Legia Warsaw fans show their support
“There is no doubt that the Ekstraklasa — the highest division of Polish football — is the most competitive top flight in European football. There is now a compelling argument that this league season is the craziest ever. With less than a third of the 34-game Ekstraklasa season remaining, all 18 clubs can mathematically either win the title or be relegated. Across the division, there are storylines that defy logic. Zaglebie — who begun this weekend as league leaders — are from tiny Lubin, whose 70,000 inhabitants ranks it outside the top 50 largest cities in Poland by population. Zaglebie finished 15th last season, just one place above the relegation zone. …”
NY Times/The Athletic (Video)
Jagiellonia Bialystok’s players celebrate a goal against Strasbourg in the UEFA Conference League
Welcome to the wild Polish league, where all 18 teams can still win the title… or be relegated
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“Liverpool’s return to the summit of the Premier League last season dovetailed with a return to profitability, and the club’s 2024-25 financials, publicly released last Thursday, unveiled the platform from which they launched last summer’s £400million transfer splurge. The champions booked a £15.2million profit, their best financial result since the 2018-19 season and a first profitable year in three. Revenue shot up £89m and 15 per cent to £702.7m, easily a club record, making Liverpool only the second English side, after Manchester City, to top £700m in annual turnover. …”
“The received wisdom was that the Premier League would have three, possibly four, of its six representatives in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It might now be lucky to have one. Expectations have flipped in 48 hours. It is one of the reasons we love this sport and, in particular, this competition. Fatigue has been the lens through which people have viewed the shortcomings of the Premier League teams halfway through the round of 16. …”
“Welcome to the latest edition of The Alternative Premier League Table, where each week, The Athletic analyses the entire division through a specific lens. And with over 75 per cent of the Premier League campaign in the books, now feels like a good moment to assess fan sentiment about their team’s season. To that end, we’ve taken the team ratings data from Fanalysis, an app where fans can rate their team’s performances, including those of the players, manager and even referees, after every match. 
“… The FA Cup needed a result like Port Vale 1 Sunderland 0 and a hero in the form of Kiwi international Benjamin Waine, who scored the winning goal on an emotional afternoon. It wasn’t the only shock of the round, either, as Southampton won at Fulham. At one stage, it looked like Wrexham might spring a surprise against Chelsea, who came from behind twice and were assisted by VAR to take the game into extra time. They then scored twice in the extra half hour, the goals coming from constantly-jeered Garnacho and in-form João Pedro. The other games all followed the script – Arsenal winning at Mansfield, Manchester City beating Newcastle United, Liverpool disposing of Wolves and Leeds United beating Norwich City. West Ham United and Brighton drew 2-2 with the Hammers winning the penalty shoot-out. …”
“It was in the sixth minute of Tottenham’s Champions League last-16 tie against Atletico Madrid that Antonin Kinsky’s night began to unravel. A routine phase of build-up had worked its way back toward the Spurs goalkeeper, which should have set up a relatively straightforward action, but just as he attempted to play out from the back, his footing suddenly gave way on the slippery surface and he landed on his backside. As the ball squirted loose, panic set in for the young goalkeeper, who was making his Champions League debut, and after a squirmish in the box, Marcos Llorente slotted home to give Atletico an early lead. …”
“There are many things this match will be remembered for. The goals, the errors, the disbelief that Tottenham Hotspur could be 4-0 down within 22 minutes. But, mainly, it will be for the sight of goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky walking down the tunnel, a comforting hand over his shoulder, after the goalkeeper was brutally substituted in the 16th minute after two calamitous slips in an opening 45 minutes like no other. The Czech’s Champions League debut went horribly wrong and now Tottenham not only face having to play a second-leg tie against Atletico Madrid when already 5-2 down but also likely face an inquisition over head coach Igor Tudor’s call to haul off his 22-year-old goalkeeper with the game in its infancy. …”
“On a dramatic night at St James’ Park, Newcastle United looked like they had secured a famous victory over Barcelona only to be denied by a penalty deep into stoppage time. With the last kick of the game, Lamine Yamal converted a spot kick after Malick Thiaw tripped Dani Olmo inside the box. It meant honours were even in a thrilling first leg of this last-16 Champions League tie. Newcastle looked to have won it when Harvey Barnes scored from close range from Jacob Murphy’s cross. By the time the hosts finally scored, they had missed a host of chances as they repeatedly used their pace to get in behind the high line of Barcelona’s defence. …”
Virgil van Dijk and Galatasaray’s match winner, Mario Lemina
“Goals from corners have been arriving at an unprecedented rate in the Premier League this season. 
“‘Anti-football’, also known colloquially as 
“… Italy’s fourth World Cup was won in typical Italian fashion — they rarely win international trophies in great style, but there’s always great drama involved. This success played out with Serie A, their domestic top flight, in a crisis. The Calciopoli scandal revealed that various club executives had been effectively choosing favourable referees for their teams’ matches. A complex storyline that was unfolding throughout the tournament, the main sporting consequence was that Juventus were stripped of the previous two years’ Serie A titles and relegated to the second division. …”
“There was quite a crowd building outside the Wrexham Lager Stand on Saturday afternoon: children, parents, grandparents, all waiting for a glimpse of their heroes and perhaps, if they were lucky, an autograph or a selfie. Wrexham’s players were happy to oblige. Kick-off was barely an hour away, an FA Cup fifth-round glamour tie against Chelsea that would leave a huge global TV audience enthralled, but one player after another did the rounds, signing every shirt, match programme, ball or scrap of paper that was eagerly thrust in front of them. …”
Iran’s players celebrate after qualifying for the World Cup but there are doubts as to whether they will participate in the tournament
Italy’s players perform the fascist salute before the start of the 1938 World Cup final against Hungary in Paris
“Following Liverpool’s late defeat by Wolves at Molineux earlier this week, head coach Arne Slot lamented that it was the ‘same old story and sums up our season’. And it does. Liverpool have now lost five times to 90th-minute-plus goals this season, the most ever by a team in a single Premier League campaign. What should be a rare event has become worryingly commonplace for the reigning champions. 
“Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was speaking to the media after Everton’s 2-0 win against Burnley on Tuesday when Rodrigo Gomes scored for Wolverhampton Wanderers against the home side’s Merseyside rivals Liverpool. The loud cheers from fans in the concourses and corporate lounges at Hill Dickinson Stadium in response to that goal temporarily shifted attention away from the post-game debrief with broadcaster TNT Sports. …”
“Liverpool beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 to advance to the sixth round of the FA Cup on Friday night. Cody Gakpo hit the Wolves upright in the opening exchanges, but he was ruled offside. Neither side broke the deadlock in the first-half, even though Liverpool did have six shots at the Wolves goal. Wolves had none — the same as on Tuesday night. Just five minutes after the break, though, Gakpo broke before playing in Mohamed Salah. Salah worked the ball well to Curtis Jones, who then played in Andy Robertson to strike from distance. …”
“The 
“In the coming days and weeks, as they try to avoid being swallowed up by the relegation quicksands, maybe the relevant people can get round to answering an intriguing question. It is the one that is surely being asked already in the boardrooms of Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, given the jarring reality that one of those three clubs is likely to drop out of the Premier League and be playing in the Championship next season. Where did it go wrong? …”
“The cold, hard statistics make for uncomfortable reading. Liverpool have lost five Premier League games after conceding in the 90th minute or later this season, 
“After years of planning, the World Cup is now just 100 days away. This summer’s tournament in North America will almost certainly be the most-viewed sports event ever, watched by millions (or more likely billions) of fans across the world. But it also offers a huge opportunity to attract a whole new audience, particularly across the United States, where soccer has long been on the rise but still does not dominate the sporting landscape as it does in so many other countries. This will be a World Cup watched by diehards and those who have never engaged with the sport before. With that in mind, we have compiled this article as a guide to everything you could possibly want to know about the tournament, from the most basic questions for those who have never watched the sport to far more intricate details about how teams play, the politics of this tournament, the ticketing situation and much more. With 100 days until the tournament, our reporters have answered 100 questions. …”
“When Brentford manager Keith Andrews said before his side’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal this month that he ‘likes creating chaos’, he certainly would not have meant this. A visit to Burnley, languishing in 19th, turned into one of the matches of the Premier League season. Brentford had it… before they didn’t. Burnley thought they had it… but Brentford hit back. And there was still time for more. Breathless as it sounds, that does not do justice to the chaos of Burnley 3-4 Brentford — nothing might unless you were among those at Turf Moor to witness it first-hand. …”
“Another weekend, another London derby defeat for Tottenham Hotspur. And though this was not against arch-rivals Arsenal, failing at Fulham is just as damaging. After last week’s 4-1 loss, fans will have wanted to see a reaction, and there were first-half protests and chants against the board. There will have been anger, too, that Harry Wilson’s early opener was allowed to stand after a similar incident in the north London derby last Sunday. There could be no complaints over the second Fulham goal, though, as Alex Iwobi fired home with brilliant technique from outside the area. …”
“If somebody had told you that, this season, a team would break a Premier League record by scoring seven successive non-penalty set-piece goals, who would you guess? Mikel Arteta’s set-piece machine at Arsenal? Brentford, who appointed a set-piece coach as their manager? Either way, Liverpool would probably not have been towards the top of your list. …”
“Arsenal have cleared another major hurdle in their bid for the Premier League title. Mikel Arteta’s side restored their five-point advantage at the top of the table with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Chelsea, which once again relied on their prowess at dead balls, with both of their goals coming from corners. Chelsea looked impressive for long spells and had a goal disallowed for offside in stoppage time, but were ultimately undone by Pedro Neto’s second-half red card — yet another moment of indiscipline that has cost them dearly this term as they pursue Champions League qualification. We analyse the main talking points. …”
Benjamin Sesko makes it 1-1 deep in stoppage time at West Ham.
“Football’s lawmakers attempts to combat timewasting will subject substitutions, throw-ins and goal-kicks to time limits from this summer. There are also changes to expand the scope of the sport’s video assistant referee (VAR) system, which will now be permitted to check and review red cards ‘arising from a clearly incorrect second yellow card’, cases of ‘mistaken identity’ when a yellow or red card are shown, and cases of a ‘clearly incorrectly awarded corner kick’. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) met for their annual general meeting near Cardiff on Saturday and ratified changes to the laws ahead of the World Cup beginning in June. …”
“The first half of Everton versus Manchester United was a low-on-entertainment slogfest. The Monday night kick-off was in keeping with many Premier League games this season, with teams finding it harder to create goalscoring chances in open play and focusing more on set-piece opportunities. Football can often be described as “a game of mistakes”, and this season has seen an increase in games where teams are so focused on avoiding them that they lose sight of how to proactively force one from the opposition. Thankfully, the second half brought something more entertaining. …”
“The shock value is notable. The Serie A champions not making it through the Champions League league phase. The current best in class and league leaders by 10 points 
“Atletico Madrid’s 7-4 aggregate Champions League play-off round victory over Club Brugge sees Diego Simeone’s new-look side roll on to face either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16, and comes as veteran attacker Antoine Griezmann mulls a possible move to MLS. The build-up to Tuesday’s game 
“Tonight’s Champions League match between Real Madrid and Benfica sees Jose Mourinho return to the Bernabeu for the first time since his turbulent spell at the Spanish club from 2010 to 2013. He does so in dramatic circumstances. Last Tuesday’s knockout phase play-off first leg between the teams saw Mourinho sent off for protesting from the sidelines during a 1-0 defeat for his Portuguese side. After the game, he made headlines around the world with his comments about the alleged racist abuse of Madrid forward Vinicius Jr by Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni. …”
Queretaro (in red) will be forced to play their league match on a later date 
“The year that Inter last won the Champions League, their historic treble season of 2009-10, Bodo/Glimt finished sixth in the Norwegian second division. We could be here for quite a while, listing ways to measure the gulf in the respective sizes and international reputations of these two clubs, but that seems as good as any. One of the most historic and storied football clubs to ever exist — 20-time Serie A champions and three-time European champions — were beaten on Tuesday, and beaten easily, by ‘a team from a small town up north’, as their head coach, Kjetil Knutsen, put it after the game. …”
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football. This was the round where Arsenal answered a few critics with another 4-1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool boosted their Champions League prospects with a smash-and-grab win at Nottingham Forest, moving them level on points with Chelsea, who stuttered at home to Burnley. We will ask whether talk over Arsenal’s supposed fragile mentality is valid, question just how much trouble Spurs are in and ponder what on earth has happened to Crystal Palace. …”
One of the biggest cheers of the night from Benfica fans was the introduction of their young Black striker Arthur Cabral
“Liverpool had one Alexis Mac Allister goal disallowed in the 90th minute and one Alexis Mac Allister goal allowed in the 97th minute, earning Arne Slot’s side a late victory against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. The first was ruled out for striking his elbow, and the second was given after a lengthy delay ruled that Ola Aina’s left boot had played Virgil van Dijk onside in the build-up to Mac Allister finding the back of the net with seconds left to play. The win papers over the cracks of a disappointing display from Liverpool against 
“One of the themes of Manchester City’s attack this season has been their ability to operate in a narrow or wide shape depending on the available players and the opponent’s setup. This flexibility was evident in City’s 2-1 victory away to Nottingham Forest in December, when the switch from a narrow 4-3-3 shape on the ball to a 3-1-3-3 in the second half stretched the opponent’s shape and created spaces between the lines. In either of those attacking shapes, the rotations and fluidity have helped City 
La Liga has reacted to 26 instances of racist abuse towards Vinicius Junior
“Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Barcelona, our weekly series to follow throughout La Liga’s 2025-26 season. Every week, we will bring you key information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Barca with reporting you can trust. The information contained in this article reflects multiple conversations with various sources at the Spanish champions, all of whom wanted to speak anonymously to protect relationships. …”
“Xabi Alonso’s response to a question about his preferred playing style in his first press conference as Real Madrid head coach last May was instructive. … Alvaro Arbeloa’s response to the same question seven-and-a-half months later, after being promoted to the first-team job from coaching in the club’s academy in the wake of Alonso’s January 12 sacking, was much simpler. …”
“… Anatoliy Trubin has had a bit more time to process what happened in the 98th minute of Benfica’s final Champions League group game against Real Madrid. But it still doesn’t feel entirely real. To recap: because of injuries and a couple of VAR reviews in the first half, the game was still going six or seven minutes after every other fixture on the last, chaotic day of the group stage had finished. That meant Benfica knew what they had to do to make it into the playoffs for the knockout stages. Well, in theory they did. …”
“New Year, new managers. Chelsea kicked things off when they sacked Enzo Maresca on New Year’s Day, before Manchester United parted company with Ruben Amorim four days later. Now, after a pair of February firings this week, there have been four Premier League sackings already in 2026, the most ever seen across the first two months of a calendar year. Tottenham Hotspur reignited the sacking spree when they dismissed Thomas Frank on Wednesday, while Nottingham Forest relieved Sean Dyche of his duties less than 24 hours later, releasing a statement in the early hours of Thursday following their 0-0 draw at home to last-place-by-a-mile Wolverhampton Wanderers the previous evening. …”
Sandro Tonali of Newcastle complains to referee Chris Kavanagh during Saturday’s FA Cup game against Aston Villa
Fabian Hurzeler pictured during Brighton’s FA Cup tie at Anfield on Saturday
Tottenham Hotspur’s sporting director Johan Lange (left) and CEO Vinai Venkatesham, the men who will appoint a long-term successor to Thomas Frank
“After beating Barnsley in the FA Cup last month, Arne Slot admitted that his approach to analysing opponents might need a rethink. ‘We’ve played 30 games this season and I’d say 28 of my pre-match meetings, I could just throw in the bin,’ he said in a press conference, highlighting the extent to which he feels teams have altered their approach when lining up against Liverpool. For context — and this is important — Slot was not suggesting that opponents should roll over and play into Liverpool’s hands. Against Barnsley, for example, he acknowledged that he also would have adopted defensive tactics in their position. …”
“All FA Cup draws are equal, but some are more equal than others. It is an age-old maxim for managers to rebuff suggestions that they have been handed a favourable tie in football’s oldest competition. Jose Mourinho provided a classic of the genre when his Premier League employers Tottenham were given a third-round tie away to Middlesbrough of the second-tier Championship in the 2019-20 competition. …”
Scissors Kick 