Sport news in brief
Everton still in European fight, says Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti insists Everton are still in the fight for a place in Europe despite letting two points slip in a goalless draw at Brighton. The Toffees felt the absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front and managed just one shot on target during the game, which came in the 71st minute. The result leaves Everton eighth, four points behind sixth-placed Liverpool and seven behind West Ham in fourth.
“Of course, it’s more difficult now, the five, but it is a point,” Ancelotti admitted after the match. “It is a point which through good team spirit, although of course with the ball we could do better, we had difficulties to build up from the back, we missed a lot of passes. We were not able to reach our strikers with efficiency. I think that we are still in the fight but like I said it is more difficult. But now in the next eight games that we have to play, there’s a lot to play (for) and teams really close to us and the fight with us, we are still there. Of course it is a difficult moment because we have a lot of players out but I hope to recover some players for Friday and fight against Tottenham.”
Hasenhuttl angry at missed opportunity
Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuettl said his side did not seize the opportunity to gain some confidence ahead of the FA Cup semi-final after they were beaten 3-0 by relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League. Goals from Matheus Pereira, Matt Phillips and Callum Robinson ignited West Brom’s survival bid while Saints midfielder James Ward-Prowse had a penalty saved at the death to rub salt into the wounds. Southampton play Leicester City in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final and Hasenhuettl has cause for concern after his side has picked up only 10 points from their last 15 games – the worst return for a Premier League side in 2021.
“We missed everything that is normally part of our game. When you make it that easy for your opponent, it’s not a surprise you are 2-0 down,” Hasenhuettl told BBC Sport. “We are all responsible for performances like this. If we play like this we have no chance on Sunday. This was a chance to get some self confidence ahead of the weekend – we didn’t take it. When the first duel was lost you could see we weren’t sharp enough to compete... Our best 25 minutes was at the start of the second-half but it wasn’t enough. We made changes but we were gone by that point.”
Bingham on the brink of Crucible spot
Former world champion Stuart Bingham booked his place in the final qualifying round of this year’s tournament with a 6-1 victory over China’s Chen Zifan. Bingham raced into a 3-0 lead and, although Chen pulled a frame back, breaks of 120 and 58 helped the 2015 Crucible champion to a convincing success.
Ali Carter, a two-time World Championship runner-up, led throughout to beat Pang Junxu 6-4. Carter took control as breaks of 64, 69 and 71 helped him into a 4-1 lead. Pang won three of the next four frames with the help of breaks of 68 and 106, but Carter kept his nerve to move into the fourth qualifying round of the World Championship. Martin Gould saw off Duane Jones 6-4 and Steven Hallworth edged a 6-5 thriller against Jordan Brown with his 103 in the final frame proving decisive. Belgium’s Luca Brecel rattled off five frames in a row to beat Mark King 6-3, while there were also wins for Alexander Ursenbacher, Sam Craigie, Xiao Guodong and Zhao Xintong.
Riise talks up England Women’s progress
England Women interim boss Hege Riise says that while she wants to see some improvements against Canada she feels “comfortable that we are moving in the right direction”. The Lionesses were beaten 3-1 by France last Friday in Caen in the first of a double-header of friendlies. They are now preparing to take on Canada at Stoke’s bet365 Stadium on Tuesday, their final fixture before Riise names a Great Britain squad in May for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
Riise told a press conference: “I feel comfortable that we are moving in the right direction. The players seem to have fun out there. Even though we always step on the field to win, if you look behind the loss, there are bits and pieces that I feel like (were) really good, and some things that we need to just clean up, and that’s what the next game will hopefully look like.”
Riise, whose side scored via a 79th-minute Fran Kirby penalty on Friday, added: “When we see the chances that France created and how clinical they are in finishing the chances, that’s the thing we need to be better at. We had the chances, we need to get a goal, that gets confidence. And I hope that’s something we can see against Canada. Also that defensive transition.”