Category Sports News

Due to injury, Emiliano Buendia, who was Aston Villa’s record signing, was unable to kick a ball for a full year.

The Argentine’s promising career was put on hold by an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in 2023, which has since made him struggle to re-enter the team.

The 28-year-old midfielder has three goals and one assist in his previous four starts, but he is now firmly back in Unai Emery’s good graces this year.

The substitute’s sublime finish, which came in the bottom corner after Matty Cash made a sensational pass, gave the team a 2-1 Premier League win over Tottenham on Sunday.

Absolutely necessary for both the team’s confidence and success, Buendia told Sky Sports.

“I wanted to show everyone I can play here to help this team and club and I can do it every game,” I said right away.

Buendia was ready to leave this summer, but Villa was hesitant to do so because he had already proven his worth.

Emery’s side have won three straight top-flight victories since failing to win any of their first five games, which comes just when Villa needed it.

Former Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given described his recent strike as “an incredible strike from Buendia.”

Buendia was battling for spots in a Villa shirt this year and was contemplating moving to a villa stadium in January just to get some minutes.

He played a significant role in Villa’s subsequent two seasons, appearing in all but three of their 76 league games, having signed for the club in 2021 on a five-year deal for the then club record of £33 million.

However, Villa’s 2023-2023 pre-season injury ultimately caused him to miss the entire 2023-24 campaign due to an ACL injury.

All 12 of his league appearances came as substitutes last term.

Buendia agreed a new contract with Villa in January, but he was immediately sent on loan to Bayer Leverkusen until the end of the season.

Buendia wanted to stay and compete for his spot in Emery’s squad, but he was determined to return to the form he enjoyed before suffering from an injury.

“Working hard and pushing to the manager’s best advantage is always important.” It’s crucial to fight for our place, Buendia said on Sunday.

His best averages for Villa in a single season were a goal involvement every 119 minutes and a goal every 158.

“Our performance was poor from the beginning. We were unable to experience the quality that this competition demanded, according to Buendia.

After five games, Villa, a team that has qualified for Europe in the previous three seasons, were left lurking around the relegation zone due to two defeats and three draws.

However, it is a sign of significant improvement when they win away from home for the first time in a year.

The sub players had a fantastic impact today, according to Emery.

“This is the team I want us to be,” he said, “the team we were last year, bringing positive energy.” Everything we do is improving. I’m feeling incredibly proud and pleased today.

People must have the confidence to perform at their best, engaging in enthusiastic and passionate play and showing their commitment to the club.

Villa moved up to 11th place in the table, but they will soon face Liverpool and Manchester City.

Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane, who spoke on Sky Sports, said, “That’s a huge win for Villa.”

The winning goal was fantastic, and they did, to come back and recover in the manner they did. The season’s ball must be Cash’s ball. A fantastic goal to win any football game.

Jamie Redknapp, a former Liverpool midfielder, said: “Villa has become a full Harlem Globetrotters.” Beautiful ball from Cash, but Lucas Digne, who is still in the air, brings it down, makes a beautiful, tiny inside-the-corner bend.

ICC Women’s World Cup, Indore

England 288-8 (50 overs): Knight 109 (91); Deepti 4-51

India 284-6 (50 overs): Mandhana 88 (94); Sciver-Brunt 2-47

England won by four runs

England booked their place in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup with a thrilling four-run win over co-hosts India in Indore.

Set 289 to win, India were cruising at 234-3 with opener Smriti Mandhana well-placed on 88.

But the opener’s soft dismissal, caught down the ground off spinner Linsey Smith in the 42nd over, was the turning point as the co-hosts completely threw away their winning position.

The run-rate climbed and although Deepti Sharma’s gritty half-century kept India hopes alive, the middle order buckled under the pressure and with 14 needed from the last over, Smith held her nerve with India finishing on 284-6.

England’s 288-8 was set up by former captain Heather Knight’s masterful 86-ball century, after they started cautiously, reaching 44-0 off the powerplay but crucially kept wickets in hand.

Tammy Beaumont was again scratchy for 22 from 43 balls but Amy Jones found valuable form with her 56, before Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt set a platform with a fluent stand of 113.

Knight was the aggressor, whacking 15 fours and a six in her third one-day international century, and they put England in a brilliant position at 211-3 with just over 11 overs to go before Sciver-Brunt fell for 38.

England looked to be a few runs short, however, as they could not capitalise on the partnership with another middle-order wobble, losing three wickets for eight runs in the space of 12 balls.

Sophia Dunkley, Emma Lamb and Alice Capsey all fell cheaply to spin again, which looked like it might be costly once Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur started to cruise through the middle overs, notching a similarly flawless partnership of 125 which had a raucous crowd roaring for every run.

Knight continued her impressive return from injury, having notched a match-winning 76 against Bangladesh earlier in the tournament, with one of her finest ODI innings.

Finally, she had assistance from the openers. Beaumont’s form remains a concern but she and Jones negotiated the new-ball threat of returning seamer Renuka Singh Thakur to reach 73-0 before the former was bowled attempting a sweep off the indefatigable Deepti, and Jones was frustratingly caught at mid-wicket to unite Sciver-Brunt with her predecessor.

Coach Charlotte Edwards has changed England’s ODI approach to a more conventional gameplan compared to the aggression under Jon Lewis and this was its perfect blueprint, executed by the two most experienced players.

Knight was busy at the crease from the outset, rotating the strike constantly by using her feet to great effect against the spinners and manipulating the field to score all around the ground, while Sciver-Brunt played an uncharacteristic supporting role before she was excellently caught by a one-handed Harmanpreet at cover to spark a problematic flurry of middle order wickets, which – despite England’s eventually match-winning total – is becoming a worrying trend.

Knight was blameless in being run out trying to push things on, undone coming back for a second by Amanjot Kaur’s bullet throw from the boundary, before Dunkley was caught at long-off for 15, Capsey was caught reverse-sweeping for two and Lamb continued to look out of place at six as she fell for 11.

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt speaking at the post-match presentation: “I’m so so happy. Everyone showed how calm they were and clear in what they do. We knew in the bowling innings we needed to stick in.

“It’s something we’ve spoken about before the game [that] we haven’t been tested towards the end of our innings with the ball. We wanted to be prepared with our skills and tactics. Everyone had brilliant plans and executed brilliantly.”

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur speaking at the post-match presentation: “Smriti Mandhana’s wicket was a turning point for us. We had many batters who can bat, I don’t know how the game went the other way, but credit to England.

“We are playing good cricket, we are not giving up, that last line we need to cross now, in the last three games we’ve played good cricket but not crossed that line.”

Player of the match Heather Knight: “I’m really pleased, it was nice to get conditions that felt conducive to batting. I got myself in and then put the accelerator down. I felt we needed 300 on that pitch.

Darts sensation Beau Greaves extended her remarkable winning run in the PDC Women’s Series to 86 matches with victory in the final four tournaments of the season.

The 21-year-old from Doncaster announced on Friday that she would compete in the PDC World Championship, days after beating world number two Luke Littler in the World Youth Championship semi-finals.

Her focus switched back to the women’s game this weekend and a run of four tournaments in Wigan over two days – two on Saturday and two on Sunday – to bring the PDC Women’s Series to a close.

Greaves won all 28 of her matches over the weekend, beating Fallon Sherrock 5-4 in both of Saturday’s finals before defeating Gemma Hayter 5-0 and the Netherlands ‘ Noa-Lynn van Leuven 5-3 in Sunday’s finals.

Her latest victories took her tally to 18 tournament wins out of the 24 on offer, including the past 13 in a row.

She will be one of five players from the Women’s Series to compete at the PDC World Championship, which starts at London’s Alexandra Palace on 11 December

Sherrock, Hayter and Van Leuven qualify via their Women’s Series ranking points, while top-ranked Greaves made it courtesy of her performances on the Development Tour and Lisa Ashton as Women’s World Matchplay champion.

Greaves, Sherrock, Ashton and Van Leuven have all played at the World Championship before, with Van Leuven becoming the first transgender player to compete last year, losing 3-1 to Kevin Doets.