James Wallace and Rob Smyth will cover all the day-three action, over by over,The day-nighter at the Gabba has already thrown up more storylines than an entire season of Neighbours, and our team of writers – Ali Martin, Geoff Lemon and Simon Burnton – are in Brisbane for reports, news and analysis,Australian supporters are welcome to join the conversation, too,Emillia Hawkins and John Brewin take the controls for our essential weekly gateway to the day’s football action,There’ll be plenty of washup from Friday’s World Cup draw in Washington DC as well as team news, breaking stories and snippets from our reporters around the grounds.

Our World Cup reporter Paul MacInnes will be on hand for a Q&A from 11am, so email your questions to matchday.live@theguardian.com to take part.The WSL returns after the international break for one of the division’s established fixtures.Only Arsenal v Chelsea at 30 meetings surpasses the Gunners’ head to head with Liverpool – the clubs having faced each other over 25 matches in the WSL.

At the Emirates for No 26, there will be plenty of expectation circling the visitors’ Beata Olsson.The striker has scored in each of her last three league starts for the Reds – find the net on Saturday, and the 24-year-old Swede will become the first WSL player to score in four of her first five starts in the competition.Emillia Hawkins helms our live blog, with Suzanne Wrack reporting from the Emirates Stadium.Aston Villa’s 4-3 come-from-behind victory at Brighton in midweek continued their impressive run of form and earned them a 12th win from their last 14 in all competitions.A fourth straight win pushed them up to third in the table.

As a bonus, Ollie Watkins scored his first Premier League goals since September and it is the second time Villa have come back to win in their last three in the league.The visitors have a five-point cushion over second-placed Manchester City after Mikel Arteta’s side rolled over Brentford 2-0 on Wednesday night.Villa, though, have a history of spoiling the Gunners’ title ambitions.Their 2023-24 title bid went south after a 2-0 Villa victory in mid-April 2024 helped Manchester City over the line, then a 2-2 draw at the Emirates last January sidelined Arsenal’s championship pursuit as Liverpool ran away with the laurels.Barry Glendenning is on live blog duty, with Peter Lansley reporting from Villa Park.

Formula One will crown its champion in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri seeking to dethrone Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and deny the Dutchman his fifth title in a row,Norris is favourite in the three-way showdown, 12 points clear of Verstappen but needing to finish on the podium at Yas Marina,All have seven wins each, all are capable of adding to that tally and ready to deliver an edge-of-the-seat sunset finale,So the drama of the contest for pole is ramped up on a circuit where last season Norris started from No 1 on the grid and went all the way to the chequered flag,Philip Cornwall is our live blog host, with Giles Richards reporting from Yas Marina.

Thomas Frank faces his former club Brentford with a battling point at Newcastle on Tuesday ending a worrying run of three consecutive defeats, which had sparked questions about his long-term prospects at Tottenham,Spurs’ home form in the Premier League in 2025 has been troubling and, while a large chunk was under Frank’s predecessor Ange Postecoglou, the Dane has overseen four defeats in his seven league fixtures in N17,Overall Tottenham have won only three of their last 21 home league matches, though Brentford have lost six times on the road this season in the division,Jacob Steinberg reports,Elsewhere, Manchester City may sit second before the weekend’s fixtures but they will be taking Sunderland seriously.

Régis Le Bris’s side have already beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and earned draws with Arsenal and Liverpool.They have swagged 23 points from 14 games so far – only five fewer than City – and are in with a shout at the Etihad, where Jamie Jackson is our reporter.John Brewin will guide you through all the news and action from around the grounds on a busy afternoon in the Premier League.Leeds produced an impressive display to beat Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road on Wednesday to climb out of the relegation zone, with Jaka Bijol, Ao Tanaka and Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the scoresheet.The Yorkshire side’s attention now turns to a home clash against Liverpool and Daniel Farke has some late fitness concerns over Lukas Nmecha (hamstring) and Calvert-Lewin (calf).

Liverpool dropped more points in Wednesday’s 1-1 home draw with Sunderland but Arne Slot remains positive about his faltering champions’ prospects after last Sunday’s 2-0 win at West Ham ended a run of three straight defeats.“Four points out of two games is different from the last two home games we’ve played, in which we lost both and conceded seven goals,” Slot said.“In the last two games, we were one deflection away from keeping two clean sheets.That’s a step forward if you compare it with seven goals conceded in two games.We did not concede from a set piece, which is also important, and we got two results.

There are positives to take, but of course we are still not where we want to be,Let that be obvious and clear,” Scott Murray helms our coverage of the buildup and the match itself, while Jonathan Wilson reports from Elland Road,It would be easy to bill the MLS Cup final as a clash of two formidable footballers but Thomas Müller is not having it,“It’s not about Messi against Thomas Müller, it’s Miami against the Whitecaps,” the 36-year-old former Bayern Munich and Germany striker told the MLS website.

“Maybe they rely a little bit more on him than we do on me, because we are such a good group.The nice thing about it is not only playing against the greatest player who played our game and is still playing our game, it’s more that when you have a pairing like this, more people are watching.” With two clubs making their first appearance in the final, the contest for the Philip F Anschutz Trophy should throw up plenty of storylines, not least with Javier Mascherano’s pink ’uns featuring such luminaries as Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suárez.Bryan Armen Graham has all the action minute by minute from the Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.Geoff Lemon and James Wallace pick up the Ashes baton on over-by-over duty for day four of the day-nighter at the Gabba.

And if you have a spare moment, during a drinks break perhaps, or one of Marnus Labuschagne’s longueurs at the crease, why not take a look at our tremendous 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time?Dominic Booth, Daniel Harris and Rob Smyth clock on to keep you abreast of all Sunday’s football action, with two games in the Premier League – Brighton v West Ham and Fulham v Crystal Palace – plus a top-two clash in Scotland.Wilfried Nancy arrives at Celtic from the MLS and the Frenchman kicks off his reign against the Premiership leaders, Hearts, with our reporter Ewan Murray covering the game.They’ll be keeping an eye too on the FA Cup second round, particularly on Slough Town as they face Macclesfield.The non-league club’s manager, Scott Davies, has a compelling backstory and plenty to say to Billy Munday, in this fascinating interview.Dominic Booth returns from noon to cover the news, reaction and analysis from Sunday’s WSL fixture list, which features Leicester v Manchester City, London City v Brighton, Tottenham v Aston Villa, Manchester United v West Ham and Chelsea v Everton.

The champions’ performance of late is the cause of some alarm after dropped points in back-to-back games in the WSL and being held by Barcelona in Europe,After Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool, Sonia Bompastor did not hold back,“That’s not the performance we wanted to put on the pitch,The performance was not good enough,” the Chelsea manager said,“We were not clinical enough.

” A lack of goals has been a problem, not helped by Aggie Beever-Jones struggling for form.The forward is without a goal in her last seven games after a run of goals in four consecutive games to start the season.While the title drama plays out in a thrilling three-way tussle (see above), others on the grid will be chasing prize money and points to improve their place in the paddock pecking order.Mercedes and Red Bull are fighting for second place, although the former look likely to prevail with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli given the latter team’s reliance on Verstappen.The race will be a final outing for Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull, his seat handed to Isack Hadjar for next season, and for Honda as their engine partners before switching to Aston Martin.

Ferrari have one last chance to win a race in 2025 while Lewis Hamilton is facing the bleak prospect of a first season without a podium finish.Sauber, in their last race before becoming Audi and with Nico Hülkenberg making his 250th start, are only five points behind eighth-placed Haas.who are in turn seven adrift of Aston Martin.Renault-owned Alpine are competing for the last time with Renault engines before a switch to Mercedes power.For Franco Colapinto, that means one last attempt to score his first point of the campaign.

Niall McVeigh helms our live coverage, as Giles Richards reports.The Hammers, disconsolate in the relegation zone, bagged a creditable draw at Old Trafford on Thursday evening as Soungoutou Magassa claimed a maiden Premier League goal in the 83rd-minute of the 1-1 draw that so frustrated Manchester United.Brighton will want to move on from their midweek defeat against Aston Villa, a 4-3 thriller that saw the visitors claw back a two-goal deficit.That meant Brighton slipped to seventh after a 10-match unbeaten home run – stretching back to a 3-0 loss to Villa in early April – was ended.Daniel Harris is on minute-by-minute duty and John Brewin reports from the Amex.

Fulham were unfortunate not to recover a point in their madcap 5-4 home defeat against Manchester City on Tuesday,Marco Silva’s defiant Thames-siders were trailing shortly after half-time only to thunder back with three goals of their own and spend the final 15 minutes rocking the City edifice in search of a late equaliser,Still, it was just a second defeat at Craven Cottage this season for the home side, with Arsenal the only other team to leave west London with three points,Crystal Palace, meanwhile, held out for a 1-0 win at Burnley on Wednesday night and, as they juggle a demanding schedule, that leaves tired legs with less recovery time than Sunday’s rivals,The win for Oliver Glasner’s side came after last Thursday’s 2-1 Conference League loss in Strasbourg and Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat by Manchester United.

Rob Smyth keeps a keenly observed live blog ticking over while Ed Aarons reports from the west London ground,Graham Searles returns for expert coverage of week 14 in the NFL,Last time out, Pittsburgh Steelers fell to 6-5 as today’s opponents, the Baltimore Ravens, moved to the top of the AFC North with a 23-10 win over the New York Jets, with Derrick Henry rushing for two third-quarter touchdowns,It’s something of a must-win derby for Pittsburgh – almost an early playoff game – with the AFC North crown on the line,Our other featured game pits the Bengals – beaten 26-20 by the AFC East top dogs, the Patriots, in week 13 – against the Bills, with Buffalo boasting a 5-1 home record this season and fresh from beating the Steelers 26-7 on the road.