Key events
Scotland fans, what do you think?
After Scotland’s mugging of the Greeks, I suspect the footballing muses have something up their sleeves for Scotland tonight. Fifty years of watching Scotland themselves get mugged, has made me very apprehensive. The bookies are offering Belarus at 18/1 to win this game. I’m not so sure given Scotland’s self destruction tendencies.
Fifa has begun redrafting its regulations on staging domestic league games in foreign countries and is seeking legal advice over whether it can ban them. World football’s governing body would like to outlaw the practice but will be guided by legal opinion in its first review of the relevant regulations for 11 years.
A source involved in the process said Fifa was working towards making its rulebook more robust with a view to new regulations being ready early next year. This week Uefa blamed the “relevant Fifa regulatory framework” for its decision to allow Villarreal v Barcelona to take place in Miami in December and Milan v Como to go ahead in Perth in February. That is understood to have caused considerable irritation at Fifa because under existing regulations it is not their decision to make.
Ahead of today’s game, Scotland manager Steve Clarke said: “I’d be a bit daft if I wasn’t proud because I’m the first guy to reach that amount of games. It’s nice, but that’s a little personal thing at the moment. It shouldn’t be about me. It’s about the team and it’s about trying to get to the World Cup so that’s what we’re going to focus on.
“The brief was to qualify for tournaments. We’ve managed to do that twice, but we want to do it again because we’re all greedy. The expectation was to do as well as I could. I’ve always looked at the players and you’re thinking: ‘What can we do to improve?’ Did I think it would last this long? Probably not, but here I am.”
“If you want to qualify, these are the games you have to win,. You have to give yourself a platform to play against the bigger nations. If you drop points to the teams ranked below you, it makes qualification very difficult. If you look at our barren years, maybe we messed up against opposition we felt we should have been beating.
“In my tenure we’ve done well against the so-called lesser teams in the groups and it’s very important you get the points off these teams. It’s very important we get the points off Belarus. They’ll come here, they’ll be organised, they’ll be difficult to break down and until you break them down it’s a long night.
“They’ll make it difficult but it’s up to us to make sure that we approach the game properly, which we will. It’s up to us to make sure that we create enough chances in the game to get the crowd excited, which we hopefully will. The crowd need to back the players, the players need to give the crowd something to shout about and that’s what we’ll try to achieve.”
Steve Clarke will take a moment to celebrate a significant achievement when Belarus visit Hampden Park today. It will be game 72 in office for Clarke, surpassing Craig Brown as Scotland’s longest-serving manager in terms of matches.
The Guardian’s fans’ network has assessed the Premier League season so far, looking at the best games and goals, the biggest gaffes and managerial performances.
With it being the men’s international break, several club stadiums will be used this afternoon. Aston Villa and Arsenal will continue using Villa Park and the Emirates Stadium respectively.
Anfield will be the location for Liverpool v Manchester City in the final match of the day, while Everton will host Manchester United at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time.
With four games scheduled for the 12pm slot this afternoon, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new broadcast pattern. It seems to be a real opinion-splitter, with several fans complaining about the surge in midday kick-offs.
Feel free to email us at matchday.live@theguardian.com with your take.
Renée Slegers revealed this week that she has been showing her Arsenal players footage of tennis legend Roger Federer in a bid to improve performances. Slegers explained: “It’s not only about the football. A piece of it is about the psychology as well. How we stay in games, how we react to certain moments.
“I looked at a really inspirational video of Roger Federer. What he did as a tennis player to go from point to point. That’s all we’re looking at and we do that together as a group. This week, everything has been very honest and transparent. We spent a lot of time together. What I see and what I take from it is that everyone wants the same thing, everyone wants Arsenal to succeed.
“It’s really clear in my head, that’s why I brought it up. We had a look today. He talks about the percentage of games he’s won in his career and the percentage of points he’s won in his career. That’s really interesting.
“He talks about his mindset. The point he’s playing for at the moment is the most important point. But then that’s done. When that point is over, he goes on to the next one. I think he won, as he says himself, 54% of his points. He’s been one of the best two times at tennis. That says something about how he comes back after points and how he was really good at being good in the most important moments, the points that count. That was good inspiration.
“I also do want to put things into perspective and look at wider things and get inspiration from other athletes and sports teams. Like I just mentioned earlier, all athletes and teams go through different times. It’s about how you come back. That’s why this was brought up because we spoke about Roger Federer this morning.”
We might be just over one month into the WSL season, but Arsenal find themselves facing a must-win game already. The Gunners dropped points to Manchester United and Aston Villa before losing to Manchester City last week, leaving them fifth in the WSL table and five points behind leaders Chelsea.
If they lose to Brighton this afternoon, Arsenal could find themselves out of the title race completely.
Speaking of former Manchester City managers, our very own Tom Garry spoke to Nick Cushing recently about his time at the club and his new challenge with NWSL side Denver Summit.
Gareth Taylor will be looking to impress against his former club this afternoon as Liverpool host Manchester City at Anfield. Taylor was sacked by City in March and is still yet to win a WSL game with Liverpool.
Ahead of the game, Taylor told Sky Sports: “There’s a certain amount of loyalty with my coaching history. I’m not a religious person, but this way and this style is like my religion.
“It evolves, of course it does. There’s some concepts within the game model that are completely changed from when I first started a head coach role and that’s fantastic.
“I don’t think it can be set. Nothing’s ever set where nothing evolves and doesn’t change, and you have to adapt but for me, it’s taking comfort in that also.
“It’s always really good to be able to have a way and a style of playing that allows you to review, and we’ve had really good opportunities to review recently. It really is a good template to have to show you where you’ve been successful and where perhaps we need to improve on.
“The brief has to be, can we bring an identity and a style to Liverpool that’s unique to us? And what we’ve seen so far in those difficult moments is glimpses of what that future could look like.”
In other WSL news this week, Rick Passmoor became Leicester City head coach on a permanent basis after a successful interim period. Passmoor signed a three-year deal with the Foxes and said: “I am very privileged and very honoured to be at this club. I want to ensure we continue to progress and further establish ourselves in the WSL.
“There’s history on the men’s side, and we want to make sure we leave a legacy with Leicester Women.”
High-flying Tottenham travel to Kingsmeadow this afternoon to face Chelsea in what could prove to be a very competitive London derby. Spurs have been enjoying a positive run of form following the arrival of new head coach Martin Ho.
“There is still a lot of work to do; we’re only five games in,” Ho said before the game. “The players’ feet are very well grounded. We always look for things we can do better and we have to keep improving.”
We might be in the midst of the men’s international break, but the WSL remains in full swing. All 12 teams are in action today, with four games kicking off at 12pm BST.
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Chelsea v Tottenham (12pm BST)
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London City Lionesses v West Ham (12pm BST)
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Aston Villa v Leicester City (12pm BST)
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Everton v Manchester United (12pm BST)
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Arsenal v Brighton (2:30pm BST)
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Liverpool v Manchester City (4:45pm BST)
Following Serbia’s 1-0 loss to Albania yesterday, England can officially qualify for the World Cup with a win against Latvia on Tuesday.
From Australia and New Zealand to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia – these are the nations that have already qualified for the World Cup…
Time to look ahead to today’s fixtures, with Scotland among the teams in World Cup qualifying action.
Group C
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Scotland v Belarus
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Denmark v Greece
Group G
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Netherlands v Finland
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Lithuania v Poland
Group H
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San Marino v Cyprus
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Romania v Austria
Group L
Click below for a full roundup of yesterday’s international games:
Firstly, let’s recap yesterday’s World Cup qualifying scores from Europe…
Group E
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Bulgaria 1-6 Turkey
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Spain 2-0 Georgia
Group F
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Estonia 1-3 Italy
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Norway 5-0 Israel FT
Group K
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Latvia 2-2 Andorra
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Serbia 0-1 Albania
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another Matchday live! We’ve got six WSL fixtures to look forward to this afternoon as well as a few international games.
I’ll also be recapping some of yesterday’s matches and looking ahead to Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier between Latvia and England.
Now then, we’ve got plenty to get through, so let’s get cracking, shall we?
As always, be sure to get in touch by messaging in with any plans for the day or just general chit-chat.
I’ll be with you all day – join me!
