Sport news in brief
England beaten by France in friendly
England were left to rue missed chances as they slipped to a 3-1 friendly defeat to a weakened France at the Stade Michel d’Ornano in Caen. France, without several leading players due to a Covid outbreak in their camp, led 1-0 at half-time through Sandy Baltimore’s superb finish and extended their lead via substitute Viviane Asseyi’s second-half penalty. England hauled themselves back into it via Fran Kirby’s spot-kick and struck the woodwork through Keira Walsh before Marie-Antoinette Katoto added France’s decisive third goal. France, who extended their unbeaten run to 16 matches, conceded their first goal in over 13 and a half hours and England will be disappointed they did not add to their tally.
Traore dents Fulham’s survival hopes
Wolves winger Adama Traore struck deep into stoppage time to give his side a 1-0 win at Fulham that leaves
the Londoners languishing in the bottom three of the Premier League with six games left to play. The first decent chance fell to Fulham midway through the first half as Ruben Loftus-Cheek headed just wide. Wolves had a goal ruled out on the stroke of halftime by VAR when Daniel Podence was judged to have been offside before he crossed for Willian Jose to send a powerful header past Alphonse Areola. The home side pressed forward in the second half but it was Traore who came up trumps, breaking away late and blasting the ball home to leave Fulham in 18th place in the table with 26 points, three behind 17th-placed Newcastle United.
‘Grealish injury won’t affect Euros’
Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has dismissed any fears Jack Grealish’s injury problems will derail his Euro 2020 hopes. The midfielder has missed Villa’s last seven games with a shin injury and will sit out Saturday’s trip to Liverpool after suffering a setback. He was also sidelined for the Three Lions’ World Cup qualifiers last month and is battling to be fit ahead of Villa’s final eight Premier League games of the season. Grealish did return to training this week but was forced to pulled out, and Smith remains confident his captain – who has five England caps – has already made his claim for a place in Gareth Southgate’s Euros squad.
Smith said: “He’s proved himself already but the one thing for certain is he will be back before the end of the season, and then Gareth has to make a decision whether he thinks he’s right for that. He has played 20odd games this season so everybody has a good idea of what his form is and what he’s about. Myself and Jack were quite optimistic to get him back a bit sooner than he probably should and he’s had a setback that will probably put him back a couple of weeks. He was really good in training, but he couldn’t tolerate the loading. It’s a loading injury and we have to de-load him over the next few weeks and get him back from there. We know it’s not a long-term injury and he will be back. We all, Jack included, probably pushed him back a little bit too quickly. He wanted to get back, we wanted him to get back and he had a little setback.”
Mourinho pays tribute to Prince Philip
Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho interrupted his own news conference to pay a glowing tribute to Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, who died aged 99 yesterday. Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, had been by his wife’s side throughout her 69-year reign, the longest in British history. “I want to express my condolences to the Royal family,” Mourinho told reporters ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League home game against Manchester United. “To be very honest, I have a deep, deep, deep respect for the Royal family. All my condolences. It’s not just this country sharing this feeling. I have only positive feelings for the meaning of the family. I feel very sorry. But unfortunately is life and we have to keep going.”
Spurs thumped United 6-1 at Old Trafford in their last league meeting in October. However, Mourinho said that result should have no bearing on this weekend, with United already proving it was nothing more than a blip. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have since recovered to move 11 points clear of sixth-placed Spurs to sit second in the league standings. “I believe that 6-1 doesn’t reflect the reality. It can happen. Of course it can happen, between two great (teams), the results they can happen in an isolated way,” former United manager Mourinho said. “I go much more in the direction of the other two previous matches between us and United. We lost 2-1 at Old Trafford, with the penalty, and we draw 1-1 at home last season, also with a penalty. I think this is more the reality. We are not far from each other so I think it is going to be a difficult match for both.”