Hibs' Notley on 'whirlwind' period since SWPL title win
Ellis Notley says it has been a "whirlwind" month since Hibernian lifted their first SWPL title in 18 years, but the midfielder says the champions will be prepared to retain their status.Hibs welcome Aberdeen on the opening day of the 2025-26 season, and 26-year-old Notley insists the team can replicate last term's success."It took a good few weeks to properly settle in, what we as a group had achieved, it probably still doesn't feel 100% real going into pre-season next week," Notley told BBC Scotland."It's been a whirlwind last month or so with getting recognition when you're out and about. The group needed to rest, recharge, recover and come back next week ready to go again."The last two days for us as a club and a team have been exciting. You always look to the first game and it's nice to have a home fixture so we can be at Meadowbank for kicking off the new campaign."Hopefully we can get a big crowd to support the team on that day, but then looking towards the rest of the season, it'll be tough - there are lots of very good teams in the league."
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The Sun
18 minutes ago
- The Sun
England 7 Jamaica 0: Lionesses run riot in final warm-up fixture before defending European Championship title
ELLA TOONE kept England on song as they ruthlessly crushed Jamaica's attempt to spoil their Euros-send-off party at the King Power Stadium. The midfielder's double helped the hosts forget a minor set-piece wobble that almost had them caught cold on Sunday afternoon. 2 2 Home fans were left a stunned after seeing the Lionesses' early lead seemingly wiped out just nine minutes after Toone broke the deadlock. A combination of Jamaica's smart low delivery from a corner, and the ball squirming under goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, saw the scoreline momentarily level at 1-1. But after that equaliser was chalked off by VAR, Jamaica rarely troubled England, who were 3-0 up at half-time thanks to a Lucy Bronze header and Toone's second. And they were boosted by Lauren James' return to Lioness action - and her first match since April - following her recovery from a hamstring injury. However England will be eager to avoid getting caught out by set-piece trickery during their run at this year's Euros with far tougher opponents awaiting them in the tournament. In just five days' time in Switzerland, Sarina Wiegman 's side kick-off the difficult challenge of attempting to win the contest they triumphed in back in 2022. The Lionesses are in a group of death with France first up for them in Zurich, followed by Holland and Euros debutants Wales. At various points this year Wiegman spoke of the need for her team to find consistency with results in the Nations League being a little mixed. At home England have impressed with convincing wins against Portugal, Belgium and Spain. But away the team have looked a little less consistent with losses to the latter two sides and a draw with Portugal. England 3 Germany 2- Young Lions retain Euro U21s crown in THRILLER as supersub Jonathan Rowe wins it in extra-time While Wiegman has seven players making their major tournament debuts at the Euros, the coach stuck with much of the XI that slipped to a 2-1 loss to Spain in May. The only difference was Jess Carter starting at left-back in place of Niamh Charles and Toone starting as No10 with Jess Park on the bench. Both players laid down markers in this game with Carter impressing with her drives into the box and an assist for Toone. The Man United vice-captain broke the deadlock just 10 minutes into the game thumping in a shot from distance with Jamaica initially pinned back. And Jamaica thought they had bagged a leveller with Kayla McKenna's coolly swept finish only for the goal to be disallowed after Amelia Van Santen was caught offside. Bronze doubled England's lead with a cushioned header after Carter's smart cross into the box before Toone added a third with a left-footed strike before half-time. And there was no let up in the second half with Georgia Stanway blasting the ball for a 4-0 lead in the 59th minute before Alessia Russo made it 5-0 Sub Aggie Beever-Jones added England's sixth before the hosts suffered a momentary fitness scare with Beth Mead requiring treatment on her knee. But the forward bounced back from that minor concern to slot in in England's seventh with Jamaica drubbed without Manchester City star Khadija Shaw.
BBC News
31 minutes ago
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Rogers beats own record at Scottish Championships
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The Guardian
35 minutes ago
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Germany's Klara Bühl: ‘You can see the sparkle in everyone's eyes. We are ready'
'Maybe I did the homework, but maybe I didn't – the important thing was to get out on the pitch again.' Klara Bühl is describing her time at school when she would come home, eat, possibly do some schoolwork before heading out again. 'Football was everything for me. We played at school and then next to the school there was a small astro pitch. I played there until training began at five o'clock and so it was every afternoon.' Bühl is one of Europe's best, a left-winger who is as two-footed as she is electric. The Bayern Munich player is in form, without any injury concerns and looking forward to the Euros. 'You can see the sparkle in everyone's eyes. We are ready,' she says. At 24, Bühl is reaching her peak years and believes her skills were honed during that formative period in Münstertal. 'I learned everything I can there,' she says. 'Shooting, with both my feet, dribbling because it was so small and also how to push through because I was always the youngest – and the only girl there.' At the start of the year the Germany coach, Christian Wück, spoke to Kicker about Bühl's capabilities with both feet, which makes her incredibly difficult to defend against. 'I don't know anyone who is as two-footed as she is,' he said. 'For her it makes no difference if she takes a free-kick with her left or her right. There are only a few players, in men's or women's football, who are capable of doing that.' So where did that come from? 'My brother, who is a year and a half older than me, was left-footed and there aren't that many left-footed players so I simply thought it was a bit cooler,' she says. 'I was 10 or 12 so I thought about it and decided I would rather be left-footed. There were a few months when I went to training and just did everything with my left.' Bühl stood out at an early age, soon swapping SpVgg Untermünstertal for Freiburg, where she made her Bundesliga debut at the age of 15. She rose through the German under-age teams before being called up to the senior squad in 2019. She was mainly used as a substitute at the World Cup in France that year as Germany went out in the quarter-finals, meaning that Euro 2022 was her first major tournament as a key player. The showpiece in England, which had been delayed for a year because of the pandemic, had been going well for Bühl until, before the semi-final, disaster struck. She grimaces slightly as she describes what happened. 'One evening I had a bit of a headache and then I could feel my throat as well so I went to bed early to sleep it off. Then in the middle of the night I woke up and thought 'OK, this is not good'. The next morning I had a test and it was positive.' Germany beat France in the last four and were looking forward to playing England at a full Wembley in the final. Bühl, however, was in isolation. 'I spent a week on my own in a hotel room hoping that I'd test negative. Your only wish is that it is finally over. You see what the other girls are experiencing and you are there on your own.' The negative test did not come soon enough for Bühl to play in the final, which England won 2-1 after Chloe Kelly's extra-time goal. 'I was just happy I could be in the stadium to take it all in. Even on the morning of the final I didn't know whether I'd be able to be there so I just tried to use all the energy I had collected in that hotel room over a week and take it to the girls.' Does she look back and think what could have been? 'I knew it was important to work through what had happened and to do that quite quickly. I also learned you should always enjoy being on the pitch because you never know what is going to happen. 'The coronavirus was really something different but it could be an injury or something else. I learned to enjoy being able to play in a big tournament, so that was a lesson, and this time I hope to be able to play from start to finish.' Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Germany are in a tough group in Switzerland, facing Sweden, Denmark and Poland. They arrive in a confident mood having won five of their six games in 2025, scoring an impressive 26 goals along the way. Their final two warm-up matches were 4-0 and 6-0 victories against the Netherlands and Austria. 'We are a bit more carefree and think less about how the goals are going to come and then they seem to come naturally,' says Bühl. 'We are a bit more attack-minded now as well. Scoring a lot of goals gives you confidence that you will score. 'Does that make us one of the favourites? I don't think it is in our mentality to say that, but we have a lot of quality in the team and we have also built a good atmosphere. But the fact is that everyone has to be 100% on top of their game in every game, otherwise it won't work.' Bühl – who is also known for her crocheting, having made the team's mascots, a koala and an otter, for the past two tournaments – will come up against several Bayern teammates at the Euros. In the group phase there will be games against Pernille Harder's Denmark and the Swedish trio of Magda Eriksson, Linda Sembrant and Julia Zigiotti Olme. Then, there may be a quarter-final against England and Georgia Stanway. 'Georgia is super honest, very direct,' Bühl says. 'That is really the English mentality that she has got, very funny On the pitch she is very good in the one-on-one duels and is a fighter. She is a real playmaker. She always wants the ball and she distributes it all the time. That includes the dangerous balls that can cut through two lines of a defence.' Stanway is also a budding tattooist. She has inked a few teammates, including Zigiotti Olme, so would Bühl let Stanway loose on her? Bühl laughs. 'I have thought about maybe having one done. I would like a smiley here [she points to her left wrist]. But there hasn't been the right moment yet. But I would say I can picture it happening. She does it really well.' On a more serious note, does she feel England have improved or gone backwards since beating Germany three years ago? 'It will be hard to top the last Euros as that was at home and there was an incredible hype around the team that took the players along with it. If you know what it can be like, and it is not like that, it can be hard to get in the same flow. 'Because of that I would say that they are not quite as good as with the 2022 Euros.' She pauses, then says, with a smile: 'Without wishing to tread on any toes of course.'
