.
6.58pm BST
If It Ain’t Broke dept. Hull City name the same XI who started, and collectively played all but seven minutes of, the first leg in Derby.
County meanwhile make a couple of changes. Andreas Weimann returns after being left out altogether at the weekend, while Jeff Hendrick steps up from the bench. Dropping to the dugout: Tom Ince and Bradley Johnson.
6.51pm BST
Hull City: Jakupovic, Odubajo, Dawson, Davies, Robertson, Elmohamady, Huddlestone, Livermore, Snodgrass, Diame, Hernandez.
Subs: Bruce, Meyler, Clucas, Maguire, Maloney, Akpom, Kuciak.
Derby County: Carson, Christie, Keogh, Shackell, Olsson, Bryson, Hendrick, Hughes, Weimann, Martin, Russell.
Subs: Grant, Buxton, Bent, Johnson, Butterfield, Camara, Ince.
10.03am BST
Who wants to live in a world without hope and dreams? Nobody, that’s who! But there are limits, and even the most upbeat Derby County fan will admit that, on the balance of probability, this Championship play-off semi-final tie is almost certainly already over.
Hull won the first leg 3-0 at Pride Park on Saturday. It was a slightly strange thrashing. By the end, Steve Bruce’s tidy side had certainly deserved their victory, though no story is ever quite that simple. Derby had been the better team in the opening exchanges, before Abel Hernández capitalised on a mistake to score from long range, Jason Shackell became the unfortunate victim of an absurd deflected own goal, and Andy Robertson finished off a late counter-attack as Derby scrambled impotently to get back into the tie.
Continue reading...The Fiver | Something of a tall order
In today’s Fiver: Herbert Bamlett, Monchi and your personalised edition
This season’s Manchester United strip references the early 1980s. Their current brand of football, meantime, also betrays retro stylings, heavily influenced as it is by 1973. And quite a bit of 1974. It wasn’t totally surprising, then, when the club looked back a few decades to gain similar old-school inspiration for the pre-match entertainment at Old Trafford. The 1960s-style dog handling display was a cute idea, to be fair, though perhaps next time best stick to a few small hurdles along the pitch with a ball to fetch at the end of it, or a guy dressed as a robber with one of his arms wrapped in hessian.
Related: David Squires on … the end of the Premier League season
Continue reading...May 16, 2016
Brighton 1-1 Sheff Wed (agg 1-3): Championship playoff semi-final – as it happened
Brighton threw everything at Wednesday, but the visitors held firm to reach the Wembley final.
9.48pm BST
Wednesday jump around in delight. The Brighton full back Bruno meanwhile crumples to the floor, pressing his bearded face into the turf, sobbing his heart out. Stockdale tries to pick him up. It takes a while. Poor Bruno. Poor Brighton. They were simply stunning in that first half, a relentless attacking force of nature. On another day they’d have scored the goals they needed. But the luck wasn’t with them - witness all those injuries, Hooper’s cheeky shove on Dunk, Knockaert’s brilliant free kick hitting the inside of the post yet staying out - and once again it isn’t to be their year. The Championship can be proud of them. They would have graced the Premier League. But take nothing away from Wednesday, who were defensively resolute, and in truth the better side for the other three halves of football in this two-legged affair. Is their 16-year exile from the Premier League about to end? Only Hull City
or Derby
can stop them a week on Saturday. Nighty night!
Related: Sheffield Wednesday rock Brighton to reach Championship play-off final
9.43pm BST
Forestieri nearly breaks clear down the left. Then up the other end, Wilson drags a 25-yarder wide right. And that’s it! Wednesday are going to Wembley, where they’ll most likely, unless something very strange happens tomorrow night, be playing Hull City for a place in the 2016-17 Premier League!
9.42pm BST
90 min +4: The ball breaks to Wilson on the edge of the box. He slips, but Brighton get a second chance as the ball squirts right to Dunk. He’s one on one with Westwood! But he batters his shot straight at the keeper, who parries easily. A corner results, but nothing comes of it. Brighton’s last chance, slim as it was, has gone.
9.40pm BST
90 min +3: Forestieri chases after a long lump down the middle. Stockdale comes out of his area and beats him to the ball. Just. But just is enough.
9.39pm BST
90 min +2: A slight melee in the Wednesday box, and the ball falls at the feet of Knockaert, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. But he nearly takes a complete air shot, and feathers the ball out of play for a goal kick.
9.38pm BST
90 min: LuaLua cuts in from the left and sends a low, lame shot wide left of the post. Westwood guides it wide. A feeling that this is all over. But this is not quite all over! There will be six added minutes. Six! East wasn’t joking when he pointed at his imaginary watch while Wallace waddled off.
9.36pm BST
89 min: Skalak, down the right now, loops long, forcing Lees into the concession of a corner. But the resulting set piece sees Bruno give away a cheap free kick in the midst of all the bustle, and the pressure, such as it was, is released. The away fans are in full party mode now. It’s like Leicester-on-Sea.
9.35pm BST
88 min: Knockaert, down the left, finds Dunk on the penalty spot with a low cross. But the big emergency striker can’t sort his feet out. Bannan scampers off with the ball.
9.34pm BST
87 min: “Hull City, we’re coming for you!” trill the travelling Wednesdayites. Fair to say they don’t have much faith in Derby County, then. Or, indeed, Brighton, whose race seems run. Nuhiu has a shot from 20 yards, but it’s not very good. The clock, however, ticks on.
9.32pm BST
85 min: Skalak makes ground down the left and fires low into the Wednesday area. Wilson tries to manufacture a shot on the turn, sending the ball sailing high and wide left. At the restart, Nuhiu barges into the back of Kayal, a clumsy nonsense that earns a yellow card. Is everyone on a yellow now?
9.31pm BST
83 min: Brighton are beginning to lose their discipline, and their heads. Forestieri is brought down on the left by Rosenior. A chance to roll around the turf awhile, as seconds slip away.
9.29pm BST
82 min: Helan powers down the left wing, cuts inside, and is brought down by Bruno, who hooks his arm around the Wednesday player’s neck. A booking for a cynical foul.
9.29pm BST
81 min: LuaLua purchases a fairly cheap free kick off Lee down the left. Another chance to load the box. Skalak takes. Lees eyebrows the high ball out for a corner on the right. Loovens then batters the corner clear with a magnificent clearing header.
9.27pm BST
80 min: Nuhiu and Lee work down the right to earn Wednesday’s first corner of the match. Stockdale punches the set piece clear. Kayal tries to find Knockaert with a Hollywood pass on the counter, but it sails harmlessly through to Westwood.
9.26pm BST
79 min: Brighton still have all the ball, but Wednesday look super-organised. The away fans are making the most noise now. Time is not the hosts’ friend.
9.24pm BST
77 min: Liam Rosenior comes on for Greer.
9.24pm BST
76 min: Wednesday batter it long. Nuhiu rises high and sends the ball wide right for Lee, who returns it to the far post. Nuhiu has peeled off and meets the cross, but heads over harmlessly. For a second, though, Brighton were exposed.
9.21pm BST
74 min: Nuhiu embarks on a very strange dribble from the Wednesday right back towards his own box. Skalak nips the ball off him, and Loovens is forced to concede the foul before the chance of a shot opens up. A free kick, 30 yards out, just to the left of goal. After interminable faffing, LuaLua blooters a daft effort straight into the wall. What a waste.
9.19pm BST
71 min: Hooper is replaced by Adthe Nuhiu. He takes an age to get off. Referee East does the ostentatious watch-tapping mime in the Wednesday bench’s direction. Expect some added-time drama!
9.17pm BST
70 min: It’s attack versus defence, Wednesday sitting deep. Brighton have all the possession, but the visitors are holding their shape well. They’re not giving up any chances.
9.16pm BST
68 min: Skalak dances down the left, grooving himself into a bit of space. He chips a cross to the far post, but there’s nobody in blue and white over there. Pudil clears. Brighton are beginning to play with hectic desperation. They’re not quite as smooth in attack as they were in that first half. Then again, that first half was exceptional, even if all their efforts got them nowhere.
9.13pm BST
66 min: Wallace felt his hamstring after taking that shot, and now he plonks himself down on the turf. Tick, tock, tick, tock, there goes time! LuaLua charges up and leans over him in a very threatening manner. For a second it looked as though the Brighton man was intending to hoof his opponent’s nut clean off his shoulders. The referee reminds everyone how old they are, and we carry on. Or, more accurately, the game carries on: Wallace limps off, to be replaced by Jeremy Helan.
9.11pm BST
64 min: Wallace takes a blast from the best part of 35 yards. The ball balloons into the air and falls harmlessly back to earth by Stockdale.
9.10pm BST
63 min: Knockaert is booked for chasing after Forestieri and hacking him down from behind. He can’t have any complaints, and in fairness doesn’t bother making one. The nerves, the desperation, the panic, it’s palpable.
9.09pm BST
62 min: Baldock, who has been quiet, verging on ineffectual, is replaced by Kazenga LuaLua.
9.08pm BST
61 min: A free kick for Brighton out on the left, the freshly booked Hunt having clattered into Skalak. The hosts load the box. Skalak then idiotically blooters the set piece high over the bar. Three rugby points, but those are no good!
9.06pm BST
59 min: Hunt is booked for time wasting at a throw. Carlos Carvalhal, on the touchline, wasn’t particularly happy at the two Kayal incidents; he’s positively livid now.
9.06pm BST
58 min: Kayal is very, very lucky not to be walking. He slides in on Wallace, two feet up, not in total control. It should at least be a second yellow, but referee Roger East opts to perform the palms-to-the-turf calm-down mime instead. Lucky Kayal.
9.04pm BST
56 min: From the free kick, there’s a game of head tennis in the Wednesday box, and then the visitors break upfield through Forestieri. He’s bombing down the left at high speed, and is wiped out by the most cynical charge you’ll ever see from Kayal. A yellow card. For a second, the Amex fell silent anticipating red. But it was on the halfway line, and there was a covering man in the middle. Still.
9.02pm BST
55 min: Hutchinson shoves Kayal in the back. A free kick, and he’s booked for arguing the toss. He’s then got to be pulled away from Kayal, as the pair lock horns. What a preposterous performance.
9.01pm BST
53 min: Wednesday are beginning to get a foothold in this game. It’s about time. A quiet period for Brighton. The crowd do their best to raise their heroes. It’s some atmosphere at the Amex. The play-offs are magnificent entertainment. Cruel, but magnificent.
9.00pm BST
51 min: Brighton press hard, but Kayal and Knockaert combine to lose the ball and Wednesday break. Bannan’s given much too much time down the inside-left channel, and he sends a bouncing bomb towards the bottom right from the edge of the box. Stockdale spills the ball, and it breaks wide right to Wallace, who looks for Forestieri in the middle. Fortunately for Brighton, and especially Stockdale, Bong - New Fast Automatic Daffodils earworm alert! - is on hand to snuff out the danger.
8.56pm BST
49 min: Kayal latches onto a loose Bannan clearance and drives down the middle. He then slips the ball just to his left for Wilson, who hits low towards the bottom right. Westwood’s claiming that one all day. But Brighton look just that little bit sharper, again.
8.55pm BST
48 min: ... the ball’s hit long for Sidwell, who returns it back left for Skalak. He shoots towards the bottom left. Westwood parries. Wilson has another go, from a tighter angle. The keeper gathers. Brighton obviously aren’t in the mood to spend the summer wondering.
8.54pm BST
47 min: Bong and Skalak combine down the left to earn a corner. From which...
8.53pm BST
The visitors get the ball rolling once more. They’ve hooked Lopez and sent on Sam Hutchinson, a defensive move. What they have, they’re looking to hold. Incidentally, away goals don’t count double. Two more goals for Brighton, and we’ll be heading to extra time.
8.39pm BST
Half-time entertainment: Here’s Brighton taking their British Caledonian helicopter to the 1983 FA Cup final, soundtracked by their cup final song. ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ “Football’s our game / Brighton’s our name!” ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
8.38pm BST
And that - phew - is that for the first half! A brilliantly entertaining match so far. Brighton should be leading. Wednesday could be leading. A sense that anything could happen yet. Don’t go away! No flipping!
8.37pm BST
45 min +4: Wednesday then breeze up the other end, Forestieri curling a ball into the box for Hooper, who heads it straight at Stockdale when it was surely easier to score! The keeper is able to claw it away, rather well in fairness.
8.36pm BST
45 min +3: Wilson burns down the right and earns a corner off the back of a sliding Pudil. Knockaert takes long, forcing Hunt to concede a corner on the other side. And from that one, there’s an astonishing scramble in the Wednesday box, Dunk failing to connect properly with a header from six yards, then Lee clearing a Greer prod off the line!
8.33pm BST
45 min +1: Sidwell eases down the right and floats a cross into the box. Dunk rises on the penalty spot and aims for the top left, but his header sails high over the bar.
8.33pm BST
45 min: There will be four added minutes in this half. A suggestion from the referee and his assistants that Wednesday have been rather guilty of time-wasting.
8.31pm BST
43 min: Brighton’s energy levels have fallen a little, no surprise given the time/effort/reward ratios. Wednesday are more than happy with the resulting lull in proceedings. “A wise man once told me that the only way to ensure that the bread falls jam side up every time, is to drop the bread on the floor first, and then put the jam on,” writes Simon McMahon. “I think he was saying ‘you make your own luck’. Or maybe he just liked bread and jam.”
8.28pm BST
41 min: Knockaert hits the free kick deep, panicking Hunt into heading behind for a corner on the left. The corner’s hit long, and Bruno tries to squeeze a header home from a tight angle to the right of the goal. It’s catching practice for Westwood.
8.26pm BST
39 min: Brighton knock it around the middle awhile, before Kayal tries to press down the right. He’s upended by Lopez, who very nearly talks himself into the book. A free kick, and a chance for Brighton to load the box.
8.25pm BST
36 min: Boom! Skalak! The nearest the MBM has ever got to a Sly and the Family Stone reference, and a fine free kick which whistles inches over the bar. That very nearly found the top left. Westwood wasn’t getting to that.
8.22pm BST
35 min: Wilson attempts a Cruyff Turn down the inside-left channel, and is cleaned out by Lee. A free kick, 25 yards out, just to the left of the goal.
8.21pm BST
33 min: Knockaert, who has been everywhere, slides down the right and slips a pass inside to release Wilson into the area. Wilson opens his body, gives Westwood the eyes, and tries to sidefoot across the keeper and into the bottom right. But Westwood smothers well. Brighton continue to be effervescent in attack.
8.20pm BST
31 min: Brighton respond well, Knockaert swinging a cross in from the right to cause a little bedlam, Dunk then sashaying down the middle and very nearly releasing Baldock with a chip forward.
8.19pm BST
29 min: The Amex is stunned momentarily, before locating its collective voice again. That was a comical fluke, featuring a cheeky little shove. Once again, the bread is falling jam side up for Wednesday.
8.17pm BST
This came out of nowhere! Wednesday embark on a rare sortie upfield. Hunt slips the ball down the right for Wallace, who swings a deep cross in. And it finds its way into the left-hand portion of the net, bouncing harmlessly home! As the ball arced through the area, Hooper gave Dunk a little nudge under the ball. It’s a saucy move, and he’s got away with it! This is a preposterous scoreline given the balance of play, but that’s football!
8.14pm BST
27 min: Brighton come back at their guests again. Knockaert and Wilson attempt to prise them open down the right, and nearly succeed, but Loovens is on hand to snuff out the danger, intercepting and lashing clear.
8.13pm BST
25 min: Wednesday faff around in the midfield, taking some time over a throw. It’s clever game management, taking a little bit of sting out of the game. They’ve otherwise been all over the shop. All at sea at the seaside. “Brighton attacking this game with all the passion, gusto and purpose of Newcastle against Spurs on Saturday,” reports Jeremy Dresner. “Is this the case for the hinterland between the Premiership and the Championship being the best virtual league in the world?” Very possibly. No wonder Rafa is thinking about working there.
8.11pm BST
23 min: Knockaert takes a free kick from a deep position on the right. His diagonal spray finds Dunk racing into the area on the left. Dunk hooks across the area. Bruno, haring in, slams a shot wide right. Turns out Dunk was marginally offside anyway, but dear me, this is some performance so far from Brighton. Wednesday look utterly discombobulated.
8.09pm BST
21 min: It would have been the height of absurdity had Brighton failed to score after all that pressure. It was as one-sided a period of play as you’ll ever see!
8.08pm BST
Knockaert, tight by the byline, loops the free kick, to the near post. Bruno eyebrows it onwards, to the back post, where Dunk races in and roofs a shot from a couple of yards! This had been coming all right. This is on! The Amex is on a rolling boil!
8.06pm BST
18 min: Pudil is very fortunate to escape the referee’s notebook, as he comes sliding in on Bruno as the Brighton full-back careers down the right. It’s nearly a corner. A free kick, from which...
8.05pm BST
17 min: Skalak crosses from the left. Wilson flicks the ball on to the far post, where Baldock should score from the corner of the six-yard box. But he heads wide of the right-hand post. This is astonishing! Brighton may begin to rue all these missed chances.
8.04pm BST
16 min: This is relentless! Baldock takes a long, high ball down the inside-left channel, turns inside Hunt, and fires a rising shot towards Westwood, who tips over. The corner again leads to nothing.
8.03pm BST
15 min: This is brilliant from Brighton. They are relentless. Knockaert makes off down the inside-right channel and has a dig from 30 yards. His effort balloons off Lees and very nearly loops over Westwood, but sails just wide right. The corner comes to naught, the keeper fouled.
8.02pm BST
14 min: ... sees his cheeky low Coutinho-esque slider, under the wall, towards the bottom right, clawed out by Westwood.
8.01pm BST
13 min: Kayal bursts down the inside-right channel, and is upended by Lees just outside the box. Another booking, and another free kick just to the right of the D. Knockaert takes again, and ...
8.01pm BST
11 min: Sidwell harries to win the ball in the midfield. He passes down the right to Knockaert, who looks in the mood for this. He bustles down the wing and reaches the byline, only to see his low fizzer into the centre, meant for Baldock, intercepted by a sliding Loovens.
7.58pm BST
10 min: Knockaert sends a curler up and over the Wednesday wall, and towards the top-right corner. It’s a brilliant free kick, beating Westwood at full stretch. But the ball clanks off the inside of the post, across the face of goal, and away from danger. So unlucky, because that was a deliciously clipped free kick. An inch to the left, and Brighton would be in the lead. When is their luck going to change in this tie?
7.56pm BST
9 min: Stockdale boots long from hand. Wilson takes the ball down on the edge of the Wednesday area. He can’t quite keep control, and the ball breaks to Knockaert, who tries to round Loovens on the outside. He’s brought down. A yellow card for the Wednesday defender, and a free kick just to the right of the D.
7.54pm BST
7 min: Brighton knock it around the middle of the park in the patient style. Until Greer gets fed up, and tries an ambitious ball down the right flank, with a view of releasing Baldock. Nope! Westwood gathers a harmless pass. But Wednesday aren’t seeing too much of the ball right now.
7.53pm BST
5 min: This is a very bright start from Brighton. A long ball hoicked down the inside-left channel, and Wilson takes it down inside the area very adroitly, but can’t get a shot away. Wednesday were in full panic mode as they blocked Wilson out. There’s some noise in the Amex. The visitors haven’t settled at all.
7.52pm BST
3 min: ... the ball’s hit deep. Westwood flaps a bit at the far post. The ball drops to the feet of Sidwell, whose shot from 12 yards is blocked. Then Wilson has a go from the penalty spot, but his effort is charged down too. Finally Skalak comes in from the left to meet the loose ball, but squirts his effort wide left from an agreeable angle. What bedlam! Brighton will wonder how all three of those shots stayed out.
7.49pm BST
2 min: Skalak and Bong combine down the left to earn the first corner of the match. From which...
7.49pm BST
The home side get the ball rolling, and tear off upfield so quickly that Sky Sports miss the kick off! Once the cameras click onto the pitch, Brighton have lost the ball and Hunt is skittering along the right-hand touchline, chalk on his boots. He crosses deep, the ball sailing out to the left of the goal. Fortunate for Brighton that none of Hunt’s team-mates had taken a gamble there. Well, that was lively!
7.45pm BST
The teams are out! Brighton are in their famous blue and white stripes, which means Sheffield Wednesday don’t get to wear theirs. They sport black shirts with aquamarine breeches instead. It’s a crackling atmosphere at the Amex, which is bathed in evening Sussex sunshine. Blue and white flags fluttering in the stands like a giant ripple of sea foam. Gorgeous. We’ll be off in a minute. Classic, please!
7.41pm BST
An equally relaxed Carlos Carvalhal has his turn! “Last game we played really, really well, and we created some problems for them. But they can create some problems for us also. Because they have a good team, and we have a good team too, it will be an interesting game. We are not thinking too much about Wembley. We have to focus about tonight. Afterwards, let’s see what happens. We can talk about it then.”
7.40pm BST
Chris Hughton, calm and collected, speaks! “We’ve had things go against us in the last couple of games. But we’re still in it, we’re still fighting, and we’ve got a huge opportunity here tonight. We have to win the game, but of course there has to be some caution because we’re up against a very good footballing side who know how to score goals. And they have a way of playing away from home. We don’t have to win in the first couple of minutes.”
7.21pm BST
Albion had no luck whatsoever in the first leg, forced to play the last 30 minutes with ten men due to all those injuries. They’ll need plenty of payback tonight if they’re to become the first Championship play-off contender to overturn one of these here two-goal deficits. Not least because they have’t beaten Wednesday for nearly four years, a barren run of eight matches consisting of four wins for the Sheffield giants and four draws. Still, their last victory shows them the way: Wayne Bridge, Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Buckley the scorers in a 3-0 rout at the Amex in September 2012. That would do the trick, huh?
7.03pm BST
Some good news, some bad news for Brighton. They’d been sweating on the fitness of Tomer Hemed, Connor Goldson, Anthony Knockaert and Steve Sidwell, all injured during the first leg. It’s a 50% success rate: Knockaert and Sidwell get the all-clear to start. James Wilson, on loan from Manchester United, comes in for Hemed, while Lewis Dunk returns from suspension to replace Goldson.
Meanwhile no team has ever given up a two-goal lead in the Championship play-offs, so Wednesday will be feeling supremely confident as they prepare for this big showdown. Unsurprisingly, then, they’ve plumped for the same XI who started the first leg.
6.53pm BST
Brighton & Hove Albion: Stockdale, Bruno, Greer, Dunk, Bong, Knockaert, Sidwell, Kayal, Skalak, Baldock, Wilson.
Subs: Maenpaa, Calderon, Crofts, Rosenior, Towell, Murphy, LuaLua.
Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Hunt, Lees, Loovens, Pudil, Wallace, Lee, Lopez, Bannan, Hooper, Forestieri.
Subs: Wildsmith, Hutchinson, Matias, Nuhiu, Helan, Joao, Sasso.
2.25pm BST
1991 - and Brighton’s last appearance in what is now the Championship play-off final, Notts County, Tommy Johnson, all that - seems an awfully long time ago. 1983 - and their last appearance in the English top flight, when they also came within one delicate Gordon Smith dink of the FA Cup - is an even smaller speck in the distance. It’s been a while.
Sheffield Wednesday have been patient long enough, too. One of the biggest clubs in the country in terms of support, yet they haven’t been in the Premier League since 2000. And this is the first season they’ve been anywhere near getting back. It’s been a while.
Continue reading...The Fiver | Entertaining the nation through acts of self-defeating macho grandstanding
In today’s Fiver: Mr Roy, a happy Moses, unhappy Spurs, and a load of bull
As everyone will agree, the player of the 2015-16 Premier League season was, obviously, and by some distance, John Terry. His unwavering commitment to entertaining the nation through acts of self-defeating macho grandstanding lasted to the bitter end: yet another big end-of-season party missed, and a narrative arc so perfect it could be mistaken for a Dimitri Payet free-kick. Yet incredibly, the only people who still want him in their team these days are middle-aged Chelsea fans who wish it was 2005 again, when the sun shone every day and José made everything all right and kissed it better. We could all be talking about 中国足球协会超级联赛’s Brave John Terry before you know it, and only then will everyone realise what we’ve lost.
Related: England’s Euro 2016 squad: the provisional 26 picked by Roy Hodgson
Continue reading...Premier League 2015-16 review: player of the season | Scott Murray
Leicester City’s captain is a worthy contender among their title-winning stars, while Willian deserves credit for his performances in a dire season for Chelsea
Welcome to theguardian.com review of the 2015-16 Premier League season . Now that the campaign has ended we would like you to help us choose your favourite goal, the best referee and the best manager, and other winners in a total of 10 categories. We have nominated some contenders but this is just to get the discussion going : we would like your suggestions so that we can compile the best into final polls that you can vote on. The polls will be published at midday on Tuesday 17 May, so please tell us what you think. Thanks
Related: Premier League 2015-16 season review: our writers’ best and worst
Continue reading...May 11, 2016
Sunderland 3-0 Everton: Premier League – as it happened
Sunderland, energetic and effervescent against a miserable Everton, secured their Premier League status at the expense of Norwich City and neighbours Newcastle United.
9.41pm BST
The final whistle blows! The Stadium of Light bursts with relief and celebration! Sunderland are deserved winners tonight, and on the basis of their late-season form, deserved Premier League survivors! They’ve sent Norwich City and, of all teams, Newcastle United down to the Championship with Aston Villa! A big smile plays across Sam Allardyce’s face. One can only wonder why. “This is really nice, it’s like winning a title,” smiles Jan Kirchhoff. Congratulations to the Black Cats, and commiserations to Newcastle and Norwich, who will be feeling heartbroken tonight.
Related: Sunderland safe after Lamine Koné double sinks crumbling Everton
9.39pm BST
90 min +5: Mirallas chips over Mannone from the edge of the box, but the ball bounces wide left. Just. Everton have been awful tonight, but they could have had two or three in added time!
9.38pm BST
90 min +4: Everton’s evening of woe continues. First Mirallas sends a shot towards the top right from the edge of the box. Mannone tips it round for a corner, a wonder save. And from the set piece, the ball falls to the feet of Lukaku, six yards out, but he twangs the crossbar like a bass guitar. E, the lowest, most satisfying note.
9.36pm BST
90 min +3: ... Osman sends a free close-range header inexplicably wide left. It would have been a consolation Everton’s overall performance doesn’t deserve.
9.35pm BST
90 min +2: Space for Mirallas down the right. He earns a corner, from which ...
9.34pm BST
90 min +1: There will be five added minutes as a result of goal celebrations, substitutions, and tanked-up punters roaring around the place with their junk out. The first sees Lukaku have a pop from distance, but no dice.
9.33pm BST
90 min: Defoe goes skittering after a long hoof down the left. He enters the box, and should probably feed Watmore, free on his left, but drops a shoulder and has a go himself. Defoe tries to nutmeg Robles at his near post, which normally would qualify as beyond-the-pale cheek against a Premier League professional, but, well, y’know.
9.32pm BST
89 min: “I live over a mile away from the Stadium of Light,” begins David Inglesby’s report. “The noise in the house from there is deafening!” And no wonder. Their team have been, to a man, brilliant tonight. An exceptional performance.
9.30pm BST
87 min: Not much going on now. The Sunderland fans entertain themselves by serenading Newcastle United. “I hope the West Ham fans don’t crash the internet with their congratulations to Big Sam,” writes Steve Goldsmith. It’s a love-in, this, all right.
9.29pm BST
85 min: ... and then Watmore comes on for Khazri. A warm round of applause for Khazri, who has been energetic and entertaining tonight.
9.28pm BST
84 min: It’s time for a couple of curtain calls. Cleverley is replaced by Osman...
9.27pm BST
82 min: A lull as some tanked-up punter roars around the field with his junk out. Perhaps. They’re not showing his act on TV, so he could be up to anything.
9.24pm BST
80 min: Pennington, out on the left, sends a safe cross out of play, miles to the right of the Sunderland goal. No blue shirts nearby, no danger. Sunderland fans will be counting no chickens yet. But having said that, the tension has eased to the point where Everton are cat-called mercilessly for the all-round low quality of that attack.
9.21pm BST
78 min: Sam Allardyce is taking no chances, despite the 3-0 scoreline and Everton’s flaccid impotence. Cattermole, on a booking, is hooked in favour of John O’Shea. He hands over the captain’s armband as he departs.
9.20pm BST
77 min: Lennon and Barry combine down the right to release Cleverley into the area. The midfielder should shoot, but dallies, attempts a pointless one-two with Lukaku, and sees his eventual attempt for goal squirt off to the left. A corner, which is wasted.
9.18pm BST
75 min: Khazri, on the the left-hand corner of the Everton box, loops a gorgeous cross to Van Aanholt, bombing in from the right. The full back shapes to sidefoot back across for Defoe, who would have a close-range tap-in, but takes his eye off the ball and doesn’t connect. Goal kick. That would have been an aesthetic delight.
9.16pm BST
73 min: And now a revived Lukaku glides in from the right and attempts a curler towards the top left. The ball breaks off Kone’s back and out for a corner. From the set piece, Barry heads goalwards from the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, but it’s straight at Mannone, who handles well. Everton have perked up a bit, which is the very least they could do. For large chunks of this match, they’ve been a limp embarrassment to a famous old club.
9.14pm BST
71 min: Baines loops a ball down the inside-left channel for Lukaku, who works a little bit of space for a shot by the corner of the D. It’s blocked immediately.
9.12pm BST
70 min: Kirchhoff is replaced by Sebastian Larsson. The substitution eats up a lot of the clock, a masterclass in professional time management. A dispirited Everton are unlikely to complain too much. They’ll just want this to end too.
9.11pm BST
68 min: Cattermole is booked for a slide on Lennon, 30 yards out. Mirallas sends a free kick towards Funes Mori, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. The defender should score, but clanks his header straight at Mannone, who turns the ball round the post for a corner. From the set piece, Baines sends a weak daisycutter straight at Mannone from distance. A little bit of much-missed passion from Everton, though it’s all far too late.
9.09pm BST
66 min: Van Aanholt charges down the left wing. He slips a pass inside for Defoe, on the edge of the box, to the left of the D. The ball gets caught up between Defoe’s feet, but the striker sorts himself out in double-quick time and fires a no-backlift buzzer towards the top left. Robles for once does the professional thing and parries clear.
9.07pm BST
64 min: Mind you, that shouldn’t take away from Sunderland’s whirlwind brilliance tonight. They’ve been wonderful in attack, and the defence has come up trumps on the rare occasions they’ve been called into action. Baines swings a free kick into the area from the left, and it’s headed clear with purpose by Kaboul.
9.06pm BST
62 min: Lennon tries to combine with Lukaku down the right, but the striker’s lazy ball inside to absolutely nobody brings a rare Everton attack to an embarrassing end. Roberto Martinez is on very shaky ground now. It’s one thing losing the head in a Merseyside derby, or being outplayed by the new Premier League champions. But they’re getting bossed, comprehensively, by a team who have only just avoided relegation.
9.03pm BST
60 min: Defoe breaks into the Everton box down the left, but faffs around and falls over, allowing Funes Mori to wander off with the ball. It’s a party atmosphere in the Stadium of Light, and Everton don’t appear equipped to poop it.
9.02pm BST
58 min: Everton are in tatters. First Defoe very nearly breaks clear again down the right. He’s denied, but soon enough Khazri is bombing down the left, clear, one on one with the keeper. He unselfishly slides the ball right to Defoe, but plays the ball into the backtracking Funes Mori, who hacks out for a corner that leads to nothing. Meanwhile it’s 4-2 to poor Norwich, who have located the team’s bag of scoring boots far too late.
9.00pm BST
Khazri very nearly sends a curling corner into the top left. Robles punch-flaps the ball off the line, but only into the back of McCarthy, standing just in front of the post. The ball breaks to Kone in the middle, and he batters home from a couple of yards. What a goalkeeping display this is. What a farce Everton’s defence is. But hats off to Sunderland, who are grabbing their chance of Premier League safety with both hands!
8.57pm BST
54 min: Everton have hit the 70% possession mark again, enjoying the lion’s share at the start of the half. Much good it looks like doing them, as Yedlin springs Defoe clear down the inside-right channel with a simple long ball. Defoe lobs the outrushing Robles, only for Pennington to hook clear off the line. Corner on the left, from which ...
8.56pm BST
51 min: Stones over-elaborates in the middle of his own half and very nearly allows Defoe to race off with the ball. He’s still got a fair bit to learn, hasn’t he. Meanwhile at the exercise in futility being played out at Carrow Road, Watford have pulled a goal back: it’s now only 3-2 to Norwich, Odion Ighalo with the latest there.
8.53pm BST
49 min: A Khazri free kick from the right is eyebrowed across the face of goal by Barry and out for a corner on the left. Khazri takes that set piece too, and his corner finds the head of Kirchhoff, six yards out. Kirchhoff should score, but his weak header flashes wide right of goal. There’s no sense that this game will end 2-0. None whatsoever. Sunderland would take it now, of course, with both hands. It’ll still be a long 41 minutes plus stoppages.
8.50pm BST
47 min: Kaboul is penalised for nipping away at Lukaku’s heels as the pair contest a ball down the Everton inside-right channel. The resulting free kick is hooked towards the left-hand post, where Barry heads back for Pennington, who tries to steer a header into the top left. It’s not a bad effort, the young man battling in the middle of a packed box, but there’s not enough steam behind it, and Mannone plucks it from the sky.
8.48pm BST
To the dispassionate neutral, given the mental fragility of Everton right now, this relegation battle looks all over. But it’s never quite that simple, is it. “You said Sunderland are 45 competent minutes from survival,” begins Austin Baird, “but to all Sunderland fans that brings a wry smile to our lips. We all know: if anybody can screw this up it’ll be Sunderland. Been there, done that.” Fair point, well made. It’ll be a long 45 minutes, then, one way or another. Here we go! Sunderland get the ball rolling for the second half; Everton have replaced Barkley with Lennon.
8.36pm BST
Half-time reading: Oh Joel!
Related: The Joy of Six: Goalkeeping calamities | Scott Murray
8.34pm BST
And that’s that for the first half. Unless something very strange happens to both Sunderland and Everton in the second half, the Black Cats are staying up! It’s the worst possible news for Newcastle United and Norwich City, the latter now 3-1 up at home to Watford. Van Aanholt punches the air as he makes his way to the changing room; you can be sure Sam Allardyce will tell him that the job’s not yet done. But it is half done. Sunderland are 45 competent minutes from survival!
8.30pm BST
44 min: Passionate brilliance from Sunderland there. “Are you watching, Newcastle?” the crowd ask the supporters of Allardyce’s former club. Meanwhile, even by Everton’s recent standards, this is a lame capitulation.
8.29pm BST
Khazri’s free kick, high from the right, finds the head of Defoe, who flashes a header towards the top right. Robles goes some way to atoning for his horrendous error by fingertipping over the bar. But it’s all in vain. At the corner, there’s some head tennis. Baines looks to have cleared Everton’s lines, but the ball’s returned by M’Vila down the inside-left channel. Stones is deep, playing Kone onside, and the defender roofs a shot into the net from close range. Premier League survival is tangible now! The Stadium of Light is rocking!
8.26pm BST
40 min: Everton are suddenly rocking. Yedlin and Borini combine down the right, but the latter can’t find Defoe in the box with his low cross. A second phase of attack down the same flank sees Mirallas clatter Borini from behind. Free kick. From which...
8.24pm BST
Cattermole feeds Defoe down the middle. Defoe takes a touch, left to right, and is upended by Funes Mori. A free kick, 25 yards out, level with the right-hand post. Van Aanholt takes, and ... this is absurd! Van Aanholt hits a fairly tame low free kick to the left of the wall. Robles jumps behind the wall, and lets the ball nestle into the left-hand side of the net! Appalling goalkeeping, but Sunderland won’t care! As things stand, they’re staying up, and they’re sending Newcastle United down with Norwich!
8.22pm BST
36 min: And again! This time it’s McCarthy looping a ball down the inside-right channel. Lukaku looks to have the power to burst past Kaboul, but Mannone comes out of his area again to clear. It’s a risky business, this.
8.21pm BST
34 min: Lukaku very nearly spins round Van Aanholt as the ball flies down the right wing. Fortunately for Sunderland, the full back sticks to his man like glue. Had he been given the slip, Lukaku would be running clear on goal. The crowd are beginning to get a little anxious, even though this sort of stuff is happening halfway up the pitch. Sunderland are taking risks with this high line.
8.18pm BST
33 min: Mirallas, having switched wings, embarks on a high-paced solo skitter down the left. He eventually runs out of room, but only after being swarmed by three red-and-white shirts. For a second, he threatened to break clear into a lot of space. Sunderland hearts were in mouths. But then, the nervous tension is such right now that it doesn’t take much.
8.16pm BST
31 min: Van Aanholt is down getting a little treatment on his knee, having been accidentally clattered in a 50-50 with Pennington. He’s limping a bit when he gets up, but in that manner which suggests everything will be OK.
8.15pm BST
29 min: Everton, having been quiet for a few minutes, have sprung back into life. Now Barkley makes himself a little time out on the left, cutting inside and curling a dangerous ball towards the far post. He’s expecting Lukaku to be making a powerful run, but the big man isn’t doing that. The ball squeaks out to the right of the goal, Mannone waving his arms in the nonchalant fashion, always in control, honest.
8.13pm BST
28 min: Cleverley, in the centre circle, scoops a pass down the middle that very nearly releases Mirallas clear on goal. The Everton winger is denied by Mannone, who scampers from his area and lashes the ball clear. A lovely pass, though.
8.11pm BST
26 min: A lot of aimless hoofing, representing something of a lull.
8.10pm BST
24 min: Kaboul, of all people, turns into Garrincha. He twists and turns down the left wing, then steps inside the Everton area and, faced with a tight angle, rips a high-paced curler across Robles and towards the top right. It flies inches wide, an excellent effort. The keeper was beaten all ends up. That would have been a beauty.
8.09pm BST
23 min: Sunderland are beginning to play Everton at their own game: they’ve turned around the possession stats, having enjoyed 60% of the ball in the last five minutes. Everton are beginning to sit very deep. “Sunderland may be nervous,” begins Lou Roper, “but what has Everton’s excuse been? Mr Martinez seems a pleasant and knowledgeable fellow but the performances of his team have been shambolic. With whom to replace him, though? Rafa Benitez: predicting a) Newcastle will go down and b) he won’t be keen on ‘the Championship’ (TM Lord Mawhinney).”
8.07pm BST
21 min: Van Aanholt has a bit of space down the left, but decides to blooter the ball into the stand behind the goal. In the dugout, Sam Allardyce slumps back in his seat, pleasure very much an alien concept right now.
8.06pm BST
20 min: It’s on a rolling boil at Carrow Road, though. Dieumerci Mbokani has made it 2-1 to Norwich! So safety is still a possibility as things stand. A few more twists and turns await us tonight, I’ll be bound.
8.05pm BST
19 min: Sunderland finally get something going up front. Borini has a snapshot from the edge of the D that’s closed down. Khazri tries to burst into the box down the left, but can’t get an effort away. Yedlin earns a corner on the right, from which Kaboul sends a fairly harmless header straight at Robles. It’s hotting up nicely.
8.03pm BST
17 min: It’s all happening, Danny Boon style, at Carrow Road, where Nathan Redmond has equalised for Norwich. They’re still going down, as they need a win, but this is where we all area. Meanwhile back on Wearside, Lukaku cuts in from the Everton right but can’t quite work space to shoot as he enters the box. Kaboul and Van Aanholt usher him away.
8.01pm BST
15 min: A bit of head tennis outside the Everton area. Something for the home fans to get excited about. It all comes to naught, and then Khazri slides in recklessly on Barry. He’s the second Sunderland player fortunate to escape a booking.
7.59pm BST
13 min: Troy Deeney has scored for Watford at Norwich, who are going down as things stand. Meanwhile at the Stadium of Light, Funes Mori plays a hospital pass back to his keeper. Robles does extremely well to hack clear under extreme pressure from the sliding Defoe. Funes Mori still in Liability Mode after his inexplicable Anfield meltdown, it would seem.
7.57pm BST
11 min: More Evertonian possession. They’ve had 70% of it so far. A lot of whistling as accompaniment. Sunderland can’t get out of their final third, with Everton stroking it around this way and that. But the home team are holding firm in the middle, and Everton can’t work an opening.
7.55pm BST
9 min: Barry, deep on the left, swings a diagonal ball into the box. The young defender Pennington, haring down the right wing and making it into the area, rises to guide a header towards the top left from 12 yards. It’s not a bad effort, if a touch high and wide. Not a million miles away, and for a nanosecond it caused Mannone to turn round and check the flight in concern. Had that been on target, it may well have beaten the keeper. It would have been some header, mind.
7.53pm BST
7 min: Borini, tight on the right, plays a lovely threaded ball inside for Defoe, who in turn attempts to release Van Aanholt down the left with a diagonal chip. Defoe doesn’t quite get his angles correct, and the chance to spring Everton’s back line on the left wing is gone. But that’s the first bit of proper football from Sunderland tonight.
7.51pm BST
6 min: Everton are enjoying quite a lot of the ball, but doing very little with it. Plus ça change, some Goodison regulars will sigh. Sunderland meanwhile are looking a little edgy. Early days for everyone.
7.50pm BST
4 min: Cattermole comes straight through the back of Barkley in the centre circle. He should be booked for that, but the referee is in lenient mood. The notoriously hot-headed Sunderland midfielder will need to simmer down.
7.48pm BST
3 min: Yedlin and Khazri attempt to combine down the right wing, but the ball’s never in anybody’s total control. Sunderland have yet to settle. They’re looking understandably hectic. Maybe it’s nerves.
7.47pm BST
2 min: Barkley, in the centre circle, plays a first-time pass down the inside-right channel with a view to releasing Mirallas on goal. The flag goes up for offside. It’s the correct decision, just, though Sunderland were playing a dangerous game with their high line: there really wasn’t much in that. Mirallas would have been clear on goal.
7.46pm BST
To the sound of a tumultuous roar, Everton get the ball rolling. The home fans belt out a cry of “We are staying up.” The visitors play the ball back towards their own box. Funes Mori attempts to thread a pass up the left wing for Cleverley, but knocks it out of play. Sunderland are pressing hard, in the modern style.
7.44pm BST
The teams are out! Sunderland in their famous red and white stripes, Everton wearing their equally storied blue. It’s a belting atmosphere at the Stadium of Light, as you’d expect for such a big game. We’ll be off in a minute!
7.39pm BST
Sam Allardyce speaks! “We hope to get it done tonight. It’s a huge game, we’ve put ourselves in a position after our tremendous comeback against Chelsea. But we won’t take anything for granted against anyone. We have a lot of good attacking players, we can attack with flair and cause problems, but our defending will have to be better than it was on Saturday. If we can expose their weaknesses, as we saw Leicester do at the weekend, we’ll get a chance to win. The players must hit their best form, the same level of performance as they did on Saturday. Everton are slightly wounded with the criticism they’ve received, so I think they’ll come out determined to show what they can do. We’ll have to be on top form to beat them tonight. I haven’t started thinking about survival. If I start doing that, you never know what’s going to turn your way. Let’s hope it’ll be a great night. Let’s do all we possibly can.”
7.34pm BST
Roberto Martinez speaks! “We always react well. We all know what Sunderland are playing for, but every point matters for the final position in the league table, and our approach matters. We have to start really well. The game will be played at a real tempo, with the home crowd playing a large part in their victory against Chelsea. Gareth Barry’s experience and know-how is important. Funes Mori gives us good balance at the back. It’s important to have fresh legs and fresh minds.” He doesn’t look particularly happy, the poor chap. A defeated look in the eyes. Tired. Running on fumes. It could be a big week at Goodison if these final two matches don’t go well.
7.31pm BST
A word on Norwich, who host Watford tonight. They need to beat the Hornets at Carrow Road this evening to have any chance of surviving. Not an impossible task, you’d have thought, seeing their mid-table opponents will already have dug the fluffiest beach towels out of the cupboard in giddy anticipation. However, City have failed to score in their last four games, losing the lot, so good luck with that. “Tonight is really important, we want to make sure we take it to the last day,” says Alex Neil. “Hopefully Everton can do us a turn, and get us a result as well.” Just to clarify: if Norwich fail to win, they’re down whatever Sunderland do tonight. If they’re to stay up, they’ll need to beat Everton on Sunday as well, while hoping Sunderland only gain a maximum of one point from Everton tonight and Watford on Sunday. (Let’s assume Norwich won’t make up a goal-difference deficit of ten.) A lot of Everton and Watford action in there, making for confusing reading. Thankfully you already know what’s going on, or I’d be in a whole world of trouble. Forget I brought the subject up.
7.14pm BST
Sunderland’s MO, then, well established through the years, is to faff around in the drop zone for the majority of the season before clambering out just before the day of reckoning. This week’s Knowledge reports on the yin to their yang: the clubs who manage to stay out of the relegation places all season, only to haplessly drop into them at the very last minute. Oops!
Related: Football teams relegated despite not being in the drop zone all season | The Knowledge
6.58pm BST
Chelsea might have been something of a shower this season, by their own lofty standards, but whichever way you spin it, they were the defending champions. And at the weekend, Sunderland came from behind, at a point when things began to look very dark indeed, to beat them rather gloriously. No changes to the team, then.
Everton definitely have shower-related issues right now, to the point where a fair old chunk of the support wants shot of Roberto Martinez. Two matches to save his job? Possibly. With a desperate battle in mind, the manager recalls Ramiro Funes Mori and Gareth Barry, who are back from suspension and injury respectively. The pair take the places of Bryan Oviedo and Aaron Lennon, who started the dismal defeat at the new champs Leicester City. Kevin Mirallas is also back in the starting XI, at the expense of the currently misfiring £13.5m striker Oumar Niasse.
6.47pm BST
Sunderland: Mannone, Yedlin, Kone, Kaboul, Van Aanholt, Kirchhoff, Borini, Cattermole, M’Vila, Khazri, Defoe.
Subs: Jones, Larsson, Rodwell, N’Doye, Pickford, O’Shea, Watmore.
Everton: Robles, Stones, Pennington, Funes Mori, Baines, McCarthy, Barry, Mirallas, Barkley, Cleverley, Lukaku.
Subs: Gibson, Oviedo, Lennon, Niasse, Besic, Osman, Howard.
10.44am BST
It’s easy to forget just how much bother Sunderland were in. At the end of 2015, having been defeated five times in a row, the Black Cats were in a black funk. They were second from bottom in the Premier League table, just four points ahead of a risible Aston Villa, five shy of neighbours Newcastle United, and seven short of safety. This time, surely, they were for the off.
Ah, but give Sam Allardyce time to do his thing. The subsequent turnaround hasn’t been spectacular, but it has been steady. Allardyce has transformed Sunderland from serial losers into a team who are hard to beat. Since the start of February, when they were extremely unfortunate to lose at home to Manchester City, the Mackems have only tasted defeat twice. And one of those matches was against Leicester City, who have been the boss of absolutely everyone. It’s been an admirable sequence.
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