The Women’s Super League returns to play six games on Sunday following an international week.
With eight league games left, unbeaten Chelsea is regaining control of the WSL standings and a sixth successive title.
The matches on Sunday are:
Girma’s debut against world records is imminent.
Images courtesy of Getty
Naomi Girma, the club’s record-breaking signing, may finally make her debut this weekend.
Girma, who Chelsea purchased from San Diego Wave for $900,000 in January, has been recovering from a calf injury.
However, Sonia Bompastor, Chelsea’s manager, stated in a press conference on Friday that Girma “should” be in the squad at a press conference on Sunday that she will take the field.
Chelsea is the only team still unbeaten and seven points clear of the leader. Brighton, their fifth-place rival, has never won any of their previous six league games.
Brighton, however, impressed when the two teams met earlier this year, and Fran Kirby’s injury-free return has helped them succeed.
Meeting between two managerless rivals
Images courtesy of Getty
After firing Matt Beard and Laura Kaminski this week, the clubs begin new seasons in the season by hosting a game between Liverpool and Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Bottom-of-the-league Palace announced Kaminski’s departure on Friday, while Liverpool announced Beard’s dismissal on Thursday, with the Reds sitting seventh in the WSL standings.
The Reds have already begun the search for a new manager, with Amber Whiteley serving as interim manager.
In a press conference on Friday, Whiteley stated that she wanted the position permanently.
Let’s get Palace out of the way first, and I can think about that for a while longer, she said, “but I’ll put my name in the hat.”
“Matt and I spent a lot of time working together, so I’m in a much better position.” Matt has given me so much over the past three and a half years, and I’m so grateful for it. He’s going to be missed.
Man City’s difficult month begins.
Images courtesy of Getty
Teams have had a break from regular football because of the international break, but Gareth Taylor’s City team’s run of eight games in 29 days begins with a match against Tottenham on Sunday.
They must also face off against West Ham and Brighton in other league games, including the League Cup final, both of their semifinal matches against Chelsea, an FA Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa, and their second leg of their Women’s Champions League campaign.
Therefore, manager Taylor’s claim that it will be “really tough” for his side to get the results they want in March is surprising.
“Attach the next game, don’t try to give too much thought to what’s coming up next,” Taylor said. “There’s a lot going on in this month,” I believe the conversation will be.
The squad’s injuries, including Rebecca Knaak’s recent hamstring injury, and the departure of players make things even more difficult.
Race for the title or the Champions League?
Images courtesy of Getty
Chelsea is seven points clear of the leaders, but the competition is still tense between the rivals.
The top three teams advance to the Champions League. With 33 points, Arsenal has 30 and Manchester City has 28; Manchester United is in second place.
Renee Slegers, the manager of Arsenal, has continued to try to steal Chelsea’s title.
She said, “We need to believe that, and I do,” adding, “.
We have a lot of opportunities ahead of us, and we’re going to try to take those opportunities, which are up to our control.
Marc Skinner, manager of Manchester United, maintains his optimism that his team can continue to accomplish “magnificent things.”
“We have been operating our business closely for many years and probably will continue to do so.” We’ve learned to carry on doing our jobs,” Skinner said.
Leicester’s challenging schedule
Images courtesy of Getty
With a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa on February 16th, Leicester moved up to 10th place, six points clear of Crystal Palace, who are currently in their third WSL game.
The Foxes will need to face both of their top two away from home in four days, which could not be any tougher.
A Manchester United side who have won six WSL games in a row will take on them on Sunday away. After that, Amandine Miquel’s Leicester travels to Chelsea, the only team to score points against them this season, drawing 1-1 in December.
On Thursday, Miquel stated, “The team is ready, they are fighting.” Because we have two games that are so close, the majority of the players will have an opportunity to play. We play quality-matched opponents, so we can make rotations with the best teams we can field on the field.
The fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will likely take place in Croke Park, according to Eddie Hearn.
In a second classic fight, Taylor, 38, defeated Puerto Rican star Serrano, 38, as the Irishwoman triumphed over her in-world title in a rematch in Texas two months prior.
Promoter Hearn has been unable to agree terms with GAA managers despite having attempted to set up a Taylor competition at Dublin’s renowned 82, 000 capacity venue for several years.
Hearn stated his intention to assist Taylor in her fight at Croke in January, but he sounded more depressed when questioned on Friday.
Hearn stated on Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra that “I think it’s unlikely that her next fight will be at Croke Park.”
Hearn previously stated that Katie Taylor’s bouts in Croke Park and Las Vegas would “tick off the list of boxes.”
“Hopefully we can check one of those boxes next, but I think Katie acknowledges that the chapter is likely to be close to completion.
She has given everything to this sport. She is one of Ireland’s greatest athletes and athletes, not just those who have seen them in Ireland but the entire world as a whole.
“I’m very confident in ensuring that we can fulfill all of her goals before she leaves the sport,” she said.
Hearn addressed the audience before Saturday night’s SSE Arena card, which pits Limerick’s Lewis Crocker against Paddy Donovan in front of a headliner.
When asked about Belfast’s rich history of boxing, Hearn responded, “The atmosphere is very special here.”
“The people here, they know their boxing, and when there’s a big event, they’ll come, like they will tomorrow night, you’ll sell an average amount of tickets,” said one critic.
After the statelet passed legislation barring the national police and judiciary in Bosnia, the international high representative for the autonomous Serb region claimed that the political leaders of the nation were trying to destabilize the nation.
After a state court forbids its separatist leader Milorad Dodik from politics for six years and sentences him to a year in prison for refusing to follow the high representative’s instructions, Christian Schmidt, the lawmakers in Republika Srpska, the nation’s autonomous Serb republic, approved the legislation on Thursday.
In ethnically divided post-war Bosnia, the separatist plot could lead to a constitutional crisis.
More than 100 000 people were killed in the 1992-95 intercommunal conflict between Bosniak Serbs, Croats, and Bosniak Muslims in the Dayton Accords, according to Schmidt, who is in charge of overseeing the state’s affairs.
Bosnia was divided into a Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska as a result of the Dayton Accords.
These regions are linked by a weak central government, who has significant authority, including the ability to fire political leaders, under the high representative.
According to a handout from his office, Schmidt on Friday demanded the “immediate cessation of all activities that undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional and legal order.”
The statement further stated that the ruling coalition’s actions in Republika Srpska are intended to destabilize the institutions that are in charge of the State’s constitutional duties.
Dodik was charged in 2023 after signing a law that would have halted Schmidt and Bosnia’s constitutional court’s decisions, violating the peace agreement.
Dodik, who has long demanded that the region secede and unite with neighboring Serbia, refrained from opposing the court’s ruling and urged local lawmakers to vote to outlaw the state police and judiciary.
To counteract secessionist tendencies, the region aims to roll back reforms and establish a state judiciary, police, and military, Dodik said.
Nenad Stevandic, the speaker of the Bosnia-Serb parliament on Thursday, reported that 49 of the assembly’s 52 deputies were in favor of the legislation.
Nermin Niksic, the prime minister of Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat region, criticized Dodik’s efforts on Friday to impose a ban on the nation’s institutions.
On social media, Niksic stated, “I’m not ready to participate in any discussions or discussions with the institutions of Republika Srpska’s government until all these actions against the constitution, the Dayton peace agreement, and the state are stopped and canceled.”
The Supreme Court’s decision regarding state allocation and local government administration has been subject to extensive public scrutiny, according to the Rivers State Government.
The government will thoroughly assess the situation after receiving in-depth information, according to the commissioner for information, Joe Johnson, in a statement released on Friday.
He urged Rivers State residents to continue their daily activities while the government looks for more legality in the matter. Rivers State residents should remain vigilant, obey the law, and keep practicing their daily activities.
S’Court also stops the CBN from releasing funds to the Rivers Government.
Johnson made it clear that the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt is currently hearing the matter of the defection of the 27 lawmakers, not the Supreme Court.
He emphasized that the Justices still saw Martin Amaewhule and the 26 others as lawmakers in this context.
The army’s “complete failure” was acknowledged by an Israeli military inquiry into the string of errors that occurred before and during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
Groups of Hamas-led fighters stormed Gaza and attacked Israeli communities and a border music festival in what investigators claim was a highly coordinated attack that required years of planning.
During the attack, 139 people were killed, and 250 were taken prisoner.
The report details the army’s inability to coordinate a response, as well as a history of falsehoods about the risk posed by Hamas and a refusal to accept warning signs of an attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition have repeatedly thwarted inquiries into the political failings, despite the report’s numerous details of the Israeli army’s failures on October 7, 2023.
How was Hamas under-estimated by Israel’s army?
According to the report, senior officers have underestimated Hamas’ capabilities and intentions, a “fundamental misunderstanding” that the army has had for decades.
According to investigators, military planners assumed Hamas posed no significant threat to Israel and that it was uninterested in waging a major war.
Additionally, according to the planners, Hamas’s tunnel networks had significantly declined, with Israel’s high-tech separation barrier effectively preventing any cross-border threats.
Israeli authorities insisted that Hamas fighters were merely concerned with maintaining peace in Gaza and that they would launch rocket attacks against Israel rather than launch a massive ground invasion.
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, was also misled, assuming he was “not interested in a wider war.”
On February 20, 2025, four Israeli prisoners who were held by Hamas fighters are being held in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
What warnings did Israel ignore prior to the attack?
According to the report, the Israeli military either ignored or misinterpreted several warning signs that an attack was on the horizon in the hours leading up to the attack.
Numerous female spotters raised unusual activity along the border before the attack and alerted their commanders the evening before the attack. Additionally, officers reported the widespread activation of Israeli SIM cards believed to be held by Hamas fighters as well as suspicious movements during the deployment of rockets by Hamas.
Instead, the commanders cited what they termed “reassuring signs” as proof that Hamas was merely conducting a military exercise.
How was the Israeli intelligence’s interpretation of events flawed?
The report claims that Hamas was already considering the incursion in October of 2023 in 2016.
However, Israel’s intelligence community criticized these reports as “unrealistic,” claiming that Hamas was dissuaded by Israel’s decision to stage an uprising in Gaza in May 2021, when 232 people were killed there.
Since then, Hamas has come to the attention of the Israeli army as having made the decision to launch its assault in April 2022. It was 85% ready by that September, and it had chosen October 7 as the date in May 2023.
What operational failures did Israel experience on that day?
Many.
According to investigators, the army was unprepared for the attack, and troops were deployed significantly behind schedule, allowing Palestinian fighters to advance without any apparent resistance.
One survivor later told the Israeli chief of staff that the last Palestinian fighter had left well before the first Israeli soldier had entered in one kibbutz, Nir Oz, which the army is accused of leaving.
Planners wildly underestimate the size of the attack, according to research on fighter numbers, which were also off the mark.
Later, it was discovered that 5,600 fighters, supported by a barrage of about 4, 000 rockets and 57 drones, had crossed the border in three waves.
In consequence, Israel’s Gaza Division, which had a little over 700 soldiers in it, was overrun and remained “defeated” for hours while coordinating their response.
The Gaza Division’s operations started at around 12:00 PM [10:00 GMT] when reinforcements started to arrive.
The Israeli air force struggled to distinguish between Hamas fighters and Israeli civilians, according to the report. The military acknowledged that some Israelis had been killed by friendly fire, despite the report’s insistence on specifics.
Instead of defending the lives of the under attack civilians and soldiers, investigators discovered that numerous aircraft were flying toward senior Hamas commanders’ homes in Gaza at the same time as the attack.
During an Israeli attack on October 27, 2023, according to Yousef Hassouna/AFP, balls of fire and smoke erupted above Gaza City.
The Hannibal Directive was it ordered by commanders?
Yes, many civilians died as a result, according to several Israeli newspapers.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that during the attack, the Israeli military was ordered to use the “Hannibal Directive,” which mandates that it use every force to stop Israeli combatants from being taken captive and even kill anyone who lives there.
In response, Israeli forces received orders on October 7 to stop Hamas from taking captives and returning to Gaza “at all costs,” which included killing civilian non-combatants.
Some pilots flying over the battlefield reportedly refused to follow the directive and occasionally hesitated to fire entirely out of concern for hitting civilians.
However, subsequent investigations have revealed that the Hannibal Directive caused the deaths of numerous civilians.
One of the victims, Efrat Katz, was shot as Hamas fighters transported her to Gaza.
An Israeli tank fired two shells into a house in Kibbutz Be’eri, which is said to have housed more than a dozen captives, including twins, 12-year-old. Two of the captives lived.
What are the main conclusions?
Important warnings prior to the attack, such as increased intelligence and fighter activity, were ignored or misinterpreted.
The Israeli army’s assessments of the attack’s scope underrated it, with commanders failing to share intelligence and communicate poorly.
The Israeli army took too long to respond to the Hamas-led attack, and reinforcements were arriving too slowly.
