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Many countries with massive populations consistently miss out on football’s biggest party. What can they do to change their sporting fortunes?
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BBC pundits Thomas Hitzlsperger, Joe Hart and Micah Richards discuss Paraguay's attempts to get under France's skin at the 2026 World Cup.
World number 146 Grigor Dimitrov held his nerve to overcome a stubborn Matteo Berrettini to win a five-set classic and set up a fourth round tie against Great Britain's Arthur Fery at Wimbledon.
On this occasion, France kept the champagne football on ice. Which was probably just as well, given the temperature. As Philadelphia broiled in an independence day heatwave, the World Cup favourites were forced to drop a gear or two but still had too much for a Paraguay team that set out for a fight but were ultimately no more than a nuisance. In the annals of France-Paraguay encounters this was more France 98 than Sweden 58, where Just Fontaine embellished his World Cup legend with a hat-trick. Les Bleu s ’ modern-day goal machine, Kylian Mbappé, had to make do with just the one, a penalty, to draw him level again with Lionel Messi in the golden boot race, but one behind the great man in terms of the all-time goalscoring record. Continue reading...
France's Kylian Mbappe keeps his cool to send Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill the wrong way to score his seventh goal of the 2026 World Cup.
Reece James misses training on the eve of England's World Cup last-16 tie against Mexico but Jarell Quansah is available again.
Keely Hodgkinson fell short in her pursuit of breaking the women's 800m world record, after she was beaten by Kenya's Lilian Odira in the latest Diamond League event in Eugene, Oregon - making it back to back defeats for Hodgkinson, after she also lost in the event in Stockholm a month ago.
