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It was another season to remember for Lamine Yamal and Barcelona, along with Getafe, Rayo and one naughty fanLamine Yamal wore the crown and flew the flag. With the last kick of the opening game of 2025-26, Barcelona’s new No 10 – the teenager handed the shirt Ladislao Kubala, Luis Suárez, Diego Maradona, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi once wore, the kid Spain coach, Luis de la Fuente, had claimed was “touched by God’s wand” and had been anointed by Him too – scored against Mallorca. It was his first goal as an adult and he celebrated by conducting his own coronation. La Liga’s title race had begun.The day after it had been run, nine months on, as Barcelona’s bus made its way through the streets, from the top deck of the victory parade Lamine Yamal held a Palestine flag. “This is something I don’t normally like but I spoke to him and if he wants to it’s his decision,” Hansi Flick said. “He’s old enough: he’s 18.” Coming of age in the public eye wasn’t easy – isn’t easy – and the season hadn’t been either. There had been injuries and, Lamine Yamal later admitted, an “internal abyss”, but he had his third league title. Flick, the father figure whose own dad died on the morning they won the league and chose to share that with his other “family”, had his second. Have you ever felt so much love, the coach was asked. “No, never,” he said.Barcelona had effectively wrapped it up against city rivals Espanyol with seven games to spare, Lamine Yamal heading towards the line, arms out like Usain Bolt contemplating Richard Thompson and Walter Dix. They mathematically wrapped it up in week 35, the first time a clásico had brought the championship to a close in 94 years. Three days after the dressing room fight between Fede Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni that ended with Real Madrid’s vice-captain taken to hospital and stitched up, suffering “craniofacial trauma”, this time it was Marcus Rashford who delivered the knockout blow. Barcelona had played in three different homes and won every game in all of them. This clásico was their 11th win in a row, their 23rd win in 25 games since the previous one 600km west.How different things looked now. In late-October, at a time when Barcelona’s concerned coach had warned that “ego kills success”, Rayo had identified The Flick Line, and they had been sliced open by Sevilla, Madrid won 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu to go five points clear. That night, Jude Bellingham called Lamine Yamal’s talk “cheap”, accompanying that line with Elvis’s A Little Less Conversation, and Dani Carvajal gave him the old jibber-jabber gesture. But Madrid had a mouth of their own to worry about, Vinícius Júnior stomping off with 18 minutes left. Xabi Alonso said he wanted to focus on what really mattered, but it turned out that was what really mattered. With the coach abandoned, things began to unravel, fault-lines revealed and deepened.Barcelona’s Super Cup win the next time they met finally closed a spell “in charge” that Alonso felt started too soon, unhappily heading to the Club World Cup, and then ended too soon as well. A new manager came who couldn’t really manage either, Álvaro Arbeloa saying all the right things that weren’t the right things at all. He offered his grey sofa for his players to open up from and brought them doughnuts when they performed well but that wasn’t often. “I’m not Gandalf,” he said and by the time sport’s biggest rivals met again in May, Madrid were out of Europe, out of the cup, and almost out of their minds. Divided and just wanting it done, 90 minutes later they were out of the title race too, 12 points behind with nine left in play and empty-handed again like last season. As for Kylian Mbappé, he was just out, slipping off to Sicily. “Let’s go Madrid!” he posted when they were already 2-0 down.Two days later and more than 10 years since he last faced the media, president, Florentino Pérez, went full Trump in an incoherent press conference that explained nothing and kind of explained it all. At least he had identified Madrid’s problem and fixed it: the ABC newspaper. He cancelled his subscription.Barcelona were champions, the trophy miraculously handed out on the night it was actually won then ridden round the city. They carried the Super Cup on board too but couldn’t take the European Cup, which was the one they most wanted. Madrid couldn’t either, their better nights reserved for the competition but still not good enough. Villarreal and Athletic hadn’t escaped the league phase, although San Mamés was the only place that champions PSG didn’t score. Atlético Madrid, who had knocked Barcelona out of both cups and long since let go of the league, got closest but ultimately got nothing. Arsenal knocked them out of their first semi-final in a decade and in their first Copa del Rey final for 13 years they were Matarazzoed, Real Sociedad winning on penalties: a backup goalkeeper made the final save and planted a kiss on the cheek of a former ballboy who then ran up and scored the winner, full-back Álvaro Odriozola, who didn’t even play, saying he wouldn’t swap this for “anything in humanity”.Barcelona, Madrid, Atlético and Villarreal, who finished third, will get another chance next year, along with Betis who took the new, fifth Champions League spot. Below them, cup winners Real Sociedad were joined in Europe by Celta Vigo and Getafe, whose manager, Pepe Bordalás, said qualification would go down in football history. That was pushing it, but when they started the season Getafe had 13 first-teamers available and two of those were goalkeepers. When they reached halfway, in the relegation zone, things were so desperate they played full-back Allan Nyom up front. Bordalás insisted “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone” – and he’s inflicted a lot of pretty bad things on a lot of people. Yet somehow, when they reached the end, having signed four little-known loanees in January, they were seventh. They had done it their way: Getafe had the second fewest goals as well as the lowest possession, fewest shots and most fouls.Caught up somewhere in Getafe’s celebratory pitch invasion at the end of the final day, were a dozen or so red shirts. Relegation-threatened Osasuna’s players were still out there waiting for the night’s other games to finish so they could discover their fate, the captain calling those final minutes spent with iPads, phones and radios “agonising, the worst feeling I’ve ever had”. Eventually, they were liberated, leaping about with the Getafe fans and Nyom, who said he wanted to ensure they were safe before he ducked into the dressing room. “It’s been … weird,” said Osasuna’s coach, Alesio Lisci, and it had been too. His team had already celebrated survival after a 99th-minute winner against Sevilla a month earlier; they never expected to have to clamber clear again, eventually saved by others not themselves.It was that kind of season. If the top lacked twists, the same five or six all season, the bottom was wild, all sudden falls and biblical resurrections. Only Real Oviedo – back in the first division 24 years later, with Santi Cazorla at last making his primera debut for the team he had first joined aged eight and rejoined on the minimum wage at 38 – went down early, no room for romance or drama. They scored nine home goals all year and had more managers (three) than away wins (two).Yet if Oviedo left early, the battle to avoid the other two relegation places was brutal, crowded, costly and went to the wire. In a league where good teams suddenly turned bad and bad ones became brilliant, just a tiny gap separated Europe from the abyss most of the season. Nine teams went into the penultimate round of games fighting to avoid the last two places and while Espanyol, Sevilla, Alavés and Valencia pulled clear then, there were still five on the final day, their fates interconnected. Elche and Girona faced each other at Montilivi, all or nothing, a late Thomas Lemar shot off the bar the margin between Girona standing or falling. In the end, four points from their last eight matches meant the team that challenged for the title two years ago and were in the Champions League last season slipped into the second division on 41 points – a total that would have delivered salvation in any other season this decade. Mallorca went too, bottom of a three-team tie-breaking mini-league involving them, Osasuna and Levante, who all ended on 42. They did so despite having a striker who scored 23 goals, a record not matched in 26 seasons.“This hurts,” coach, Martín Demichelis, said. “Football has been cruel,” lamented Girona’s manager, Míchel Sánchez. “This league was really crazy,” Elche’s Eder Sarabia said, but it was over now and his team had survived.There was just one thing left, the best saved until last. But the team that went from little Rayo to Rayo effing Vallecano, the club so gloriously out of place it was good, couldn’t come back from Germany and their first ever final with the Conference League trophy. Which like just about everything to do with Rayo was wrong but somehow right, the banner stretched across the stand at the end in Leipzig expressing everything, the whole point of it all, better than a cup ever could. “I have known no greater victory than being with you in defeat,” it said.Rayo Vallecano’s Raúl Martín Presa, calling fans “drunk, brainless and idle”. His own fans.“Don’t talk to me about just avoiding relegation; talk to me about European places,” Jesús Martínez said in week eight, having just sacked the manager who brought them up and, so far, had the team safe. Two days later Oviedo were in the bottom three. They never came out again.It might not surprise you to know that it was at San Mamés; it might surprise you to know that Athletic weren’t playing. Instead, Euskadi and Palestine were.At last the pandemic hoarding pays off. Atlético’s fans greeted their team with a bog-roll shower so good it turned the Metropolitano into the Monumental and Sevilla followed suit a few days later. So what did Uefa and La Liga do? They fined them, of course.Rayo, belting their way through A Pirate’s Life – with the CD Yuncos players they had just beaten.And worst hangover. Imagine you win the Copa del Rey for the fourth time ever, it kicks off at 10pm, takes extra-time and penalties, and you don’t leave the stadium until 2am. Imagine the hotel disco starts at 2.39am, taxis take you to a club at 4.45am, you clamber on to a bus bound for the airport at 10.15am having not slept, and crack open the duty-free on the flight home. Imagine the liveliest of the lot of you shouts: “This is the best day of my life and we’re going to have a fucking great time.” So you do; that day and the next and the next, circling the city from the top deck of a bus, sinking beers and getting sunstroke on board, hundreds of thousands there to go wild with you. Imagine you stumble in the next afternoon, still in a bit of a state, to prepare a game you just want to get through. Now imagine someone says: lads, it’s Getafe.Lionel Messi, silently slipping into the Camp Nou all alone one cold Sunday night in November.At the end of their 3-0 win over Real Mallorca, one Betis supporter desperate to get Cédric Bakambu’s shirt came bounding down the stand, tumbled over the barrier and fell right at the forward’s feet. Which is one way to grab a player’s attention. But he still didn’t get it: Bakambu just stood there looking bemused instead. Oh for a Sergio Herrera, the Osasuna goalkeeper who, after victory in Palma, safely gathered up the entire team’s kit and hand-delivered it the stands, no pratfalls needed and no broken bones.Oviedo’s game at Mestalla was put back 24 because of torrential rain, leaving supporters trapped in Valencia and missing travel home, so the club arranged for them to fly back on the team’s charter the following day. Which was lovely. But when the picture went up online, a mum in Asturias couldn’t help recognising one of the passengers. “Hey, Real Oviedo,” she posted, “please tell my son I’ll be having a word with him when he gets home.” Apparently, he was supposed to be at his gran’s house.When the Celta striker Borja Iglesias was subject to homophobic abuse for painting his nails, their fans and teammates decided they would do the same, solidarity shown in all sorts of colours and designs.“Zaragoza are going to shit,” El Periodico de Aragon said, and sadly they weren’t wrong.You wait till I’m older than you! When tiny Inter de Valdemoro from somewhere way, way down in the ninth tier faced Getafe in the Copa del Rey, they were eight goals down with half an hour to go. So Getafe sent on Borja Mayoral, at last given the chance of a lifetime to stick it to big brother Kity in the opposition’s midfield. Mayoral scored two more in an 11-0 battering. Speaking of which …Valdemoro’s goalkeeper, that night? Busy.Granada’s Jorge Pascual, sent off for calling the calling the linesman “fucking moustache-face”. And, the referee’s report read, for “pointing to his upper lip to simulate said moustache”. Just in case he hadn’t got the message, like.Sevilla, rocking the hand-me-down chic. “You haven’t got any trainers, you lack the clothes you need, and someone from your family says: ‘Would you like your grandad’s trousers?’,” coach, Matías Almeyda, said. “‘Yes please, I could use them.’ ‘Would you like your cousin’s T-shirt?’ ‘Sure, give it to me’.”Real Betis’s scratch and sniff jersey: made of oranges and smells of oranges too. Well, it does before the game, anyway.Dani Cárdenas, saving a Kike García penalty and the Vallecas nets.All Action Hero Hugo Hard not complaining about being on the bench. “If I’m not a starter any more,” he said, “it’s because [Umar] Sadiq is playing like Pelé.”When Barcelona previewed Mallorca’s visit as Robert Lewandowski versus Vedat Muriqi, the Kosovan replied: “There are few strikers that compete with Lewy … and I’m not one of them. Thanks, though.”The Betis striker Cucho Hernández scored against Levante and immediately said sorry to his former club. Which would have been nice but he never played for Levante. He did play for Huesca, who wear the same colours.Luis Castro fell on his arse on his debut, slipping over as he kicked the ball back but didn’t do so again, instead leading a miracle at Levante. President, Jokin Aperribay, asked ChatGPT if Rino Matarazzo was a good coach for Real Sociedad and it said “no”; four months later, they had won a historic Copa del Rey. “They say I get results from not much, always find a way to get points, but this is the like a pencil: you sharpen it and sharpen it, and keep sharpening it, and in the end there’s no pencil left,” Getafe coach, José Bordalás, warned, but somehow he took them back into Europe with just a stub and that rubbery bit. The day he presented Luis Garcia, Sevilla’s sporting director grumbled “it’s like a funeral in here”, yet the coach resurrected them in six weeks. “Some teams have bazookas and tanks, and we’re there fighting with a catapult,” Eder Sarabia said, but promoted Elche survived and did it playing nice football too. Then there were Claudio Giráldez and Manuel Pellegrini again. And Hansi Flick of course, champion once more. But the winner is the Villarreal-bound Iñigo Pérez who, through the endless troubles, from not having a pitch to play on, a place to train or hot water to wash with, led Rayo Vallecano to their highest-ever finish and a first final with rare dignity. “It’s easier to reach success through love,” he said, and so it was.With 10 goals in the last 14 games – the only matches he started all season, a fact which enhances what he did and diminishes his case – the single most significant footballer this season genuinely might be the Levante striker Carlos Espí. When fans called for him to be given the Ballon d’Or, Vedat Muriqi responded by twirling his finger at the side of his forehead, saying “this lot are crazy”, but one more point, and Muriqi might just have got this award along with salvation. And Joan García, whose “science fiction” save against Espanyol was the season’s best, had Lamine Yamal declaring: “Mother of God almighty, what a goalkeeper!” But it probably has to be Lamine Yamal himself. “I would like to be everything everyone wants me to be,” he said, which said a lot. But with 24 goals and 11 assists in all competitions, he was still better than anyone else, astonishing in the spell leading Barcelona’s escape towards the line.Subs: Aaron Escandell (Oviedo), Eric García, Pedri (Barcelona), Ratiu, Chavarria, Isi (Rayo), Jon Martín, Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Aleix Febas, (Elche), Abde (Betis), Budimir (Osasuna), Espí (Levante), Mbappé, Guler, Tchouaméni (Madrid), Muñoz (Osasuna), Pubill, Koke, Griezmann (Atlético), Martínez (Alavés), Gueye (Villarreal), Exposito (Espanyol), Iglesias (Celta).

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Egypt qualified unbeaten for 2026 after missing out on 2022 in Qatar. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty ImagesA first win at a World Cup is the floor-level target for a team that still relies heavily on the ability of Mohamed SalahThis article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.Egypt qualified for the World Cup unbeaten after missing out on Qatar 2022, booking their ticket to North America with a game to spare. They scored 19 goals in nine matches, as Mohamed Salah led the way with nine, conceded two goals and kept seven clean sheets. Despite the impressive numbers in qualifying, Egypt’s shape is pragmatic more than romantic and they carried that same muscle memory into the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations: tight games, deep stretches without the ball, quick release into Salah or Omar Marmoush. This was exposed by a semi-final defeat to Senegal, when Egypt were set up more to endure rather than to control.Egypt will probably begin the World Cup in a 4-3-3 formation that becomes a 4-2-3-1 when they have to chase a game, while occasionally switching to a 3-5-2 against high blocks. Mohamed El-Shenawy is likely to start in goal, although Mostafa Shobeir has lately been giving the veteran a run for his money. The rest of the spine looks solid with Rami Rabia and either Hossam Abdelmaguid or Yasser Ibrahim in central defence. Marwan Attia and Hamdi Fathi will screen the backline and Emam Ashour will look to deliver the ball to the trio up front.The coach, Hossam Hassan, has effectively confirmed there will be no late tactical revolution, saying he has settled on “90%” of the side. He also frames the team as “100% locally made” compared with African rivals who are stocked with European-born players. “Hossam Hassan is completely different from the foreign coaches we have had before,” says the forward Ahmed “Zizo” Sayed. “He manages to convince you that you are the best player in the world even if you’re coming to the camp not having been in good form.”Egypt are cohesive, often hard to score against and emotionally committed, but they can still look blunt if opponents double up on Salah and the midfield cannot pass through the press. The draw placed Egypt in Group G with Belgium, Iran and New Zealand. Egypt have never won a World Cup match so ending that is the floor-level target.Hossam Hassan is the national team’s all-time leading scorer and a legend in Egyptian football. As a manager, the fanfare is considerably quieter. Across nine clubs and two national teams, he has won zero trophies. His appointment in 2024 carried a nationalist tone from day one. When Egypt qualified for the World Cup, he declared: “We are happy for this great day for Egyptian football and for pleasing the Egyptian people, headed by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [president of Egypt].”After the 2025 Afcon semi-final exit, Hassan blamed the loss on mosquito-infested hotels and scheduling conspiracies before resorting to blood-and-soil nationalism. “Egypt is the mother of Arabs and Africa. No one possesses the history we possess. We won the African Cup seven times. This creates jealousy. No one will achieve what Egypt’s national team accomplished.” When a journalist pressed him on tactical shortcomings, Hassan replied: “Your questions are impolite and show no respect. I will not answer you. You lack media etiquette.” It was recognisably on brand.This is still Mohamed Salah’s team, even if the club version has entered a more mortal phase. For Egypt, he remains the attacking system and the emotional infrastructure. In qualification, he was decisive again, scoring twice in the match that secured the World Cup spot and was the main reason Egypt’s campaign did not require late drama. Salah turns 34 the same day the Pharaohs play their first group match. He is approaching the end of his international career and is acutely aware that this may be his final chance to change that.FC Nordsjælland’s Ibrahim Adel is not a pure touchline winger: he attacks the half-space, arrives at the back post and presses with more appetite than many Egyptian attackers raised on a counterattack diet. The 25-year-old’s case is built on movement. He may not start every match, but tactically he offers something Egypt need: a wide threat capable of carrying the ball into the final third independently of Salah, which reduces the team’s dependency on a single right-side channel. This tournament could cement him as a genuine option at this level, but it could also reveal his limitations.Marwan Attia is the sort of midfielder who makes the whole side look slightly more coherent than it is. The 27-year-old screens centre-backs, covers full-backs, kills counters, restarts attacks, receives awkward passes under pressure, and gives Emam Ashour and the wide players permission to go forward. After qualification, Attia spoke of the World Cup as a source of immense pride and of the current generation’s potential to achieve positive results, especially “securing Egypt’s first-ever World Cup victory”.Egyptian support will be present, but not socially representative. The reality is the overwhelming majority of Egyptians will watch from their homes or in cafes, with a phone screen propped against a cup of tea if they need to. North America is not as close as Qatar and Egypt is not part of a visa waiver program. The $185 (£137) visa application fee alone exceeds Egypt’s current minimum wage ($132), before flights, hotels or tickets. Expect diaspora families, wealthier Cairenes, corporate guests and expatriates. The broader Ultras, historically the most visible and vocal force in Egyptian football, have been systematically repressed since 2013, proscribed as terrorist organisations and many of them are in prison.The team and the EFA are not publicly pro- or anti-American; however the state relationship is more telling. With Donald Trump as president, Cairo has usually received warmth and fewer human-rights lectures. In his first term, Trump infamously called Sisi his “favourite dictator”, while his second administration preserved Egypt, alongside Israel, as an exception in a wider foreign-aid freeze.The Egyptian president returned the praise, saying that Trump “is the only one capable of bringing peace to the region”. Notably, the World Cup flashpoint is cultural rather than diplomatic. The EFA formally asked Fifa to block LGBTQ+ pride activities around Egypt v Iran in Seattle, saying they clashed with cultural and religious values. The two countries have objected to the locally branded Pride match, which coincides with the city’s Pride weekend and was planned before the tournament draw took place.

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While small pool of talent and elite clubs in women’s game makes switches between rivals inevitable, this move is contentious. But some reaction has gone too farThe red neon lights flicker in the dark for a moment, then the room is blue, and there is Katie McCabe, a grin on her face and a Chelsea shirt on, her controversial switch across London complete after 11 years with Arsenal.The reaction has varied dramatically. At times it has been hilarious, with witty comments and memes abundant. There has been valid rage too, an intense rivalry having developed between the two sides as Chelsea swept up domestic honour after domestic honour and sought to eclipse Arsenal’s reputation as the most successful club in women’s football in England (in the modern era at least).McCabe has been at the heart of many a hotly contested meeting of the two teams. The versatile full-back often provoked the ire of opposition fans who took a disliking to her passionate play and physicality, qualities that equally made her beloved and fiercely defended by Arsenal supporters.Her longevity at the club and connection with the fans have probably made the reaction what it is; love becomes hate when you feel betrayed. McCabe’s outstanding season also demonstrated what Arsenal would be letting go when her contract expired.Some of the reaction has been less pleasant, though, crossing the line into abuse, some of which has been directed at her family. There is context to McCabe’s switch, too, that takes her firmly out of Sol Campbell territory (plenty of lines continue to be crossed there too).The reality is that women’s football is in a very different developmental place to men’s football. Situations such as this present a catch-22 scenario for players and clubs. For clubs, there is not a big enough pool of elite talent, so fishing in your enemy’s pond is common. Plenty of players have moved between traditional and non-traditional rivals: Vivianne Miedema joined Manchester City from Arsenal; Lucy Bronze joined Chelsea having played for Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Lyon and Barcelona; Keira Walsh moved to Chelsea from Barcelona having previously played for City; Alex Greenwood played for Everton and Liverpool before joining Manchester United and later City; Alessia Russo swapped United for Arsenal. Beth Mead is expected to join City this summer after her Arsenal exit, Georgia Stanway is believed to be joining Arsenal after she moved to Bayern Munich from City, and the Chelsea defender Niamh Charles is thought to be on City’s radar.For players, there is little room for sentimentality because the pool of clubs investing at the level needed to pay top wages and provide elite environments is equally small.At present, a football career doesn’t set up a female player for life. Wages have improved, particularly at the very top clubs, but they do not preclude a player from needing a plan B for when they hang up their boots. Maximising what you earn when playing is less mercenary and more necessary.Players’ choice is further reduced when you factor in that they are not on wages that make moving your life to a different part of the country or another continent simple. At the top of the men’s game, the salaries mean that where to live, how to live, whether family joins and how often they are able to visit are logistical rather than financial challenges.For McCabe, Chelsea offered it all: the chance to stay in London, be near her home and partner (the Arsenal forward Caitlin Foord), continue competing at the top of the WSL and in Europe and be at a club that could meet her salary demands and environmental expectations. They also made her feel wanted, and that was significant. Arsenal somewhat dropped the ball when a decision on McCabe’s future became necessary. With eight players over 30 in the squad this summer if changes weren’t made, Arsenal were aware of the age profile of the group and McCabe, who turns 31 in September, was informed in January that they wouldn’t be renewing her contract. It wasn’t just an age thing; McCabe is a strong character, a leader, and sometimes managers want to change the dynamic and create opportunities for others.It was widely reported that Arsenal did a late about-turn and attempted to keep McCabe, partly prompted by her impressive showing as a centre-back when shifted there on a few occasions towards the end of the season. It was another string to her bow.Having been told her services were no longer needed, McCabe had begun to prepare for life after Arsenal and explore what that might look like before the club came back to the table. She decided not to accept it and has become the pantomime villain, despite her likely diminishing role and having been made to feel unwanted.The fault lies at Arsenal’s door. The decision to let her leave was controversial and highly questionable, but the backtracking was worse, muddying what should have been a clean break for a club legend who won every trophy available in her time there.Chelsea being her destination is far from ideal for Arsenal – no one wants to strengthen a rival – but McCabe won’t be the last to move between the WSL’s top teams. Fans don’t have to like that, or get used to it, but keeping the context and the line between banter and abuse in sight is important.

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BBC Scotland's chief sports writerPublished34 minutes agoSince their first attempt in 1954, there's always been some kind of misfortune lurking in the shadows for Scotland at World Cups.Their failure to get out of a group has taken many forms; hapless management, bad luck, psychological collapse.Along the way there's been a few bogeymen, characters that few in Scotland had heard until they helped detonate the dream...Back shaving & biggest posers - the Scotland squad in their own wordsHe was a dynamic little winger and a prolific goalscorer, a graduate of the Penarol academy in Montevideo who was playing senior football at 14.On June 19, 1954, in Scotland's second game of their first World Cup, Borges scored a hat-trick for Uruguay in a 7-0 win in Basel. To this day, it's Scotland's biggest ever defeat in international football.To say they were unprepared is putting it mildly. In the heat, the Scots were wearing old-style boots, heavy cotton shirts and shorts that were ill-suited to the conditions."It was a shambles," recalled Tommy Docherty, who was in the Scotland team that day. Docherty was marking a guy called Juan Schiaffino, a player he knew virtually nothing about. "Nobody told me how good he was."Had Scotland done a modicum of research they might have learned a thing or two. Not only were Uruguay reigning world champions, Schiaffino was one of their superstars, a goalscorer in the decisive match against Brazil in the 1950 finals.Borges was the main man against Scotland, though. A tormenting presence; quick, relentless and two-footed. He scored his hat-trick inside an hour, then scored again in a 4-2 win over the England of Stanley Matthews, Nat Lofthouse and Tom Finney.The winger went on to win a Copa America in 1956 and a Copa Libertadores in 1960, scoring the first ever goal in the competition. For that, and for one other remarkable reason, he's remembered as a hero in his homeland.In July 1963, Borges boarded a steamship called the Ciudad de Asuncion, built in Scotland in 1929. The vessel, with 400 people on board, travelled daily across the Rio de la Plata from Montevideo to Buenos Aires.That night of 10 July was foggy. Visibility limited.Around 3am it crashed into the remains of a sunken Greek freighter and began to list. Shortly after, there was an explosion in the engine room. The ship was going down. Passengers began jumping into the river.Borges was on deck as the tragedy developed. A woman recognised him and threw her three-year-old son into his arms, before sliding away to her death. "Save him for me," she shouted.The lifeboats were crowded. With the boy in his arms, Borges scrambled on to a sheet of wood and drifted in the water for 11 hours until rescued by an Argentine ship. The following day he was there when the lad was reunited with his father. The mother was one of 70 fatalities.Borges was haunted by the disaster. He was 31 at the time and stopped playing not long after.Scotland were still reeling from a hiding by Peru at the 1978 World Cup when they rolled up to Cordoba to play Iran in front of a crowd of just 7,938.Manager Ally MacLeod didn't overdo the homework, and didn't seem to take any notice that the Iranians had won the Asian Cup in 1968, 1972 and 1976. They weren't bad.They'd lost their World Cup opener 3-0 to the Netherlands but put it down to being in awe of the Dutch. There was no danger of them being in awe of the Scots.MacLeod's team led 1-0 through an own goal but, on the hour, Danaeifard took it round Archie Gemmill before beating Alan Rough at his near post. It was their first ever World Cup goal.Rough thought Danaeifard was going across goal. "An all-time low," he said later.It was MacLeod's nadir, a moment his reputation never recovered from. Failing to beat Iran was a monumental embarrassment and left Scotland needing a miracle against the Dutch which, of course, they almost achieved.Danaeifard, a defender, played for Taj in Tehran. He'd won the first of his 17 caps only the year before. He, and others on that Iran team, have spoken about what their world looked like back then.Since the national football team was deemed a symbol of the Shah's regime - the Shah backed them to the hilt and used them as propaganda - Danaeifard and his team-mates were allegedly subjected to death threats by radicals.Protestors wanted to know if the players were pro Shah, the western-backed monarch, or pro-Ayatollah Khomeini, the fundamentalist Islamic cleric.Danaeifard felt that the Shah's secret police had infiltrated their travelling party to the World Cup and was afraid to speak openly about anything.After the finals, he returned to Tehran and the Islamic Revolution. The Ayatollah was in charge now and he saw football as a symbol of western imperialism.The game suffered and Danaeifard headed to America where he played for the Tulsa Roughnecks for four years.He was in the States when he heard of the death of a friend, a former team-mate and then-Iran captain, Habib Khabiri. Aged 29, and a supporter of a resistance movement, Khabiri was arrested, tortured and executed along with 40 other dissidents.Danaeifard's story and the story of Iranian football in that era puts Scotland's disaster in 1978 into a little bit of perspective.When we think back to Scotland playing Uruguay in 1986 and needing a win to progress, the mind's eye captures the brutality of the South Americans and the red card flashed at Jose Batista after 52 seconds.The filth and cynicism of the Uruguayans was impossible to miss in an horrific 0-0 draw - good enough for them to go through but not enough for the Scots, who went home.The architect of it all was manager Omar Borras - the Professor. Uruguay had many talented players - Enzo Francescoli being a gem of a footballer - but Borras believed in grit above grace. He became a reviled figure at home and abroad as Uruguay kicked, stamped and spat their way into the knockouts at Scotland's expense.When Uruguay lost 6-1 to Denmark five days before the Scotland game, such were the death threats that his home had to be put under armed guard. Avoiding defeat against Scotland, therefore, was his priority, by any means necessary.The aftermath of the farce in Neza was ferocious. Ernie Walker, secretary of the Scottish FA, famously called Uruguay cheats and cowards - "the scum of world football". Alex Ferguson, Scotland manager, called them a disgrace.Borras had the extraordinary cheek of criticising referee Joel Quiniou for sending off Batista for taking out Gordon Strachan. "There was a murderer on the field today - the referee," he ranted.Francescoli said he felt personal shame at the way the team behaved. He spoke of being ordered to chase long balls and fight aerial duels when he was built to create and attack.Borras was sacked as an anti-hero of Uruguay football. Not that it eased Scotland's pain all that much. He just joined the list of people who have stopped them getting what they desperately want.Costa Rica didn't exactly break a gasket when qualifying for their first World Cup in 1990. They beat Panama 3-1 on aggregate and then received a walkover against Mexico after the Mexicans infringed age eligibility rules.Hey presto, Costa Rica were going to Italia '90.We all know how it turned out. Juan Cayasso is an immortal, a player who means so much to people who weren't even born when he scored his country's first ever goal at a World Cup - against Scotland, of course.He's probably the ultimate Scotland bogeyman, one of nine children, a player they called 'el Nene' - the Kid. He was the one who got the only goal at Stadio Luigi Ferraris on 11 June, 1990. Disaster for Scotland. Again."Children stop me in the street to greet me and say, 'you're Cayasso, the one my dad told me scored a goal in 1990'." He did and it was the reason why Scotland tumbled out of the tournament early.Cayasso said that his goal was written in the stars. "We were playing so bad I thought we had not much chance before going to the World Cup."He reckoned without Scotland getting the wobbles once more."I don't know if I remember it because I always see it on video," Cayasso said some years ago. "But I could never be prepared for that moment."My team-mate Claudio Jara, knocked the ball to me – we call it a taquito here. I was close to him, I step back and when he does the taquito I read it. At first, I'm like, 'oh…' I'm frightened. But then I have to react, it's at my foot."Jimmy (Leighton) is out. Then it hits his belly and goes over him. I turn around and look at the referee, and he's going to the centre of the field."First I'm frightened, then I don't believe it, then, 'yes, goal'. I had gone far away in that moment. My mind was all about Costa Rica. I wrote a book called 'The Goal from Italia 90: Destiny, Luck or Chance'. It was so crazy."Cayasso's goal helped earn Costa Rica a place in the knockouts - they lost 4-1 to Czechoslovakia - and from the country's president, a gift of a Toyota Corolla. All the team got one.It also won him a move to German football with Stuttgart Kickers. He won promotion to the Bundesliga with them.Cayasso won 49 caps, but one stands above all others. Unforgettable in two different countries but very different reasons.

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Chelsea's former record goalscorer Bobby Tambling has died at the age of 84.Tambling scored 202 goals from 370 games between 1959 and 1970, a record that was surpassed by Frank Lampard in May 2013.Tambling scored on his debut as a 17-year-old and helped Chelsea win the League Cup in 1965, scoring against Leicester in the final.He also scored as the Blues lost the 1967 FA Cup final to Tottenham and won three caps for England before joining Crystal Palace in 1970.Tambling finished his career in the Republic of Ireland and settled in Cork, where he managed local sides Cork Celtic, Cork City and Crosshaven.In recent years, he had been living with dementia.A statement on Crosshaven's X account described Tambling as "a true Chelsea legend and an even more wonderful human being"."His warmth, his wisdom, his humour and his love will stay with us forever," it added."He loved returning to [Stamford] Bridge, where he was worshipped. Seeing his 'Tambling 202' banner proudly displayed and having a suite named in his honour always filled him with quiet pride."Latest Chelsea news, analysis and fan viewsAsk about Chelsea - what do you want to know?

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It is quite possible that nobody alive today has watched more football than Marcelo Bielsa.The 70-year-old is one of the most respected and influential coaches in the game, and that reputation has been earned from his borderline obsessive dedication to preparation for every single match he oversees.Thankfully, modern technology means suitcases packed with VHS tapes will no longer be necessary.But Bielsa will no doubt have a similar volume of clips with him in North America for the 2026 World Cup - where his Uruguay side will face Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde and Spain in the group stage.In, or out? The joy and despair of World Cup squad selectionBoth of those professions require analytical thinking - a gift Bielsa also possessed from childhood. However, he was drawn to football, not necessarily playing it but absorbing the tactics.Every day he would send his mother to the local newsagent to buy football magazines and newspapers, spending hours reading up as much as he could about how teams played and how different managers worked.Bielsa was still a capable but limited footballer. A defender but lacking in pace, he came through the youth system at his boyhood club Newell's Old Boys before frustrating spells in the lower leagues of Argentinian football meant he decided to call time on his playing career at the age of 25 to focus on coaching.His post-playing career started with the Buenos Aires university football team and, after two years there, he secured a position back at Newell's as a coach of the reserve team.Bielsa's frustration with his limitations as a player played a significant part in his coaching philosophy, as he focused on ensuring that any player he coached was able to get the maximum out of their ability.His training sessions were intense, with lots of focus on repetition - if a player did not have the talent to make something happen naturally then he would be sure to drill the processes into their minds.Bielsa was appointed Newell's manager in 1990 and his methods brought instant success as they won the Argentinian championship.A spell in Mexico followed before Bielsa returned to Argentina in 1997 to manage Velez Sarsfield. There he would be labelled 'loco' (crazy) as he insisted on fielding two teenage centre-backs. He would have the last laugh, however, as he immediately helped them to win the league title.Bielsa, who has said his nickname of 'El Loco' actually predates his time at Velez Sarsfield, very briefly became manager of Spanish side Espanyol but left them when he was offered his first international post in 1998 - as Argentina boss.It took a while for Argentina fans to warm to Bielsa, particularly as he was never afraid to make decisions that went against popular opinion.Managing one of the best teams in world football meant Bielsa had a wealth of talent available to him, with one of those being the legendary Gabriel Batistuta.Batistuta was scoring goals for fun in Italy's top flight, but Bielsa's system had only one place for a striker and that was taken up by Hernan Crespo, meaning Batistuta mostly had to be satisfied with appearances off the bench.The players were swiftly on board with his methods."He's the type of coach who makes you win matches," Juan Pablo Sorin said at the time."You get to notice which coaches are winners and which aren't. He's managed to get to the stage where if two or three players are missing, the team doesn't change."Argentina breezed through qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, losing just one of their 18 games, and that form had them installed as among the favourites to win the tournament.What transpired, though, was the lowest point of Bielsa's career as Argentina failed to make it out of the group stage.Their surprise exit was attributed to a mixture of issues - injuries to key players and reliable stars being out of form among them - but some strange decisions by Bielsa will not have helped.Crespo had been key during qualifying with his goals, but at the finals Bielsa opted for the 33-year-old Batistuta as his lone striker, while goalkeeper German Burgos was a regular starter in qualifying but was overlooked for the tournament itself.Bielsa stayed on despite that failure, and did lead Argentina to the Copa America final a year later and to Olympic gold in 2004 but he resigned at the end of that year, saying he no longer had the energy to manage them. He reputedly then moved into a monastery for three months to recharge, taking only books and living without a phone or access to the internet.Bielsa's time away from football appeared to do the trick as he would return to management seemingly refreshed and rejuvenated.In 2007 he was appointed Chile boss, with the national team's hierarchy allowing Bielsa to do whatever was required to revolutionise the team.He moved into a bedroom at Chile's training site and during his four years in charge he oversaw it being transformed from a tired and outdated place to a modern complex.Bielsa again put faith in talented youth players, with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel and Mauricio Isla swiftly promoted from the Chile Under-20 side, becoming key players as the national team qualified for the 2010 World Cup."Before I was erratic, running around like crazy all over the pitch," Vidal told El Mercurio in 2010."He made me realise the importance of the mental side of my game and helped me grow as a person."Bielsa had led Chile back to a World Cup following two successive absences from the tournament, and in South Africa they progressed to the last 16 where they were beaten by Brazil.A change in the presidency of the Chilean Football Association was followed by Bielsa resigning in 2011, but within months he accepted the role of head coach at Athletic Club, Bilbao's LaLiga side."I first met Bielsa at Athletic Club and he had just been telling somebody off," remembers Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague."His arrival there shook people up. He was demanding something that is now given as a minimum, but at the time the fact they had to run constantly, they had to repeat exercises a million times - all of that was very new there but you saw the consequences of that."He would lead Athletic Bilbao to the 2012 Europa League final but they were beaten to the trophy by Atletico Madrid.Fleeting spells at Lazio and Lille would follow before Bielsa was appointed Leeds United boss in 2018.He would go on to once again transform players as he famously guided the West Yorkshire club to promotion back to the Premier League in 2019-20.Another key aspect of Bielsa's coaching philosophy is being humble.He has always been keen to make sure the players he coached knew they had privileged jobs. He would look for ways to remind them that not everyone shared the same luxuries in life."Much was made of a story about [Leeds] players being made to collect litter near the ground," says Balague, who spent time observing Bielsa's coaching methods at Leeds."It was done so they could realise that the world was not made up of people living in elitist and privileged bubbles, but rather 'normal' human beings who had to work very hard."It's all about setting high standards that will stay with the club long after he has gone."Uruguay are now the third country Bielsa has guided to a World Cup, and in 2023 he oversaw wins against South American giants Brazil and Argentina.In September 2024, he was criticised by the country's legendary striker Luis Suarez, who said Bielsa had "divided the whole group".At the time, Suarez urged Uruguay fans "not to take it out on the players when things go wrong" because "the players will reach a limit and they will explode" under Bielsa's working conditions.They were also beaten 5-1 by the USA in November last year, a result that left Bielsa feeling "ashamed" and seemingly considering his position in charge of the national team.At 70, this World Cup could well represent Bielsa's final chance to cement his legacy on the international stage, and he has already hinted that he will step down once Uruguay's campaign comes to an end. A quiet exit from the big stage, whenever it might come, seems unlikely.Listen to the latest Football Daily podcastSoundsGet football news sent straight to your phone

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BBC Sport ColumnistPublished1 hour agoLionel Messi is in no doubt.Asked at a World Cup advertisement launch to name the best player of the new generation he said: "It would be Lamine. No doubt about it: for me, he is the best."That same week, American television network CBS asked Lamine Yamal on camera whether Spain would win the World Cup. He smiled and said "Yes".What makes Spain wonderkid Lamine Yamal genuinely remarkable is not merely the praise being heaped upon him; it is the composure with which he carries it, and the clarity with which he is already shaping his own identity as a footballer and as a man.He is 18 years old. He has already played in a Champions League semi-final, won a European Championship, and he has been given the number 10 shirt at Barcelona that Messi wore for almost 15 years. Yet the most striking thing about him is not the precocity. It is the serenity.World Cup: Every squad as they are announcedFor one thing, they are both left-footed, and the youngster's game is blessed with the same dribbling intelligence, the same deceptive ease, that makes the difficult look inevitable.In fact, he has had a much bigger influence than Messi at the same age, but it would be premature to suggest he can get to the same level.While comparisons may seem futile, one stat would suggest Lamine Yamal is on his way to being Messi's worthy heir.At just 18, he has played 151 times for Barcelona. By the time Messi reached his 19th birthday on June 24, 2006, he had made just 41 top-flight appearances for the club.Ronaldinho, who played alongside Messi at the start of that golden era at Barcelona and won a Champions League with him, has drawn the lineage directly."Messi and I made history, and now it is Lamine Yamal's turn. What he has already shown at such a young age is extraordinary," the Brazilian told Fifa's website in March.Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand went further, when asked whether Yamal is already better than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were at a similar age."Yes," Ferdinand replied on ESPN. "His potential or ceiling might be better than theirs. The body of work at 17 years old - no-one has done it. Pele may have, but I didn't see Pele."Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has watched Lamine Yamal develop across age groups with the national team and believes what he is seeing is not just talent."He is a player blessed by God. Football geniuses have something special, and he has it," De la Fuente said. "You can immediately see those kinds of footballers who are touched by magic that says: you are going to be special."Hansi Flick, who sees him in training every day and has watched him perform in the biggest matches all season, uses similar language.The Barcelona head coach said: "He is special, he is a genius. In the big matches, he shows up. Players do not usually reach this level of maturity until they are 24 or 25 years old. If this kind of talent only comes every half-century, I am glad it is for Barcelona."What separates Lamine Yamal from most prodigies is he is not trying to become Messi. He admires him, but there is a quiet stubbornness in how he frames his own ambition."For me, Messi is the greatest football player in history," he said. "He is a legend and I do not find myself worthy of being compared to him."I do not want to be Messi and he knows it. I want to follow my own path."The same applies when Cristiano Ronaldo enters the conversation. Lamine Yamal does not dismiss the comparison or the legacy - he just declines to organise his ambition around it."It is best not to compare yourself to anyone," he said at an awards ceremony."Players like Cristiano Ronaldo did what they did because they wanted to be themselves. I try to be me, play my game, and get people to recognise me for being Lamine."'A very, very special player' - Yamal, 16, makes Euros historyGiovani dos Santos, Gerard Deulofeu, Ansu Fati, Munir El Haddadi and, most notably, Bojan Krkic are just a few of the players who have been cited as the next great thing.Lamine Yamal prefers to let the media talk the talk while he concentrates on walking the walk, even with the constant Ballon d'Or chatter that has followed him since he was 16.He plays so that people have fun. He wants children to want to be like him, not like Messi or Ronaldo."I am not thinking about the Ballon d'Or. I want to enjoy myself and win with Barca and the national team," he said."Pressure does not exist, it is an excuse. If you just think about enjoying yourself and having fun, there is no pressure."His youth coach Inocente Diaz, who watched him come through the Barcelona academy, was saying this years ago."He is even better than Messi," he told Spanish newspaper Sport in 2025. "He possesses a unique blend of physical attributes reminiscent of both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In six years, he will win the Ballon d'Or."Lamine Yamal, for his part, keeps the World Cup in his sights.He has already told us what he thinks about Spain's chances there. One word, delivered in English. But behind the smile is a player who has been dreaming about this tournament his entire life."I have always imagined playing in a World Cup, seeing my mother in the stands. I hope I can win it," he said.There is something hidden in plain sight about Lamine Yamal that his coaches at La Masia - Barcelona's academy - understood long before the rest of the world caught up.He is listed as a winger. He terrorises full-backs from the left flank. His dribbling numbers are elite. And yet, when CBS asked him how he played as a boy, the answer landed like a reveal."When I was small I never dribbled much or got past many opponents. I scored a lot of goals, ran a lot, but above all I had very good vision of the game," he said. "I focused on what Messi did because he gave different passes - passes that led to goals. And I looked at Modric, who passed with the outside of his foot. That seemed more interesting to me than dribbling, because it is more about the mind."Modric. Not Arjen Robben, not Franck Ribery, not any of the great wide forwards he could have cited. A deep-lying central midfielder whose genius was spatial. A player Yamal was watching and thinking about as a child.Albert Puig, one of his coaches in Barcelona's academy, picked up on this years ago."Lamine expresses himself better when he has passing lines and some reference in front of him," Puig said. "I think he can evolve the way Messi did - getting closer to the game, being in contact with the ball, and participating more."The data is beginning to confirm it. Across the past two seasons, Lamine Yamal has increasingly drifted more into interior zones, operating as a second playmaker as much as a winger.Julen Guerrero, who worked with him in Spain's youth system, is unsurprised by the direction of travel."Of course I can picture him as a false nine," Guerrero said. "But it is a less comfortable position because teams block the centre more, there are fewer spaces, you have to be more patient. But he is very intelligent. He knows how to move."The winger's role rewards pace and isolation. The central role rewards everything Lamine Yamal was drawn to as a child: vision, timing, the pass destined to become a goal before it leaves your foot.Messi made exactly this journey. From right wing to false nine, from the flank to the centre of the greatest club side in history.It took him until his mid-20s to complete it. Lamine Yamal may not need that long.The World Cup is coming. Lamine Yamal will be 18 when it arrives and not turn 19 until the day before the first semi-final on July 14.Spain will go there as one of the favourites, built around him.Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast

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CommentsAt the age of just 19, Lewis Koumas has already achieved a lot in senior football.The attacker helped Hull City gain promotion prior to returning to parent club Liverpool and has amassed 11 senior caps for Wales.But the talented youngster is modest enough to know that his journey in football has barely even started yet, particularly when it comes to his national team."I don't really think [Wales fans] have seen anything from me yet if I'm going to be honest," he told BBC Sport Wales prior to his side's June fixtures."I've only had some cameos to try and show myself so I need to work harder and show a little bit more to try and get the trust of the gaffer."Hopefully I can do that and I want to show what I can really do in a Welsh shirt."I definitely want to be a top player at the top level and internationally I want to play for Wales as much as I can."Late Koumas goal earns Wales draw with GhanaBellamy sees Koumas future at centre-forwardIt ensured he got his goal account up and running almost exactly two years on from his first appearance on the international stage under Robert Page against Gibraltar in June 2024.Koumas - son of former Wales midfielder Jason Koumas - has been a regular in squads under current boss Craig Bellamy, with the target now being to consistently force his way into the starting 11."He's really, really supportive, he's a really good coach," Koumas said of Bellamy."Ultimately I like trying to see what I can take from his game and put it into mine because he was a top, top player and he scored goals and that's exactly what I want to do."He's a great role model to work off and to be with him day-to-day here when I get called up to camp is a blessing."Koumas spent the first half of the 2025-26 season on loan at Birmingham City - where he featured 25 times across all competitions, scoring one goal.His stint with Hull in the second half of the campaign proved more fruitful as Koumas netted three times in 19 appearances in all competitions to help the Tigers gain promotion into the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.On Hull's post-Wembley celebrations, Koumas said: "It's one of the best days of my life for sure and memories that will stay with me forever."I'm really happy with the way my development's going."It's been a good two years. I think I've played nearly 110 games now so I'm just really happy with how it's going and just excited for what's next."The teenager's parent club Liverpool confirmed the sacking of boss Arne Slot on Saturday, 30 May.But Koumas does not believe the departure of the Dutchman will impact his immediate future - with the likelihood that he will once again leave Anfield on loan."I don't really think the plan changes for me," he said."It's just going to be how it's always been, to just keep my head down, keep working hard, and if I impress, I impress. So let's see what happens."

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Wales' preparations for Friday's Women's World Cup qualifier in Montenegro have been badly disrupted after the team flight was forced to divert to Italy due to bad weather.Rhian Wilkinson's squad took off from Cardiff at 16:30 BST on Wednesday and had been due to arrive in Montenegro around three hours later.However, they were unable to land in Podgorica due to electrical storms around the Montenegrin capital and eventually diverted to the Italian port city of Brindisi.After more than three hours on the tarmac in southern Italy, during which Wales had hoped weather conditions would ease, the decision was taken to stay in Brindisi on Wednesday night.That left Football Association of Wales (FAW) officials scrambling to secure hotel rooms for the travelling party, as well as trying to arrange travel plans for Thursday.The FAW's attempts to find accommodation took place in the early hours of Thursday morning and some members of Wales' staff, including head coach Rhian Wilkinson, remained at Brindisi Airport throughout the night.Wales take on Montenegro in Podgorica in their penultimate Group B1 fixture at 17:00 BST on Friday.They then host Czech Republic, their rivals to finish top of the group, in their final fixture in Cardiff on Tuesday."Due to storms in Podgorica, the Cymru women's national team flight was diverted this evening, landing safely in Brindisi airport in south Italy," the FAW said on social media."The team will stay overnight in Italy and will arrange alternative travel to Montenegro ahead of Friday evening's match."Wales boss Wilkinson has unfinished businessClark, Holland and Hughes named in Wales squad