SOCCER FOOTBALL 24H

Pssst. You! Yes, you! Have you heard? I guess you haven't, because all the sports websites and Twitter banter accounts definitely aren't simultaneously publishing the same graphic about it. So, can you keep a secret? Good. Here you go: France have left some pretty good players out of their World Cup squad! Yes, friends, welcome to L'Hexagone, home of  Home-Alone-esque levels of excitement about certain people not being on a flight. You would think Alexandre Lacazette, Adrien Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Laurent Koscielny, Dimitri Payet, Karim Benzema and Anthony Martial were all now contractually obliged to spend their summers making traps out of Meccano for Joe Pesci and that other bloke, such has been the reaction. When the dust settles, though, attentions must turn to the players who did make Didier Deschamps' final 23. The question now is this: are Les Bleus good for more than just a few guaranteed retweets? The youth vote The first thing that stands out wh...

Chelsea v Man Utd Saturday, 17:30 Live on BBC1 Out on a high? It's been a  hugely disappointing  second season for Antonio Conte after he won the Premier League in his first campaign at Stamford Bridge. Of course, failing to get a tune out of Chelsea the season after they've been crowned champions will be  all too familiar  to Jose Mourinho. It cost him his job and Conte looks set to follow suit. Chelsea deserved to finish fifth after a mixed campaign and their haul of 70 points was  23 fewer  than the season before. They did beat a tired Liverpool at the start of the month but in their previous showdowns against Big Six rivals they'd lost 3-1 at home to Spurs, 1-0 at Man City and 2-1 at Saturday's rivals Man Utd. They also lost the second leg of their League Cup semi-final to Arsenal. In other words,  Chelsea's recent form in big games is very poor  and they have to turn it around otherwise their 13th appearance in the final wil...

Dave Farrar predicts Lazio and Inter will provide a battle royal at the Olimpico for fourth place, while Milan see off Fiorentina for sixth and Crotone excitement with Napoli... We head for the final weekend of a Serie A season which has been full of life and drama, and comfortably the most exciting of the major European Leagues, in terms of the title race anyway. We've learned, as if we needed to learn, that a team of the quality of  Juventus  will always take some beating, and that mental strength can often be more important than pure ability. Juve quite simply were tougher, significantly tougher, than  Napoli , and that was the deciding factor in the end, along with the size of Napoli's squad. Napoli were offered Ciro Immobile before his move to Lazio, and had they taken him, this title race may have had a different outcome. Lessons learned, and maybe chance now gone. The relegation battle is fascinating and still very much alive, but I must confess that I did...

Dave Farrar predicts the reigning MLS Cup holders won't win without Sebastian Giovinco, goals galore in New England, but stingy defences take centre stage in Portland... Not the same Toronto Toronto FC v Orlando City Saturday, 01:00 TFC are trading at   1.79  to lay against Orlando, and that looks a price that's worth taking. Toronto have struggled desperately at the start of this campaign, and while the format of MLS allows them a chance to recover, they can't afford to give up too many more points. The record setting days of 2017 seem like a world away. Personnel, as well as a CCL campaign, has been an issue for them, and they're  without the hugely influential Sebastian Giovinco  this weekend, with Jozy Altidore also remaining on the sidelines through injury. Without those two, TFC are a very different proposition, and with Victor Vazquez struggling with injury and form, Orlando will fancy that they can cause some trouble here. Jason Kreis's ...