A bit more here on Enzo Fernández’s two-match suspension:

Chelsea have dropped their vice-captain Enzo Fernández for the next two games after he appeared to flirt with Real Madrid during the international break.

The midfielder, who has been linked with a move to Real, offered his thoughts on the Spanish capital while on international duty with Argentina. He said: “I’d like to live in Madrid. It’s a beautiful city, reminds me of Buenos Aires.”

The Chelsea head coach, Liam Rosenior, said the comments had “crossed a line” and he had informed the 25-year-old of the ban on Friday morning.

Much more here:

We’ve already reported on Liam Rosenior’s reaction to Enzo Fernandes’s comments about Chelsea’s squad. But he also spoke about Marc Cucurella:

I had a fantastic conversation with Marc yesterday, half an hour in my office. I’ve told the players from day one that if they have any issues on how we do things, speak to me or sporting directors. My disappointment in Marc’s interview was where it went to. I think he should’ve spoken to us first about how he was feeling. I want players to know they can speak openly and honestly for the benefit of the football club. As a football club, we know we need to improve. We know what we’re going to do in the summer to achieve those objectives.

A reminder of what Cucurella had to say about his teammates and the club’s transfer policy:

You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level. I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction - signing young players and looking to the future. But for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this [being thrashed by PSG] make you feel discouraged.

We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more. Signing young players might only complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that. You need time as well, and I know the young players are the ones that will have the experience in the future. But you need to find the balance between both worlds.

Arne Slot has held his pre-match press conference. He says Alexander Isak is back in training – he took part in his second training session today – and could return to first-team consideration soon, but it’ll be a while before he’s ready to start. Elsewhere, he’s asked about the reaction to the announcement that Mo Salah will be leaving at the end of the season:

What has happened is what he completely deserved. Everyone who was asked about his legacy said the words that needed to be said. The impact on this club. Winning the trophies. I can only hope that he can add two extra trophies to it towards the end of the season.

For Mo, it doesn’t matter if he’s going to leave or if he’s going to stay. He’s always available in his best possible state and that doesn’t change. Mo has always given everything he’s got for this club. I would hope he could give maybe even more but that’s not realistic, because he’s always given everything. If we have a Mo in the form he’s had for so many years it will be beneficial for us.

And on the next few weeks, which Liverpool start with an FA Cup tie against Manchester City tomorrow and a Champions League quarter-final first leg at PSG next Wednesday.

It’s up to us to show that we are ready for this tough fixture lists. Tough in the opponents, and tough in the sense that it’s a lot of games with hardly any rest in between. But I think more players are ready for this schedule than they were for large parts of the first half of the season.

Who’s going to be in the USA’s World Cup squad, I hear you ask? We’ve had a go at trying to work out some answers:

A full 24 matches into the Mauricio Pochettino era, we have arrived at the moment of truth. The US men’s national team’s 2026 World Cup roster will be named on 26 May, and the team’s two recent friendlies have given Pochettino plenty to think about as he makes his selection.

We here at the Guardian have made our picks as well – based a little on our own preference, but still within the realm of what Pochettino may do. Separately three of our writers made our 26-man rosters. Any player who all three agreed on got the “on the squad” designation. Anyone they differed on is listed as “up for debate”, with other notable exclusions listed as “out of the picture”.

This is what we got:

Hello everybody! Coming up, then: Middlesbrough v Millwall, second against fourth in the Championship, has a 12.30pm kick-off after being picked for television coverage. Also starting at 12.30pm, for less obvious reasons, is the League One game between Doncaster Rovers and Mansfield Town, a battle between sides currently 16th and 17th. “The Good Friday contest was originally scheduled to kick-off at 3pm but has now been brought forward after both clubs agreed to an earlier kick-off time,” Mansfield kind-of-explained.

With that dollop of team news, I’m going to hand over to Simon Burnton for coverage of the lunchtime games. Ta-ra.

The legendary Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu is in a stable condition after reportedly suffering a heart attack in hospital. Lucescu, 80, coached Romania on their European Championship debut in 1984 and returned to the job in 2024. His side just missed out on qualification, losing to Turkey in the playoffs, and he was taken to hospital last Sunday after falling ill.

In an interview last week, he spoke about his health problems and his determination to take Romania to the World Cup.

Thirty years ago tonight, Liverpool and Newcastle produced a game for the ages at Anfield. Why not relive it with Scott Murray’s retro MBM report?

League Two

The biggest game of the day is probably at the Peninsula Stadium, where Salford City host Notts County. Both clubs are in the playoff places and still have every chance of automatic promotion.

League One

The runaway leaders Lincoln City will move closer to automatic promotion if they win at home to Wimbledon this afternoon. Second-placed Cardiff, who have an 11-point cushion with seven games remaining, are not in action until Monday: they were due to meet FA Cup quarter-finalists Port Vale.

“Nick Ames’ piece on shenanigans at the top of the Italian football Federation is indeed a great read – and by nice coincidence, there’s a connection with a football book I’m reading, The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, a tale of a village team reaching the heights of Serie B,” writes Charles Antaki.

“Lo and behold, Gabriele Gravina, who just resigned as head of the Italian Football Federation, was a top official in that village club all those years ago - and allegedly a fairly dodgy one at that.

“Among other things he was reported to have done was organise a showpiece trial for a Leicester City striker, who proceeded to make a fool of himself, and everyone else, before revealing that he was part of a troop of actors hired as a publicity stunt.

“There’s also a tale about a consignment of, ahem, masculinity-enhancing drugs. And much much more, of a less entertaining kind. A terrific book, maybe one of the best football books ever.”

It’s just not football…

The county cricket season begins at 11am sharp. You can follow all the action with the brilliant Tanya Aldred.

The Premier League XI

Women’s football

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr, one of the greatest players in WSL history, has been strongly linked with a move to the US club Denver Summit when her Chelsea contract expires in the summer.

Japan won last month’s Women’s Asian Cup in emphatic style: six wins out of six, 29 goals scored, one conceded. But yesterday they effectively sacked Nils Nielsen, the Greenlander who coached them to glory. Vanilla Ice was wrong: in football, it seems, sometimes even the best is a felony.

Nielsen’s contract expired at the end of the tournament and the Japan Football Assocation decided not to offer him a new one. Norio Sasaki, the women’s national team director, said Japan could not win next year’s World Cup if Nielsen remained in charge, describing his coaching as “a little too lax, a little too soft”.

FA Cup: Chelsea v Port Vale (Saturday, 5.15pm)

All things being equal, Chelsea will reach the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend. But a storm is brewing in west London.

Spurs, who were knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Aston Villa, have no game this weekend. That means time on the training ground for their new manager Roberto De Zerbi, who was appointed on Tuesday. De Zerbi has apologised for previous comments about Mason Greenwood when he was the manager of Marseille.

We mentioned the latest Italian football crisis at the top of the show/bottom of the page, but it’s worth another plug for this piece from Nick Ames. It includes a warning from the Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin that Italy could lose the right to host the European Championship in six years’ time.

Euro 2032 is scheduled and will take place, of that there is no doubt. I just hope that the infrastructure [in Italy] will be ready. If that’s not the case, the tournament will not be held in Italy. Maybe Italy’s politicians should ask themselves why the football infrastructure is among the worst in Europe.

FA Cup: Southampton v Arsenal (Saturday, 8pm)

Eleven Arsenal players withdrew from their respective international squads. How many will be in action at St Mary’s tomorrow?

Women’s Champions League

Arsenal will face OL Lyonnes in the semi-finals for the second season in a row. OL Lyonnes overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to beat Wolfsburg 4-0 after extra-time in France.

Last season, OL were strong favourites to go through after winning 2-1 at the Emirates, only for Arsenal to run riot in France.

There’s a full EFL programme today, starting with Middlesbrough v Millwall and Doncaster v Walsall at 12.30pm. I won’t type all the fixtures because that would be an arthritic mistake when I can just direct you to our live scores page. But there are some big games, with Boro v Millwall probably the pick.

The race for the second automatic promotion spot in the Championship is spandex-tight. Fifth-placed Hull go to Oxford, while third-placed Ipswich have the day off. They were due to meet Southampton, who are otherwise engaged in the FA Cup.

In other Championship news, Roy Hodgson, 78, begins his second spell as Bristol City manager with a trip to Charlton.

Phil Foden made two starts for England over the international break as Thomas Tuchel experimented with how the Manchester City attacking midfielder could be used at the World Cup. He played in a couple of positions but was ineffective in two collectively subpar performances from the Three Lions. It means he has one assist and no goals in his past 22 appearances for club and country in what has been an underwhelming campaign for the 25-year-old. He has dropped below Rayan Cherki in Pep Guardiola’s pecking order and has not completed a full 90 minutes since January. In the Carabao Cup final, Foden was permitted a late cameo, and it feels like this is the time when he should be making a difference in the final stages of the season.

There are still trophies to be played for, even if winning the Premier League title would involve a huge turnaround against Arsenal. This means the FA Cup is the most promising prospect and Foden should be desperate to start and remind everyone of the world-class player he could be, especially against a Liverpool side who often struggle against smart No 10s. The next six weeks could be make or break for Foden’s City and international career, so he must seize every opportunity.