Day: 21 October 2021

Spurs have very little in reserve Image: Tottenham’s Dele Alli, left, challenges for the ball with Vitesse’s Jacob Rasmussen Nuno Espirito Santo was upfront and open with his decision to leave every member of his Tottenham squad who started Sunday’s win at Newcastle at home for Thursday’s trip to Vitesse in the Europa Conference League. The Portuguese was adamant it was a risk-free decision, one which still respected the competition and would ensure Spurs remained competitive while easing the workload on their first-team regulars. To some extent he was right.…

West Ham closed in on the Europa League knockout stages as two goals in two minutes helped them to a 3-0 win over Genk at the London Stadium. Craig Dawson’s opener, scored with his shoulder from an Aaron Cresswell corner, lit up an otherwise gritty first half in which West Ham dominated territory but lacked an attacking focal point, with regular striker Michail Antonio given the night off. Knowing a victory would leave them on the cusp of the knockout stages, West Ham were only occasionally troubled by their visitors,…

First-half goals from Leon Balogun and Kemar Roofe saw Rangers beat Brondby 2-0 at Ibrox to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the Europa League. Rangers had lost their opening two Group A matches, making this a vital clash for Steven Gerrard’s side, who made the perfect start when Balogun’s powerful header gave them an 18th-minute lead. Things got even better on the half-hour mark when Roofe tapped home after Alfredo Morelos’ close-range header had been saved, although Rangers needed the intervention of the Video…

Andy Murray gives Diego Schwartzman a stern test in Antwerp but his exhausting efforts against Frances Tiafoe appeared to take their toll on the former world No 1; the Scot will now head to Vienna for the Erste Bank Open next week By Raz Mirza Last Updated: 21/10/21 9:02pm Andy Murray went down to a tough loss against Diego Schwartzman in Antwerp, despite a battling effort Andy Murray suffered a hard-fought straight-sets defeat to second seed Diego Schwartzman at the European Open in Antwerp on Thursday. Wild card Murray came…

Tottenham’s decision to leave their big guns at home saw them lose 1-0 to Vitesse Arnhem in Group G of Europa Conference League. Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, Cristian Romero and Hugo Lloris did not travel to Holland with Sunday’s clash at West Ham, which is live on Sky Sports, in mind and a second string were undone by Maximilian Wittek’s 78th-minute strike. The side Nuno Espirito Santo picked still had nine international players, but they were never really in the game and Bryan Gil’s shot that hit the crossbar early…

Josh Taylor’s world-title fight against Jack Catterall has been rescheduled after Scotland’s undisputed super-lightweight champion suffered a knee injury. Taylor was due to defend his WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO belts against Catterall on December 18, but the fight has been pushed back until February 26. Taylor said: “I’m gutted I won’t be able to defend my title on December 18 as originally planned, but I wanted to make sure I was 100 percent healthy to give my incredible fans the show they deserve. Image: Jack Catterall is the WBO…

Newcastle United’s new owners have held talks with Paulo Fonseca over their head coach role after sacking Steve Bruce on Wednesday. The 60-year-old was expected to be replaced by the new Saudi Arabian-backed consortium last week after they completed their £305m takeover, but he remained in charge for his 1000th game as manager – a 3-2 defeat to Tottenham. After a blistering start, going 1-0 up, Bruce’s side capitulated in front of non-executive chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and director Amanda Staveley at St James’ Park, and the defeat left them second-bottom…