Sports - Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Here's how monks in central China helped turn Victor Wembanyama into what he has now become: the most unstoppable force in basketball.

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez reveals he broke his finger during the warm-up before his side's Europa League final win against Freiburg.

Manager relishes ‘challenge’ of Champions League return Emi Martínez reveals he played game with broken finger For Aston Villa, the Europa League must only be the beginning, Unai Emery insisted after winning the trophy for a fifth time. Beating Freiburg 3-0 on Wednesday evening brought Villa’s first major piece silverware since the League Cup in 1996, but Emery is determined this should not be the summit of their achievements. He again rejected the tag of “king of the Europa League”, preferring to focus on “now” and, by implication, the future. “Next year we will play in Champions League and this is the challenge,” the Aston Villa manager said. “The best teams in the world are there and it will challenge us a lot. The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world. To be fighting top seven, top five, top four is something very difficult. Hopefully we can be close with teams like City and Arsenal. Continue reading...

The semifinal round of the 2026 playoffs begins Wednesday. Here's what to know about all four clubs.

Real Madrid are confident of signing Rodri from Manchester City amid Pep Guardiola's departure, Bayern Munich plan a shock move for John Stones, Atletico Madrid want Marc Cucurella, plus more.

Unai Emery has reconfirmed his status as master of the competition, but will now want to set his sights higher There are two ways to win a final. You can win it by the odd goal, amid a frenzy of anxiety so the final whistle comes as a relief. Or you can win it as a procession, flexing your superiority, so the final whistle is almost resented for spoiling the fun. For Aston Villa, this was very much the latter. If their fans had dreamed the previous night of how they might win the game, they could barely have come up with something so satisfying and emphatic. It’s true that Villa have a budget around 2.8 times that of Freiburg, and that they have been strong favourites in almost every game in the Europa League this season. But then in the Premier League they’re often fighting against sides with far greater resources. The poles of European and domestic football may have flipped, but that is not their fault nor, at least for now, their concern. They have not been a successful enough club – at least in the past 100 years – to decline to fully celebrate any trophy that comes their way. A second European success, 44 years after the first, is history. Continue reading...

The next round of the 2026 playoffs is set to begin with the two Western juggernauts.

Prince William shows a range of emotions during Aston Villa's Europa League final win over Freiburg in Istanbul, as fans celebrate in Birmingham.

Aston Villa beat Freiburg in Istanbul to win the Europa League, with a new generation of heroes etching their names in the history books.

1st T20i: England, 140-3, bt New Zealand, 136-7, by 7wkts Capsey finishes unbeaten on 74 with 16 balls remaining England got off to a winning start in their T20 series against New Zealand at Derby, after Alice Capsey struck an unbeaten 74 from 51 balls – her highest score for England and her first T20i half-century since July 2024. Capsey has generally batted at No 3 for England but was promoted to open in place of Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who is missing this series because of the imminent birth of her first child. Capsey made full use of the extra time, smoking three sixes and seven fours as England chased down their 137-run target with seven wickets and 16 balls to spare. Continue reading...