News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
England, appearing in their first semi-final since 1990, had looked on course for their first final since 1966 as they led through Kieran Trippier's fifth-minute free kick and totally dominated the opening half.
Roy Hodgson has given himself the option to give England a youthful, fresh edge at the World Cup after including Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana in his provisional squad on Monday. There were no real surprises as the irresistible late-season form of Everton's attacking midfielder Barkley and Liverpool wide man Sterling made their inclusion an easy choice for Hodgson despite having only five caps between them.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has confirmed he is interested in signing Everton's young centre back John Stones, who has been linked with a 50 million-pounds ($65.72 million) move to the Etihad Stadium.
Louis van Gaal accused his Manchester United players of being out-fought in a 3-0 defeat at Everton.
Kane takes to world stage as England edge past Tunisia
Manchester City reached the League Cup final, shattering second-tier Bristol City's hopes of a remarkable upset, as the Premier League leaders survived a late fightback to win 3-2 on Tuesday and clinch the tie 5-3 on aggregate.
Manchester City are top on goal difference, with Chelsea second and Liverpool dropping to third, two points ahead of Arsenal, who routed Fulham 5-1.
England centre back Gary Cahill is so frustrated by a lack of first-team football at Chelsea that he wants to leave the club in an attempt to safeguard his international place at the European Championship in the summer.
However, experienced goalkeeper Joe Hart and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere were both omitted from a squad announced on Wednesday via a social media video featuring young recreational players from around the country shouting out the names.
Strikers Marcus Rashford and Daniel Sturridge made Roy Hodgson's final 23-man England squad for Euro 2016 on Tuesday but winger Andros Townsend and midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Fabian Delph were left out. England are taking five forwards to the 24-team tournament in France, which starts on June 10, with Sturridge selected despite doubts over a calf problem. The injury had forced the Liverpool striker to miss England's last two friendly matches, including Friday's win over Australia in Sunderland. The 18-year-old Rashford, who signed a new long-term deal with Manchester United on Monday, became the youngest player to score on his England debut in the 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light. He scored that goal 138 seconds into what was only his 19th professional match, marking him out as one of the brightest emerging prospects and winning plaudits from Hodgson.
A clash between supposedly the two most expensive lineups in history overseen by two of the most decorated coaches will end the phoney war and ignite the Premier League season for real when Manchester United host Manchester City on Saturday.
Belgium beat England 2-0 in the World Cup third-place play-off on Saturday to secure their best ever finish at a World Cup and send Gareth Southgate's side home with a second straight loss.
The result against the tiny Scandinavian country, who had clearly been hugely undervalued, was a humiliation for a proud football nation that appeared to have badly lost its way.
Southgate's formation and tactics have been hailed as progressive and modern, there is also something traditionally English about the team's strengths.
A summary of all the Champions League matches played across Europe on Wednesday
England and Russia are the big beasts of Group B and, though each would love a winning start when they meet on Saturday, the fear of losing could well become all-pervading and lead to a cagey encounter. With games against Wales and Slovakia to come, and the potential for three teams to qualify with two guaranteed, a point at the Velodrome might look a very useful result in a couple of weeks. England, on the back of winning all 10 qualifiers, not to mention a rare victory in Germany in a friendly, start favourites and will expect to make the running in front of a 60,000 crowd that will be predominantly behind them.
'Keep Calm And Carry On' could be Claudio Ranieri's motto for the second half of the season after Leicester City earned a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday to put the heat back on Premier League leaders Arsenal.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
When Vijay Mallya plants a kiss on anyone's cheek it makes for a story and picture, more so when the Virat Kohli is the one at the 'receiving end'. Also, when Michael Schumacher's son, Mick, makes his motor sport debut the picture becomes worth a thousand words. Here again, Rediff.com has these and a lot more exciting events from the week gone by snapped right here.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
For all the positives that England can take from their performance against Russia in their opening Euro 2016 game there remains the worrying issue that their sophisticated modern defenders remain vulnerable to the most basic of attacking ploys -- a long punt into the box.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
When England fans sang about '30 years of hurt' at Euro '96 they had high hopes of ending the pain with a first trophy since the 1966 World Cup but 20 years on from that agonising near miss there is precious little optimism in the air.
Chelsea ticked off three more points in their Premier League title quest with a 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Wednesday but Tottenham Hotspur's Houdini-like 3-1 win at Swansea means the race is far from over.
Monaco swept into the Champions League quarter-finals and left Manchester City to pick up the pieces of another failed European campaign after a 3-1 victory on Wednesday sent them through on away goals.
The dynasty will only be built on European success, though, and after the quarter-final exit to Liverpool, Manchester City's owners, who want a gilded continental powerhouse to match United's global lustre, will demand it and back those demands with huge funding.
Real Madrid got their Champions League title defence off to a strong start on Wednesday by convincingly beating AS Roma 3-0 at home with goals from Isco, Gareth Bale and a stoppage-time strike from returning striker Mariano Diaz.
Olympiakos Piraeus battled back from a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 home draw with last year's runners-up Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League Group B opener.
IMAGES from the English Premier League matches played on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Leicester beat Southampton to open seven-point gap at the top.
John Terry will pass into Chelsea folklore as their greatest captain during the most successful period in their history and his announcement on Sunday that he will leave at the end of the season marks the end of an era.
IMAGES from the EPL matches played on Saturday
Chelsea re-signed David Luiz and Premier League champions Leicester City broke their transfer record for striker Islam Slimani as English clubs exceeded the one billion pounds barrier when the curtain fell on transfer deadline day.
A round-up of Tuesday night's matches in the UEFA Champions League.
An inspired Matteo Darmian scored his first goal for Manchester United and set up another as Louis van Gaal's side kept alive their hopes of a top-four finish with a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.
There was the usual frenzy of last-minute deals as the English Premier League brought the curtain down on another bumper European transfer window in which Manchester City again flexed their financial muscle as the continent's top spenders.
Manchester City have signed French central defender Aymeric Laporte from Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, the Premier League leaders said on Tuesday.
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