Rob Page believes Wales have come “a long way” since the retirement of Gareth Bale to be within one win of reaching Euro 2024.

Wales host Poland in a play-off final at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday, with a place in Germany this summer at stake.

Victory would see Wales play at a third successive European Championship and a fourth major tournament out of five after qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

But this time Wales would achieve qualification without talismanic former captain Bale, their record caps holder and goalscorer who retired a few months before the start of Euro 2024 qualifying in January 2023.

“Look back to the semi-final and final before the World Cup and Gareth scored the three goals,” said boss Page, recalling Bale’s brilliance i…

Tottenham have confirmed the departures of Clement Lenglet and Arnaut Danjuma following the conclusion of their loan spells.

France defender Lenglet joined Spurs last summer from Barcelona and made 35 appearances in all competitions, scoring once.

Netherlands forward Danjuma arrived in January from Villarreal but was restricted to just one start in a total of 12 outings.

As previously announced by the Premier League club, Lucas Moura will also depart this summer at the end of his contract.

The Brazilian forward scored 39 goals in 221 Tottenham appearances, including a hat-trick against Ajax which secured a place in the 2019 Champions League final.

“We thank all three players for their service and wish them well for the future,” read a statemen…

One story is dominating the sporting agenda in Spain on Saturday: Xavi s potential return to Barcelona.

The Catalan giants have reportedly earmarked the club great to take over from the under-pressure Ernesto Valverde at the end of the season, and held informal discussions with him on Friday in Doha.

Xavi, 39, is currently coach at Al Sadd but would likely relish a return to Camp Nou, where he won eight LaLiga titles and four Champions League trophies during a glittering playing career.

A strong affinity with a club is not a guarantee of success, however, and we have taken a look at eight other examples of players returning to manage teams they starred for.

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Pep Guardiola

After leaving Barcelona as a player in 2001, Guard…

Steve Clarke wants Scotland to use their final Euro 2024 qualifiers against Georgia and Norway to regain their momentum ahead of the finals in Germany next summer.

The Scots initially suspected they might need positive results from their last two games in Group A to qualify so organised a warm-weather training camp in Turkey at the start of next week to give themselves the best possible preparation ahead of their penultimate fixture in Tbilisi on Thursday.

However, after a blistering start to their campaign, they sealed their place at the tournament with two games to spare, so their main priority in the upcoming camp is to spark an upturn in results after successive defeats against England, Spain and France.

“We’ll be doing something similar to what we did wh…

England have set plenty of positive records under Gareth Southgate but, against Hungary, the tables were turned on the Three Lions.

Southgate s team – runners up at Euro 2020 last year – were hammered 4-0 in Wolverhampton in a shock result.

England have collected just two points from their four Nations League matches so far and sit bottom of Group A3.

While fatigue after a gruelling season has played its part in underwhelming displays, it is not the form that Southgate will be content with ahead of this year s World Cup.

With the help of Opta data, Stats Perform has picked out some of the most prominent statistics from one of England s most surprising defeats.

1928 England have lost a home match by 4+ goals for the first since March 1928, when…

West Ham United are interested in signing Michael Keane from Premier League rivals Everton in the January transfer window, according to . The report has claimed that the Hammers could make a move for the English defender in the middle of the season, but that would depend on whether or not Craig Dawson wants to leave. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa wanted to sign Dawson in the summer of 2022, but the Hammers decided to keep him after failing to land Jan Bednarek.

Keane has on the books of Everton since 2017, but the former Manchester United and Burnley defender is struggling for playing time at the Toffees at the moment. The 29-year-old has made only substitute appearance in the Premier League and has played two times in the Carabao Cup for Frank Lampard’s side so far…

There are some mouth-watering fixtures to look forward to as round nine of the Premier League takes centre stage this weekend.

The pick of them sees Manchester United host Liverpool, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side looking to move to within a point of their second-placed rivals.

Meanwhile, reigning champions Manchester City face a trip to fourth-place Brighton and Hove Albion, who are aiming to continue their positive start to the season.

And leaders Chelsea seek to extend their advantage at the top of the table as they welcome bottom side Norwich City to Stamford Bridge.

Here, you can test your knowledge with our Opta-powered quiz. There are five questions, but how many can you get right?

1. Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has won 75 per cent of h…

Pep Guardiola denied Manchester City s loss to Chelsea in last season s Champions League final was a failure, insisting it was an incredible achievement .

European club football s biggest prize continues to elude City, who underwhelmed in a 1-0 loss to the Blues in Porto back in May.

Guardiola has not won the Champions League since doing so with Barcelona in 2011, but he views City s campaign in last season s competition as a success.

Ahead of their opening fixture of this year s tournament with RB Leipzig on Wednesday, Guardiola said: Every time I start this competition with drive. I m incredibly happy here.

Man City made a step forward last season, we improved a lot. We had 13 games and we won 11. We played incredibly well in Porto when we drew and des…

Pep Guardiola congratulated the exceptional Harry Kane after his record-breaking strike for Tottenham downed Manchester City on Sunday.

City head coach Guardiola has been a long-time admirer of England star Kane, trying and failing to bring the striker to Manchester ahead of the 2021-22 season.

The former Bayern Munich and Barcelona boss labelled Spurs as the Harry Kane team back in 2017, with his reference to Tottenham s reliance on their talisman irking then-coach Mauricio Pochettino.

Guardiola opted to not repeat that back-handed compliment this time around at the risk of infuriating Pochettino, but offered his congratulations after Kane surpassed Jimmy Greaves 266-goal Spurs record.

I m not going to say the Harry Kane team otherwise Poch will be grum…

Crowd trouble marred Italy s 1-1 Euro 2016 qualifying draw with Croatia on Sunday, with play interrupted on more than one occasion.

Referee Bjorn Kuipers escorted the players from the field at San Siro during the longest delay towards the end of the second half, as flares rained down onto the playing surface.

Trouble appeared to break out in the area of the ground housing visiting supporters while the game was suspended, but play was able to resume.

Both teams came into Sunday s match, which had been threatened by heavy rain in Milan, boasting maximum points in Group H.

Antonio Candreva gave Italy an 11th-minute lead when he drove home from distance to beat Danijel Subasic as Croatia conceded for the first time in qualifying.

However, a rare error…