James Rodriguez sees plenty of room for improvement for Colombia despite overcoming Paraguay in their Copa America opener, in which he laid on two assists.

Colombia sit top of Group D after the opening round of matches, with Crystal Palace duo Daniel Munoz and Jefferson Lerma netting in a 2-1 win in Houston and Brazil later failing to join them on three points as they drew 0-0 with Costa Rica.

Former Real Madrid man Rodriguez teed up both of his team s goals, becoming the first player to assist twice in a Copa America group-stage match since Peru s Andre Carrillo in 2019 (versus Chile). Rodriguez now has 30 assists in 101 career games for his country, with five of those coming in the Copa America.

He also led all Colombia players for chances created (three), pas…

Everton eased their relegation worries with 2-0 victory over fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest, who once again had reason to feel aggrieved about refereeing decisions going against them.

A rare goal from Idrissa Gueye was followed by a similar long-range strike from Dwight McNeil on his 200th Premier League appearance to secure a second-successive home win – sandwiching Monday’s 6-0 debacle at Chelsea – and lift Sean Dyche’s side five points clear of the bottom three.

But Toffees defender Ashley Young lived a charmed life after appearing somewhat fortunate to escape three penalty claims against him, which the visitors felt were all more than justified.

Everton beat Nott m Forest Crystal Palace leading 4-0

Here s how the bottom six currently loo…

Lautaro Martinez believes he is worthy of being in consideration for the Ballon d Or after leading Inter and Argentina to silverware in recent months.

Martinez was, unlike his compatriot Lionel Messi, one of 30 players nominated for world football s most prestigious individual prize earlier this week.

He fired Inter to their 20th Scudetto last season, topping Serie A s scoring charts with 24 goals in 33 matches, eight more than his closest rival, Juventus Dusan Vlahovic.

He then carried that form into the Copa America as Argentina won a record-breaking 16th continental crown, winning the Golden Boot with five goals – including the winner in the final versus Colombia – in just 221 minutes on the field.

Martinez finished 20th in the voting for the 2023…

Simone Inzaghi lamented Inter s missed opportunities but was broadly satisfied with their 0-0 draw at Manchester City on matchday one in the Champions League.

Inter produced an impressive performance at the Etihad Stadium, holding the team that beat them in the 2023 Champions League final to seal a memorable treble.

Matteo Darmian and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had huge chances to put the Nerazzurri ahead in the second half, though they were also fortunate to see Ilkay Gundogan miss two golden opportunities for City.

After becoming just the second coach to oversee a clean sheet in an away Champions League game versus Guardiola s City, Inzaghi heaped praise on his players.

The players did really well, we knew the quality of our opponents, but we worked well and c…

The Japan Football Association (JFA) and Adidas have officially unveiled the new kit for Japan s national teams.

The strips were revealed in a ceremony on Monday attended by dozens of press and 500 fans who won an invitational raffle.

The ceremony started with speeches from JFA chairman Junji Ogura and Adidas representatives before continuing with the unveiling of the kit s theme, Nippon Kessoku, or Japan United .

The strip itself was revealed to be a dark navy colour with a thin vertical red stripe down the centre, meant to represent a line of unity .

The shoulder and underarm areas consist of a lighter blue, similar in shade to the kit worn by Japan over the last two years.

Criticism of the national kit is almost a spectator sport in Japan, a…

Son Heung-min believes he must win a trophy at Tottenham to assume legendary status at the club.

The South Korean has been an inspirational figure at Spurs since joining from Bayer Leverkusen in August 2015, scoring 162 goals in 409 games.

However, a trophy has proved elusive for both him and the club, with runners-up finishes in the 2018-19 Champions League and 2020-21 EFL Cup, but Son still hopes he can lift silverware before his time at Spurs is over to leave a lasting impression.

He told BBC Sport: “I don’t think I’m a legend of this club. As I’ve said, I want to win something with Spurs, then I will be happy to be called [a] legend.

“This is one thing I want to do. I joined Spurs to win a trophy so I hope we can make it special for this sea…

Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed as the new England boss, the Football Association announced on Wednesday.

Tuchel had been out of work since leaving Bayern Munich at the end of last season but will now become the 16th permanent manager to take charge of England.

The German becomes the first non-English boss to lead the Three Lions since Fabio Capello in 2012, and only the third overall, following the Italian and Sven-Goran Eriksson.

In a statement released by the Football Association, Tuchel said: I am very proud to have been given the honour of leading the England team.

I have long felt a personal connection to the game in this country, and it has given me some incredible moments already.

To have the chance to represent England is a huge priv…

The United States lost on penalties to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Rio 2016 women s football tournament on Friday, while hosts Brazil dramatically booked their spot in the final four.

Defending champions USA lost out to Sweden 4-3 in a shoot-out, after the match had ended level at 1-1 following extra time, marking the first time since the women s game was added to the Olympic programme that they have failed to make the final.

Sweden took the lead in the 61st minute, when Stina Blackstenius beat USA defender Julie Johnson on the counter-attack and slid a shot past goalkeeper Hope Solo.

USA equalised 13 minutes from time, Alex Morgan taking advantage of a loose ball in Sweden s area that ricocheted off the face of defender Jessica Samuelsson to score …

The second day of the European Championships followed a very similar pattern to the first.

The joint hosts Austria, like Switzerland before them, put up a decent showing against one of the ‘outside bets’ for the tournament, Croatia, who like the Czech Republic before them, looked far from impressive. The hosts lost the game 1-0.

In the second game one of the favourites, Germany, like Portugal before them, played well and looked pretty impressive against one of the outsiders, Poland, who like Turkey before them, huffed and puffed and played well, but had no penetration. The favourites won the game 2-0.

On the positive side, and most of it has been very positive so far, all four games have contained some excellent football. On the n…

Manchester City got back to winning ways in style at Tottenham and Manchester United s shock 1-0 loss to rock-bottom West Brom at Old Trafford handed their bitter rivals Premier League glory with five matches to spare.

The general brilliance of Pep Guardiola s side domestically this season has meant the destination of the title has long been a formality.

Having equalled United s best mark from 2000-01 of sealing the title with five games remaining, City are on course to break a clutch of Premier League records as long as their recent slump is not revisited before the end of the campaign.

Here, we look back at some of the key factors behind a dominant triumph.

7 Pep Guardiola has won the top-flight league title in seven of his nine seasons as a manager,…