(Left to right) Italy's Raspadori taking his shot on goal vs England, Alex de Minaur after winning a point against Andy Murray and the Spain Women's National football team players at Euro 2022. (Photos: Nations League, Laver Cup and Reuters)Giacomo Raspadori emerged as the hero at San Siro Stadium with his goal in the 68th minute that helped hosts beat England 1-0 in their Nations League match. The Gareth Southgate led team as a result, have been relegated to Division B of the competition.
In a game of few chances, Raspadori took his applying a crisp finish in the second half that would be enough to see off another repeat of the 2021 European Championship final.
🏴 England have gone 5 games without a win for the first time in 8 years & are relegated from League A.#NationsLeague pic.twitter.com/tP5Z3k8jdy
— UEFA Nations League (@EURO2024) September 23, 2022
England were unable to manage more than a couple of Harry Kane snap shots and although manager Gareth Southgate was booed by the fans in the stands, he wasn’t too critical of the team’s performance on the night.
“It’s difficult for me to be too critical of the performance. We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target,” he said.
“For large parts of the game we played very well. We didn’t deal with the decisive moment defensively. We had moments where we had the chance to be decisive in their final third when our quality wasn’t quite right.
De Minaur bests Murray
Just ahead of the showpiece of the night that was Roger Federer’s farewell match, a doubles with Rafael Nadal, Laver Cup was treated with an intense singles game between Andy Murray and Alex de Minaur, with the Australian emerging winner to bring back Team World into the tournament.
Talk about a DREAM coaching team
Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer offer @andy_murray advice at the #LaverCup 😍@LaverCup pic.twitter.com/AS3eHjKZGY
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 23, 2022
The 23-year-old displayed great resilience in his comeback of 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 after losing the first set to Murray.
In what was their second meeting against each other, de Minaur used his scooped returns to tire the Brit and help his team mount a comeback into the competition as the scores at the end of the day would be 2-2.
Spain Women players release statement clarifying dispute with federation
Less than 24 hours after the Spanish Football Federations (RFEF) released a public statement confirming they had received emails from the 15 women’s team players who wished not to be selected in what it labelled as an “an unprecedented situation in the history of football, both male and female, in Spain and worldwide”, the players have issued an explainer.
— Alexia Putellas (@alexiaputellas) September 23, 2022
The 15 players in reference, took to social media to depict their side of the story stating, “We requested in our communication sent to the RFEF not to be summoned until situations that affect our emotional and personal state, our performance and, consequently, the results of the Selection and that could lead to undesirable injuries are reversed.”
They further added, “We have never asked for the dismissal of the coach as has been commented. We understand that our work is not in any case to choose said position, but to express constructively and honestly what we consider can improve the performance of the group.”
Hitting back to the federation’s words questioning their commitment in the statement made early, the players wrote, “Last but not least importantly, we will not tolerate the infantilising tone with which the RFEF concludes its release.”