Key events
“What moral minefield exactly is there concerning MU?” asks Jeff Sax. “All looks par for the course.” Well in a sense it is, since bids from governments with poor human rights records, fracking enthusiasts and ownership by rapacious wealth extractors are indeed part and parcel of modern elite football.
Thomas Tuchel’s seemingly imminent appointment by Bayern Munich has prompted positive comment from João Cancelo, currently on loan with the Bundesliga champions. “I’ve only found out now,” said Cancelo. “I know I won’t find Nagelsmann when I return to Munich. He wanted me at Bayern, I’d like to thank him. As for Tuchel, he made me lose a Champions League final, so I hope he will win it for me this year!”
And a bit of Spurs fan reaction, from reader Yash Gupta: “I was mixed on Tuchel’s apparent move to Spurs. You see he’s not Poundland Mourinho aka Antonio Conte, so that was a plus. But he isn’t Mauricio Pochettino either.”
Australia have beaten Ecuador 3-1 in a friendly in the socceroos’ first outing since their impressive World Cup campaign. Find out more here:
Leeds close ticket office and club shop on police advice
This is a curious one, from Elland Road. More as we hear it.
Leeds United’s offices, ticket office, Foundation offices and club shop at Elland Road will be closed until further notice on the advice of the police.
We apologise for any inconvenience and we will inform the public when normal service resumes
— Leeds United (@LUFC) March 24, 2023
Another talking point from Naples last night: the rendition of the visitors’ national anthem, which was plagued by technical issues and a false start. The singer, Ellynoar, as apologised for the glitches. “I’m just so angry with what happened because I wanted it to be perfect but what happened wasn’t my fault,” she told The Mail.
“I want to say sorry to all the England fans who were at the stadium and watching on TV,” she said. “I’m mortified for what happened and I want people to know that I wasn’t being disrespectful. I’m more of a pop artist but at the ground there was a sound issue.
“I had rehearsed the anthem twice the day before the match and then on the night three times but when it came to the actual performance, I had a problem with my earpiece.
“I had the music in my ear and then it stopped and started again, and I was hearing it twice, so it meant I was out of synch, and it was hard for me to catch up.”
There’ll be quite the debrief among the sound crew I’m sure.
Brennan Johnson out of Wales’ trip to Croatia
Wales begin the post-Gareth Bale era with a fiendishly tough opening qualifier, away to Croatia, who came third at the Human Rights World Cup. Joe Allen, Jonny Williams and Chris Gunter have also hung up their international boots. And they’ve suffered another blow with the absence of Brennan Johnson, perhaps their most important attacker now, and the defender Ben Davies.
A bit of international goss now, with Vinicius Junior talking up the possibility of his Real Madrid boss, Carlo Ancelotti, taking over as his international one, with Brazil. The seleçao have had a vacancy for the full-time post since the departure of Tite following Brazil’s World Cup exit.
Another big rolling domestic football story is, of course, the moral minefield that is the Manchester United takeover saga, and we’ll be keeping them peeled for developments at Old Trafford. Here’s the latest from Sean Ingle:
Concerns are growing among some parties involved in the Manchester United sale that the Glazers might have “played them for months” – and instead of selling the club they would prefer to either push up the price to create leverage for a loan, or offload a minority stake to a hedge fund.
Wayne Rooney, England’s previous record goalscorer, has congratulated Harry Kane on overhauling his international tally and predicted he will go beyond 70 goals for the team. The former Manchester United striker wrote in The Times: “Knowing Harry, it’s not something that will go to his head. He will kick on and, in fact, I believe that when he stops playing he will leave the England record in a place where it will be very difficult for someone else to break it.
“He wants to be like Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, a goal machine who is still at the very top in his mid-30s, and he has it in him to make that happen. I think Harry will finish with an England goals total well into the 70s.
“You could see it was natural to him. He didn’t have to look where the goal was — he already knew — and he would get his shot away at any opportunity. He was shooting from anywhere, all these mad angles, and that turned out to be a feature of his game.
“The only other person I’ve seen like that is Cristiano Ronaldo and both he and Harry have what you would call a good kind of selfishness, an obsession with goals that is in-built. It is important to their success.
“Records are great when you have them but are always there to be broken. It was a huge honour to be England’s top scorer, but there’s an evolution in football, isn’t there?”
Everton go into their WSL derby against Liverpool at Goodison as favourites and in reasonably buoyant mood, and Louise Taylor’s had a chinwag with their Holmsgaard twins, Sara and Karen:
More on Argentina’s friendly win over Panama, and the post-World Cup party vibes therein, from Reuters:
Argentina beat Panama 2-0 in a friendly on Thursday with goals from Thiago Almada and Lionel Messi amid a festive atmosphere in their first game in front of their home fans after winning the World Cup in December.
Lionel Scaloni picked the same starting lineup from the World Cup final win over France as they looked dominant from the start, but could not break through the Panamanian defensive wall until late in the second half.
Atlanta United’s Almada opened the scoring in the 79th minute with his first international goal after capitalising on a rebound following a free kick by Messi that hit the left post.
Captain Messi finally got his 800th career goal and doubled the lead in the 89th minute with a brilliant free-kick that went into the top right corner to excite the more than 80,000 fans chanting his name at the Monumental Stadium.
“I always dreamed of this moment, to celebrate with you in my country Argentina, lifting the greatest thing that is the World Cup,” Messi said at a post-match ceremony organised by the Argentinian FA to celebrate the country’s third World Cup title and first in 36 years.
“Let’s keep doing what we are doing and enjoy this, because we have been waiting a long time to win it again. Let’s enjoy the third star.” A tearful Scaloni added: “Eternal gratitude to these players. Football belongs to them, and without them we wouldn’t have won the World Cup.
“Everyone who wears this shirt gives their all and sometimes the results don’t come. But this time we got it and it’s incredible,” said the coach before a victory lap of players and families reminiscent of the one his team did 95 days ago at the Lusail Stadium.
Argentina will continue their World Cup winners’ homecoming with a friendly against Curacao on Tuesday, while Panama face Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Nations League.
Preamble
Morning everyone. And it’s a good one if you’re an England fan, following one of the more impressive results and performances of the Gareth Southgate era, in Naples last night. It’s certainly up there with Spain 2018 and Germany 2021. And hats off to Harry Kane, for burying memories of that penalty miss and blootering home his latest spot-kick last night to become England’s record goalscorer.
Elsewhere, Cristiano Ronaldo was breaking records too – becoming the all-time record international appearance maker and marking his 197th cap with two goals in Portugal’s easy win over Liechtenstein. His old mucker Lionel Messi scored too, a sumptuous free-kick for Argentina against Panama. Elsewhere in the Euros Northern Ireland began their campaign with victory over San Marino.
The big club football news is Bayern Munich’s binning-off of Julian Nagelsmann in response to the disgrace of the champions not being out of sight at the top of the Bundesliga for a change. Thomas Tuchel is in line to replace him, which will scupper one of Tottenham’s post-Antonio Conte options – perhaps they’ll go for Nagelsmann?
We’ll bring you news from Bayern as it happens plus all the buildup to the weekend’s internationals, with a tasty meeting of France and the Netherlands tonight and Wales and Scotland in action tomorrow. It’s also a big weekend in the Women’s Super League, with a Merseyside derby tonight, a north London derby tomorrow and Manchester City taking on Chelsea on Sunday. And we won’t forget that there’s some important EFL games this weekend too. Peterborough v Derby in League One and Stevenage v Salford in League Two look the pick of tomorrow’s matches.
In the meantime, here’s some content from last night in Naples:
