USA skipper Zackary extends stay in Ealing
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Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Lucy Bronze sets England record during Euro 2025 final vs Spain with Harry Kane trailing in her wake
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LUCY BRONZE broke an England record and moved further clear of Harry Kane in the Euro 2025 final. Bronze, 33, was named in the Lionesses starting XI today for the clash against Spain. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Lucy Bronze broke an England record in the Euros final Credit: Reuters 3 It saw her move further ahead of Harry Kane in the appearance charts Credit: Getty It meant that Chelsea's right-back won her 140th cap for England. And it moved Bronze up to joint-fourth in the most capped players charts behind only Fara Williams, Jill Scott, Karen Carney and level with Alex Scott. Peter Shilton, who played 125 times for England, is the highest capped male player. Bronze's appearance in the final was also her 36th at a major tournament for the Lionesses. READ MORE IN FOOTBALL CAN'T HEIR IT Princess Charlotte nervously watches on as she cheers on Lionesses with Wills That is the most of all-time across both the men's and women's teams. Kane is the highest man on the list with 29 matches played at World Cups and Euros. Bronze's outing against Spain is also her 16th at a Women's Euros. That sees her leapfrog ITV pundit Carney for most games played for the Lionesses at the tournament. SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET £50 BONUS WHEN YOU JOIN 3 Aside from winning the 2022 Euros and making the 2023 World Cup final with England, Bronze has had a glittering career at club level. She has lifted the Women's Super League four times with Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea. Inside England Lionesses' luxury Euro 2025 hotel with butler service, stunning pool and 2 Michelin star restaurant And she has won the Champions League five times during her spells with Lyon and Barcelona.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
Why one extra day could be secret to England getting revenge on Spain
What do the past three Women's World Cups, the past three men's World Cups and the past four men's European Championships have in common with this summer's men's Club World Cup? The answer may give England fans an extra glimmer of hope for Sunday's Women's Euro 2025 final because all of those competitions were won by the team who contested the first semi-final, 24 hours earlier than their opponents in the final. Most women's football tournaments used to schedule the semi-finals for the same day but, since that began to change about 20 years ago, it has been a trend in international tournaments for the winners to have come from the first semi-final. As the Lionesses prepare to meet Spain, who came through their semi-final against Germany a day later than England's comeback win over Italy, it begs the question: how much of an advantage could it offer to Sarina Wiegman's team? Darren Robinson, a performance specialist and accredited sports psychologist who holds the Uefa pro licence coaching qualification, told the Guardian: 'Having that extra time, from a physiology point of view, helps with muscle recovery; you'll have a reduction in soreness with an extra 24 hours. Particularly in a multi-sprint sport like football, you do generally have a lot of muscle soreness; it's multi-sprint, multi-turn, jumping, landing and all of these things create extension forces that cause muscle soreness, so that extra 24 hours helps a team be a bit fresher. 'I would suggest one of the benefits England have is resources, with the expertise that comes out of St George's Park and supports the national teams: specialists in recovery, hydration and nutrition, meaning the players should benefit from some of those marginal gains, so the governing body has played its part when they've won games in the dying stages.' England overcame Sweden on penalties in the quarter-finals and Chloe Kelly's 119th-minute goal enabled them to edge past Italy in the semi-finals, setting up a repeat of the 2023 World Cup final in Australia. But in Sydney they were beaten by a Spain side who had played the first semi-final. Excluding the 2017 Women's Euros, when the semi-finals were on the same day, all the past 12 men's or women's Euros or World Cup finals were won by the first semi-finalists. Starting from Women's Euro 2005, 18 of the 20 tournaments have had semi-finals on different days and of those 80% of men's Euros or World Cups and 87.5% of the women's Euros or World Cups were won by the first semi-finalist. Nile Robbins, women's high performance coach at the University of Stirling, told the Guardian: 'How you schedule your sessions and your recovery looks completely different, based on whether you've got three or four days before you play your next game. But sometimes the main impact is not just physical, it's mental. Take Spain v Germany, for example; Germany's quarter-final game will have been far more emotionally and mentally draining than Spain's.' It appears it takes a great team to defy the disadvantage of playing in the second semi-final. Germany's formidable women's team managed it when cruising past England in Euro 2009's final, and the all-conquering Spain men's side managed to win Euro 2008 and 2010's World Cup after playing second, exemplifying their rare excellence, but no other side have managed it in the past 20 years. Many will feel this talented Spain side, full of Barcelona stars, could be another such team capable of defying their shorter turnaround. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Robinson, who has also held various head of performance roles, mostly in the men's Championship, including at Hull and Birmingham, said: 'The other aspect which will be really important is they're going to play the Spanish, who have controlled and dominated matches. Against a Spanish team capable of dominating possession, you need to be at full capacity.' How teams recover from late-night matches varies, naturally, depending on the coaches and the regime but Robinson says: 'Having protein shakes, hydration and carbohydrate replenishment, within the dressing room, that would start instantly after a game and the first 20 minutes are crucial, replenishing that lost energy. 'The challenge of course is after sport your appetite is suppressed, and particularly after a big game you're celebrating and having something to eat or drink is the last thing that you want. And you can't treat the whole group the same. While you're piling food into the starting XI, you don't want the players who didn't play overeating. That's why the culture and the discipline is so important. On the day after a game, we would definitely promote active recovery, so it could be things like going in the pool or jogging, exercise bikes or go for a walk together as a team.' As some England players walked near their hotel on a hillside in Zurich on Thursday, perhaps their confidence grew, knowing that Spain also played 120 minutes in their semi-final. But Robbins, who has also worked at the University of Glasgow, says: 'All of these things don't automatically mean England will win but it does mean that they have those little advantages, and when the differences at the top level are so small, as little as 1% can make a huge difference.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
'Speed, stamina and skill - Stokes is now England's best seamer'
Headingley and Bristol. Two World Cups. A surgeon's scalpel to both knee and of that and plenty more has been packed into the past eight years of Ben Stokes' day two of the fourth Test against India at Old Trafford he sheepishly led England from the field, not for his batting or a dash of fielding brilliance, but with the match ball in his the first time since September 2017 he had taken five wickets in a Test innings. This was a landmark moment eight months in the making, after eight years of 11,000 miles from home on New Zealand's north island, Stokes' hamstring pinged for the second time in five months in December, it was not outlandish to question whether Stokes would bowl in a Test again. It says a lot about Stokes that he never considered such an outcome."Something else to overcome…go on then!!!!!!!!" he posted on social media afterwards."I've got so much more left in this tank and so much more blood sweat and tears to go through for my team and this shirt."Hours of rehab followed. Squats at home and then in the gym.A light jog and then runs on the track behind Durham's Chester-le-Street his county team-mates were conducting their pre-season media duties in March, Stokes was jogging between cones in a woolly hat and reward for that is a five-wicket haul 76 Tests after his last. No player in Test history has had to wait longer between achieving the haul takes Stokes' wicket tally against India this summer to 16 – the most on either three innings to go, it is the most scalps Stokes has taken in a single series, while the 129 overs he has bowled also make this his busiest previous record on both statistics was his very first series – the 2013-14 Ashes when the hair was shorter, complexion more fresh-faced and right arm bare of the phoenix tattoo that now epitomises his tell you plenty about Stokes' bowling this average speed of 84.2mph is his best since 2019. He has bowled 30% of deliveries on a good line and length – a figure he has never so much so about Stokes in 2025 has been about the way it has the 2023 Ashes, before the knee and hamstring ops, Stokes was still trying but when he did bring himself on to bowl it seemed to push the fibres holding his body together to their run-up was laboured and while there were still those moments, Stokes relied on aura every bit as much as skill. Before this series began, Stokes said the time off after his January operation had allowed him to iron out unintentional eccentricities that had crept into his bowling. He watched videos of his match-winning spell against South Africa in Cape Town in 2020 for inspiration."There's so many similarities to that," said opener Zak Crawley, comparing Stokes at Old Trafford to that day at Newlands when he stood at third slip."He was bowling quickly back then. He's got that pace back now and the way he just gets that away movement from the right-hander, that zip, which is as much as anyone in the world really."He's a proper wicket-taker and he can make things happen and that's certainly the case when I first came the side back then and he seems to have got that back now, which is a phenomenal effort considering the injuries he's had."As Crawley says, the flow is has raced in, no longer looking like a man who hurts with every front-knee brace is rock solid, allowing hip and side to propel his action to find the kick and bounce from the flattest marathon spells were supposed to be banned but bursts of 9.2 overs and 10 overs in last week's win at Lord's, where not even his mate from Under-13s Joe Root could take the ball from his hand, were followed by another 10 on the spin here either side of result not only been a flurry of wickets but a collection of crucial Deep's off stump was uprooted at Lord's to set up the final-day thriller and Jasprit Bumrah bounced out the following day when he and Ravindra Jadeja threatened the Headingley, Stokes dismissed Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur to allow Josh Tongue to mop up the tail. And in Manchester, he saw off his opposite number Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan – the top-scorer in India's innings - and Washington Sundar, whose partnership with Rishabh Pant was pushing India towards the not making a fifty in any of his six innings, Stokes has fair claim to being their player of the this, England's captain will have another three-and-a-half months off – planned rather than enforced - before the Ashes in Australia, where his Test journey is wiser these team-mate Ian Bell had to pull him away from a confrontation with Brad Haddin 12 years ago - the Australia wicketkeeper took pleasure in a no-ball denying the all-rounder his first wicket - last week it was Stokes stepping in to separate his bowler Brydon Carse from confronting Ravindra level-headedness is what England fans must now cling to. They must hope that, as Joe Root suggested last week, Stokes knows his body best and will not push it beyond its limits while the talk about England needing Stokes to fulfil his role as a fourth seamer is valid, it also does him a work has paid off. Stokes is no fourth seamer. These days he is England's number one.
