Rob Smyth's Blog, page 57

Sheffield United 1-0 Wigan, Blackburn 0-2 Norwich: Football League – as it happened

Iliman Ndiaye moved Sheff Utd closer to automatic promotion, while Ipswich continued their astonishing form in League One

Liverpool v Arsenal team news, culled absent-mindedly from the news wires

Liverpool winger Luis Diaz will make his long-awaited return to the squad against Leeds at Elland Road in 10 days’ time.

Manager Jurgen Klopp said the Colombia international, out since October with a knee injury, is on the verge of a comeback.

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Barcelona 0-4 Real Madrid (agg 1-4): Copa del Rey semi-final, second leg – as it happened

Karim Benzema scored a masterful hat-trick as Real Madrid humiliated Barcelona to reach their first Copa del Rey final since 2014

3 min Gavi appeals furiously for a penalty when his cross hits the body of the falling Alaba. It definitely hit his arm, though he was on his way down so … what’s the law these days? Either way, it hasn’t been given.

2 min Balde charges to the edge of the area and flicks the ball outside to Gavi. He slides a really dangerous low cross towards Raphinha in the six-yhard box, but Camavinga does brilliantly to get in front of him and clear.

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Newcastle 2-0 Man Utd: Premier League – as it happened

Joe Willock and Callum Wilson scored second-half goals to help Newcastle leapfrog Manchester United

2 mikn Longstaff wins an early corner off the sliding Fernandes, an early example of the defensive work he’ll need to do today.

2 min It looks like McTominay is marking Guimaraes, who tends to make Newcastle tick. That’s interesting because it means Fernandes and Sabitzer will be playing deeper a lot of the time.

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Arsenal 4-1 Leeds, Brighton 3-3 Brentford: clockwatch – as it happened

The returning Gabriel Jesus scored twice for the leaders, while Brighton equalised three times in a pulsating battle of the overachievers

Gabriel Jesus starts for the first time since the World Cup – but Bukayo Saka is only on the bench.

Leeds are without Patrick Bamford, who is on the bench, and Wilfried Gnonto, who isn’t.

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Chelsea 1-2 Lyon (4-3 on pens, 2-2 agg): Women’s Champions League quarter-final – as it happened

Chelsea scored a 128th-minute penalty to send the tie to a shootout before Ann-Katrin Berger made the decisive save from Lindsey Horan

4 min: An even bigger chance for Lyon! Cascarino’s lobbed cross is cleared poorly by Eriksson, straight to Bruun, but she leathers over the bar from 15 yards! What a chance!

3 min: Big chance for Lyon! Almost a nightmare start for Chelsea. Majri plays in the overlapping Cascarino, whose shot is spilled by Berger. That leads to an almighty scramble on the six-yard line before Chelsea eventually get the ball away.

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Football Daily | Could there be two London clubs in the Women’s Big Cup final four?

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There must be something in the London water. Well, of course there is, it’s jobby; thanks to the shower in charge of the country, there’s tonnes of the stuff bobbing up and down the Thames. But we’re not talking about Spurs or Chelsea today, so our new favourite idiom can have the rest of the day off.

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England 2-0 Ukraine: Euro 2024 qualifying – as it happened

The brilliant Bukayo Saka made the first goal for Harry Kane and scored a spectacular second as England cruised to victory

“You are, as ever, correct,” says Richard Hirst. “FA Cup final 1975 - Alan Mullery No4, Bobby Moore No6. Never to be forgotten!”

You say that, but I’ve just had a look at Liverpool’s team for the 1986 FA Cup final and I could barely be more wrong if Bruce Grobbelaar had worn No722.

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Tottenham 1-5 Arsenal: Women’s Super League – as it happened

The in-form Caitlin Foord scored twice as Arsenal hammered Spurs in the north London derby

1 min Peep peep! After the players take the knee, Celin Bizet gets the north London derby under way.

It’s a big day for the Spurs left-back Kerys Harrop. As of the referee’s first whistle, nobody will have played more often in the WSL.

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France 4-0 Netherlands, Sweden 0-3 Belgium: Euro 2024 qualifying – as it happened

France’s new captain Kylian Mbappe mesmerised the Netherlands in Paris, while Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick for Belgium

France v Netherlands

“You may want to highlight that some of the ‘innovation’ in the Dutch team is due to the outbreak of some kind of viral illness (not COVID-19) in the team,” writes Willem van Schaik, “which has led to Cody Gakpo, Matthijs de Ligt, Sven Botman, Joey Veerman and Bart Verbruggen being sent home.”

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Football Daily | A tip of the hat to Harry Kane and longevity

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Outside the worlds of Countdown and Scrabble, longevity just doesn’t get the credit it deserves. First-world problems, we’ll reluctantly concede, but we’ve got to talk about something and this football email won’t write itsel … [Football Daily glazes over, then sits lost in thought for a few minutes before walking cordially into The Man’s office to pitch Bored, the world’s first AI teatime football email. Precisely 4.71 seconds later, Football Daily emerges, openly weeping, and returns to its desk].

Re: yesterday’s Football Daily letters: the standard of writing must have reached new heights if Simon Mazier’s ‘Fenerbahce Sequence’ didn’t win prizeless letter o’ the day. We can only be thankful that there was no prize for him to have been deprived of” – Jeff Lloyd (and 1,056 others).

ChatGPT seems to be all the rage now, supposedly backed by a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm. It’s pretty impressive, and scary, but that’s an entirely different conversation for another day. I tested it to see if it had an answer as to when Spurs will win the title, and I think it broke. This is what I got as a response: ‘As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to predict the future with certainty. The outcome of sporting events is influenced by many factors, including the performance of the team, the quality of the opposition, injuries, and luck. While Tottenham Hotspur has a strong history and fan base, it’s difficult to predict when they will win the Premier League again. However, the team’s performance in the current season, as well as the talent and strategy of the team, may give some indication of their potential to win the Premier League in the future.’ Bad luck. Also, ChatGPT does not seem to know that the team’s performance this season gives Spurs ‘zero’ chance of potentially winning the title soon. Looks like AI still has a lot to do to catch up to us after all (for now)” – Shpetim Karandrea.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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