Your Guardian sport weekend: ATP Finals, Albania v England and NFL

A picture


Will Magee kickstarts the football weekend with our unmissable gateway to all the action, with breaking news and updates,The Premier League takes a break for the international programme and he’ll be looking forward to some key fixtures – Greece v Scotland, Switzerland v Graham Potter’s Sweden, Liechtenstein v Wales – as well as developments from the England camp as they prepare to face Albania on Sunday,Why not join the conversation?Round nine in the Women’s Super League brings a Manchester derby,Four points separate the rivals, with City at the summit on 21 and United in third,Andrée Jeglertz’s City – with no midweek European fixture to tax their powers of recovery – are on the hottest of streaks and seeking an eighth straight win in the league.

United have won their last two visits to City and prospered in the Champions League with a 2-1 win against visiting Paris Saint-Germain.Only one defeat in their last 10 games plus five straight away wins means United won’t be intimidated by City.Billy Munday helms our liveblog while Sophie Downing reports.Autumn internationals don’t come much bigger than this as Steve Borthwick unleashes his British & Irish Lions-stacked bomb squad on New Zealand, with George Ford directing operations at Allianz Stadium.On the bench, Borthwick has picked six Lions, including a heavyweight front row of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge and Will Stuart, as well as the back-row Tom Curry.

England have turned the tide against Australia and Fiji so far this autumn.In what is expected to be another desperately tight battle between these rivals, England will seek to topple the All Blacks for the first time since the 2019 World Cup semi-finals.Covering the game at Twickenham are Robert Kitson, Gerard Meagher, Andy Bull and Michael Aylwin plus Lee Calvert helming the minute-by-minute report.Katy Murrells has game-by-game coverage of the men’s season finale that features the top eight singles players as the event reaches the semi-finals at the Inalpi Arena.The four-times major champion Jannik Sinner became the first player to reach the last four in Turin with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the third seed Alexander Zverev.

Sinner will meet the Australian Alex de Minaur, who overcame last year’s runner-up Taylor Fritz 7-6 (3), 6-3, despite having lost his opening two matches.In the doubles semi-finals, there’s an all-British affair as Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool go up against Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski.Tumaini Carayol reports.Wales sit third in Group J and need to win away at Liechtenstein on Saturday and at home to North Macedonia three days later to finish second and give themselves a more favourable draw in the March playoffs.The Dragons won playoff ties at home against Austria and Ukraine to reach the 2022 World Cup.

Niall McVeigh helms our live coverage of the crucial World Cup qualifier,Making it to a World Cup for the first time since 1998 – a feat they can achieve by taking a point in Greece on Saturday and then beating Denmark at home on Tuesday – would be a huge deal for the Tartan Army, who turned up to the last Euros in their droves,Scotland – already assured of a playoff spot – are hoping to set up a final-night shootout with the Danes for an automatic place at the World Cup,To do so, they must avoid defeat in Piraeus against a Greece side already out of contention after losing 3-1 away to both Scotland and Denmark last month,Scott Murray keeps pace with the action minute-by-minute, with Ewan Murray reporting from Greece.

Andy Farrell led the British & Irish Lions to a 2-1 series victory over Joe Schmidt’s Australia during the summer after signing off before his secondment by guiding Ireland to a 22-19 win against the same opposition last November.Ireland have won seven of their last nine meetings with the Wallabies, including a 2-1 tour success in 2018 under the management of their former head coach, Schmidt.Australia will run out at the Aviva Stadium on the back of a shock 26-19 loss to Italy.Lee Calvert is back with minute-by-minute commentary from the autumn Test in Dublin.As feuds go, none run deeper than boxing’s version of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Nigel Benn’s son Conor goes toe to toe with Chris Eubank Jr for a second time at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night,It’ll be the fourth instalment of the family rivalry and it was Benn who suffered the first defeat of his 24-fight career in April when Eubank Jr clinched victory by unanimous decision after all three judges delivered 116-112 scores,It was a bitter pill to swallow for the 29-year-old after his failed drugs test which scuppered the original date back in 2022,Bryan Armen Graham brings you the big fight, round by round, with Donald McRae reporting from ringside,Michael Butler and Billy Munday host our essential one-stop destination previewing the day’s football action.

There’ll be wash-up from Saturday’s World Cup qualifiers involving Scotland and Wales, as well as looking ahead to the afternoon’s Albania v England game.Plus team news and updates from the north London derby in the Women’s Super League, as Tottenham host Arsenal at 2.30pm, as well as Aston Villa v London City, Brighton v Leicester, Liverpool v Chelsea and West Ham v Everton, all noon kick-offs.John Brewin hosts our live blog of the derby, with Tottenham and Arsenal level on 15 points.Spurs, however, must go back to December 2023 for their last victory over their north London rivals – and that their sole win in 11 WSL meetings with Arsenal.

But Martin Ho’s team are on a run of back-to-back home wins in the WSL for the first time, as well as claiming one more win than Arsenal have managed.Sophie Downey reports.Scorchers from Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze sealed England’s 2-0 victory against Serbia at Wembley on Thursday to continue their unblemished World Cup qualification campaign.Having sealed a place in North America with two matches to spare, Thomas Tuchel’s side secured a seventh Group K win without conceding a goal and sign off against Albania in Tirana.Billy Munday has minute-by-minute coverage, with David Hytner and Jacob Steinberg reporting from the Air Albania Stadium.

Graham Searle’s essential NFL liveblog brings you updates and action from week 12 with the focus on Buffalo Bills v Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Pittsburgh Steelers v Cincinnati Bengals.The Bucs will be hoping to reignite their playoff ambitions having faltered against the New England Patriots and Detroit Lions in their last three outings while the Bills are smarting from their recent humbling by the Miami Dolphins.The Bengals, meanwhile, could welcome the return of quarterback Joe Burrow from injury but their defence has shipped more points than any other team.Still, Pittsburgh, the AFC North leaders, are struggling after losing three of their past four games.Daniel Harris helms our game-by-game coverage of the ATP Finals climax in Turin to bookend another compelling weekend of sporting action.

Click here to be part of our essential online coverage.
trendingSee all
A picture

Global markets struggle after tech sell-off and fears over Chinese economy

Global markets suffered another day of volatile trading after a tech sell-off that fuelled Wall Street’s worst day in a month and weak economic data from China showed an unprecedented slump in investment.The FTSE 100 fell by 1.1% in London, closing down about 100 points at 9,698, as bellwether banking stocks tumbled. Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest slumped by between 2.7% and 3

A picture

Reeves’s plan to ditch income tax rise prompts government bond sell-off

UK bond markets took fright on Friday after it emerged that Rachel Reeves had ditched plans for a manifesto-busting increase in income tax at this month’s autumn budget.On a day of choppy trading in the City, the cost of UK government borrowing rose by the most in a single day since early July, when a tearful appearance by Reeves in parliament spooked investors.The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 10-year government bonds, which are known as gilts, jumped by more than 0.13 percentage points to trade at about 4.575%, the highest level in a month

A picture

People in the UK: have you received good or bad financial advice from an AI chatbot?

Tech companies are pumping billions into the growth of artificial intelligence, with OpenAI this month signing a $38bn (£29bn) cloud computing deal with Amazon as part of a $3tn datacentre spending spree.But as people increasingly use AI chatbots – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity – for advice and task completion, some observers have concerns about misinformation, hullicinations and irresponsible advice.A survey this year from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that 80 percent of people in the UK believe AI regulation is required.We want to hear from people who have asked chatbots for financial advice. Have you asked AI tools for help with money, debt or personal finance? Were you recommended anything unexpected, or unsuitable? What was the financial result? Do you have concerns?You can tell us about askng AI tools for financial advice herePlease include as much detail as possible

A picture

AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts as synthetic music spreads

Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.Walk My Walk and Livin’ on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs in the US, which documents the “most viral tracks right now” on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW “Broken Veteran” that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart.“You can kick rocks if you don’t like how I talk,” reads a lyric from Walk My Walk, a seeming double entendre challenging those opposed to AI-generated music

A picture

Your Guardian sport weekend: ATP Finals, Albania v England and NFL

Will Magee kickstarts the football weekend with our unmissable gateway to all the action, with breaking news and updates. The Premier League takes a break for the international programme and he’ll be looking forward to some key fixtures – Greece v Scotland, Switzerland v Graham Potter’s Sweden, Liechtenstein v Wales – as well as developments from the England camp as they prepare to face Albania on Sunday. Why not join the conversation?Round nine in the Women’s Super League brings a Manchester derby. Four points separate the rivals, with City at the summit on 21 and United in third. Andrée Jeglertz’s City – with no midweek European fixture to tax their powers of recovery – are on the hottest of streaks and seeking an eighth straight win in the league

A picture

The Beta Blacks: Alpha days are gone for New Zealand and their aura with it

Thursday afternoon, and the All Blacks are out on the training ground around the back of the Lensbury hotel on the banks of the Thames, it’s a warm autumn day, and the mood is pretty free and easy. Will Jordan is practising catching high balls, Beauden Barrett is taking shots at goal, the forwards are packing up after running some drills, head coach, Scott Robertson, is chatting happily with the media before his press conference. Someone asks if his team are looking to make a statement against England on Saturday, the sort that reminds everyone exactly how good they are.“A statement performance?” Robertson says, perplexed. “We’re just looking for a result