Macario's double breaks Crystal Palace to put Chelsea on cusp of WSL title
Chelsea put their Champions League defeat to Barcelona behind them with a dominant 4-0 victory over struggling 10-player Crystal Palace. Guro Reiten opened from the spot before Catarina Macario scored a brace. Mia Fishel rounded off the night to restore their six-point lead at the top of the WSL.
Chelsea were always clear favourites coming into this encounter. The fortunes of the two could not have been more different – the hosts were unbeaten in the league and had scored over three times more goals than their opponents; Palace, meanwhile, were rooted to the bottom, fighting for survival.
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The one doubt surrounding Chelsea was how quickly they could recover from the weekend's disappointment against Barça which all but destroyed their quadruple hopes. Sonia Bompastor rotated heavily, making seven changes to bring fresh energy into the side. The experienced Guro Reiten made her first start since returning from a back injury while Macario also returned in a changed attacking line. Naomi Girma, meanwhile, made her second start since joining in January, replacing the injured Nathalie Björn in defence.
Leif Smerud's Palace side had not played a competitive fixture in three weeks, a quirk of the scheduling which did little to help them gain momentum. They had at least been able to replenish an injury-hit squad over the break with Clarissa Larisey recalled alongside Mille Gejl. Izzy Atkinson was also able to be named on the bench.
Chelsea set the tone early on, dominating the ball and mounting waves of attack. The visitors defended resolutely, limiting the space and putting bodies on the line to protect their goal. Macario had an effort blocked by several desperate bodies in the Palace box before Allyson Swaby's instinctive reaction deflected a goalbound strike from Aggie Beever-Jones just wide.
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It was, however, only a matter of time before Chelsea found the breakthrough and two goals in two minutes put them in firm control. The first came when a cross from the influential Reiten struck Molly-Mae Sharpe's hand in the box. The Norwegian stepped up to take the penalty, coolly beating Shae Yanez for her eighth league goal of the season.
Chelsea took advantage of Palace's naivety to double the lead when Girma and Sandy Baltimore combined to exploit the space left by an advanced Lily Woodham. The latter found Macario in space in the box and she drove a low effort past the Palace goalkeeper.
Palace's evening got worse immediately after the break when they were reduced to 10 players. Swaby saw red for denying a goalscoring opportunity, bringing down Sjoeke Nüsken just outside the box. The punishment became even more severe when Macario stepped up to convert the free-kick. Her strike went straight through the wall, helped by a heavy deflection that wrongfooted Yanez.
Bompastor made changes at half-time, Mia Fishel and Lucy Bronze entering the field. There was a special moment for the former as she added a fourth goal with an instinctive flick after Bronze had nodded down a corner. It was her first goal since recovering from an ACL injury that had kept her out for over a year.
It was a comfortable win in the end for Chelsea, the perfect tonic after Sunday's disappointment and one that leaves them four points from securing their sixth successive league title. Palace's survival hopes, meanwhile, continue to dwindle as they remain seven points behind 11th-placed Aston Villa with three games to play.
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The day La Liga 2024-25 began, Wojciech Szczesny was sitting on the beach in Marbella lighting up a cigarette, enjoying his retirement. The night it ended, he sat in the dressing room in Cornellà, 1,000km round the coast, and lit up a cigar instead. He had walked away in August, at 35 years old, unwanted and his heart no longer in it, or so he thought. Nine months on, here he was surrounded by kids half his age, a footballer again and winner of every trophy his new home country had to offer. He had not lost a single league match en route to becoming a champion. 'I've arrived where even my imagination wouldn't even dare to take me,' Szczesny had said when he retired. And if he hadn't dared imagine that, there was no way he could imagine this: a Copa del Rey, a Super Cup and a Champions League semi-final to go with the title. Advertisement Summer had started with Kylian Mbappé finally arriving at the Santiago Bernabéu. 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It had taken a while to take shape, a few frank conversations too, but they were Spain's winter champions and genuine contenders. Maybe even favourites: a team with talent, strength and variety in depth, and an ability to score late goals that made it feel like maybe, just maybe, things would fall for them this time. Advertisement Instead it all unravelled for Atlético, which it tends to do. Defeat to Leganés in January ended a run of 15 consecutive wins and began one of just two victories in 10. In a single week, they had that defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League and lost 4-2 to Barcelona in La Liga despite going two up, conceding in the 92nd and 98th minutes. It was the first time they had lost a two-goal lead in 14 years, 725 games, under Diego Simeone. 'Football is brutal,' Szczesny said afterwards. So brutal that Atlético's coach had to escape to Argentina to clear his head. When he got back, they lost the Copa del Rey semi-final to Barcelona too, their season over in early April. Real Madrid, meanwhile, were back in it. 'I'm a bit confused because I keep hearing that we're playing badly, but we're top,' Carlo Ancelotti said with just a smidgen of sarcasm in early January. The truth was their play was even less convincing than the weekly videos they dedicated to the referees, and Barcelona were back on top within a month. By the time it all ended, it was hard to think of a genuinely good Real Madrid performance against a genuinely good team, unless Manchester City counted. 'Our season starts for real,' Ancelotti said that night, but it did not and the subsequent loss to Arsenal was just the way they were. At the end of the season, when Mbappé's former club had won the competition no sooner than he had left, an old Marca cover from another of PSG's European eliminations inevitably reappeared, showing the France forward with the headline: 'if you want to win the Champions League, you know what you have to do'. No one in Spain scored more goals than Mbappé, the best debut campaign a Madrid goalscorer has ever had, but his acceleration was late and unaccompanied. He admitted he had hit 'rock bottom' first, and his revival did not bring the trophies or the moments he came for. It was not all about him, of course, but his arrival had been part of the shift, a symbol. The season that was always going to be his had been a failure. 'When a player like me comes to a team, many things change,' Mbappé said, and not all of them were for the better. Madrid lost 12 times, their flaws never more clearly laid bare than in the clásico, which kept coming round and with the same result. When Barcelona put five past Madrid in January it did not just win them the Super Cup, it was the start of them taking back control in the title race too. On the way into the stadium that night, news came through the sports ministry would let them register Dani Olmo despite Barcelona missing the deadline, Laporta heading up to the directors' box where he told the president of the federation exactly what he thought, shouting, swearing and a few days later shrugging: 'I am the way I am'. Saudi Arabia was also where Iñaki Peña arrived a couple of minutes late to a team meeting, the excuse for Szczesny to make his first start. They also went on to win 16 and draw one of their next 17 league games, all the way to the title, won the Copa del Rey next, and got within 42 seconds (and the width of a post) of a first Champions League final in 10 years. Advertisement Madrid did at least compete in the first clásico cup final for 11 years – once they had decided to actually turn up – but they were beaten again, the way they completely lost it at full-time saying something about their mental state which went beyond just the players. As ice flew the referee's way, Antonio Rüdiger's self-proclaimed madness no longer seemed so funny. When the fourth and final clásico of the season came two weeks later, it was a last chance for Madrid to salvage something. They went two up inside 15 minutes and Mbappé eventually scored a hat-trick but Barcelona scored four before half-time, the perfect storm. For 24 minutes Madrid did not get out of their half – yes, literally – and the league was as good as gone. Four days later, when Barcelona won at Espanyol, it really was. Barcelona won the double and a treble. The treble slipped through their fingers in the semi-final at San Siro, lessons to learn and promises made: Lamine Yamal vowed they would be back, which felt believable now in a way that 12 months earlier it could not have. Domestically, Barcelona had been too good and so much fun. In the cup meetings with primera teams there was a 3-2, a 4-4, a 5-0 and a 5-1. In the league, they went away to the teams that finished in the Champions League places and scored five at Villarreal, four at Madrid, four at Atlético, three at Athletic. Oh, and four more at Girona, who played in it this season. Barça beat Madrid in all four meetings, scoring four, five, three and four again. They reached 102 league goals and the last of them, the last of all 995 scored in this La Liga season, came from Dani Olmo on the final Sunday in May, which felt symbolic: he had been sitting in the stands when it all began, wondering if he was ever going to get on, and then went through it all again in January. The league said he should not, the federation did too, so did a couple of judges. The sports ministry, though, disagreed. Ultimately the system had been played. Barcelona had won it all, open-topped bus heading out across the city. On the top deck, in a straw hat and sunglasses, every bit the senior citizen, Szczesny lit up another cigar. Below them, Madrid, Atlético, Athletic and Villarreal took the other Champions League places. Athletic had missed what might have been the biggest moment in their history, playing a European final in their own stadium, and had to host thousands of Manchester United and Spurs fans instead – but qualifying for their first Champions League campaign in a decade was a monumental achievement. Villarreal's return was significant too, literally breaking the ceiling as they celebrated. Advertisement The other European places went to three teams who made football fun, and to whom it meant the world. 'We're pissed off to lose but we enjoy playing and if you enjoy playing you're going to be closer to winning; this will help us in the long run,' the Celta de Vigo winger Alfon had said when they were beaten by Madrid in October, and by May he had been proved right. This was football the way it is supposed to be, all about belonging too. A young, fearless local team, full of Galician academy products and led by the youngest coach in the league had been expected to fight for survival but Iago Aspas, the greatest player in their history, scored the goal at Getafe that secured seventh on the final day, his tearful promise to return the team to Europe finally fulfilled eight years later. Thirteen kilometres away, Rayo Vallecano were made to wait a little longer for a fiesta of their own, players gathered round a phone at full-time, anxiously watching the end of Osasuna's game, but they returned to Europe 25 years later. They had been led there by Iñigo Pérez, the coach who only ever wears a T-shirt no matter how cold it is and who the British Home Office said could not make a significant contribution to English football so was forced to make history in Spain instead. From the moment a proper pitch invasion began and the goalkeeper Augusto Batalla lost his shorts, only 15 seconds passed. 'Vallecas entera, se va de borrachera,' the chant ran: the whole of Vallecas is going on the piss. 'My grandad used to say to me 'effort equals reward'. That's not always true, but I'm happy that tonight it is,' Pérez said. At the other end of the table, Sevilla an absolute car crash of a club, but somehow finished a point above relegation. Valencia had looked lost, relegation increasingly a reality, until Carlos Corberán arrived. Girona turned to the 38-year-old Cristhian Stuani in times of trouble and he scored five in the last seven to save them. Alavés gave away 11 penalties, let all of them in and managed only five home goals in 2025, three of those penalties. They missed a fourth with just about the worst spot-kick you will ever see, yet finally secured safety with a week to go. Real Valladolid had been down for ages by then: they lost 18 of their last 19 games, collecting a solitary point from 57, the most pitiful run in history. Fans at the José Zorrilla Stadium saw them score just 11 times all year, while the midfielder Mario Martín was sent off as many times as he won matches. They were joined in relegation by Las Palmas, seemingly rescued by Diego Martínez only to collapse again. The manager went from 19 points in nine matches to 10 in 20 and the second division. He was right: he did not have a magic wand after all. Advertisement All of which left Leganés and Espanyol fighting to avoid the third relegation place on the final day. Three-nil up against Valladolid after an hour, Leganés were staying up, but then news filtered through of a very generous penalty in Cornellà. Javi Puado scored with Espanyol's first shot on target against Las Palmas; with their second, Pere Milla made them safe and his manager cry. 'You have no idea how much we have suffered,' Manolo González said. Back at Butarque, Leganés had an idea, the final 20 minutes played out to a surreal silence. 'It was like someone had died,' the Leganés coach Borja Jiménez said. His team had beaten Barcelona and Atlético but still gone down. Forty points had been enough to survive in nine of the last 10 seasons, but not this time. If you had never seen a grown cucumber cry, you have now. The season was virtually over, just one thing left to do. Four days later, Betis, who had come from what Manuel Pellegrini described as the worst days of his six-years in charge to being the best team in La Liga for much of 2025, had a historic European final to play in Poland. It was not to be: they became the first Spanish team to lose a final to a foreign side since Valencia and Alavés in 2001. But do not think that the only winners this season were the team with the retiree in goal, because there is always more. So pick out your tux, climb aboard your private jet and welcome to the 25th Spanish football awards. Or, if you did not win, you could just stay at home in a huff instead. Most harmonious club Valladolid, where Juanmi Latasa and Luis Pérez sat on the bench watching the final minutes of another humiliating defeat, the former pointing out that this was 'shit' and the latter telling him to shut up. To which Latasa replied: 'You shut up, you're a fine one to talk, superstar,' at which point Pérez reached across and punched him. 'And they're friends,' the coach Álvaro Rubio said. Best security Thieves broke into the trophy room at Rayo Vallecano. Police are looking for a man with a carpet. Ba-dum tish. Actually, they really did break into the training ground at Rayo Vallecano, and police really were looking for a man with 60 pairs of boots. It was the fourth time it had happened. Best mode of transport Borja Iglesias, turning up to his presentation at Celta in a sky blue Seat Panda. The entire Villarreal team turning up in taxis for a Copa del Rey game at Pontevedra after their flight could not land nearby. They played 106 minutes in the pouring rain, took 21 shots, and lost 1-0. Most optimistic president Ronaldo, running to lead the Brazilian FA. Because he did such a good job at Valladolid. Best protest When Valladolid played Getafe, Ronaldo was back in Brazil instead, not just playing tennis but broadcasting it all on Twitch. So the following week their fans decided they would do the same, setting up a 'court' in the north stand and hitting a great big yellow ball back and forth with two giant, cartoonish rackets. Funniest debate Rude Bellingham. F off? Or f you? And yes that really is the set of the nearest thing Spain has to Match of the Day emblazoning both across their set IN GREAT BIG CAPITAL LETTERS. Best peace offering The Alavés manager, Chacho Coudet, who pulled out a chocolate bar and offered it to a radio journalist. 'I'm still going to ask you the hard questions,' he was told. After all, it was only a Snickers. Best apology Madrid's Fede Valverde saying sorry for not having a go at referees. Best fans 46,731 people came to see Betis and Sevilla – and that was just for training the day before the derby. Most on-brand front page ABC went with a photo of Begona Navia-Osorio, 84, and 80-year-old Isabel Maria Rus-Velaquez, a pair of nuns from either side of Seville's great divide. It was, after all, 'a derby as God wills it.' Cutest fans It was kids day at Atlético, so they invited the children to have a go leading the chants over the megaphone at the south stand. And so one of them did, predictably offering a charming rendition of ¡Madridistas, hijos de puta! Best dressed fans The Alavés supporters who came in hard hats, hi-vis vests, and safety specs, carrying measuring tapes in honour of lovable lump Kike Garcia, the striker they call el obrero del gol: the labourer of goals. Best dressed dog Oscar. Best mascots Just hope Espanyol's players brought their poo bags. Most popular player Even the dogs want Nico Williams' autograph these days. Or perhaps not. Best shot Lamine Yamal's baby brother, 2-year-old Keyne, who hit Nico right where it hurts. That'll teach him for not joining Barcelona. Most humble player On the day Jesús Navas retired, the greatest player in Sevilla's history unable to carry on through the pain any more, he lifted his shirt up for the fans to see. With his name folded over so that only the No 16 he wore in homage to the late Antonio Puerta was visible. Most tactically disciplined player The clock showed 91.08 in their game with Barcelona when the Getafe coach, José Bordalas sent on Ismael Bekhoucha for the most brilliantly on-brand debut ever. Bekhoucha ran on, immediately pushed Pedri, crashed into Alejandro Balde, pushed him, blocked a cross, celebrated in Balde's face, got a slap, went to ground, and used up a minute, sparking a confrontation on the touchline. So he got up again, bumped into Raphinha twice, went down and used up another 40 seconds. Which left just enough time to get the ball, lose it and give it large to Balde again before the whistle went. Seven minutes, three touches, no passes, a yellow card, and a great result. The perfect performance. Most patient player Osasuna's Aimar Oroz, who waited as two fans did rock, paper, scissors to see which one of them got his shirt. Most multitalented player Vedat Muriqi, Mallorca's target man extraordinaire and Gladiator II extra. Biggest hero Augusto Batalla, the goalkeeper to whom Carlo Ancelotti recommended a high potassium diet so severe was his recurring, excruciating battle with cramp, and with whom concerned colleague Iñaki Williams pleaded with to depart for treatment, what with that dislocated shoulder. Despite being forever at death's door, he didn't once give in, playing every minute of every game and even finding the strength to lead Rayo Vallecano to a derby victory over Leganés by saving a last-minute penalty. Twice. Best player Ante Budimir. It was a cold, wet January morning in Pamplona, and the car that was supposed to take 78-year-old Mari Carmen to hospital hadn't turned up, leaving her stranded on the street. So Osasuna's all-time top scorer, who just happened to be passing, took her instead. Worst injury Conor Gallagher had just got the equaliser at Rayo Vallecano when he stopped and sat on the pitch, something not right. Teammates came to his side, the referee did too, a hush falling, everyone fearing that he had broken something. Which, as it happened, he had: his hair band. Best cameo With about 20 minutes to go and Real Madrid beating Alavés 3-0, the Bernabéu started chanting for Carlo Ancelotti to bring defender Jesús Vallejo on for the first time in two years, so he did. Six minutes later, Alavés had scored twice and were pushing for an equaliser. Vallejo did not play another minute until the title race was over. Most loquacious manager 'If I say what I think they'll stick me in a cage,' the Espanyol manager Manolo González claimed, but luckily that never stopped him. The man who claimed 'the nearest thing some people have seen to a football is a shoebox', insisting 'I don't go to the surgeon and tell him how to operate on me because I haven't got a fucking clue, but saying ridiculous things comes free,' described his refusal to go all-out attack as 'not just driving straight off a cliff without braking', said he goes 'from heart bypass to heart bypass every week', reckoned he would apply hair gel to his bald head 'in case it brings good luck', and responded to one particularly wild evening by claiming: 'All that was missing was me falling pregnant.' 'One day,' he said, 'you're John Travolta, the next you're Manolo González.' Most loyal manager The 38-year-old club legend Cristhian Stuani had not started a match for 10 months when coach Míchel made him captain for Girona's first ever Champions League game, and he did not start another for two months after it either, but a promise is a promise. It got amply repaid too. Most emotional manager Diego Simeone literally running away when he realised he was about to cry live on TV the night he completed 700 games in charge of Atletico Madrid. Best signing Sebastian Haller or James Rodríguez. Or Barcelona not getting Nico. OK, OK, it's Ayoze Pérez. Best gamble The Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili betting Vinícius Júnior €50 that he would save his penalty at the Bernabéu was a nice little bonus. Or it would have been if the Brazilian had paid up. Best touch Antonin Panenka was invited to take the honorary kick-off at Real Oviedo, so of course he … performed a back-heel. Coral Gutiérrez, Gran Canaria's Wueen of the Carnaval went one better, not just taking the honorary kick-off before Las Palmas' game against Alavés but doing it with a rabona. Oh, and Pedri. Best tackle The Barcelona midfielder Gavi and the Real Betis defender Diego Llorente teaming up to stick it to the man, taking out the referee Jesus Gil Manzano. Accidentally of course. Best hat-trick Paulo Gazzaniga's three penalty saves against Athletic Club. Second best hat-trick Athletic's Oihan Sancet against Girona keeper Gazzaniga, the next time they met. Best assists When Lamine Yamal bent the ball perfectly into Raphinha's path with the outside of his foot from 40 yards against Villarreal, the Brazilian neatly lifting it over the keeper. AS called it 'the assist of the century,' but he did it a bit more often than that. There were two in Mallorca in five minutes, spinning and sliding across the turf like a bowling ball, and the one he played for Dani Olmo against Espanyol might have been even better. Advertisement Villarreal's Álex Baena created more chances than anyone, another ball released with the outside of the boot for Nicolas Pépé against Leganés the neatest of an endless flow of perfect deliveries. Antony and Isco became best mates at Betis because of moments like this. Adnan Januzaj and Fábio Silva only connected to score once for Las Palmas, but what a once. Fede Valverde's flick for Kylian Mbappé was nice. Antonio Blanco's cross for Kike García couldn't have been better placed, although Iago Aspas to Óscar Mingueza probably was. The best of the lot though came from a goalkeeper. Andriy Lunin, we salute you. Best goal All of those are candidates but there's only one winner, or there would have been had this moment of magic from Samuel L Jackson's golf partner, Oli McBurnie, not come back off the bar. So let's head to Cornellà, where César Azpilicueta finally ended his 18-year wait to score in La Liga, and like this: Also at Espanyol, Ivan Cardona ran from one area to the other, and then thought: why not? ; where Gio Lo Celso and Antony handed in their entries, just five minutes apart; and of course where Lamine Yamal did the Lamine Yamal again, this time to win the league. Advertisement Everyone loves a goalkeeper scoring, so how about two of them scoring two games in a row? Always watch Eibar. On 5 April, Jonmi Magunagoitia headed home in the 95th minute for them against Real Oviedo; seven days later, Gaëtan Poussin scored against them for Real Zaragoza in the 92nd minute. There's something wonderfully soft about Fran Beltran's shot, gently guided in on the bounce against Valencia. Luka Sucic's first-time finish for Real Sociedad against Atlético was just as smooth. Hit quite a bit harder, every Fede Valverde goal is a belter: there were nine of them this season, scored from a combined distance of about 2,000km away. Seen live and from right behind, the one against Celta was the most ludicrous. Leaning back like that, the flash of the boot so fast, the ball bouncing up a touch too high, it should have flown out the ground rather than into the net. Then there's Simeone. No, not that Simeone. Not that one, either, nor even that one. Here's Gianluca Simeone. From inside his own half, to take third-tier Rayo Majadahonda to the playoffs. This turn and finish from Antoine Griezmann was so glorious, so graceful it earned him an ovation – from the opposition's fans. But the winner is this from Raúl Garcia against Rayo. Just look at that first touch. And the second's not bad, either. Best goal celebration There was just one problem when Manuel Pellegrini celebrated a goal at Alavés: the shot didn't actually go in, so the Betis coach sheepishly folded his arms back up again and pretended it had never happened. Diego Simeone went running towards Alex Sørloth after his late winner at Montjuïc, only to turn round and run back again, like a man who suddenly remembered he had left the oven on. Ayoze Pérez does love a nice cup of tea. There's something in Lamine Yamal's signalling the postcode of Rocafonda, an act of belonging however big he gets. And Antoine Griezmann's shirt raising moment gave itself to something cinematic. In the end though, there was nothing like the collective embrace of an entire community when César Tárrega, from the town of Aldaia, scored the first goal at Mestalla after the floods that killed over 200 people in the Valencia region, a moment that meant so many different things to so many different people and a reminder that you are allowed to enjoy, to live. In fact, you're supposed to. Best title celebration Betis after the derby, except that wasn't actually a title, it just felt like one. Nor was the whole of Vallecas going on the piss in a battered blue bus; it was something better. Barcelona's Pedri, Dani Olmo, Iñigo Martínez and Eric García cycling up Avinguda Diagonal in the dark it is, then. Best game Rayo-Leganes was a free-flowing festival of football in which from 93.37 to 104.41, the ball was in play for four whole seconds. The winner though is Villarreal-Celta, just about the silliest match you could imagine. Seven goals from seven different men, the score going from 0-1, to 1-1, 1-2 to 3-2, and then to 3-3. Celta had two one-on-ones to win it on 94 and 95 only for Villarreal to actually do so on 100, the game eventually concluded in a way that was appropriately absurd. Hugo Álvarez grabbed hold of Thierno Barry's shorts outside the box but forgot to let go and was dragged far enough to end up inside it and give away a penalty. With what should have been the last kick, Dani Parejo's effort was saved by Ivan Villar; with what actually was, he put away the rebound. 'It's hard to explain,' Celta's Borja Iglesias admitted but this was to be enjoyed, not explained. 'If we're going to lose, let it be like this,' he said. Manager of the year 'I dreamed of one day seeing Vigo like this and of a group of mates taking Celta into Europe,' Claudio Giráldez said, and he had made it so. Manuel Pellegrini might just be the best coach Villarreal, Málaga and Betis have ever had. Valencia announced the arrival of Carlos Corberan on 25 December and it turned out he really was their Messiah. There was no gabarra this time, but Ernesto Valverde took Athletic to the Champions League. And Iñigo Pérez is bringing Europe to the barrio, whether Europe's ready or not. But really, how can it not be Hansi Flick? Player of the year Come back in five minutes and the answer will have changed again. The candidates are clear, but choosing a winner messes with your mind. In the end, it comes down to three Barcelona players, although had Isco and Antony been at Betis all year that list might just be a little longer. No one played like Pedri, no one can play like Pedri. Raphinha was a revelation. And Lamine Yamal is ridiculous. Where did those fans go with their rock, paper and scissors? Come on, hurry up. Oh, OK. Raphinha. Team of the season 4-3-3: Joan García (Espanyol); Andrei Ratiu (Rayo), Dani Vivian (Athletic), Iñigo Martínez (Barcelona), Óscar Mingueza (Celta); Pedri (Barcelona), Isco (Betis), Álex Baena (Villarreal); Lamine Yamal (Barcelona), Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid), Raphinha (Barcelona). Advertisement Subs: Sergi Cardona (Villarreal), Fede Valverde (Madrid), Ante Budimir (Osasuna), Ayoze Pérez (Villarreal), Mauro Arambarri, Luis Milla (Getafe), Mikel Jauregizar, Iñaki Williams, Oihan Sancet (Athletic), Julián Alvarez (Atletico), Antony (Betis), Carlos Vicente, Kike Garcia (Alavés), Jules Koundé (Barcelona). Oh, and Alex Sorløth, of course. And finally, some words of wisdom Asked how many lives he has as he seems to get killed every week but somehow he's still there, Carlo Ancelotti replies: 'One, and I try to enjoy it.' Which is a nice place to leave it.
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England XI vs Andorra – Predicted lineup and team news
England continue their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign against Andorra in Barcelona tonight. Thomas Tuchel's side took maximum points from March's international break and will look to maintain their perfect record in the group. England scored five goals and conceded none to make a solid start to Tuchel's reign, even if the performances offered little inspiration. Andorra are bottom of the group and have lost their opening two games. The Three Lions have won all five previous meetings with Andorra, scoring 25 goals and conceding zero. England XI vs Andorra – Predicted lineup and team news England team news Trevoh Chalobah will be hoping for a first cap after earning his maiden call-up this month. Chalobah is one of several names in a much-changed squad from March's break. Advertisement The likes of Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford are not involved having been a part of Tuchel's first camp. Marc Guehi is absent after suffering an eye injury in Crystal Palace's FA Cup final win over Manchester City last month. There's also a recall for Ivan Toney, who has not appeared since Euro 2024. The forward trailed only Cristiano Ronaldo for goals in the Saudi Pro League last season. England predicted lineup England predicted XI: Pickford; Alexander-Arnold, Konsa, Colwill, Lewis-Skelly; Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Palmer, Rogers; Kane. When is Andorra vs England? Andorra host England in 2026 World Cup qualification on Saturday 7th June 2025. Kick-off is 5pm BST. What TV channel is Andorra vs England? In the UK, the game will be televised live on ITV. Advertisement Read – What will Cunha and Mbeumo bring to Manchester United? See more – Can Delap beat the curse? Rating every Chelsea number nine of the Premier League era Follow The Football Faithful on Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok
