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Middlesbrough v Southampton: Championship playoff semi-final, first leg – live | Championship
Key events
30 min: Ayling goes close! The centre-back steps into some space in the Southampton half, slips through a challenge and shoots just wide of the far post from the right of the penalty area.
28 min: Ayling wins a free-kick off Azaz in a way that only Ayling can, with a bit of a flop. From it Boro apply some pressure on the edge of the box until Morris shoots well over the bar from distance.
26 min: Targett drifts a free-kick across the face of goal but none of his teammates can get on the end of it. Fry has to deal with a ball pumped down the middle and does so, heading back so his goalkeeper Brynn can have a touch.
24 min: As a few more Middlesbrough corners come and go, it becomes increasingly evident that Southampton have come to the Riverside looking for a clean sheet and not much more. Certainly in the first half.
22 min: Peretz flaps at the corner and just gets enough on it to prevent Malanda from getting his head on it for Boro.
20 min: Southampton find some respite in the form of a couple of throw-ins they can take their time over. Conway comes again for Middlesbrough, driving inside off the left and hitting a shot that’s blocked out for a corner by Harwood-Bellis.
18 min: Big chance for Boro! Brittain charges into the penalty area down the right and cuts the ball back for McGree but he can’t guide it on target from just outside the six-yard box.
16 min: Whittaker shifts the ball on to his left foot on the edge of the box and fires a shot over the crossbar. Larin again fails to hold the ball up against Fry. It’s all Middlesbrough.
15 min: Whittaker gets to the byline for Boro and wins a corner after Fellows skews a clearance the wrong way. Whittaker goes short, gets the ball back from Conway and the cross floats harmlessly out for a throw.
13 min: Southampton try to break again but it’s not sticking to Larin. They’ve not really had a kick in Middlesbrough’s half.
11 min: Half-hearted shouts for handball from the home supporters after Strelec tries to get on the end of Brittain’s cross and it bounces off a Southampton defender. Bit of a nervy moment for Saints but they escape.
9 min: Malanda wins the ball for Boro on the halfway line and Strelec carries it forward to the edge of the Southampton box. Ayling’s cross from deep is overhit and out for a throw.
7 min: Whittaker’s corner is an excellent outswinger and Strelec glances it over the bar. The Boro strikes shakes his head – decent chance, that.
6 min: McGree storms into some space in the final third for Boro but his pass to Conway is short and Southampton get back. McGree then wins a corner, sliding to shoot and Harwood-Bellis comes across to block.
4 min: Ayling looks for Whittaker with a ball down the channel but Peretz comes off his line to gather. Matt Targett, facing the club where he came through, sends a harmless cross into the Southampton box.
2 min: Boro venture forward down the right but Morgan Whittaker’s cross into the box bobbles safely through for a goal-kick. Boos for former Boro player Finn Azaz as he gets on the ball for the first time.
Kick-off
A very frosty handshake between the two managers – Kim Hellberg not even making eye contact with Tonda Eckert – and we’re under way!
‘Ten years on, take us back where we belong’ is the banner unfurled by the Boro fans as the players emerge from the tunnel.
Who’s ready for more playoff drama? We’re about to get under way at the Riverside.
As you can imagine both sets of fans are getting stuck in to ‘spygate’. There’s around 10 minutes till kick-off.
Championship playoffs: Aaron Bower was at the MKM Stadium for last night’s other semi-final first leg between Hull and Millwall … don’t let the headline put you off.
Tonda Eckert has been speaking to Sky Sports pre-match, often failing to suppress a smile, about accusations of spying against Southampton:
I believe the club has made a statement. That’s all I can say at the moment.
I believe when you arrive in this moment of the season it’s not coaches who win games, it’s the players. It’s going to be the same today. We are focused on ourselves and we have been all week. We know that we face a very good team today. It’s going to be a big challenge.
We’ve been consistent with confidence and humility. We always play to win, that hasn’t changed. We will try to do the same today.
Southampton charged with misconduct over ‘spying’ row
Louise Taylor
Southampton have been charged with misconduct by the English Football League and will face an independent disciplinary commission set to be convened “at the earliest opportunity”.
Middlesbrough remain furious after catching a man they maintain belongs to Tonda Eckert’s backroom staff allegedly spying on a vital training session before Saturday’s Championship playoff semi-final first leg against Southampton at the Riverside Stadium.
It is understood that Steve Gibson, Boro’s owner, will expect the south coast club to be punished severely. Under a rule introduced to deal specifically with spying in 2019, such cases are dealt with by independent disciplinary panels with the power to impose a wide range of punishments ranging from reprimands to fines, points deductions and, in extreme cases, expulsion from the competition.
Under EFL regulations Southampton would ordinarily have 14 days to respond to their two charges but, in a statement, the governing body said it had asked the disciplinary commission to “convene a hearing at the earliest opportunity”.
On Thursday Middlesbrough reported that a Southampton employee had been caught filming and making audio recordings of Boro’s manager, Kim Hellberg, taking training at their Rockliffe Park base near Darlington after being spotted hiding in bushes.
It is understood Middlesbrough possess compelling CCTV footage of an incident that concluded with the man they allege is a Southampton first-team analyst entering a toilet at the adjacent Rockliffe Hall hotel and re-emerging with a changed appearance.
Starting lineups: Injured Hackney misses out
Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney has not recovered from a calf injury in time to be involved for this one – he’s not even on the bench.
Middlesbrough XI (3-4-3): Brynn; Ayling, Fry, Malanda; Brittain, Morris, McGree, Targettl Whittaker, Conway, Strelec
Subs: Wildsmith, Gilbert, Browne, Silvera, Castledine, Hansen, Ibeh, Sarmiento, Hunt
Southampton XI (4-2-3-1): Peretz: Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Manning; Downes, Jander; Fellows, Azaz, Scienza; Larin
Subs: Long, Stewart, Quarshie, Archer, Edozie, Charles, Matsuki, Welington, Bragg
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Spygate 2.0. The buildup to this Championship playoff semi-final has been dominated by accusations that Southampton have been peaking through the bushes at Middlesbrough’s training ground this week – Saints have now been charged with misconduct by the EFL and will face an independent disciplinary commission “at the earliest opportunity”. The club have said they will be fully cooperating with the EFL throughout the process. Shades of Marcelo Bielsa, Leeds and Frank Lampard’s Derby in 2019 for sure. We’ll get into the weeds, or brambles, of that shortly.
It will certainly make for one hell of an atmosphere at the Riverside this lunchtime as Middlesbrough host Southampton in the first leg on the road to Wembley and the Premier League, with the return fixture at St Mary’s on Tuesday. Kim Hellberg’s Boro saw their push for automatic promotion fade away in the final weeks of the season while Saints have surged up the table under the 33-year-old Tonda Eckert and came close to breaking into the top two themselves.
Fetch your binoculars for kick-off at 12.30pm (BST) and get in touch via email as the action unfolds. Team news will follow.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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