Sport

Coverage of the WXV 1 match between Canada and Ireland.

Mateo Kovacic found his scoring boots to get Manchester City back to winning ways, as boss Pep Guardiola joked it was a “copy and paste” job of Rodri. Rodri, City’s key defensive midfielder, is basically irreplaceable. But since his season-ending ACL injury, Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan are playing as a double pivot. Such is City’s style of play that both …

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank says his side scoring another early goal is “remarkable” after they beat Wolves 5-3 in the Premier League.

Scotland’s hopes of retaining their WXV2 title were boosted by a hard-fought win over Japan in Cape Town. First-half tries from Francesca McGhie and Alex Stewart put the Scots in control, but Seina Saito’s score kept Japan in touch at the break. Ayasa Otsuka’s penalty then brought Japan to within four points of Bryan Easson’s side, but Rhona Lloyd strolled …

Linfield say they “will investigate further” an incident at the end of Friday’s Irish Premiership derby at Windsor Park when “an individual was removed from the ground” after Glentoran’s Fuad Sule alleged that he was racially abused by a spectator. In a statement on his X account, external, Sule said that he was aware that emotions ran high in matches …

England captain Ben Stokes is out of the first Test against Pakistan after failing to recover from a hamstring injury in time to feature. Stokes, 33, has not played since the beginning of August, but England said 10 days ago he was “on track” to participate in this tour. The all-rounder mainly trained apart from the rest of the squad …

Former lightweight world champion Anthony Crolla: “I think Ball has a strong claim to being the best active fighter in Britain right now. His draw against Rey Vargas should have been a win and he beat a world-class fighter in Raymond Ford. “Ball is on a roll and has been superbly promoted. I see him being a little bit too …

Farke admitted he had never experienced such an incident in his 30 years in football, with such a defining mistake coming with effectively the last touch of the match. The Leeds boss suggested captain Pascal Struijk had seen the ball bounce unkindly in front of his goalkeeper, causing Meslier to let it spin past him. But Farke could not definitively …

Northampton Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think it was a game of two halves. At half-time everyone was pretty measured, pretty calm – very frustrated I’d say from a playing point of view. “And we knew the things we needed to rectify, they were fairly obvious, and I was very pleased with the …

Paul Pogba’s four-year ban for a doping offence has been reduced to 18 months after winning his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). Sources close to the 31-year-old Juventus midfielder told BBC Sport he can resume training in January 2025 and will be eligible to play again from March. France international Pogba was suspended by Italy’s national …