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Spain and France meet in the semifinals of the European Championship on Tuesday. The match pits one of the highest-scoring teams at the tournament against one of the lowest as France's star forward Kylian Mbappe has struggled to get to grips with his mask. Kickoff is at 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) in Munich. Spain and France's quarterfinals both went to extra time. Substitute Mikel Merino's game-winning goal in the last minute of extra time handed Spain a 2-1 victory over host nation Germany, while France needed penalties to see off Portugal after the match ended goalless. - No France player has scored from open play at Euro 2024. The French have only scored through two own goals and a penalty from Mbappe. Spain has netted 11 times. - Mbappe, who will be facing several of his new Real Madrid teammates, will again be wearing a protective mask after sustaining a broken nose in France's group opener against Austria. - Spain, which is chasing a record fourth European Champ...

The referee of England’s Euro 2024 semi-final is a convicted match fixer who was slated by Jude Bellingham after taking control a controversial Bundesliga match. Felix Zwayer, who will oversee Wednesday’s Three Lions’ fixture with the Netherlands, was banned for six months after being found to have accepted a €300 (£253.82) bribe from fellow referee Robert Hoyzer in a 2005 scandal.  And, after he oversaw Borussia Dortmund’s contentious 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in 2021 then Dortmund star Bellingham, who will play on Wednesday night, hit out at his appointment and was subsequently fined. ‘You can look at a lot of the decisions in the game,’ Bellingham said in a post-match TV interview.  ‘You give a referee, that has match-fixed before, the biggest game in Germany. What do you expect?’ Bellingham was subsequently fined €40,000 (£33,843) and even investigated by German police, while Zwayer took a two-month break from officiating.  Mail Sport has contacted UEFA for comment ...

  Brighton technical director David Weir is hoping further major tournament success for the club's players will help showcase them as a destination for young players. The Seagulls have been outstanding in their recruitment over the past few years. Alexis Mac Allister's World Cup win with Argentina provided a major boost in showing Brighton could be a pathway to success for players all over the world, some of whom might not have heard of the Premier League club. Mac Allister might have moved on but Brighton could still find itself with a major tournament winner among their squad this summer. England's Lewis Dunk and Germany's Pascal Gross might not be pivotal figures, but they could be part of a winning team, while 21-year-old Bart Verbruggen has become the Netherlands goalkeeper just 12 months after joining Brighton from Anderlecht for £16.3m. "Identifying players is relatively easy," said Weir. "The hard part is bringing them to your club. "What we ...

  Manchester United’s hopes of landing Joshua Zirkzee have been boosted as transfer rivals AC Milan are reportedly interested in signing Spanish striker Alvaro Morata. The Red Devils need support in their striking department as 21 year old Rasmus Hojlund was left to do the majority of the heavy lifting last season, despite also having to adapt to life in the English Premier League. This naturally had mixed results and United have made signing a striker one of their top summer objectives, and despite interest in forwards like Ivan Toney and Jonathan David, Bologna’s Zirkzee has come out as the “top target” for Erik ten Hag’s side. The Red Devils are reportedly fine with paying the striker’s release clause and personal terms will also not be a problem. It has been reported in some corners that Zirkzee is now “ready to accept” United’s offer after calls with Erik ten Hag who has assured him over his potential role in the team. The striker was said to favour a move to Milan but the Ita...

It will be extreme for Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to top his punishment dart away heroics from the hurry to World Cup greatness in Qatar in 2022 however that positively won't stop him attempting. The manager, known as 'El Dibu' by his revering fans, delivered two splendid plunging saves in the shoot-out to procure his group a 4-2 win on punishments against Ecuador in the Copa America quarter-finals on Thursday. The game had finished 1-1 in ordinary time and with no additional time in the Copa, until the last, the game went directly to punishments. At the point when Lionel Messi chipped the initial endeavor against the highest point of the bar, the very nearly 70,000 fans in NRG Arena might have been pardoned for believing Argentina's title guard was going to end. In any case, Martinez had different thoughts. Similarly as he had done against Colombia, in the Copa semi-last in Brazil in 2021 and afterward against the Netherlands in the quarter-last of the Worl...

Erik ten Hag has signed a new contract with Manchester United to extend his stay at Old Trafford until 2026, the Premier League club said on Thursday as the Dutchman gets another chance to restore the record 20-times champions to former glories. There had been speculation he would be sacked after United ended eighth last season -- their lowest ever finish in the Premier League -- and with British billionaire and INEOS chairman Jim Ratcliffe taking charge of football operations. A shock victory over champions Manchester City in the FA Cup final, however, earned the 54-year-old Ten Hag a lifeline, "Looking back at the past two years, we can reflect with pride on two trophies and many examples of progression from where we were when I joined," he said in a statement. "We must also be clear that there is still lots of hard work ahead to reach the levels expected of Manchester United, which means challenging for English and European titles. "In my discussions with the clu...

In a competition in which so many of the huge countries have walked their direction relentlessly to the quarterfinals, Netherlands have at long last burst into life. A wonderful, livewire execution from Cody Gakpo motivated the Dutch to the kind of complete win that Britain and France are still yet to deliver Ronald Koeman's side showed they should be viewed in a serious way with a 3-0 win over Romania in which they at long last exhibited a free-streaming assault. Holland lost 3-2 to Austria and just scratched through Gathering D as one of the four best third-place groups. Presently, however, they are through to the quarter-finals where they will play Turkey in Berlin on Saturday. They could meet Britain in the semi-finals. Gakpo has needed consistency on occasion for Liverpool however has driven the way for Holland at these finals and presently joint top competition scorer with three objectives. His immediate, pillaging runs caused Romania a wide range of issues in Munich, and Tur...