Women's Euro 2025: England and Wales reaction ahead of Norway v Finland
Date: 2025-07-06T07:25:05.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Greetings everyone and welcome to matchday five of the Euros. England and Wales will be waking up with headaches this morning after chastening defeats in their tournament openers yesterday. In a match between two teams whose pre-tournament run-ins were dominated by talk of who wasn't in their squads as much as who was, France unmistakably looked better equipped and slicker last night against an England side who stirred too late. Was starting with the still-recovering Lauren James too much of a gamble? What should Sarina Wiegman do for the Netherlands game? All thoughts welcome.
And the Dutch will be tough opponents, as they demonstrated in their 3-0 steamrollering of Wales, who fought hard on their tournament debut in front of magnificent support in the stands and who had their moments in the first half but were always second best.
Meanwhile, later today we return to Group A, with Norway meeting Finland in Sion. Both won their opening games, with Finland perhaps doing so more convincingly though the talent in Norway's ranks makes them favourites today. Later on the hosts, Switzerland, take on Iceland having been a tad unlucky to lose their opener. Anyway, stay tuned for the latest news, previews and reaction.
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The Guardian
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However, he was also an Esports entrepreneur and global brand ambassador. Jota was due to receive another £14.5million for the remaining two years of his contract, which despite reports in Portuguese media suggesting Liverpool will honour, has not yet been confirmed. It means Jota's total earnings of around £34.4million since arriving in the Premier League could be inherited by Rute and their two sons Dinis, four, Duarte, two, and their eight-month-old baby daughter Mafalda. It is not known how much of this money he had spent, but a chunk of it had been invested in a five-bedroom, four-bathroom house in the upmarket north Liverpool suburb of Blundellsands. According to publicly available land registry documents, Jota and his wife bought the house in May 2022 for £2,125,000, where they rubbed shoulders with other players. The house had been listed for three years before selling and had been previously rented out. A brochure of the house available online shows an ornately tiled marble entrance hall leading to a reception area with a brass and wrought iron staircase. The ground floor living area has Georgian style double doors, underfloor heating and a Bose sound system. In the kitchen there are two sink units and a five hob Gaggenau cooker, wine chiller and fitted walnut units with granite work surfaces. The indoor pool is 39ft long and there is also a jacuzzi and steam room, while the games room has a snooker table and a pool table. Also on the ground floor is an eight-seat home cinema room with a surround sound system. Companies House records in the UK also show that Jota set up an image rights company called Minute J Ltd in February 2023 to channel some of his football earnings and his father Joaquim was also associated with it. The first set of accounts filed in December 2024 cover the period the initial first 12 months of the company and show it made £186,754 but owed creditors £49,786, with the bulk of £44,825 to HMRC for Corporation Tax. Football players often set up image rights companies as a way to control earnings from things like name, nickname, squad number which might be used in sponsorship, merchandising and endorsements. Besides his earnings from football Jota also had lucrative deals with Nike and EA Sports bringing in an estimated £3.3million a year and he set up his own Esports team called Luna Galaxy. According to Portuguese media, Jota also had a collection of luxury cars worth more than £1million including a Range Rover Sport, Porsche 911 Turbo S, a Ferrari 488, an Audi Q7 and a Mercedes-Benz G63AMG. Website, The Richest, in a detailed profile of Jota's financial worth, said: 'He left behind a financial legacy few soccer players achieve so young. 'His business smart matched his on-field vision, he left behind a blueprint for how athletes can build wealthy and legacy beyond the pitch.' Jota's tragic death came just 13 days after he wedded Rute, his teenage sweetheart. At the ceremony he declared himself as the luckiest man in the world to be her husband and a series of emotional images and videos were posted to social media of their special day. Many who were there on what Rute described as that 'dream come true' wedding day then had to devastatingly fly in for Jota and his brother's funeral just over two weeks later. Family and friends, including footballers, came from all corners of the globe to the 17th-century Igreja Matriz church. It was there that they heard the Bishop of Porto, D. Manuel Linda, send a message to the couple's three children. The bishop said: 'At this moment you are suffering immensely or perhaps not because you do not realise it. The ones who suffer a lot are your mother and your grandparents. 'Seeing the mortal remains of a child must be a greater torment, but when there are two urns there are no words... 'If it is difficult to see an adult cry, it is even more difficult to see a child cry. I send you a special greeting for your mother and grandparents.' Both coffins were carried through the front doors of the church to the sound of violins and applause in a procession led by two priests at 10am. Jota's Liverpool team-mates flew in overnight. They included Virgil van Dijk, the club's captain, and Andrew Robertson, who carried red wreaths in the shape of football shirts emblazoned with Jota's number 20 and his brother's number 30. Former Liverpool players, including Jordan Henderson and James Milner, were also present. Jota and his brother were 190 miles into a trip from Porto to Santander, where he planned to take a ferry to England, when they crashed in the Spanish province of Zamora. Their bodies were buried, not cremated, in a graveyard screened by olive trees. Jota's team-mates from his former club Wolves, including Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio, joined club officials to pay their respects. They were spotted escorting a Wolves-themed wreath which read: 'Diogo your desire to fight and win lit up Molineux.' Speaking after the service, Roberto Martinez, the Portugal manager, was emotional as he told of his sadness over the tragedy. He said: 'I can only say that these are very, very sad days. Today was a demonstration for Diogo and Andre that we are all together and that we are Portugal. 'Now, I would like to thank everyone for their presence, for all the messages from all over the world. We are with Andre Silva and Diogo Jota. Always, always with us.'
