Latest news with #EuropeanChampionships
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Ruthless Lionesses star aiming to knock one of her best friends out of Euros
England and Sweden will meet in the quarter-finals of the European Championships on Thursday and the game will see a number of club team-mates lock horns in Zurich England star Lucy Bronze is relishing the prospect of taking on one of her best friends from club side Chelsea when the Lionesses face Sweden on Thursday night Since returning to the WSL with the Blues last year, Bronze has developed a strong partnership down the right with Johanna Rytting Kaneryd. The pair will be on opposite sides of the pitch in the quarter-final, but stopping Sweden's player of the match in their win over Germany could be key to Sarina Wiegman's team getting a result. "Johanna's actually probably the person I get on best with at Chelsea, she is one of my best friends there," Bronze said. "Obviously I play next to her as well, and I play next to [Sweden defender] Nathalie Bjorn, so I am very familiar with the both of them and they both have had fantastic tournaments so far. The thing with Johanna is her mindset. "One thing I'd say about myself is I'm very competitive and this girl is very competitive as well. I've seen it this season at Chelsea and when she puts on a Sweden shirt she's the same. She'll run through a brick wall for her team. 'How to stop her? Hopefully she is on the other side to me. She is a pacey player and done really well but I think if we stick to our jobs and our roles, we will be able to have a good game against her as well.' Sweden star Kosovare Asllani pointed to her team's physical ability and that's something England boss Wiegman is expecting to have to deal with. Sweden have put in more crosses than any other team at the Euros this year, and victories over Denmark, Poland and Germany suggest the approach has been working for Peter Gerhardsson's team. 'That's what they want to do of course, we know they have some qualities,' Wiegman said. 'They're good in the air, they want to put in crosses, they have some speed up front too. "So we're going to try and prevent that. Of course it helps when we have the ball a little bit more than they have.' Wiegman also spoke about the increase in female coaches making deep runs in the tournament. She was the only female head coach to take charge at a World Cup quarter-final in 2023 but is one of four at this year's Euros - along with Spain's Montse Tome, Switzerland boss Pia Sundhage, and Norway's English manager Gemma Grainger. 'What we're all working on is we hope more females stay involved in football," Wiegman said. "We want girls to play football, we want every girl, every woman having the opportunity to get involved in football in whatever role that is, and also in coaching "We have to push hard, we're moving into the right direction but we have to keep moving to keep having these opportunities - but not destroying men who are in the women's game also and have played a tremendous role.'
Evening Standard
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Evening Standard
Jude Bellingham: Real Madrid midfielder out for three months after shoulder surgery
However, he returned to the side ever since, and has played through the pain barrier with strapping over the injury as he went on to lift the Champions League in 2024, beating his former club Borussia Dortmund in the final at Wembley and featuring for England at the European Championships, where they were beaten by Spain in the final.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Brian Windhorst reveals possible timeline for Luka Doncic extension
On Aug. 2, Luka Doncic will be eligible to sign a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. As it stands right now, he has two seasons left on his current contract, and he can opt out of it next summer. He will become eligible for an extension of up to $228 million over four years, however, it is thought that he may opt to sign a shorter extension so that he could then ink a supermax deal in 2028. There is no indication that Doncic is thinking of leaving the team — if anything, he has dropped at least one hint that he would like to stay put for a while. He has been preparing to represent his native Slovenia in the upcoming FIBA Eurobasket tournament, which will take place later this summer. Brian Windhorst of ESPN reminded people that because of that commitment, Doncic will likely not take care of his contract situation until very late in the summer. "He's playing for the Slovenian national team at the European Championships, frequently called Eurobasket, which is the most, one of the most valuable tournament for the Europeans outside the Olympics," Windhorst said. "And he won the Eurobasket for Slovenia earlier in his career, probably the greatest moment of his career. They play six exhibition games leading up to the start on Aug. 27th and that it could they could go as late as Sept. 14th, which means he may not be back into the U.S. if the Slovenians get all the way to the end until late September. And you know, [Tim] McMahon will tell you that in the past when he's been playing for the national team, he has not done NBA business, including NBA contracts. So, he could certainly pledge his intention to sign with the Lakers. But do not freak out if you do not hear from Luka contractually until September." McMahon added something that may make Lakers fans a little nervous. "This will be an indication of what kind of faith that Luka Doncic has in that Lakers front office," he said. "It's not about when it's signed — if he wants to wait until after Eurobasket, that's fine. But if it's not signed heading into the season, that will loom like a black cloud over the Lakers this season." Doncic is just 26 years of age, so there is the potential for him to be the Lakers' next generational player for roughly a decade. But although the Lakers may have improved a bit so far this offseason, they aren't a championship-caliber team yet. It remains to be seen how much faith he has in the team's front office to help him win his first NBA title, as McMahon alluded to.
New York Times
11 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Sweden among ‘best in the world', says Asllani ahead of England clash
Sweden captain Kosovare Asllani has said her team are one of the 'best in the world' and believes they should be talked about more often. England's quarter-final opponents in the 2025 European Championships have reached the semi-finals of the last four major tournaments, despite not being considered among the favourites. Advertisement 'I feel like Sweden are always flying under the radar,' said Asllani. 'It suits us. We're one of the best teams in the world. But people rarely speak about us as a team that can win gold. 'We know we can beat any team in the world when we have our best day. People should definitely talk about us more.' The 35-year-old spoke of the players' 'incredible belief' in one another and how unified the team have become under manager Peter Gerhardsson, whose contract expires after the tournament. 'England have a lot of talented players, while our biggest strength lies in the way we play as a team,' she said. Sweden have always been a physical team but over the years have become a more technical side and played with a higher intensity. 'That's why we've been developing so much as a national team,' Asllani added. England beat Sweden 4-0 at the Euro 2022 semi-final stage but had four or five members from their playing and coaching team ruled out with sickness, including left-back Jonna Andersson and the team's psychologist. The teams' most recent meetings ended in two draws — 1-1 and 0-0 — in qualification for this tournament. When asked if they fear England, the No 10 said they respect the Lionesses but do not have the word 'fear' in their dictionary, rather the word 'courage'. 'They're one of the best teams in the world but we have the perfect game plan and we have our own strengths,' she said. 'In our minds there's only one outcome for us: victory.' England play Sweden in the quarter-finals on Thursday with the winner facing Norway or Italy in the last four. ()
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The inside story of Lionesses' new goal celebration and 'finishers' group chat
Chloe Kelly is one of the England stars making an impact off the bench at the European Championships and she has shed light on the new celebration on show at the tournament England's Euro 2025 run has served as a reminder that tournament football is a squad game, and nowhere is this more true than with the finger-clicking celebration on show during Sunday's victory over Wales. The celebration showcased the players who Sarina Wiegman likes to call her 'finishers', and one member of that group, Chloe Kelly, revealed they even have their own group chat - initially established to share photos of what has become an iconic tournament moment. "It's great, we have a little group of us, a group chat - 'the finishers' as you call it and 'the positive clicks' we call it." Kelly said. "On the bench before the game, you probably saw we were all clicking, like 'what are they doing?!' but it was just a positive click - and we said, if one of us comes on and scores, let's do that as our celebration, the one that we came up with it on the bench. "We work really hard on the training pitch and the gym, probably sometimes it goes unnoticed but it's just about sticking together and being at our best when called upon and training hard to get the best out of each other. The girls that are starting the game making sure that they're fully prepared, but also [we're] making sure we're prepared to go on the pitch and do a great job... we've got a great group of girls, it's just enjoying the whole experience as a group." Two of those finishers combined for goals against Wales, with Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones each assisting the other in the 6-1 victory. It helped bring the celebration to a wider audience, and the photos have been doing the rounds - privately as well as publicly. 'I think it might have been Maya [Le Tissier],' Kelly said when asked about who came up with the celebration idea. 'She made the group chat. We get our pictures on an app and some of us didn't have the pictures of the click celebration and that's where the group chat came from, to send each other the pictures of the celebration. 'I was saying to Lotte [Wubben-Moy] throughout the tournaments that we've been playing in, whether that was the home Euros, Australia or here, the group of finishers have been incredible, supporting the team that are playing and being ready for your moment. 'The level of training is really high in the gym and we're just grafting. It's been really nice to see that as a consistent thing with England - the finishers being ready for their moment and taking it when it comes but also absolutely grafting.' With England now into the knockout stages, facing Sweden in Zurich on Thursday, the prospect of a penalty shoot-out deciding their fate has started to loom large. Kelly has plenty of experience of that situation, scoring the decisive spot-kick in the 2023 Finalissima victory over Brazil and repeating the trick against Nigeria at the World Cup later that year. 'Preparing for the tournament you know you always have to prepare in all areas,' the Arsenal star said. 'In the build-up we've all been preparing well. So it's important in every area we are prepared. I think for me it's just staying relaxed and that's the case for any penalty shootout.'
