Sport

Mateo Kovacic: Man City’s Pep Guardiola praises ‘copy and paste’ Rodri job

Mateo Kovacic celebrates

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 …

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Scotland battle to WXV2 win over Japan

Scotland scrum-half Caity Mattinson

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 …

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Pakistan v England: Ben Stokes out of first Test in Multan

Ben Stokes

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 …

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Illan Meslier: Leeds goalkeeper ‘in tears’ after Sunderland error

Illan Meslier looks at the ground after Sunderland's 97th-minute equaliser

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 …

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Paul Pogba: Juventus and France midfielder has doping ban reduced to 18 months

Paul Pogba playing for Juventus

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 …

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