Category Sports News

Wales vs. Liechtenstein qualifier for the Euro.

Cardiff City Stadium Date: Friday, June 6th Kickoff: 19:45 BST

As Wales attempt to win back-to-back World Cup matches in order to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, Harry Wilson wants to make history in Belgium.

Craig Bellamy’s side travel to Cardiff on Friday to face group winners Belgium in Brussels three days later.

Wilson made his first appearance for Wales in 2013, when he started as a 16-year-old substitute, and the trip to the King Baudouin Stadium represents a return to the scene.

Wilson says Bellamy’s in-form team should aim for their first ever away win in Belgium despite their initial camp goal being to defeat Liechtenstein.

“We still have to go out there and perform,” Wilson said, adding that “international football has shown us that these are not easy games. “Of course, on paper people will think we should win [against Liechtenstein] comfortably,” he said.

Wales have a strong record against Belgium, which they defeated in their Euro 2016 qualifying match and ultimately lost to them.

It is amazing to have a record as good as that of a country as good as they are, which has been a golden era for the past ten and fifteen years, Wilson said.

“I’m not sure why the record is that good, but we can hopefully keep it going,” he said.

In September 2022, Wales lost to Belgium in Brussels when Kieffer Moore’s goal was ineffective and resulted in a 2-1 Nations League defeat for the hosts.

They have won eight of their previous eight games since Bellamy took over in the summer of 2024, but they have never won in Belgium. They will now travel confidently.

Wilson, who is in line to win his 61st cap against Liechtenstein, said, “We’ve gone eight games without losing since the manager’s come in. It’s not easy at all.

Wilson, who was then at Liverpool, received his chance in a 1-1 draw in Belgium in 2013, making him the youngest male international for Wales ever.

Wilson still holds the record for Wales’ youngest senior international, having been one of their most influential players for a decade.

Wilson remarked, “At the time, I didn’t know about the record.”

“At the time, it was just about starting to get better for my country.” It was something I’d always wanted to do, so it was amazing when I was just starting out.

Then, a few years away, which made me even more hungry to ensure that I was reinstated and really started to rack up the caps.

“I didn’t want to just be a 16-year-old one-cap.” I aspired to be a team staple. Although it took me a while, I now feel that way.

In a World Cup qualifier played behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic, Wilson added another memorable moment in Belgium in 2021 when he put the finishing touches on a fantastic team move to open the scoring.

Wilson is proud of the team’s goal, which was “one of the better” ones, despite Wales’ eventual 3-1 defeat.

To score a team goal like that was amazing, he continued. The team they had out that night was one of their strongest.

The government’s proposed choice of David Kogan as chair of English football’s new independent regulator faces a “full inquiry” by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

William Shawcross has written to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), saying the move was “necessary” after “an initial assessment of this case, informed by spot checks”.

He added Kogan and the Secretary of State Lisa Nandy are likely to be interviewed, and his inquiry would ensure the selection “was made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments”.

In April, Nandy said the 68-year-old sports media rights executive was the “outstanding candidate” to fill the position, despite not being on the original three-person shortlist.

She has now removed herself from the final decision, delegating responsibility to the Sports Minister.

Last month, Kogan told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMS) during a pre-appointment hearing that he was being “utterly transparent” by declaring his donations.

The committee endorsed Kogan, but said he must work to “reassure the football community that he will act impartially and in a politically neutral way”. Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage warned that Kogan’s “past donations to the Labour Party will inevitably leave him open to charges of political bias in a job where independence is paramount”.

Kogan said he had donated “very small sums” to the campaigns, as well as thousands of pounds to Labour MPs and candidates in recent years, but had “total personal independence from all of them” and pledged “total political impartiality” if appointed.

A DCMS spokesperson said: “We have received the letter from the Commissioner for Public Appointments and we look forward to co-operating fully with his office.

“The appointment is in the process of being ratified in the usual way.”

Kogan declined to comment.

It has also emerged that Nandy has written to the CMS Committee and told them: “I heard clearly the Committee’s comments regarding David’s transparency and candour regarding previous political donations that he had made and the need for him to take concrete steps to avoid the perception of any bias or lack of independence from government.

“As a first step to avoid any risk of this, I am writing to inform you that I have delegated the final decision on the chair’s appointment to the Minister for Sport.”

Conservative shadow sports minister Louie French has previously said the failure to disclose the donations when first put forward for the role was “a clear breach of the governance code on public appointments”.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister added Kogan had been appointed through a “fair and open competition”, and the BBC has been told his donations were below the threshold that requires declaring.

The Football Governance Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament after being reintroduced by the Labour government in October, will establish a first independent regulator for the professional men’s game in England.

The legislation will hand power to a body independent from government and football authorities to oversee clubs in England’s top five divisions.

England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir is open to leaving Somerset when his contract expires at the end of the season in order to play more county cricket.

The 21-year-old is first-choice spinner for Ben Stokes ‘ Test team but behind left-armer Jack Leach in the pecking order at Taunton.

Bashir had three County Championship matches on loan at Glamorgan earlier this season and one match for Worcestershire in 2024.

As reported by ESPNCricinfo, Bashir is now free to speak to other counties as, from 1 June each year, players with expiring contracts are permitted to negotiate with other clubs.

Bashir signed a two-year deal with Somerset in 2023, and was then picked for England’s tour of India the following year after playing only six first-class matches.

Despite a modest domestic record – Bashir’s average in the County Championship is 84 – he has thrived for his country under Stokes ‘ leadership.

He was man of the match in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe last month with career-best match figures of 9-143, which also included Bashir becoming the youngest England man to reach 50 Test wickets.

While he has replaced Leach as England’s number one spinner, Somerset have kept faith with the 33-year-old as their first choice.

Women’s Nations League: Scotland vs. Netherlands

Kick-off time: Tuesday, 3 June, 1:10 p.m. BST

As she considers making changes for her second game as head coach, Melissa Andreatta claims Scotland’s young teenagers showed “a real maturity” when they started playing as substitutes against Austria on Friday.

The Scots, who have already been relegated, will now face their final Nations League Group A1 game in the Netherlands with a victory at Hampden.

However, the former Australia assistant has urged her team to maintain their “faith” and that they are “very hungry and determined to put in their best performance for this match to close this campaign in a positive way.”

Andreatta responded, “I think what they showed was a real maturity and able to manage the moment, and they thrived.

We could see a change in the second half, and I think it was just because they had more faith in that and the ability to play and choose different situations.

“I think what we saw were players coming off the bench, both freshmen and experienced players,” said the coach. “I think that’s fantastic for the team and those individual players.”

As her side prepares for “a massive test” against a team ranked 10th in the world and looking to bounce back from their own 4-0 defeat in Germany, Andreatta is determined to see the positives of the defeat.

There will be times in the match when things don’t go right, but that’s where we’re at right now, she said. “We just need to keep going this way,” she said.

We drew many lessons from it, and what we now want to do is close this campaign and then anticipate a fresh beginning in our next camp afterward.

Scotland have lost all five of their matches so far in the Nations League top flight, but Lineth Beerensteyn and Chasity Grant scored the Dutch’s winning goal at Hampden in February despite Emma Lawton’s goal extending the lead.

After Pedro Martinez Losa was fired following her unsuccessful attempt to reach this summer’s Euro 2025 finals, Andreatta believes she has already seen areas where the squad could improve.

After making England’s 42-player training squad for the tournament, Centre Emily Scarratt is on the verge of clinching a fifth consecutive Rugby World Cup record.

The 35-year-old has represented the Red Roses at four World Cups and wants to become the first English rugby player to compete in five of those competitions.

Scarratt, a member of the Loughborough Lightning, won her first World Cup debut in 2010 at Twickenham Stoop, where England lost to New Zealand in the final. Scarratt has capped 118 times.

Only three players, including Samoa’s Brian Lima and the duo of Italy’s Mauro Bergamasco and Sergio Parisse, have participated in five World Cups.

Former New Zealand fly-half Anna Richards won four World Cups between 1991 and 2010, winning the latter four of them.

Fiao’o Fa’amausili also won four World Cups between 2002 and 2017 in each of her five competitions. Donna Kennedy of Scotland won five World Cups, her first of which occurred in 1994.

The World Cup, which begins on August 22 and runs, is expected to be won by hosts England.

In a thrilling game at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham in April, they won the Six Nations Grand Slam for the fourth time in a row.

Although Megan Jones has made her debut as John Mitchell’s starting outside center, Scarratt continues to make a valuable addition to the squad despite missing out on England’s matchday squad due to their Grand Slam victory over France.

As they count down to their home World Cup against the United States at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, the Red Roses are on a 25-game winning streak.

For the first time since Monday, the squad has been assembled, and the tournament will have a 32-player roster.

England, who won the 2014 World Cup, narrowly lost to New Zealand at Eden Park in 2022 in a dramatic match.

Sarah Beckett, a Gloucester-Hartpury forward, is once more a notable player.

The 26-year-old, who can play lock or back row, was not selected for the Red Roses’ 2022 World Cup squad.

Beckett was named in Mitchell’s Women’s Six Nations squad earlier this year, but she was unable to play due to a back injury, which cost her the final 35 caps of the year at Six Nations.

Cath O’Donnell, a Loughborough Lightning lock with an ankle injury, has returned to full training and has made it to the Six Nations and the WXV1s.

Millie David and Sarah Parry, both of whom were uncapped in Mitchell’s March Six Nations training squad, were given the nickname.

With a remarkable 17 assists, Bristol Bears’ David, age 19, was the top try-scorer in Premiership Women’s Rugby this season.

15 months after leaving the position, Maurizio Sarri has returned to Lazio as head coach.

Marco Baroni, who led the Serie A team to a seventh-place finish last season that prevented them from qualifying for Europe, is now in charge.

After a fifth defeat in six games, Sarri left the team in March 2024, and he had also been highly critical of the club’s transfer policy.

The former Chelsea boss, who previously held the positions of president and manager of Lazio for three years, announced in a statement that “Maurizio Sarri has returned home.

His return is based on his heart, conviction, and vision. We are aware that we can bring back enthusiasm, identity, and ambition when we embark on a journey that was too abruptly.

Sarri, who was born in Naples, started his banking career by coaching at low-level Italian clubs.

In the early 2000s, he left his day job to concentrate on management, but he didn’t rise to the top of the Italian charts until he led Empoli to promotion in 2013 and 2014.

Sarri then won the title of Serie A manager of the year in 2016 and 2016 while leading his hometown team Napoli to two second-place finishes in three years.

He spent one season at Chelsea between 2018 and 2019, where he won the Europa League and the Carabao Cup final, before moving back to Italy and capturing the title with Juventus the following year.