England’s Freeman seeking to silence Pollock and end season of grind on high

England’s Tommy Freeman is embracing a friendly rivalry with his headline-grabbing teammate Henry Pollock when they take on the Pumas

The day Harrogate ‘burst at the seams’ as Pakistan and India swung into town

This unlikely 1986 match was ‘like a World Cup final’ and for some was the first proof of the Yorkshire immigrant community’s love of cricket

‘I root for underdogs’: football fans who don’t support their home country

Not everyone supports the country where they were born or grew up. Sometimes fans are won over by a player, place, population or style of play

The World Cup of Calvinball: Fifa’s hasty changes turn refereeing into a free-for-all

Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, ‘mistaken identities’ and lots of confusion

Have the top four teams ever made up the World Cup semi-finalists before?

Plus: back-to-back heavy wins and defeats, and an unsurprising challenger to a Lionel Messi record

Love and hate collide: England v Argentina is not simply a grudge match

Look beyond the flashpoints and flare-ups and perhaps this is the greatest and most romantic of footballing rivalries

Even at 39, Lionel Messi can still hurt England with his sprinting ability

The Argentina captain conserves his energy for bursts in key moments and his top speed compares favourably with his contemporaries

From the Pocket: Fremantle have the power and poise to ride the hype to an AFL premiership

These Dockers are a far cry from Ross Lyon’s era thanks to a coach who is the perfect counterbalance to Wharfie Time mayhem

AFL removes Nicky Winmar from Australian Football Hall of Fame after assault conviction

AFL commission says ‘violence against women has no place’ after former player was found guilty of three assault charges

‘Diego, give us a hand’: Argentina v England revives historic tensions

Decades after the Falklands war and Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, the fixture is once again being discussed as far more than a game

‘Amazing’ Spain are peaking at right time for World Cup final, says De la Fuente

Luis de la Fuente said his team were excited but challenged them to improve after they completely outplayed a highly fancied France

Thomas Tuchel: ‘Argentina will be fuelled by history – but we are ready’

Thomas Tuchel believes England will face an Argentina team ‘fuelled by history’ in their World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday

Thomas Tuchel trusts England’s ‘special breed’ to find a way past Messi’s Argentina

Head coach praises his players’ ability to rise to the occasion and ‘put on a fight’ against the defending champions in the semi-final on Wednesday

Pedro Porro turns from defender to destroyer as Spain outwit France once more

The full-back was supposed to be busy shackling France’s vaunted front line but found time to score the killer goal at the other end

Didier Deschamps pays price for breaking free from the shackles that led him to glory

France finally let loose all their attacking power in this tournament and yet when the big test came against Spain they were too open