Rob Smyth's Blog, page 48

Everton 0-1 Arsenal: Premier League – as it happened

The substitute Leandro Trossard’s excellent goal gave Arsenal a hard-fought victory at Goodison

3 min Some nice, rhythmic passing from Arsenal, who win the first corner on the right. Saka takes, Tarkowski heads away.

2 min Onana, not Idrissa Gueye, has started as the deepest Everton midfielder. That’s interesting. In fact, Gueye is basically following Zinchenko when Arsenal have the ball. Has a left-back ever been man-marked before? I think Phil Neville was brought on to mark Inter’s Javier Zanetti in 1998-99, though that was when Zanetti was at right-back.

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Manchester United 1-3 Brighton, West Ham 1-3 Manchester City: clockwatch – as it happened

Brighton turned a drama into a crisis at Old Trafford, while Spurs, Man City, Liverpool and Aston Villa all came from behind to win

Joao Palhinha, whose move to Bayern Munich collapsed at the last minute, returns to the Fulham midfield. Jacob Brown, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Tom Lockyer all come into the Luton team.

Fulham (4-3-3) Leno; Tete, Diop, Ream, Castagne; Pereira, Palhinha, Reed; Wilson, Jimenez, Willian.
Substitutes: Rodak, Bassey, Ballo-Toure, Cairney, Francois, De Cordova-Reid, Carvalho, Iwobi, Carlos Vinicius.

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England beat New Zealand by 100 runs: fourth men’s one-day cricket international – as it happened

Dawid Malan hit a matchwinning 127 and Moeen Ali picked up four wickets as England sealed a 3-1 series victory in another one-sided game

3rd over: England 19-0 (Bairstow 11, Malan 8) Another loose shot from Bairstow, another two runs for it. He wafts at Henry, taking his bottom hand off the bat and snicking over backward point. Again, he locates the middle of the bat afterwards, adding a two and a single. The bowlers haven’t strayed onto the pads once, and they’ve still gone for a run a ball. “This looks a very, very good pitch,” Kumar Sangakkara said a few minutes ago. And he should know: he’s an ex-president of MCC.

2nd over: England 14-0 (Bairstow 6, Malan 8) From the Nursery End, it’s Tim Southee. Dawid Malan shows what good touch he’s in by going down the track and cover-driving for four on the up. He leaves the next ball, then eases the one after for four more, to cover’s right. Has Malan forgotten that he’s supposed to be a slow starter?

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Scotland 1-3 England: international football friendly – as it happened

A majestic performance from Jude Bellingham inspired England to an emphatic victory at Hampden Park

Here come the players. It’s not quite Murrayfield 1990, but there’s still a very lively atmosphere. As I type, the England national anthem is one long tribute to Joe Root.

From the archive

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Republic of Ireland 1-2 Netherlands: Euro 2024 qualifier – as it happened

The substitute Wout Weghorst scored an excellent winner as the Netherlands came from behind to beat a game but limited Ireland

A reminder of the teams

Ireland (possible 5-2-2-1) Bazunu; Doherty, Collins, Duffy, Egan, McClean; Browne, Cullen; Ogbene, Knight; Idah.
Substitutes: Kelleher, O’Leary, O’Shea, Manning, Smallbone, Hendrick, Molumby, Connolly, McGrath, Ebosele, Armstrong, Omobamidele.

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Ukraine 1-1 England: Euro 2024 qualifier – as it happened

Kyle Walker scored his first international goal to earn England a draw in an underwhelming match in Wroclaw

Nick Ames on the bond between Ukraine and England

“Can you please assure Simon McMahon that there are very many (me included) from England wishing Scotland all the best,” writes Shaun Tooze. “Meeting in the final would be a bit special wouldn’t it*. But, you know, the French, Germans, Portuguese, Italians, Dutch...

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England beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in first women’s one-day international – as it happened

The ODI debutants Mahika Gaur, 17, and Lauren Filer, 22, starred as England thrashed Sri Lanka at Durham

3rd over: Sri Lanka 12-0 (Sanjeewani 0, Atapaththu 6) After beating the right-handed Sanjeewani in her first over, Gaur beats the left-handed Atapaththu in her second, with another jaffa. But then she gets it wrong with an attempted yorker and Atapaththu takes it on the full, clobbering it away for four. Gaur, undaunted, has an LBW appeal against Sanjeewani. The line is impeccable but the length isn’t full enough to threaten the stumps.

2nd over: Sri Lanka 6-0 (Sanjeewani 0, Atapaththu 1) The other new-ball bowler is Kate Cross, 14 years Gaur’s senior but also looking to nail down a regular place after often being on the bench. She too finds movement, rather too much to take the edge as Sanjeewani wafts outside off. Before that, Atapaththu picked up the first run off the bat with a tuck to square leg.

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Sri Lanka beat England by seven wickets to win women’s T20 series – as it happened

The mighty Chamari Atapaththu inspired Sri Lanka to their first series victory over England in any form of the game

4th over: England 27-2 (Bouchier 12, Knight 6) Bouchier has made 22 and 12 in her first series as opener, so she’ll be keen to kick on. Meanwhile, Heather Knight gets her first boundary with a classy back cut off the left-arm spinner Sugandika Kumari.

3rd over: England 21-2 (Bouchier 11, Knight 1) Capsey wasn’t happy at all as she walked off the field. I’d need to see it again but my feeling is that were both at fault.

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Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened

Arsenal scored twice in injury time, including Declan Rice’s first goal for the club, to settle an increasingly dramatic match of the finest margins

Mikel Arteta makes three changes from Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Fulham last weekend. The lesser spotted Gabriel replaces the injured Thomas Partey, which means Ben White will (okay, should) move to right-back. Oleksandr Zinchenko is fit to start as the roaming left-back, which means Jakub Kiwior drops out, and Eddie Nketiah – who scored twice in this fixture last season, including a late winner – is preferred up front to Leandro Trossard. It’s much closer to last season’s team.

Manchester United have four new signings on the bench, including Rasmus Hojlund. That means Anthony Martial starts up front. The only change from the win over Nottingham Forrest last weekend is at centre-back, where Victor Lindelof replaces the injured Raphael Varane. They are a bit light on the bench, with Jadon Sancho and Scott McTominay joining the list of unavailable players. We don’t know whether that’s because of illness or injury.

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Brighton 3-1 Newcastle United: Premier League – as it happened

The 18-year-old Irish forward Evan Ferguson scored a charming hat-trick as Brighton outclassed Newcastle at the Amex Stadium

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Nottm Forest

Including a cracking first line from Jacob Steinberg.

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