defeat

Nov. 7 (UPI) — Republicans narrowly defeated a bipartisan bill in the Senate requiring congressional approval for military action against Venezuela as the Trump administration continues a military buildup in the region and attacks on alleged drug boats in nearby waters.

The GOP lawmakers rejected Senate Joint Resolution 90 in a 51-49 vote on Thursday evening, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska casting ballots in favor of the measure with their Democratic colleagues.

The resolution was introduced by Paul, and Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia in response to reporting that President Donald Trump was considering military ground strikes against Venezuela.

Venezuela has long been a target of Trump, who, during his first administration, launched a failed multiyear pressure campaign to oust its authoritarian leader, President Nicolas Maduro.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his executive powers to target drug cartels, including the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Trump has claimed, without providing evidence, that TdA has “invaded” the United States at Maduro’s direction, despite his own National Intelligence Council concluding in May that the regime “probably does not have a policy of cooperating” with TdA.

The vote was held as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a 17th known military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in Caribbean international waters. Since Sept. 2, the United States has killed around 70 people in the attacks.

The attacks have drawn domestic and international criticism and allegations of war crimes, murder and extrajudicial killings. Some Democrats called on the Trump administration to answer questions over the legality of the strikes without gaining proper congressional approval.

Following the Thursday vote, Kaine said the Trump administration told some members of Congress that it lacked legal authority to launch any attacks into Venezuela. Some worry that an attack could devolve into a full-scale war.

“Trump’s illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean and threats of land strikes in Venezuela recklessly and unnecessarily put the U.S. at risk of war,” Kaine said in a statement.

In a separate statement, he criticized his Republican colleagues, stating: “If the U.S. is going to put our nation’s sons and daughters into harm’s way, then we should have a robust debate in Congress in front of the American people.”

Sen. Todd Young, a Republican of Indiana, voted against the bill on Thursday, and explained in a statement that he has been informed of the legal rationale behind the strikes and does not believe the resolution is appropriate right now, but that could change.

“My vote is not an endorsement of the administration’s current course in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. As a matter of policy, I am troubled by many aspects and assumptions of this operation and believe it is at odds with the majority of Americans who want the U.S. military less entangled in international conflicts,” he said.

NASHVILLE — The Chargers won the battle but lost the warrior.

They held off the Tennessee Titans 27-20, but saw their outstanding left tackle Joe Alt go down with the same injured ankle that sidelined him earlier this season.

It was a troubling and ominous blow Sunday to a franchise that’s in a constant state of reshuffling its offensive line and unable to sufficiently protect quarterback Justin Herbert. Before losing Alt, the Chargers lost right tackle Bobby Hart to what they called a groin injury (but looked to be a hurt leg).

On a cool and overcast day, the Chargers had enough to get past the one-win Titans — the Chargers (6-3) were favored by 9½ points — but will face far stiffer competition in the second half of the season. The Titans haven’t won at home since last Nov. 4.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh helps offensive tackle Bobby Hart off the field in the first half.

(John Amis / Associated Press)

Herbert, who ran for 62 yards in the Week 8 win over Minnesota, again provided the bulk of the Chargers’ running game. He led all rushers with 57 yards in nine carries, including a one-yard touchdown.

The Titans fired coach Brian Callahan last month after the team got off to a 1-5 start, putting in place interim coach Mike McCoy, who was head coach of the San Diego Chargers from 2013 to 2016.

The Chargers absorbed a huge blow in the second quarter when Alt went down with an ankle injury, the same ankle that caused him to miss three games earlier this season. Alt, the best player on the offensive line, had returned for the Week 8 game against Minnesota and his presence was noticeable in both run blocking and protection of Herbert’s blind side.

Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston catches a touchdown pass next to Tennessee Titans cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis during the first half Sunday.

(John Amis / Associated Press)

But Sunday, he was felled by 285-pound Titans edge rusher Jihad Ward, who was blocked into the back of Alt’s legs. Alt sat on the turf for a few minutes, surrounded by Chargers medical staff, before a cart rolled onto the field to take him off.

It was the latest setback for an offensive line besieged by them this season, and an indication that Herbert will remain the most hit and harassed quarterback in the league this season.

Even though the Titans were without defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons, their best player, Herbert was still under near-constant pressure.

Herbert threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half, although his first throw was abysmal. It was straight into the arms of Tennessee linebacker Cody Barton, who turned the visitors’ second play from scrimmage into a 24-yard pick-six.

As he does virtually every week, Herbert picked up some big gains with his feet. He had a 39-yard scramble in the second quarter, and rolled out in the fourth and scored his first rushing touchdown of the season, sliding in from a yard out. That capped a 15-play, nine-minute, 99-yard drive in response to a goal-line stand.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is sacked by Tennessee Titans linebacker Jihad Ward during the second half Sunday.

(George Walker IV / Associated Press)

The Titans (1-8), who have had troubles moving the ball in the red zone, scored their second touchdown of the half on a 67-yard punt return by rookie Chimere Dike, who leads the NFL in all-purpose yards.

Those issues in the red zone were on display in the third quarter, when the Titans had four plays inside the 10 and couldn’t score, including third and fourth downs from the one.

Anchoring the middle of the Chargers’ defense was Daiyan Henley, playing two days after his older brother was shot and killed. After a sack in the first half, the third-year linebacker dropped to his knees and turned his palms to the sky and held out his hands in prayer.

Edge rusher Odafe Oweh had a pair of sacks, bringing his total to four in four games since being traded to the Chargers by Baltimore last month.

Match of the Day’s Gabby Logan, Alan Shearer and Ashley Williams dissect the reaction of Tottenham’s Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven after their defeat by Chelsea.

READ MORE: Fans booing and players snubbing the manager – an ‘abject’ day for Spurs

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From Mount Maunganui to Wellington, plus a loss in Hamilton in between, England’s batting failings against the Black Caps were undeniably a concerning trend.

Yes, captain Harry Brook lost all three tosses to expose those batters to the worst of conditions on at least two occasions.

Yes, New Zealand’s 50-over side, with their 93% win ratio at home since 2019, provide one of the toughest challenges in world sport.

But with four Ashes bankers in England’s top five – and the fifth a possible starter in Jacob Bethell – they returned only one innings above 34 between them across three matches.

Bethell, Brook, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith and Joe Root batted 15 times collectively in the 50-over series and together had nine single-figure scores.

No-one would call that ideal.

“It’s a different form of the game and it’s a completely different kind of challenge that we’re going to be confronted with as well,” said coach Brendon McCullum, denying batters would be scarred by the 3-0 series sweep heading into the Ashes.

At no point have England been in New Zealand because they see it as the optimal way to prepare for five Tests in Australia.

These fixtures were part of their wider schedule, dictated by those with a grip on the purse strings and who sign broadcast deals.

England have, instead, tried to make the most of the cramped schedule and ease players back into action after a post-summer break.

Steve Smith’s Sheffield Shield century appeared ominous, but fellow Australia middle-order batter Travis Head is also battling through white-ball matches against India, with no score above 30 in four attempts.

Had Root stroked New Zealand’s medium-fast pacers for a century in front of Aotearoa’s grass banks, few would have said it mattered when it came to facing Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the Perth cauldron with a different ball.

The reverse must also be true.

“Jamie Smith, Joe Root and Ben Duckett, they’ll be better for the run, too,” McCullum said.

“I’m sure they’ll be better for it with the prep that we’ve had with the other Test guys [bowlers Mark Wood, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson] who’ve been here for a while, too, we’ll have no excuses come Australia.”

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says he has “no regrets” after making 10 changes to his team for their Carabao Cup fixture against Crystal Palace, a match they went on to lose 3-0 at Anfield.

READ MORE: Slot ‘making excuses’ – but should he have rested key players?

SUNRISE, Fla. — Troy Terry and Mason McTavish scored in a shootout, and the Ducks beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Leo Carlsson had a goal and an assist, and Cutter Gauthier also scored to help the Ducks end a five-game trip with a victory in coach Joel Quenneville’s first game against his former team.

Quenneville, who coached the Panthers from 2019-21, returned to Sunrise for the first time since resigning as Florida’s coach after details of a sexual-assault scandal involving his 2010 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks squad were revealed in October 2021.

Quenneville was banned from the NHL for nearly three years for his handling of the situation before taking over the Ducks in May. He won three titles in 10 years with the Blackhawks and last coached for Florida on Oct. 27, 2021.

Carlsson buried a short-handed goal midway through the second period to extend his point streak to four games. He assisted on Gauthier’s power-play goal a couple of minutes later to give Carlsson a team-leading 11 points this season.

Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots for the Ducks.

Anton Lundell and Sam Reinhart scored for the Panthers. Reinhart had the tying goal — his fifth of the season — with three about minutes left in regulation after the Panthers had trailed 2-0 midway through the third.

Daniil Tarasov made 15 saves.

The Panthers, whose depth has already been tested this season because of a rash of injuries, were without forwards Jonah Gadjovich (upper body) and Brad Marchand (personal reasons).

Bryan Mbeumo’s match-winning goal in stoppage time elevated Manchester United to fourth on the Premier League ladder.

Manchester United’s improvement under coach Ruben Amorim continued as Matheus Cunha, Casemiro and two goals from Bryan Mbeumo secured a 4-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, their third successive Premier League win.

Looking to build on last weekend’s first victory at Liverpool since 2016, Cunha arrowed home a sublime 24th-minute strike into the bottom corner, the Brazilian’s first goal for United.

There was fortune about the second from Casemiro 10 minutes later, his shot taking a huge deflection before finding the net, but Mbeumo’s well-taken third just after the hour mark put the hosts in complete command.

Danny Welbeck’s sublime free kick against his former club pulled one back for Brighton, before Charalampos Kostoulas’s header in stoppage time ensured a nervy finish at Old Trafford.

With Brighton committing everyone forward in search of the equaliser, Mbeumo fired a fine strike into the roof of the net to lift United to fourth in the standings. Brighton stayed 12th.

“I enjoy it a lot here,” Mbeumo told Sky Sports. “It hasn’t been easy at the start. It’s a new environment, a new expectation, but I think with the link-up with the team, everything is going the right way.

“The work we put in, the togetherness we give on the pitch, is key. I like the challenges, I came here to a big club, and we want to fight for the best places.”

Brighton big test for United

The visitors provided a big test for an improving United, given that since the start of the 2021-22 season no team has won more league games against United than Brighton.

United’s victory against Liverpool last weekend was the first time Amorim had achieved back-to-back league wins since taking charge 11 months ago, but the manager insisted the revival would be undone if they slipped to another loss to Brighton.

Welbeck forced a fine save from United goalkeeper Senne Lammens early on as Brighton started brightly, but Cunha’s pinpoint finish settled home nerves. Since the start of last season, Cunha has scored more goals from outside the box than any other Premier League player in all competitions.

Casemiro’s deflected strike deservedly put a dominant United further ahead, with more chances coming and going to extend the hosts’ lead before the break.

Mbeumo followed up his goal at Liverpool with the third to put United into a seemingly unassailable position.

Proof that they are far from the finished article yet came, however, as mistakes crept in and Welbeck started the Brighton comeback.

United appeared on the ropes when Kostoulas pounced to narrow the deficit to 3-2, but Mbeumo’s 96th-minute strike secured the three points as the home side won three straight league victories for the first time since August 2024.

“We put ourselves in a really difficult position,” Welbeck said. “We have a great group. We got two goals and were close to maybe getting a third. It didn’t happen, but it is a good sign we showed character.”

Catherine Connolly, a pro-Palestine, left-wing candidate, is on course for a landslide victory as vote counting continues.

Left-wing independent candidate Catherine Connolly is set to become Ireland’s next president after her rival conceded defeat.

Vote counting in the presidential election was still under way on Saturday, but Heather Humphreys of the centre-right Fine Gael party told reporters she “wanted to congratulate Catherine Connolly on becoming the next president of Ireland”.

“Catherine will be a president for all of us, and she will be my president, and I really would like to wish her all the very, very best,” Humphreys said.

Voting slips were being counted by hand with the final result of Friday’s election expected to be declared later on Saturday once all 43 electoral constituencies across the country have completed counting.

Polls had suggested consistent and strong voter support for Connolly, 68, over her rival Humphreys, 64.

Deputy Prime Minister and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris also was quick to wish Connolly “every success”, adding: “She will be President for all this country.”

“Her success will be Ireland’s success,” he posted on X.

Connolly, a former barrister and independent lawmaker since 2016, has been outspoken in criticising Israel over its war in Gaza and has garnered the backing of a range of left-leaning parties, including Sinn Fein, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats.

Her campaign was especially popular among young people, who approved of her strong pro-Palestine stance and her commitment to social justice, among other issues.

Connolly and Humphreys were the only contenders after Jim Gavin, the candidate for Prime Minister Micheal Martin’s Fianna Fail party, quit the race three weeks before the election over a long-ago financial dispute. Martin had backed Gavin in the race.

While Irish presidents represent the country on the world stage, host visiting heads of state and play an important constitutional role, they do not have the power to shape laws or policies.

The winner will succeed Michael D Higgins, who has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms.

If confirmed, Connolly will be Ireland’s 10th president and the third woman to hold the post.

These are troubling times for West Ham off the pitch too.

There were a large number of empty seats at London Stadium on Monday as some fans staged a boycott, staying away in protest against the running of the club.

While this was the first boycott, supporters have previously called for chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady, who have been at West Ham since 2010, to step down.

Thousands of fans demonstrated before last month’s defeat by Crystal Palace and in response the club issued a lengthy statement,, external saying they were continuing “to listen to fan feedback”, have made “significant investment into the football operation” and “continue to do everything we can to improve the matchday experience”.

Payne was one of the fans who stayed away from the game for what he said was the first and the last time he will do so.

“There was a boycott but fans are not the problem, we are the solution waiting to be heard,” he said.

“It was a deliberate boycott to send a message to the owners that something has got to change.”

Payne said fan protests are solely aimed at the club’s owners, rather than the manager or players.

But Nuno’s decision to start with inverted full-backs against Brentford did raise some eyebrows.

“It’s unfair on Nuno and it’s unfair on the players as well,” Payne added.

“Nuno is a fantastic bloke, but I think he got his selections a bit skew-whiff last night by playing a young left-back – who has never played anywhere else – as right-back. Ollie Scarles, I felt sorry for him really.”

The sight of the fit-again Ollie Rathbone – last year’s player of the season – in the matchday squad for the first time since early pre-season adds weight to those sentiments.

At the same time, Parkinson is unlikely to be swayed in ignoring the steady progress so far, even if many fans saw the Stoke display as a step backwards.

While the run of games will bring pressure, it also brings opportunity, with Kieffer Moore among those adamant that Wrexham are not far from clicking and that they will be a real threat when they do.

Before the next international break – and all inside the space of three weeks – Wrexham also have games against Portsmouth and Charlton Athletic, even if the Addicks have done eye-catchingly well since their own promotion.

And then there is the small matter of the chance to reach the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup when they welcome Welsh rivals Cardiff City.

Get it right and Wrexham will have people talking for all the right reasons. Something Parkinson will know full well.

“We need to just analyse the performance and not get too down about it,” Parkinson said.

“It says something about how far we’ve come that we come to Stoke in front of 25,000 and are disappointed not to get something from the game.

“But we have got to look at ourselves. I think it’s good to be frustrated, I think it’s good to be a bit annoyed and that we don’t have pats on the back and say ‘Oh, we’ve come to Stoke and done okay’.

“They are a good group of lads who are working really hard and I’m excited about what we’ve got in the building, I really am.

“We have taken a knock, but we’ll come back fighting on Wednesday.”

And with plenty looking hard at Wrexham – and maybe even looking for them to fail – a win would do much to wrestle back control of that narrative.

Manager Michael O’Neill felt had Northern Ireland beaten Germany at Windsor Park in World Cup qualifying on Monday night that they would have been in a “strong position to achieve something amazing”.

It was not to be with Nick Woltemade’s somewhat fortuitous goal the difference between the two sides in Belfast.

When the dust settles on a window during which his young side also beat Slovakia 2-0 on Friday, O’Neill will surely feel encouraged that such a possibility remains on the table as he seeks to take the side to the game’s biggest stage for the first time in four decades.

For the second time in five weeks, Northern Ireland’s players left the field against the four-time World Cup winners believing they could and perhaps should have taken something from the game.

In Cologne last month, it took until after the 70th minute before the visitors tired and quick-fire goals from Nadiem Amiri and Florian Wirtz secured an unconvincing 3-1 win.

Back in Belfast on Monday night, it was Northern Ireland who finished the stronger of the sides, but they could not find an equaliser during a final 25 minutes played largely in Germany’s third of the pitch.

The result ends any realistic chance of O’Neill’s side topping Group A, but the performance, allied with wins in their other two matches to date, means they can have real belief that they can both make and then succeed in the play-offs.

A draw in next month’s seemingly crunch fixture in Slovakia followed by a win over Luxembourg, provided as O’Neill put it “Germany take care of business at home when they play Slovakia” in the final matchday, would be enough for second place.

Even should that not come to pass, there remains a likely backdoor into the play-offs as an otherwise unqualified group winner from last year’s Nations League, although that would potentially mean a considerably stronger opponent in an away semi-final.

“We’ve gained some momentum and picked up some good results,” said defender Paddy McNair, one of two players in O’Neill’s current squad who played for Northern Ireland in their last major tournament at Euro 2016.

“If I was the opposition, I would not like to face us in the play-offs.

“It’s pretty hard to finish first now, but I think we have to get to Slovakia and get three points and you just never know what could happen going into the last game.”

Despite the loss, and his frustration, O’Neill still had time for a joke with a member of the German media.

“Having looked at the stats, ironically Germany played more long balls than us in the game,” he said.

For his part, Julian Nagelsmann, whose comments after the reverse fixture in Cologne prompted O’Neill’s quip, was relieved to get through a “tough” game.

“The second half was all about defending,” Nagelsmann told BBC Sport.

“As I said before the game it was a really tough opponent, a lot of long balls and they fight and we had to fight as well.

“It was a good step in the right direction to beat a team like Northern Ireland and to fight for second balls and be as tough as the opponent.”

Top spot in Group A is now a long shot given Germany have put their grasp on automatic qualification.

But second place and a guaranteed play-off is still on the cards ahead of November’s two qualifiers in Slovakia and home to bottom side Luxembourg.

It may not be much consolation now, but a play-off as one of four Nations League group winners seems to be a more secure fall back given other results across Europe, if Northern Ireland were to miss out on the top two.

So, after battling but falling short against one of Europe’s giants, this young Northern Ireland side may be down, but they are definitely not out.

Beau Greaves emerged victorious from a 6-5 thriller against Luke Littler as she became the first woman to reach the final of the World Youth Championship.

Littler came into the tournament on the back of his 6-1 demolition of world number one Luke Humphries in the World Grand Prix final on Sunday.

The 18-year-old had breezed through his three matches in the round-robin phase of the event, with wins over Dutchman Jeffrey Keen, Iceland’s Alexander Thorvaldsson and Belgium’s Matthias Moors.

However, the world champion put in a below-par last-16 display against fellow Englishman Charlie Manby.

Littler was on the brink of defeat at 5-3 down to the 20-year-old, before winning the next three legs, then rediscovered his touch in the quarter-finals with a 6-1 victory over Jamai van den Herik of the Netherlands.

Warrington teenager Littler found himself 2-1 down in the semi-final against Greaves but responded by winning three consecutive legs to seize the upper hand.

But three-time WDF women’s world champion Greaves – who is set to accept a PDC Tour card for 2026-27 – rallied to level the match at 4-4 and 5-5.

Greaves then blew Littler away in the decider as she threw an 11-dart leg – the 21-year-old from Doncaster sealing victory with a checkout of 80.

She will meet defending champion Gian van Veen in next month’s final after the Dutchman, 23, clinched a 6-4 win over Sebastian Bialecki of Poland in the other semi-final.

The World Youth Championship final will be played on 23 November in Minehead, before the Players Championship final on the same day.

Littler, who averaged 107.4 to Greaves’ 105, posted on Instagram after his defeat: “Fair play to Beau. All the best in Minehead. Some talent.”

Players aged between 16 and 24 are eligible to compete in the World Youth Championship.

Littler won the youth title in 2023 aged 16, a few weeks before he burst into the spotlight by finishing runner-up at the 2024 World Championship.

Messi’s dominant performance against Atlanta came after he briefly left international duty with Argentina during the FIFA window.

Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted on another by Jordi Alba to lead Inter Miami to a 4-0 home victory over Atlanta United on Saturday night in Major League Soccer (MLS) at Chase Stadium in Florida.

Messi, who sat out his home nation, Argentina’s, friendly against Venezuela that was held in Miami one night earlier, started and helped Inter Miami (18-7-8, 62 points) guarantee itself at least the No 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with the victory.

The Herons still have a chance to secure the No 2 seed if they can finish with more points than FC Cincinnati, which also has 62 points. If the teams finish with the same number of points, Cincinnati would clinch the higher seed by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Atlanta United (5-16-12, 27 points), which eliminated Inter Miami from the MLS playoffs in the first round last season, lost its third match in a row and is winless in its past five.

Both teams were short-handed due to the FIFA international window this week. But Messi, who chose to play for club over country this weekend, now leads the MLS in goals, with 26, and his 18th assist tied San Diego’s Anders Dreyer for the league lead.

Messi’s first goal came in the 39th minute when he controlled a crossing pass from Baltasar Rodriguez and curled in a shot to the far top corner to break a scoreless deadlock. His second goal capped the scoring in the 87th minute off an assist from Alba.

In the 52nd minute, Messi created the chance that led to Miami’s second score, when he looped a long ball across the field to Alba as he surged towards Atlanta’s goal. Alba did the rest, lobbing the ball over Atlanta keeper Jayden Hibbert.

Luis Suarez added to the tally in the 61st minute, when he timed a shot perfectly off a high clearance attempt by Atlanta into the back of the net, curling the ball past Hibbert. Inter Miami’s Rocco Rios Novo started in goal and recorded the clean sheet.

Atlanta United, which has been riddled with injuries to key players this season, had to deal with another when, in the 14th minute, Stian Gregersen was forced to leave the game with what appeared to be a potential hamstring issue.

Saturday’s fixture was the final MLS regular-season match at Chase Stadium for Inter, with the team relocating to Miami Freedom Park in 2026.

British heavyweight David Allen’s fairytale headline show ended in a unanimous points defeat to Russian heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov at a raucous Sheffield Arena.

Judges scored the fight 115-111, 117-109 and 116-10 in favour of Makhmudov.

The 33-year-old Allen had previously fought at the venue five times, but this was his first time as a headliner and a 9,000-strong crowd came out to support their South Yorkshire hero, who quit boxing five years ago and planned a quiet life.

He returned to the sport with titles on his mind, and for big nights like this.

“I’ve never, ever seen anything like it,” Allen said after the fight. “I nearly cried. I had to really choke it all back a bit on the ramp. I’m not finished.”

The imposing Makhmudov entered the fight with 19 knockouts from his 20 wins, and with just two defeats it made him the toughest opponent Allen has faced.

As chants of “There’s only one Dave Allen” rang around the venue, the home fighter had to bite down on his gumshield early on and take thudding blows from Makhmudov.

With the names of his children, Betty and George, etched on his shorts, Allen started to stalk Makhmudov, with a massive body shot followed by a right uppercut landing in the fifth round.

Allen sparked to life in the ninth round and connected with an overhand right, but Makhmudov showed toughness and durability.

In the 12th round, Makhmudov had a second points deduction – both were for holding. This, along with the roar of the crowd, encouraged Allen to push on and land another monstrous right hook, but it was not enough.

The ‘White Rhino’ has been here before – suffering some major setbacks during his 13 years as a professional.

Allen’s career appeared to be in tatters numerous times, but he has emerged from retirement and rebuilt over the past four years and will look to do so again.

A stoppage loss to David Price in 2019 ended with Allen being stretchered out of the ring and he gave up the sport the following year.

Allen’s attention turned to training young boxers Joe Hayden and Joe Howarth – both of whom won on Saturday’s Sheffield undercard – before confirming a return to the sport he loved at a “low level”.

After two wins via small hall shows, a loss to Olympic bronze medallist Frazer Clarke was only a minor setback as Allen was quick to accept a fight with undefeated heavyweight Johnny Fisher, without knowing this would catapult his career.

Allen was on the wrong end of a contentious loss in Saudi Arabia before knocking out Fisher in a rematch at a sold-out Copper Box Arena in May 2025.

Bellamy was on something of a charm offensive when he faced the media before this fixture. There was to be a new and bigger English audience to see what the Welsh public had already witnessed: his evolution from a combustible, confrontational player to a controlled, deep-thinking coach.

This was the sternest examination so far of that new image.

He simmered on the Wembley touchline as he watched his team fold obligingly in the face of torrential English pressure.

Bellamy kept his cool on the surface but did he manage such calm in the changing room too?

“I quite enjoyed half-time,” he said.

“I was like, ‘now we see’. What are we going to do?

“When those moments happen, it shows who you are as a coach. You can come in balling and throwing stuff, but to who? It makes no sense. Me, I’m calm.

“This is a moment we need to relish. It’s not gone well for us, [so] how are we going to do something about it? Now we see who we are. I like those moments.”

Bellamy is clear about how he wants his team to play – pressing high, attacking whenever possible – but acknowledged that, on occasions like this against superior opposition, that will not always be possible.

“I look at England, their physical profile, the speed, the duels. Of course, it helps when you’ve got a lot of players playing in the Champions League, but that’s where you want our players to be,” he said.

“[For] the players, it’s ‘this is where we want to be’. But we also know, we have to be at the top of our game to be able to play against these types of nations.

“On Monday we have to be at the top of our game.”

The fact it appears to be isolated errors which are proving costly gives Arsenal some hope that there is a clear path to reviving their campaign.

Captain Kim Little said after the match that the team “cannot always be perfect all of the time”.

“We’re in a lower space just now with the current form, but we’ll come back stronger. We go into our league fixture at the weekend for a big three points,” Little told Disney+.

Understandably, Slegers said her side are “not happy” with their form, but their experience which led to winning this competition last year gives them reason to remain positive.

They lacked a cutting edge in attack and only managed half as many shots as Lyon, but they also lost 2-1 to the French side in the first leg of the semi-final in this competition last year and bounced back to win the second game 4-1 in France.

There is no second leg this time, with this a group phase game, but Arsenal will look to rebound all the same at the first opportunity.

“The important thing is that we manage it really well and we give direction moving forward and stand strong,” said Slegers. “The positive thing is that we have strong foundation in a cultural perspective and a football perspective.

“We need to keep on believing in that philosophy and it gave us a lot last year. When it starts clicking, we know how good we are.”

Should they fail to beat Brighton in the league on Sunday (14:30 BST), they will have gone a month without a win.

“I think there’s lots to it,” Russo said of Arsenal’s slump. “I think, first and foremost, we need to look at ourselves and how we can push our standards. We’re sometimes letting teams get attacks on us by our own mistakes.

“We need to take accountability, we need to focus on what we can do to control that from everyone. It’s all across the pitch. There’s moments in that that were really positive so we’ll lean on that and get ready for Sunday.”

It was at the start of the game where Arsenal were at their best, getting an early goal and showing their attacking qualities, but they could not sustain it.

“In the first 20-25 minutes, they started the game [well], the goal that they scored… but it is fine margins,” added Smith. “And if you make a couple of errors against a top-quality side like Lyon, then they will punish you.

“In the final third, they just needed to be a bit better, more clinical. But certainly positives to take.”

PHILADELPHIA — It was quintessential October baseball.

Two starting pitchers dominating two helpless lineups.

A low-scoring contest in which every stranded baserunner felt like a monumental missed opportunity.

A nail-biting affair decided by one team cashing in a rare scoring chance, and the other failing to do the same.

In the bottom of the sixth inning in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Monday, the Philadelphia Phillies had two aboard with one out, but came up empty.

In the next half-inning, the Dodgers faced the same situation, but came away with four runs.

That was the difference in the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory at Citizens Bank Park, giving them a commanding 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series that will shift to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday.

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers during the second inning Monday against the Phillies.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For most of Monday night, a crowd of 45,653 in South Philadelphia sat anxiously in anticipation, waiting for the dam to break in an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.

On one side, Blake Snell was dotting his fastball up in the zone and to both parts of the plate, giving the Phillies little to hit while setting them up to flail at his dominant arsenal of secondary weapons. Through four innings, he retired 12 of 14 batters with only two walks issued. He had gotten whiffs on each of the first 11 non-fastballs he threw. And not until there were two outs in the fifth did he give up his first hit.

Opposite him, Jesús Luzardo was equally effective. After stranding runners on the corners in a shaky first, the left-hander locked in and made the Dodgers look silly with a barrage of sweepers and changeups that dipped below the zone. Where he needed 24 pitches in the first, he completed the next five on just 48 throws. In that time, he retired 17 in a row and let only two balls even leave the infield.

Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, the narrative began to change.

The Phillies generated the game’s first big opportunity, after Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber walked in back-to-back at-bats against Snell with one out. It was the first time all night their lineup had gotten a runner past first. And it happened as two-time MVP Bryce Harper came strolling to the plate.

Snell’s plan of attack against Harper was simple. His first pitch was a slider in the dirt. His next was another one up in the zone Harper fouled off. Two more sliders followed, with Harper fanning on the first and fouling off the next. Then, after one change-of-pace curveball was buried in front of the plate, Snell went back to the slider one more time. It darted below Harper’s swing for a strikeout. Citizens Bank Park groaned.

The inning ended a batter later, when Alec Bohm chased a 2-and-0 changeup and hit a groundball to third base. Miguel Rojas fielded it behind the bag, clocked the speedy Bohm racing toward first, and decided to go the short — albeit risky — way instead, sprinting to third base and beating Turner to the bag with a headfirst slide.

That ended the inning. This time, frustrated boos rained down from the stands.

Minutes later, the Dodgers would be in front. Unlike the Phillies, they didn’t squander their one opportunity for runs.

Teoscar Hernández led off the top of the seventh with a single. Freddie Freeman followed with a line drive to weak-fielding Nick Castellanos (who was drawn into the Phillies’ lineup following an injury to Harrison Bader in Game 1) in right, getting on his horse to leg out a hustle double.

That knocked Luzardo out of the game. And in a move that would soon be second-guessed, Phillies manager Rob Thompson opted for right-handed reliever Orion Kerkering instead of dominant closer Jhoan Duran.

Kerkering got one quick out, striking out Tommy Edman.

But then Kiké Hernández hit a cue-ball grounder to Turner at shortstop. After a slight hesitation, Teoscar Hernández broke for home hard. As Turner fielded the ball and fired to the plate, Hernández chugged in with a feet-first slide. Catcher J.T. Realmuto’s tag was a split-second too late.

Teoscar Hernández celebrates after advancing to third on a double by Freddie Freeman in the seventh inning against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday. Hernandez later scored the Dodgers’ first run.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers had opened the scoring — and would only keep adding on.

With two outs in the inning, Will Smith (who, like in Game 1, entered as a mid-game replacement as he continues to work back from his fractured hand) hit a two-run single to left. Shohei Ohtani, who had been hitless in the series and 0 for 3 earlier in the night, tacked on another with a groundball that got through the infield.

By the time the dust settled, the Dodgers had surged to a 4-0 lead.

They would need every bit of it.

Emmet Sheehan followed Snell’s six-inning, one-hit, nine-strikeout gem with two innings of relief, retiring the side in the seventh before limiting damage in the eighth, when he gave up one run after a Max Kepler triple and Turner RBI single but retired the side on a strikeout of Schwarber and a flyball from Harper.

The real trouble came in the ninth, when the Dodgers turned to Blake Treinen — and not recently ascendant bullpen ace Roki Sasaki — to close the game.

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the ninth inning against the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of the NLDS.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Treinen couldn’t, giving up a leadoff single and back-to-back doubles to J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos to bring home two runs and put the tying runner at second.

Alex Vesia entered next and got two outs (one of them, a crucial play from third baseman Max Muncy to field a bunt and throw out Castellanos at third as the lead runner). Then, Sasaki was finally summoned to face Turner with runners on the corners.

He induced a groundball to second baseman Tommy Edman. Edman spiked his throw to first, but Freeman picked it with a sprawling effort. And once again, the Phillies had failed to completely cash in on a scoring chance — leaving the Dodgers one win away from advancing to the NL Championship Series.

South Africa responded to their crushing defeat by England with an impressive six-wicket victory over New Zealand at the World Cup in Indore.

Having been skittled for 69 and beaten by 10 wickets in their tournament opener on Friday, the Proteas dismissed New Zealand for 241 and cruised to their target in 40.5 overs in a remarkable turnaround in fortunes.

Tazmin Brits, one of the 10 South Africa players to make a single-figure score last week, hit a brilliant 101 – her fourth one-day international century in five innings and fifth this year.

Brits was bowled two balls after reaching her century with 47 runs needed, and Marizanne Kapp and Anneke Bosch also departed chasing a net run-rate boost, but Sune Luus, who put on 159 for the second wicket with Brits, finished 81 not out to seal a commanding victory.

New Zealand, in contrast, were lacklustre, with bat, ball and in the field.

After choosing to bat rather than inserting South Africa on the back of their England collapse, Suzie Bates was out lbw to the first ball and they chewed by 48 dot balls in a timid powerplay.

Sophie Devine and Brooke Halliday upped the ante with a partnership of 86 from 75 balls through the middle but the dismissal of Halliday in the 39th over sparked a collapse of seven wickets for 44 runs in 59 balls from 187-3 as left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba took 4-40.

Devine was bowled for 85 in the 45th over, ending hope of a big finish, while her side later gifted 19 wides and leaked runs with misfields.

It leaves New Zealand, last year’s T20 World Cup champions, off the pace set by Australia, India and England early in this competition, with only the top four progressing from the group stage.

South Africa look the far more likely contenders.

Barcelona’s unexpected loss to Sevilla drops the Spanish champions two points behind Real Madrid on La Liga ladder.

Sevilla thrashed Barcelona 4-1 on Sunday, ending the champions’ unbeaten start in La Liga and denying them an opportunity to return to the top of the table.

The Andalusian club’s first league win over Barcelona since 2015 lifted them to sixth in the standings with 13 points from eight matches. Barcelona remained second with 19 points, two below leaders Real Madrid.

“It’s one of the happiest days of my life. We deserved to win from start to finish,” said Jose Angel Carmona, who scored Sevilla’s third goal.

Barcelona made a muted start and had no shots on target in the first half an hour, while Sevilla probed early on, looking to unleash Alexis Sanchez with long balls.

Sevilla took the lead in the 13th minute, after Isaac Romero went down while jostling for the ball with Ronald Araujo near Barcelona’s six-yard box, and the referee awarded a penalty to Sevilla after taking a look at the VAR replay.

Sanchez sent former Arsenal teammate Wojciech Szczesny the wrong way to convert the spot kick.

Szczesny stopped Sevilla from doubling their lead in the 27th minute, saving Romero’s shot from inside the box.

Romero, however, doubled Sevilla’s lead 10 minutes later, as Ruben Vargas sprinted past Barcelona’s high defensive line to chase down a through ball near the box, and crossed to the Spanish forward who dispatched a first-time finish.

Marcus Rashford reduced the deficit for Barcelona late in added time before the break, hammering Pedri’s lobbed pass into the net from a tight angle with his left foot.

Lewandowski misses penalty

Barcelona pushed forward in the second half and were handed an opportunity to equalise when Adnan Januzaj brought down Alejandro Balde in the box, but Robert Lewandowski fired wide from the penalty spot in the 76th minute.

The visitors’ hopes of salvaging a point ended in the 90th minute when Carmona shot through a defender’s legs to find the net and put Sevilla 3-1 ahead.

Second-half substitute Akor Adams made it 4-1 five minutes into added time, scoring from Chidera Ejuke’s pass.

“We lacked intensity, we couldn’t get the ball out of our half, we didn’t know what to do with the ball … we were never at our best,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri said.

“We need to improve a lot of things so that we can start winning games again after the break.”

Sevilla, who have won two games in a row, will continue their league campaign after the international break against Mallorca on October 18, the same day Barcelona host Girona.