Hannah Malia

04/04/2024

England defender Leah Williamson is "fit and ready" to make a return for the first time in a year in Friday's Euro 2025 qualifier against Sweden, says manager Sarina Wiegman.

Williamson suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in April 2023 and withdrew from February's friendlies with a hamstring issue.

There were fresh knee injury concerns during Arsenal's Continental Cup final win over Chelsea on Sunday.

"She is in a good place and is ready," said Wiegman.

"We needed to manage her a little bit. She had a full training session yesterday and will be on the pitch again today (Thursday)

"That is really good. She is still building but she is in a good place - if she comes through today, of course."

Asked whether Williamson will captain the side, Wiegman said: "If she plays, she's the captain. We just want to get through this training session and see how she is and how the team is."

There was a blow for Manchester City goalkeeper Khiara Keating, who pulled out of the squad with a knee injury and has been replaced by Southampton's Kayla Rendell - her first senior call-up.

All 23 available players trained at St George's Park on Thursday and will travel to London to face Sweden at Wembley.

Before the match the Lionesses will wear training tops displaying their names in the British Sign Language, to help make football more accessible.

Members of the England women's deaf football team - who finished third at the 2023 World Deaf Championships - will be presented to supporters at half-time.

Wiegman's side have been drawn in a qualifying group with two of the world's top six as they face France, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, ranked third, sixth and 25th respectively.

The top two teams from the League A group will qualify automatically for next summer's tournament, with the other two sides entering the play-offs.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

19/03/2024

"That's the player you should be excited about."

Ethan Ampadu had just walked behind Ashley Williams in a stadium corridor in Chisinau as the then Wales captain gave his firm declaration of a future star.

With a nod of the head in the direction of the dreadlocked 16-year-old strolling past, the man who skippered Wales to the 2016 European Championship semi-finals the previous summer was unequivocal.

"That's the guy who's going to replace me," Williams said, without a hint of worry time may prove him wrong.

While Liverpool youngster Ben Woodburn grabbed headlines for a goal and assist in World Cup qualifying, Williams was anointing an unused sub as his natural heir as Wales centre-back and leader. For good reason.

Ampadu's position may still be under debate, defender for club, midfielder for country, but his status in Wales' new generation is not.

He has already reached two major championships and is almost certain to start Thursday's Euro 2024 play-off semi-final against Finland in Cardiff - the winners play Poland or Estonia five days later for a place in Germany this summer.

In doing so - at 23 years, six months and eight days - he will become the youngest Welshman to reach 50 caps, with manager Rob Page as adamant as Williams that Ampadu is a Wales captain in waiting.

As Leeds and Wales team-mate Joe Rodon put it: "He's going to be one for the future - which sounds mad to say because it feels like he's been around forever."

To be precise, it was eight years ago when Ampadu, still a schoolboy in Exeter, was invited by Chris Coleman to train with the Wales squad preparing for Euro 2016.

"I was a very nervous young boy," Ampadu said as he recalled being driven by his father, former Swansea and Exeter midfielder Kwame, to the team's Vale of Glamorgan base.

"He might not remember it but the first person I met was Ben Davies. Just that initial 'How are you?' was quite settling for me."

Nowadays it is Ampadu on arrivals duty to help welcome the youngsters but back then, he had not even sat his GCSEs.

He went from training with Gareth Bale to the banter of classmates when Wales were beaten by England in their Euro 2016 group match.

"I left early that day because they were all celebrating, but in the tournament I had the last laugh, which was quite nice," he said with a sneaking grin.

Ampadu had been courted by England - even playing twice at under-15 level - but says his choice to choose the country of his Swansea-born mother was never in question.

What was questioned, though, was whether he could live up to the excitable predictions.

19/03/2024

Norwich City defender Grant Hanley has pulled out of Scotland's squad for the friendlies against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland.

The 32-year-old was recalled for the games on 22 and 26 March after a long lay-off with an Achilles injury.

Hanley returned to Steve Clarke's squad after playing eight times for the Canaries this year.

The centre-backs still in the squad are Scott McKenna, Jack Hendry, Liam Cooper, Ryan Porteous and John Souttar.

Kieran Tierney is also often used as the left-sided central defender in Clarke's preferred 3-5-2 formation and no replacement for Hanley has been called up.

The Dumfries-born defender missed Norwich's last two matches in the Championship after limping out of their defeat at Middlesbrough earlier this month.

Norwich manager David Wagner said after Saturday's win at Stoke that Hanley and the club had decided to leave him out of team training "because he is not as explosive and as sharp as he was when he was at his best".

"He is a very physical centre-half," added Wagner. "If he is physically on his best then he is one of the best, or the best, in the division. We have to make sure, and he feels the same, to get him back to that level.

"We have given him a proper individual programme in the next couple of weeks, or however long it will take, to get back to that level.

"Even if we are happy that his Achilles is fine, we have to get him back to the explosive, sharp Grant Hanley he was before his injury."

07/03/2024

Philippe Clement admits he faces a selection dilemma away to Benfica in the Europa League with four wingers missing from his Rangers squad.

And the manager fears Ross McCausland could be added to the absentees for Thursday's last-16 first-leg match.

"I have five wingers and maybe five of them will be out - that is a bad situation," Clement said.

"It's a challenge and you need to see if you stick with the same system or play players out of position."

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Scottish Premiership leaders Rangers lost at home to Motherwell on Saturday, with Benfica suffering an even worse result as they were thrashed 5-0 away to Porto and relinquished their domestic lead to Sporting Lisbon.

Clement expects "a reaction" from "a really good Benfica team" despite Roger Schmidt's side having also finished a distant third behind Real Sociedad and Inter Milan in their Champions League group before edging out Toulouse in the play-off to reach the last 16.

"We are playing a good team with a lot of quality," the Belgian said. "It's a huge challenge. This is exciting for us.

"We are playing a team with double our budget, but we are really ambitious. We need to over-perform and get a little bit of luck. We have to be very efficient."

Clement is hoping for a similar performance to Rangers' win away to Real Betis that secured top place in their qualifying group and thinks the pitch in Lisbon will suit his side's style of play as it is similar to Ibrox.

"We come to win," he promised. "I never play to get a draw.

"I don't believe in parking the bus and only defending, I have never done that. Whether it was with smaller teams playing in Madrid or Paris against PSG or playing in Leipzig with Club Brugge - we always attacked to win games."

Counterpart Schmidt has been criticised by fans for not issuing a public apology for Sunday's hammering but reckons the best way to make amends is by putting in a "complete performance" against Rangers.

The German is delighted to have the chance to respond so quickly and said: "We want to show a good reaction after Sunday.

"After the match, we were all a little bit shocked about the result and of course we were also not happy with the performance."

15/02/2024

Arsenal's match with Manchester United on Saturday could be played in front of a record-breaking crowd, with the game at Emirates Stadium selling out.

The current Women's Super League attendance record came in Arsenal's win over Chelsea at the Emirates on 10 December, which was watched by 59,042.

Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal's men's side, has a capacity of just over 60,000.

Arsenal women play most home games at the 4,500 capacity Meadow Park.

But the Gunners are staging six of their 11 home league matches during the 2023-24 campaign at the Emirates.

Earlier this year, Gunners manager Jonas Eidevall said it was a "realistic vision" for the women's team to play all of their home matches at the 60,000-plus capacity stadium in the near future.

Last May, 60,063 fans saw Arsenal beaten at the Emirates in the Champions League semi-finals, a record crowd for a women's club game in England.

The most attended women's football match in the UK remains the Euro 2022 final when 87,192 fans were in attendance at Wembley Stadium.

"The next step is delivering this on a consistent basis - not just at Emirates Stadium but across the league," said Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.

"We must continue to nurture this audience and deliver sustainable growth for the whole women's game."

09/02/2024

Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill says Conor Bradley will be a "huge player for us" as he praised the young defender's "fantastic" recent performances for Liverpool.

Bradley scored his first Liverpool goal and notched two assists in the Reds' 4-1 win over Chelsea last month.

The 20-year-old missed Sunday's defeat by Arsenal following the death of his father.

"I'd known of Conor from my tenure the first time," said O'Neill.

"He was an under-16 player going to Liverpool. We obviously had high hopes for him. He's dealt with a very difficult situation at home. I was at the funeral on Tuesday.

"It was a hell of a week for him with what he went through with his family but he's got a really strong family unit. That was evident. He's a strong boy mentally and I think he's shown what he's capable of as a player."

02/02/2024

Southampton's decision to loan Carlos Alcaraz to Italian side Juventus "suits everyone", says boss Russell Martin.

The Argentine joined Saints from Racing Club in January 2023 but could not help them avoid relegation despite scoring four times in 18 Premier League games.

However, the 21-year-old midfielder has managed only three goals in 23 Championship games this season.

"It's an amazing opportunity for him to go and play for a huge club with huge history," said Martin.

Alcaraz - known as Charly - has only completed 90 minutes three times in the league this season and has played 14 minutes in the two Championship matches since the turn of the year.

Serie A giants Juventus will reportedly have an option to buy Alcaraz for around £40m in the summer.

"He's a player who's probably been a bit frustrated with the minutes he's played recently," Martin told BBC Radio Solent.

"We signed Joe Rothwell early and have Joe Aribo coming back. We were really aware of interest in Charly from a few clubs in January.

"If he had stayed, no problem, but he's ended up going. I think it suits everyone, I think Charly wants to play more and he has the chance to go and make an impression at a huge football club."

Director of football Jason Wilcox added: "Juventus are a huge club and we are convinced that this move will allow Charly the opportunity to flourish and then come back and be a success at Southampton."