Cardiff City’s pursuit of the Welsh championship’s title title ended Wrexham’s EFL Cup dream, making it possible for them to reach the quarter-finals of the competition this year.
The League One side, who are now eagerly awaiting the outcome of Wednesday night’s final eight draw, scored from Yousef Salech and Will Fish’s header on either side of Kieffer Moore’s header.
possession, but most importantly with a goal.
Cardiff have been the League One team with the most possession possession this season.
And they made no mistake about sticking with that pattern because they knew Wrexham was firmly in the north of North Wales from the beginning.
The Bluebirds had only had 62% of the ball when the Bluebirds and Bolton Wanderers met only three days prior, but they still managed to score one shot against the Trotters.
However, they were a constant threat throughout the entire first half.
In reality, they should have been much more at ease heading into the break, but Barry-Murphy will find Cardiff’s dramatic improvement in attack at Wrexham to be very positive given how blunt they were against Bolton.
Will Fish’s winner, which came from Callum Burton, may have been better, but Joel Bagan’s superb delivery and contact with the ball made him smile.
Images courtesy of Getty
Feed me until I can’t get Moore
Kieffer Moore once more demonstrated why he is so crucial to Phil Parkinson, despite the fact that he may have ended up on the losing side.
After coming off the bench to help Wrexham come back into the game seven minutes after heading against the crossbar from close range in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.
If Ryan Longman had been able to steer Ryan Longman’s cutback, the 33-year-old could have significantly increased his total.
After the full-time whistle was blown, the Cardiff faithful erupted in a mockery of the towering frontman, who had scored 25 goals in 66 appearances for the Bluebirds during his two-year tenure with the club.
However, his impact once more demonstrated why Parkinson was eager to sign the Sheffield United striker for the summer.
With a superb header from Kieffer, Parkinson expressed his satisfaction.
A happy owner wins when bluebirds compete with one another.
Before the kick-off, Brian Barry-Murphy and Ruben Colwill made a statement about how they wanted Cardiff to demonstrate their ability to defeat Championship rivals.
And they went far beyond just battling off against their Welsh foes.
The Bluebirds took control of the opening half for the majority of the game, adding an additional attacking threat.
The Bluebirds regrouped admirably and created more chances even after a brief slog when Moore equalized for the hosts, and Will Fish successfully took control of setting up his Cardiff account.
“Our players believe we can get to that level for sure, and that’s our intention this season,” Barry-Murphy told Wales’ BBC Sport.
“To put ourselves in a game like this against a team who has been so impressive recently was a real test for us because we never know how it will turn out,” said one player. “To perform in the manner that we did gives us great hope for the future.”
Before the contest, there was some discussion about who owned which two clubs.
After south trumped north, Vincent Tan will have a beaming smile on his face rather than Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the Hollywood duo.
And Barry-Murphy acknowledged that Tan, the owner of Bluebirds, will be incredibly happy after seeing his team triumph over Parkinson’s men.
The Irishman predicted that the owner will be very pleased tonight because we have a very demanding owner who insists that we have more shots.
seven days ago
a day ago
Bellamy receives a delivery from Colwill Sr.
Rubin Colwill was Cardiff’s best attacking play, as has been the case numerous times this season.
Colwill Sr, who had a crucial part in his team’s opener, had the absolute worst chance of not crashing into himself from a free kick.
However, the 23-year-old put on a stunning display, finishing the match with six crucial passes, more than any other player on the field.
He won the player of the match award for his efforts, and he will undoubtedly have attracted the attention of Wales boss Craig Bellamy.
“Our press was fantastic from the beginning.” We are aware of what we can do, Rubin Colwill told Sky Sports.
Images courtesy of Getty
Wrexham concerned about a defensive shake-up.
Wrexham’s week is getting worse when they play Championship rival Coventry City on Friday night at 8:00 GMT.
Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante, both of whom are known for their defensive concerns, will be happy to hear about them.
When Frank Lampard brings his table toppers to Stok Cae Ras, Callum Doyle will serve the final game of his three-game suspension.
Additionally, Parkinson will not be able to call on Lewis Brunt, who has been forced to miss around 12 weeks due to a thigh injury he underwent surgery on.
George Thomason was substituted at left-back against Cardiff due to the issues, and Conor Coady, a summer signing, made his first appearance in six weeks.
Hello and welcome to my brand-new Going Direct BBC Sport column.
Every week, I’ll be examining a different aspect of the modern game, from tactics to man-management, and comparing contemporary design concepts to contemporary trends.
The rise of set-pieces, which is probably the season’s main plot so far, is only one place to start.
When we were promoted to the Premier League in 2008, I was labeled as a dinosaur for my focus on long-throws and dead-ball situations with Stoke City, but I wouldn’t say that because I knew how significant they were then.
Who I was managing, I had the responsibility to get results. I was indeed pragmatic, but I also had a purpose. I focused on achieving my club’s fundamental tenets of effectiveness.
Both ends of the pitch are crucial, not the middle. You must either keep the ball out of the net at one end or into the net at the other.
This is not a new idea; attacking set-plays, as well as defensive ones, are becoming more common this year with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side leading the charge.
What makes set-pieces so crucial?
We knew one of the things we had to nail down when Stoke moved up the top flight, set plays in the top end of the pitch, because if we did them correctly, they would help the team achieve goals.
We worked really hard on them in difficult Premier League games, especially in the first couple of years we were there, because they were the difference between us picking up points and dropping them, as well as staying up or down, and keeping them.
Just at the top end of the table, Arteta and Arsenal are following the same rules.
Like me, he has acknowledged the value of keeping clean sheets and that many of his games were won. Therefore, he has searched for a way to convert those draws to victories.
Since more than 20% of the Premier League’s non-penalty goals were scored on corners or free kicks last year, Arteta has likely considered those figures and the likelihood of becoming a winning team if it can get some of it.
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Stoke comparisons are a compliment, they say.
I think Arteta’s embrace of set pieces is fantastic, and like me, I don’t think he will care about those who criticize him for doing it.
Whatever club you play at and whatever style of play will always generate noise and criticism from the outside, but if you are winning games, your supporters will be enthralled by it.
When Eberechi Eze scored Declan Rice’s free kick in the opener against Crystal Palace on Sunday, the Arsenal fans were singing “set-piece again, ole ole ole ole.”
I find it amusing that Arsene Wenger and I were both taking criticism for our corner routines and long throws ten or twelve years ago, and that Arsene Wenger was saying that Stoke was a rugby team.
Because he has seen all of that at the time and simply thought, “you know what, doing that could help us,” that is another reason why I have nothing but respect for Arteta.
I’ve seen a mockup of him wearing my baseball cap and other accessories, and I adore how good-looking he makes me look!
Wenger tried his hardest to change that by criticizing people like Sam Allardyce and myself, but he never seemed to appreciate the value of set-pieces and he also found it challenging to play against teams who were direct like us.
What matters is winning, according to the saying “fashions change.”
Recently, I recently watched Pep Guardiola’s interview, and they tried to make him dislike set-plays and long throws when they returned to the game.
He is one of the most powerful coaches that has ever been in power, and he claimed that he might use the same tactic if he had someone with broad shoulders who could launch the ball in for throw-ins.
Of course, it matters that Arsenal is doing it right now, not Stoke. Everyone takes notice when Arteta performs it at one of the world’s biggest and most well-known clubs.
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People become aware of and acknowledge it when it continues to happen. It’s similar to when Stoke were playing at the Britannia Stadium and Rory Delap threw the throw until the crowd cheered and cheered until it was over.
Arsenal is also starting to take corners and the crowd is up before the ball even gets played, which is starting to change. It is amazing what they expect and how much pressure they put on the opposition. Of course, there is still criticism, but Arteta deserves it for it.
So maybe Big Sam and I were trend-setters after all, but I’d argue that I didn’t care because I knew what they were worth to the club I was in.
Some people were snobbish and downplayed what we did, but inside the club no one was. We laughed because we knew it was rewarding and that we weren’t going to tell anyone.
The same Sean Dyche exists. He mentioned me and Stoke’s long throws on the manager’s podcast I do with Mick McCarthy last week, and he then said the same thing when he got the Nottingham Forest job a few days later.
What matters is winning, in my opinion, for Dyche.
Rhian Wilkinson predicts Wales’ chances of winning a repeat of their 11-game winning streak will be positive.
After her much-changed Wales side was defeated 5-2 by Poland in a harrowing friendly on Tuesday in Newport, the head coach said there were “no excuses.”
The Welsh team’s longest losing streak since the mid-1990s was a result of a Defeat in their first game without the retired Jess Fishlock, which was their seventh consecutive defeat.
Since winning the Euro 2025 play-off against the Republic of Ireland in December 2024, Wales have won 11 games.
Wales will host one or two friendlies in the following month, but no date has yet been given for the fixture.
Wilkinson already has an eye on the upcoming Nations League campaign, which begins in February 2026 and returns to League B after being relegated from the top earlier this year.
When asked if there were any positives to the Poland defeat, Wilkinson responded, “I think there is a huge positive that we are dropping down to Nations League B.”
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After her team’s performance against Poland, which made their major tournament debut at Euro 2025, Wilkinson expressed disappointment.
The Poles brutally exposed an experimental home line-up at Rodney Parade despite being 26th in the world, six places higher than Wales.
I don’t believe that’s who we are as a nation or as a team, according to Wilkinson.
Every team has off days, according to the saying, “We have off days.” However, we cannot lose our identity on those days.
We were “committed to a transitional game,” and we are now better than that. It’s not even enjoyable to watch because it’s not our style of football.
“These women give a damn about Wales,” the woman said. “I’m not proud of that performance.
Mia Ross and Teagan Scarlett, both from Charlton, made debuts, while Tianna Teisar made her first start for Wales.
As Wales changed its starting lineup from last Saturday’s friendly defeat to Australia, making nine changes also gave a number of other players the chance to impress.
Wilkinson claimed that some senior players who were playing for Poland “didn’t” get it when the youngsters needed assistance.
October 21
In these welcoming windows, I believe that’s crucial. We don’t get many, so I believe we are deserving of using them to really push and stretch ourselves.
Wilkinson claims that Wales “haven’t got anything signed” in relation to friendly opponents in 2025’s final international window.
Wales will be desperate for a win, regardless of who they face, as they prepare for the Nations League, which doubles as World Cup 2027 qualifying.
There has been a period of not winning. That’s a habit we need to break, Williamson said.
In elections scheduled to continue the 64-year-old rule of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) or Party of Revolution, voters in Tanzania will vote at polling booths on Wednesday to choose a new president, as well as members of parliament, and councillors.
Despite a bevy of candidates in the lineup, incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan, analysts say, is virtually unchallenged and will almost certainly win, following what rights groups say has been a heavy crackdown on popular opposition members, activists and journalists.
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Hassan is no longer a real threat, thanks to the removal of Tundu Lissu of Chadema, the party’s main opposition figure, and Luhaga Mpina of ACT-Wazalendo. Other presidential candidates on the ballot lack political backing and are unlikely to make much impact on voters, analysts say.
The East African nation is renowned for its wild life and rolling savannas, making it a popular destination for safari travel. It is also home to Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as a host of important landmarks, like the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. Additionally, agricultural exports and precious minerals, such as the distinctive tanzanite, a blue gemstone, make a significant contribution to foreign earnings.
Central Dodoma is the country’s capital, while the economic hub is coastal Dar-es-Salaam. While various local groups speak a number of other languages, Swahili is the official language.
Here’s what to expect at the polls:
On October 26, 2025, supporters of ACT Wazalendo’s presidential candidate, Othman Masoud, hold a rally at the Kibanda Maiti ground in Unguja, Tanzania, to support his campaign.
What are people voting for and how will the elections be decided?
For each of Tanzania’s 29 regions, voters are selecting a president, a member of the parliament, and local councillors. A president and parliament members will also be elected in the autonomous island of Zanzibar.
The candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of whether the candidate is chosen by a plurality or simple majority.
Authorities declared that Wednesday would be a public holiday to allow people to vote, while early voting began in Zanzibar on Tuesday.
How many people cast ballots?
More than 37 million of the 60 million population are registered to vote. You must be a citizen who is 18 or older to vote.
Voter turnout in the last general elections in 2020 was just 50.72 percent, however, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
On August 28, 2025, Tanzania’s president Samia Suluhu Hassan of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi Party (CCM) addresses supporters at a rally held at the Kawe grounds in the Dar-es-Salaam district of Dar-es-Salaam. [Reuters]
Who is President Samia Suluhu Hassan and why is she regarded as a shoe-in?
Hassan, 65, was formerly the nation’s vice president when John Magufuli passed away in March 2021, allowing him to serve the remainder of his presidency.
Hassan is presently one of only two African female leaders, the other being Namibia’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. She is her country’s first female leader and its sixth president. She was previously minister of trade for Zanzibar, where she is from.
Hassan’s first election attempt was intended to demonstrate how Tanzanians have viewed her leadership so far, and this is her first attempt. However, analysts say the fact that her two strongest challengers have been barred from the polls means the president is running with virtually no competition.
Hassan immediately began torn down controversial policies that were put forth by isolationist leader Magafuli, who denied COVID-19 existed and refused to impose rules governing quarantines or vaccines after taking office in 2021.
Under Hassan, Tanzania joined the international COVAX facility, directed by institutions like the World Health Organization, to help distribute vaccines to developing countries, especially in Africa.
Hassan also lifted Magufuli’s six-year ban on holding political rallies, which he had previously imposed, to strike a conciliatory tone with opposition leaders.
She focused on completing large-scale Magafuli-era development projects and launched new ones, especially around railway infrastructure and rural electrification. Therefore, the president’s supporters praise her record in promoting infrastructure development, improving education access, and promoting overall stability of government.
However, while many hoped Tanzania would become more democratic under her leadership, Hassan’s style of governance has become increasingly authoritarian, analysts say, and now more closely resembles that of her predecessor.
Amnesty International discovered in a report released before the elections that Hassan’s administration has engaged in “repressive practices” and targeted opposition figures with forced disappearances, arrests, harassment, and even torture.
Tanzania’s government has consistently denied all accusations of human rights violations.
Although Hassan’s campaign rallies have been widely attended throughout the nation, hers is almost exclusively a major national campaign, with smaller parties sticking to their particular areas.
Some opposition parties are now calling for a boycott of the elections altogether. John Kitoka, a member of the Chadema party and currently a member of the party who is hiding from arrest, claimed the elections are “completely a sham” in an interview with Al Jazeera.
How are opposition parties being dealt with?
Hassan warned against protests and urged Tanzanians to ignore calls to boycott the election last week.
“The only demonstrations that will exist are those of people going to the polling stations to vote. No additional demonstrations will be held. There will be no security threat”, she said.
The police in Tanzania have also issued a warning against publishing “inciting” content on social media and putting a fine on those who are caught. The country routinely restricts access to social media on specific occasions, such as during protests. Only a select few traditional media outlets have been given approval to cover the election.
In the autonomous Zanzibar, which will also elect a president and parliament members, there is more of an atmosphere of competitive elections, observers say. Othman Masoud, the candidate for ACT-Wazalendo, who has been serving as his vice president, will face incumbent CCM leader Hussein Mwinyi in a coalition government.
FTanzanian opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu of the Chadema party stands in the dock as he appears at the High Court in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, on September 8, 2025]Emmanuel Herman/Reuters]
Why have prominent opposition candidates been denied the right to run for office?
Tundu Lissu, 57, is the charismatic and widely popular opposition Chadema candidate who lived in exile in Belgium for several years during the Magufuli era. His party, which supports free elections, reducing presidential powers, and promoting human rights, has been detained for violating a submission deadline, and Lissu is currently being held in jail for allegedly making “treasonous” remarks prior to the elections.
The move followed Lissu’s comments during a Chadema rally in the southern town of Mbinga on April 3, during which he urged his supporters to boycott the elections if Hassan’s government did not institute electoral reforms before the vote. The Independent National Election Commission should not be made up of people appointed directly by Hassan, according to Lisassu, who was urging the government to change its composition.
Government officials claimed his statements were “inciting” and arrested Lissu on April 9.
Chadema was disqualified from this election and all other candidates until 2030, with the electoral commission blaming the party for failing to adhere to the election’s required Electoral Code of Conduct, which was due on April 12th.
Local media reported that two Chadema party members attending a rally in support of Lissu on April 24 were also arrested by the Tanzanian police.
John Heche, the deputy chairperson of Chadema, was detained last week trying to attend Lissu’s trial at the Dar-es-Salaam High Court. He has not been seen since.
Lissu has frequently been detained. He survived an assassination attempt in 2017 after he was shot 16 times.
Luhaga Mpina, 50, of the second-largest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, was also barred by the elections commission in August. Mpina, a parliament member who broke away from the ruling CCM in August to join ACT-Wazalendo – also known as the Alliance for Change and Transparency – was barred for allegedly failing to follow the rules for nominations during the presidential primaries.
Hassan will face 16 other candidates, none of whom are major political parties or have a standing standing in the political field.
Tanzanian police officers detain a supporter of the opposition leader and former presidential candidate of the Chadema party, Tundu Lissu, outside the High Court in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, on September 15, 2025]Emmanuel Herman/Reuters]
What are the main concerns for this election?
Shrinking democratic freedoms
Observers claim that the Hassan government’s tightening of political freedoms and media crackdowns are putting in danger Tanzania’s fragile democracy, which was already fragile during Magafuli’s presidency.
Amnesty International notes that electoral rights violations were apparent in 2020 under Magufuli, but have worsened ahead of this week’s polls.
Reports of human rights violations under Hassan’s regime, particularly those involving Boniface Mwangi from Kenya and Agather Atuhaire from Uganda, who travelled to Dar-es-Salaam to witness Lissu’s trial but were detained in Dar-es-Salaam on May 19, 2025, have been documented by Human Rights Watch and the UN human rights agency (UNHCR).
Mwangi was reportedly tortured and dumped in a coastal Kenyan town, while Atuhaire reported being sexually assaulted before also being abandoned at the border with Uganda.
Since 2019, the UNHCR has reported that “more than 200 cases of enforced disappearance have been reported in Tanzania.”
Business and economy
The World Bank claims that Tanzania’s economy has grown steadily while inflation has not exceeded the Central Bank’s 5-percent target in recent years.
Unlike its neighbour, Kenya, the lower-middle-income country has avoided debt distress, with GDP boosted by high demand for its gold, tourism and agricultural commodities like cashew nuts, coffee and cotton. The World Bank noted that 49 percent of people do not reach the poverty line internationally.
While growth has attracted foreign investment, government policies have negatively impacted the business landscape: In July, Hassan’s government introduced new restrictions banning foreigners from owning and operating businesses in 15 sectors, including mobile money transfers, tour guiding, small-scale mining and on-farm crop buying.
According to officials, too many foreigners were operating informal businesses that should help Tanzanians. The move played to recent protests against the rising influx of Chinese products and businesses in Tanzanian markets, analysts say. Additionally, it is against the law for foreigners to own radio and television stations, beauty salons, and souvenir shops.
The move proved controversial in the regional East African Community bloc, particularly in neighbouring Kenya, whose citizens make up a significant population of business owners in the country, having taken advantage of the free-movement policy within the bloc.
Conservation difficulties
While abundant wildlife and natural resources have boosted the economy via tourism, Tanzania faces major challenges in managing human-wildlife conflict.
Due to population growth and climate change, which are bringing wild and human species closer to human settlements in search of food and water, are becoming more frequent.
Human-elephant flare-ups are most common. More than 1, 000 human-wildlife mortality cases have been reported nationwide since 2012 and 2019, according to data from Queen’s University in Canada.
While the government provides financial and material compensation to the families of those affected by human-wildlife conflict incidents, families often complain of receiving funds late.
Meanwhile, there is conflict between the government and indigenous groups, including the Maasai, who oppose being removed to make room for more tourism-related conservation space.
In the capital of India’s most populous nation, 40 million people in the city of New Delhi, India, cough and splutter through weeks of intoxicated air.
It resembles clockwork in modern times. Every winter, a toxic mix of exhaust, smoke, and dust that blurs skylines and stings the lungs looms over New Delhi and its nearby satellite cities.
One week prior, as people celebrated the annual Hindu festival of light, Diwali, the skies were lit up with firecrackers, which increased the fumes. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is under the leadership of Delhi’s new government, believes that the solution to reducing the impact of the rain, perhaps now, by artificially “seeding clouds” to remove the fumes, lies in making it rain.
What is the government of Delhi doing?
A small aircraft sprayed small amounts of sodium chloride and silver iodide on Tuesday afternoon, creating artificial rain over Delhi.
The national capital’s air quality is deteriorating, and the cloud seeding trial aims to address this problem.
500 kilometers from New Delhi, an aircraft took off from Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh. The cloud-seeding exercise was conducted over a portion of the capital in consultation with scientists from the city’s Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) branch.
The government conducted a test flight last week, and it was praised for its success. Rekha Gupta, the chief minister of Delhi, referred to it as a “necessity” for Delhi and a “pioneering step” in the direction of New Delhi’s persistent environmental issues.
On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, an airplane departs from Kanpur for New Delhi for a cloud-seeding trial to combat air pollution. [Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, via AP.
Delhi is choking, why?
Delhi’s air is a toxic, dense mixture of dust, smoke, and chemicals every winter.
Slow winds and a “temperature inversion” weather pattern trap pollutants close to the ground as temperatures drop.
Fine particles known as PM2.5, which are small enough to enter the bloodstream, buildup from construction dust, car emissions, factories, and crop stubble burning in nearby agricultural states, create plumes of black carbon and smoke.
In the air, these combine with gases like nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide to form new, even worse, particles. The city is blanketed in a grey, choking haze as a result.
Long-term exposure has been linked to heart and lung diseases, respiratory infections, and adverse birth outcomes due to the deadly combination of airborne particles.
Delhi lived up to its reputation as one of the world’s most polluted cities, and the fireworks from Diwali only made the atmosphere more intoxicating.
In New Delhi, India, on October 24, 2025, a worker sprays a solution to remove toxic foam from the Yamuna river.
What is the process of cloud seeding?
In some ways, it resembles “nudging” the sky into raining. According to their predictions of the moisture distribution, scientists choose a cloud to “seed” based on its type, height, atmospheric status, and stratification.
Then, loaded planes or drones spray tiny, typically silver iodide-filled clouds with water. These act like “seeds,” giving water vapour a place to cling to. These particles become heavier as more droplets gather around them, eventually falling as rain, hopefully removing the low-hanging pollution as they do.
Images shared by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur on Tuesday showed substances being released from flares attached to aircraft while it was in cloudy skies.
(Al Jazeera)
Is it effective?
The scientific findings were contradictory. In a column for The Hindu on October 24, Shahzad Gani and Krishna AchutaRao, professors at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi, noted that cloud seeding cannot create natural clouds, and that the evidence for reliable rainfall increases is still in dispute.
Additionally, experts worry that an excessive accumulation of these salts in the soil could harm the ecosystem.
According to experts, artificial rain only offers a temporary respite from a persistent issue in New Delhi.
According to Gani and AchutaRao, “cloud seeding is just another gimmick in a line of similar unscientific ideas, like smog towers,” which suggest flashy interventions can be used in place of serious structural solutions.
