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England did not want to go through the play-offs but were given an unkind draw in the qualifying groups when they met world champions Spain.

It does mean, however, that Sarina Wiegman’s side are in a strong position for the play-offs and will fancy their chances with a kind trip to Greece in October.

They beat potential round two opponents Ukraine in both matches in the qualifying group stage, which will give them confidence too.

There is a tricky tie for Northern Ireland, who come up against a talented young squad from Portugal in round one. Portugal twice beat Northern Ireland in Euro 2025 qualifying.

Their task gets trickier if they make it through to round two with potential opponents Iceland proving to be difficult to break down in their matches against England this year.

Scotland are hoping to reach just their second Women’s World Cup finals having failed to qualify in 2023.

They performed well in this year’s qualifying group stages, including draws with Belgium that showed they can compete with Europe’s strongest teams.

They will need to produce their best in round two if they meet big-hitters Sweden, who have been semi-finalists in the past two Women’s World Cup finals.

Wales have never beaten a top-20 ranked nation in a competitive fixture and are likely to need to do so to qualify – and their away form needs improvement.

But Rhian Wilkinson’s side face familiar opponents in round one. They thrashed Albania 4-0 in their qualifying group so who says they can’t do it again?

Meanwhile, having performed superbly in qualifying, the Republic of Ireland have a tricky play-off route with established European opposition Belgium potentially waiting in round two.

First, Carly Ward’s side will have to navigate a 3,100-mile trip to Kazakhstan, against relatively unknown opposition.

Route 66 was 20 years old and World War II had just ended when Bobby Troup, an aspiring songwriter from Pennsylvania, decided to go west. As it turned out, that drive in early 1946 did more than anyone could have imagined to establish the road as a symbol of footloose American freedom.

Stories, photos and travel recommendations from America’s Mother Road

Troup, 25 at the time, had already earned an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, written a hit song (1941’s “Daddy,” sung by Sammy Kaye), worked for bandleader Tommy Dorsey and served as a Marine through the war years. But to restart his career as a songwriter and actor, he believed that he needed to be in Los Angeles. So he and his wife, Cynthia, pointed their 1941 Buick toward California.

They started on U.S. 40, then picked up Route 66 in Illinois. Along the way, as Troup told author Michael Wallis in the book “Route 66: The Mother Road,” Cynthia came up with a phrase she thought was songworthy.

Bobby Troup, composer of the hit song “Route 66” and grand marshal of Duarte, Calif.’s Salute to Route 66 parade, rides in a 1948 Buick convertible and waves to fans in 1996.

(Louisa Gauerke / Associated Press)

“Get your kicks on Route 66,” she said.

Troup took it from there, creating “a kind of musical map of the highway.”

As Troup later recalled in an introduction to a Route 66 book by Tom Snyder, they heard Louis Armstrong play a club in St. Louis, stopped at Meramec Caverns in Missouri and found that “a good part of the highway was absolutely miserable — narrow, just two lanes, and very twisting through the Ozarks and Kansas.” Then came a snowstorm in Texas.

By the end of the drive, the up-tempo tune was half-done. Then, not quite a week after arrival, Troup landed a chance to pitch a few songs to Nat “King” Cole, who had already won fame with hits including “Sweet Lorraine” and “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”

They were sitting by a piano on stage — after Cole’s last set of the night at the Trocadero on Sunset Strip — when the nervous young songwriter decided to share his unfinished road song.

“I got up on the riser, pulled the piano bench back a little bit — and it went over the side and I fell over backwards,” Troup confessed in a later interview.

Still, Cole “loved it,” Troup recalled. “As a matter of fact, he got on the piano with me and played it.”

This was February. By mid-March, the song was done and Cole was recording it in a studio on Santa Monica Boulevard, part of Route 66.

The finished version name-checked a dozen cities along the route, including these words:

Now you go through Saint Looey

Joplin, Missouri,

And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.

You see Amarillo,

Gallup, New Mexico,

Flagstaff, Arizona.

Don’t forget Winona,

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Won’t you get hip to this timely tip

When you make that California trip

Get your kicks on Route 66.

In April, Capitol Records released “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and the tune quickly rose to #11 on the Billboard chart of top-selling singles. Before 1946 was out, it had been recorded again, this time by Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters. That version went to #14.

Musicians Nat “King” Cole, left, and Bing Crosby, circa 1945.

(NBC / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Coming just as postwar America was rediscovering leisure travel, the song was a big hit — and for many, a painful irony. Even with guidance from the Green Book used by many African American travelers in those days, it would have been deeply risky — and illegal in some places — for any Black man, Nat King Cole included, to eat and sleep on Route 66. This was a year before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball’s major leagues, two years before the U.S. Army was integrated.

As Candacy Taylor puts it in her 2020 book “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America,” “the open road wasn’t open to all.” Into the 1950s, Taylor writes, “about 35% of the counties on Route 66 didn’t allow Black motorists after 6 p.m.” and six of the eight states on the route still had segregation laws. Cole may have helped sell Route 66, Taylor writes, but “the carefree adventure he was promoting was not meant for him.”

Documentary photographer Candacy Taylor at the New Aster Motel in Los Angeles in 2016. In her book “Overground Railroad,” she writes about the discrimination Black travelers faced while driving on Route 66.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Two years after recording the song, when the increasingly wealthy Cole and his family bought a Hancock Park mansion and became the neighborhood’s first Black homeowners, many neighbors tried to keep him out, poisoned the family dog and burned racist insults into his lawn.

The Coles stayed put. The family was still in that home on South Muirfield Road in 1956, when Cole became the first African American to host a network television show, and in 1965, when Cole died of cancer at 45.

Troup, who later was divorced from Cynthia and married singer/actor Julie London, went on to record more than a dozen albums and had other songs recorded by Little Richard and Miles Davis. As an actor, Troup filled many guest-star roles on television, played Dr. Joe Early on the 1970s TV show “Emergency!” and had a small part in Robert Altman’s 1970 film “MASH.”

Meanwhile, the song kept rolling. As years passed, Perry Como, Sammy Davis Jr., Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Manhattan Transfer, Michael Martin Murphey, Asleep at the Wheel, Buckwheat Zydeco, Depeche Mode, Glenn Frey, the Brian Setzer Orchestra and John Mayer recorded versions. At different points in the 2006 movie “Cars,” you hear Berry’s and Mayer’s versions. Troup, who died in 1999, never forgot the difference the song made, both in his life and the way people think about the road.

“On the basis of that song, I was able to go out and buy a house and stay in California,” Troup told Wallis. “I never realized when I was putting it together that I was writing about the most famous highway in the world. I just thought I was writing about a road — not a legend.”

The Rolling Stones are among the countless musicians who have recorded versions of “Route 66.”

(David Redfern / Redferns via Getty Images)

Coronation Street fans had a lot to say after Abi Webster actress Sally Carman celebrated her birthday.

Coronation Street fans have been left floored after learning the real age of Abi Webster actress Sally Carman.

Abi made her debut on the long-running ITV soap back in 2017 – and it’s fair to say she has quickly become a firm favourite with fans. The character has also played a part in several big storylines during her stint on the soap.

From her drug addiction, the tragic death of her son Seb (Harry Visinoni), and, more recently, her affair with Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) behind her husband Kevin’s (Michael Le Vell) back, her time in Weatherfield has not been short of drama.

Away from the cobbles though, on Saturday (May 9) Abi actress Sally celebrated her birthday – and fans couldn’t believe her real age.

On a Coronation Street Facebook fan page, one person paid a sweet tribute to Sally and said: “Sally Carman is 51 today. Happy Birthday Sally.” And rushing to the comments section, fans were left gobsmacked by her age.

One person wrote: “51?! She looks in her 40s!” Another added: “She doesn’t look a day over 30.” A third chimed in: “I’d have guessed she was in her 40s.” Someone else wrote: “She doesn’t look that age! Gorgeous lady.”

Last year, Sally revealed the secrets behind her remarkably youthful looks. In an interview with The Sun, Sally confessed: “Oh, it’s no secret – I have fillers, I have Botox, facials…. I do all of it.”

Sally continued: “I’m really open about it. I don’t think there’s anything worse than someone promoting a cream saying: ‘Buy this mega-bucks cream and your face will be as smooth as mine.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, whatever.’ So there’s no cream – well, there is, but there are other things on top.”

Meanwhile earlier this year, Sally confirmed that fans will be seeing her playing Abi until at least 2027 as she signed another year-long contract. Speaking exclusively to Radio Times at the TV Choice Awards, she confirmed: “Just signed for another year, which is great. My goodness, I love it. It’s my favourite job I’ve ever done.”

The soap star also shared that she would be honoured to follow in the footsteps and have the same screen longevity as Corrie royalty Sally Dynevor, who recently marked the milestone of playing Sally Metcalfe for 40 years. “If they’ll have me, yeah!” Sally joked.

In addition to her success on Coronation Street, Sally has also found love on the show. She met her co-star Joe Duttine, who plays Tim Metcalfe, on set in 2017, and the couple got engaged in 2020 before tying the knot two years later.

Discussing their unique engagement tale on Kate Thornton’s podcast, White Wine Question Time, Sally shared: “It was while we were in lockdown and we were staying in the Dales with his sister, who has a lot of space, with, his kids” she said.

She added: “We were walking around this big field on this walk and he went: ‘Kids, have a look in between the dry stone walling because you know, they used to put coins and precious things to hide them in the walls.”

Sally continued: “So I’m having a look and there’s this box. And I opened it. I’m like: ‘No way.’ And then there was another box inside. And I turned around and he was on one knee.”

Coronation Street airs Monday to Friday at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX