Rodri loves to break the mold and give advice. When he was a teenager, growing up in the Madrid suburb of Villanueva de la Cañada, his father Antonio yelled at him to be more selfish, to score more goals. His own defender for a country club, he used to advise him: “No one remembers tackles, they only remember yellow cards and sending offs.” Rhodri didn’t listen. His comfort zone was midfield. “I can watch the game, I can read the game,” he used to say. Years later, Pep Guardiola would instruct him: “You’re moving too much. The holding midfielder has

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Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, once scornfully dismissed football as popular because ‘stupidity is popular.’ It was perhaps the most futile act of resistance in Argentina’s cultural history. Buenos Aires played only loving football. They argued over it in cafes, lived by it on Sundays, and organized the entire neighborhood. As football writer Jonathan Wilson notes in Angels with Dirty Faces, football has become the common language of the city, discussing the seriousness of politics and the closeness of family. London’s connection to sport is no less profound, just expressed in a different way. If Buenos Aires made football

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Read 4 minutes14 Jul 2026 05:39 PM IST England captain Harry Kane has addressed recent comments made by coach Thomas Tuchel and midfielder Jude Bellingham after their quarter-final win over Norway, saying broadcasters are trying to divide the team. He dismissed talk of rift and said things were being blown out of proportion. “When you’re playing a game like this and five minutes after the final whistle the question is being asked, and he (Bellingham) didn’t know what the manager said, what did Jude mean? We’ve just been through a battle. It was really tough there. It’s easy to try

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Read for 2 minutes15 Jul 2026 02:29 AM IST Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro scored as Spain beat France in the first semi-final to book their place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals. They will now play either England or Argentina depending on the result of the second semi-final in Atlanta on Thursday night. Oyarzabal converted in the 22nd minute after Lamine Yamal drew a foul in a header as Spain led 1-0 at half-time against France in the World Cup semi-finals on Tuesday. France defender Lucas Digne was trying to gather the ball after an awkward bounce when

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Mikel Oyarzabal scored a penalty in the 22nd minute to give Spain a 1–0 lead in the FIFA World Cup semi-final against France. It was Lamine Yamal who earned the penalty after Lucas Digne brought him down in the penalty box with a reckless swing of the leg. The goal came in the blink of an eye in the first 20 minutes of the France v Spain semi-final in Dallas with neither side having a clear chance. Things went from bad to worse for France when central defense mainstay William Saliba was soon injured. France vs Spain Football Updates Story

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Read for 2 minutesUpdated: 14 July 2026 10:36 PM IST Erling Haaland may have had to bid farewell to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the quarter-finals but the impact he made will last for years to come, particularly in Peru. Despite the slight resemblance between the South American country and Norway, a total of 563 Peruvian names are now directly inspired by Norwegians and Manchester City forwards. According to official figures released by the country’s National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC), 468 out of 563 Peruvians bear the surname Haaland, and another 91 children are registered with

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Read for 5 minutesUpdated: 14 July 2026 07:34 PM IST Managers, as managers are, were not happy with their troops in the quarter-finals. “I’m not happy with the performance in every sense,” lamented England boss Thomas Tuchel. “The commitment is there, but we made life very difficult for ourselves in the way we played, the way we played. Lazy, not fast enough. Not enough repetition. We were lucky today,” he said, much to the delight of the afternoon’s hero Jude Bellingham. Hours later, in subdued tones, the Argentina supremo acknowledged his side’s struggles to overcome Switzerland, despite being down to

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Whenever Spain and France are up against each other in a major international tournament, an entertaining high-intensity match is sure to ensue. The two European nations are set for another blockbuster encounter on July 14 at the Dallas Stadium for a place in the World Cup final. France, the last-time runners-up, are looking to play in their third World Cup final in 8 years, but against them is a controlled possession-based football played by Spain, who won their last and only World Cup in 2010 and are looking to add another one to their tally this time around. All eyes

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The first semi-final of the FIFA World Cup 2026 will take place as 2018 winners France take on Spain, who are looking to book their place in the final since they last won in 2010. The match will be played on July 14 at the Dallas Stadium in Texas, USA. FIFA has confirmed that El Salvador’s Ivan Barton will play in the match between the two European teams. Last-time runners-up France beat Morocco 2-0 in the quarter-finals thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele. La Rosa qualified for the semi-finals with a tight 2-1 win over Belgium thanks

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Jude Bellingham scored both of England’s goals in a 2–1 extra time win over Norway. It sent the team into the World Cup semi-finals, despite Norwegian opposition as the first goal hit an overhead camera cable in the build-up. Thomas Tuchel (pronounced: Toe-mazs Too-kh-uhl) in a post-match interview, called the win “lucky” and the performance “sloppy”. What his manager said, Bellingham didn’t make it. “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in that kind of situation against Erling Haaland, Odegaard, Noosa, Saarloth,” he said. This was not the first time. Tuchel has previously apologized for describing Bellingham’s on-field

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