A couple of Afcon questions before today’s final

• Has it been a good tournament?

As Jonathan Wilson has already pointed out, the standard of the pitches in Morocco this time around has reduced the number of shocks. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of storylines. A lot of the continent’s top names have shone, including Morocco’s Brahim Díaz, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Côte d’Ivoire’s Amad Diallo and Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen.

The knockout stages have largely been devoid of drama but Yassine Bounou’s penalty shootout performance for Morocco and Sadio Mané’s heroics for Senegal at least gave us some moments to remember. After the tension of 120 minutes of football in Rabat, Morocco’s relief at reaching a final as hosts told you they won’t care how they win this tournament, even if their manager Walid Regragui has come under fire for his risk-averse style of play.

• How will the final pan out?

Expect another tight affair after one goal across 210 minutes of semi-final action on Wednesday. The pressure will be on hosts Morocco again, seeing as they are chasing a first Afcon title in 50 years. They looked like they’d run out of puff against Nigeria the other night, so what impact will extra time have on them today? Brahim Díaz remains their main source of inspiration in attacking areas but Achraf Hakimi is still their central figurehead.

Many of the Senegal squad have been here before, having won the title in 2022 on penalties against Egypt. They might take a leaf out of Nigeria’s book and play to frustrate, building the nerves among the home crowd in Rabat, but holding on for penalties might not be the best idea considering Bounou’s tendency to dominate these moments.

Thanks Emillia. I’ll start with some breaking Premier League news …

Time for me to hand over to Billy Munday, who will continue the build-up to this afternoon’s fixtures.

Yesterday’s Women’s FA Cup results:

• Sunderland 0-1 London City Lionesses

• Chelsea 5-0 Crystal Palace

Women’s FA Cup: Tottenham v Leicester City team news:

Tottenham starting line-up: Kop, A.Nilden, Gaupset, England, Holdt, Rybrink, Vinberg, Hunt, Hamano, Summanen, Koga.

Leicester City starting line-up: Leitzig, Kees, Tierney, Mouchon, Ale, Mayling, McLoughlin, O’Brien, Neville, Swaby, Ayane.

There has been plenty of talk about sporting directors, ownership and how clubs are run in recent weeks. Click here for The Guardian’s guide to all of it:

Rob Lane has messaged in about Aston Villa’s title chances:

“Could Villa still be challenging in 4months time? It’ll be tricky with our budgetary constraints - we just don’t have the same sort of income streams as the other contenders (plus Spurs!). Our bench vs Arsenal was hilarious in comparison, partially as a result of injuries it has to be said, but we don’t yet boast a full complement of like-for-like players across the squad - not helped by our continuous offloading to balance the books. All that being said, Villa is a well run club with, arguably, the best manager in the league, so I’d expect us to strengthen - and also wouldn’t be surprised to see our two recently signed ‘prospects’ in and around the first team before season’s end. I’d obviously love us to sneak the title, especially as most commentators don’t even mention us (“Arsenal have dropped points, great opportunity for City!”; “City have dropped points; great opportunity for Arsenal!”), but I’ll take Champions League - which is surely ours to lose out on now.”

Celtic take on West of Scotland League Premier Division side Auchinleck Talbot in a huge David v Goliath clash this afternoon. The two sides meet in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

Aberdeen also take on Raith Rovers in the competition today.

• Auchinleck Talbot v Celtic

• Aberdeen v Raith Rovers

Team news: Parma v Genoa

The teams are out for the first fixture of the day, which kicks off in around 25 minutes.

Parma starting line-up: Corvi, Valenti, Estévez, Pellegrino, Bernabé, Valeri, Delprato, Keita, Ondrejka, Oristanio, Circati.

Genoa starting line-up: Leali, Marcandalli, Østigård, Vasquez, Sabelli, Frendrup, Malinovskyi, Ellertsson, Martin, Vitinha, Colombo.

Rob Smyth will be on hand later today to report live on the Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal and Morocco. Be sure to join him for minute-by-minute coverage.

“Sometimes a tournament’s greatest strength can be its greatest weakness. In part because of the excellent playing conditions, this has been an Africa Cup of Nations devoid of shocks. The better teams keep winning. There has been a lot of good football, but not a huge amount of memorable football…”

Morocco’s route to the AFCON final:

• Morocco 2-0 Comoros

• Morocco 1-1 Mali

• Zambia 0-3 Morocco

• Morocco 1-0 Tanzania (RO16)

• Cameroon 0-2 Morocco (QF)

• Nigeria 0-0 Morocco (2-4 pens) (SF)

Senegal’s route to the AFCON final:

• Senegal 3-0 Botswana

• Senegal 1-1 DR Congo

• Benin 0-3 Senegal

• Senegal 3-1 Sudan (RO16)

• Mali 0-1 Senegal (QF)

• Senegal 1-0 Egypt (SF)

London’s Little Morocco is brimming with pride and anticipation. The Moroccan diaspora in North Kensington is in no doubt that on Sunday the Atlas Lions will triumph against Senegal in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Let’s look ahead to the Africa Cup of Nations final, which kicks off this evening at 7pm GMT.

Senegal face tournament hosts Morocco at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium…

Will Villa put the pressure on both Arsenal and City today?

And… was it a penalty? If you’re asking me, I’d probably say yes, but my opinion is completely irrelevant!

AbberNibble

18 January 2026 9:28am

Football eh?
What looked like Arsenal's 'chance' is now Aston Villa's today ;-)
Forest played well last night, Arsenal could not convert their chances so a draw it is, that looked a penalty all day long though (scooped the ball with his arm) 100% penalty!

There is so much talk of Arsenal and Manchester City chasing the Premier League title this season, but Aston Villa remain up there as well. Unai Emery’s side could move above City and within four points of the leaders with a win today, which would be a huge statement.

Do we think they could remain title challengers in four months time?

If you’re enjoying a nice and relaxed Sunday morning, why not give our game On The Ball a go?

More on Glasner…

MademoiselleK

18 January 2026 9:21am

Glasner has a solid point.
Palace will get £20 million for selling their most important player while they are still in Europe and not immune to plummeting down the league.
A sell on clause means £4 million of that will have to be paid to his former club Chelsea, so for relative peanuts Steve Parrish and his board have pulled the rug out from under Glasner and their team.
Compare that with keeping Guehi until the end of his contract in the summer, which might have ended in a Europa Conference League trophy, and probable PL mid-table or even top ten stability and you have to wonder what on earth is going on.
As far as we have been told, the player wasn't refusing to play once Manchester City expressed interest so assuming that Guehi would have honoured his contract it has to go down as an act of potential club destruction by the board.

Oliver Glasner has seemingly followed in the footsteps of Enzo Maresca and Ruben Amorim in starting a public feud with the board. We all know how things ended for those two…

What’s next for the Crystal Palace manager?

HarryofOz

18 January 2026 8:55am

Glasner angling for an early exit?

Just a reminder that you can get in touch by emailing matchday.live@theguardian.com or leaving a comment below the line.

Let us know any thoughts, feelings and takeaways from yesterday’s games along with any predictions for today.

Also, let me know your plans for the day – are you off to a game or watching from the sofa? I want to hear from you!

Ahead of Arsenal’s FA Cup meeting with Aston Villa, our very own Suzanne Wrack spoke to Katie McCabe…

The likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City are also back in Women’s FA Cup action today…

• Tottenham v Leicester City

• Bournemouth v Manchester City

• Brighton v Nottingham Forest

• Chatham v York City

• Ipswich Town v Sheffield United

• London Bees v Liverpool

• Manchester United v Burnley

• Oxford United v Middlesbrough

• Southampton v Bristol City

• Arsenal v Aston Villa

• Charlton v Swindon

• Hull v Birmingham

Elsewhere in Europe today:

Ligue 1

• Strasbourg v Metz

• Nantes v Paris FC

• Rennes v Le Havre

• Lyon v Brest

Bundesliga

• Stuttgart v Union Berlin

• Augsburg v Freiburg

Serie A

• Parma v Genoa

• Bologna v Fiorentina

• Torino v Roma

• AC Milan v Lecce

La Liga

• Getafe v Valencia

• Atletico Madrid v Alaves

• Celta Vigo v Rayo Vallecano

• Real Sociedad v Barcelona

Today’s Premier League fixtures:

• Wolves v Newcastle

• Aston Villa v Everton

“It comes to something when the level of discontent at Tottenham had people who have spent all season watching West Ham wondering if it was all a bit much. There were cries of mutiny whenever Guglielmo Vicario tried to play out from the back, jeers at half-time and, of course, sustained boos when another home defeat for Thomas Frank’s nervous wreck of a team ended with one last cross from Djed Spence drifting sadly out of play in the ninth minute of added time….

Oliver Glasner was vocal about his discontent with the current situation at Crystal Palace yesterday. The manager confirmed on Friday that he would be leaving Selhurst Park at the end of the season, shortly before revealing that Marc Guehi was also on his way out.

However, following his team’s 2-1 loss to Sunderland, Glasner went one step further in voicing his concern, suggesting the board has “abandoned” the squad.

He said: “Your heart gets torn out twice in a season, one day before a game. It’s tough to survive. That’s how it feels like right now.

“We played quite well and I think my players left their hearts on the pitch but I couldn’t support them from the bench,” said Glasner who failed to make a single substitution as his side were sunk by goals from Enzo Le Fée and Brian Brobbey after Yéremy Pino had given them the lead against the run of play.

“We feel that we’re being abandoned. There’s no support. Everybody’s disappointed. We’ve been playing with 12 to 13 players for weeks now. On the bench I had just kids. They had never played in a stadium with an atmosphere like this.

“Why I’m saying this is not to protect myself but to protect them. They need protecting. I made no substitutions because it would have been unfair. I see them in training every day. That’s where we are. The [senior] players need support.”

He added: “We’ve known we’re in this situation for weeks, for months now. What are we doing? We’re selling our captain [Guéhi] one day before a game. One day before a game, the first time I heard about it was 10.30am yesterday. All the set pieces, everything was prepared for Guéhi playing.

“Then, we had to change everything. Nobody told us. So then I have to stand in front of the group and tell them, ‘oh, the captain doesn’t play tomorrow.’

“I think the players did well in the circumstances. I’m so direct today because I feel I have to protect them.”

Yesterday’s Premier League results:

• Manchester United 2-0 Manchester City

• Sunderland 2-1 Crystal Palace

• Chelsea 2-0 Brentford

• Liverpool 1-1 Burnley

• Tottenham 1-2 West Ham

• Leeds United 1-0 Fulham

• Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal

Meanwhile, title-chasers City were left red-faced after losing the Manchester derby to bitter rivals United. Michael Carrick enjoyed a dream start to life as United’s interim head coach and won the fans over in the best possible way.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal missed the opportunity to go nine points clear at the top of the table with a 0-0 draw away at Nottingham Forest. The Gunners missed several opportunities to take the lead, but the main talking point was a penalty incident that was cleared by VAR following a brief check. Mikel Arteta spoke very strongly about the handball incident at full-time.

Thomas Frank’s Tottenham future was thrown further into doubt yesterday when Spurs suffered a 2-1 home loss to relegation candidates West Ham. The mood inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was toxic, with fans booing at various points of the game, including half-time and full-time.