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BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
England have it inside them to win
Euro 2025 final: England v SpainDate: Sunday, 27 July; Venue: St Jakob-Park, Basel; Time: 17:00 BSTCoverage: Live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer; live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; text commentary on BBC Sport website and app Mariona Caldentey says England "have it inside them" to win Euro 2025 and Spain must be wary when the teams meet again in the game in Basel (17:00 BST kick-off) will be a repeat of the 2023 Women's World Cup final - which Spain won 1-0 in two teams also went head-to-head in this year's Women's Nations League, with England picking up a 1-0 victory at Wembley in February, before suffering a 2-1 defeat in Barcelona in Caldentey won the Women's Champions League with Arsenal this season and was named the WSL player of the year - so knows the Lionesses well. "I know the footballers they are and I know what they can do," Caldentey told BBC Sport. "It's a final, so they are dangerous even though they can't maybe play the greatest football yet, but they have it inside them. It will be a hard, but good game."Reigning champions England have had a rollercoaster tournament, overcoming several setbacks to reach their third successive major defeat by France in their opening group game, they came through a quarter-final penalty shootout against Sweden and needed an extra-time winner in their semi-final to beat champions Spain have now won six consecutive knockout matches at major tournaments - but will be competing in their first Euros final."Today we can enjoy. Tomorrow we have to start thinking of England," said two-time Ballon d'Or winner Aitana Bonmati following their 1-0 win over Germany. "I know England have played twice for 120 minutes. We trust in our squad. We believe in our players. "They have a lot of players that we faced a lot of times and in 2023. We know them and they know us. We want to prepare the best we can."
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Players your Premier League club must sign
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now be used in football to simulate how a player will perform with fellow team-mates before a club decides to buy them. So says Dr Ryan Beal, co-founder and chief executive of SentientSports, who has been asked by Telegraph Sport to use his data model to predict the dream signing for each of the 20 Premier League clubs. We have also asked for a verdict from AI on the biggest deal of the summer – Liverpool's signing of Florian Wirtz, who AI has been tracking since 2021. 'Where we come in is saying: 'It's easy to find those players but what's not easy to predict is how well they will perform in your team',' Beal explains. 'It's quite easy to go into the top five European leagues and find who's scoring the most goals and who's got the best stats and then effectively go after them as a transfer strategy. But we spend time on simulation models and looking at what changes when a player moves from one team to another, to another league, new team-mates, languages, and encapsulate them in a model to provide better insights for decision-makers. 'So: 'Here's a list of 20 players, these are the ones we think fit best, albeit they're not all available to buy – but at least it gives a flavour of what the technology can do in terms of recruitment'.' Beal explains how his company, whose board includes former Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, operates. 'We've broken it down to a few different areas,' Beal, 29, says. 'One is teamwork, so looking at models I've built through my PhD on how players work together. Then predict that forward. So we take a player out of one team, put them in another and simulate what complementary playing styles they have with new team-mates.' A simple example for Beal – a Southampton fan – is James Ward-Prowse, now at West Ham United, who is extremely effective at set-pieces and thrives with a more traditional centre-forward who is willing to attack the ball. 'It goes down to language as well,' Beal says. 'What languages are in common? Jobe Bellingham moves to Borussia Dortmund. How many of those players speak English? You are going down to that level of granularity in a recruitment report to see what players might have to adapt to. We do the exact same thing with the manager: looking at playing styles, formations, types of football.' Using data is not new. What is developing rapidly, however, is just how widespread and detailed its use is in the sport – and how more clubs are becoming heavily reliant upon it when it comes to recruitment. Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford have become the poster boys for such an approach, proving that 'smaller' teams can be highly competitive. More sophisticated use of AI appears the next stage. 'Going into Covid, a lot of teams started to turn their eye to what they could do with data. They had seen our research so got in touch to help understand how AI can help, which led to us setting up the business,' says Beal. Owners such as Brighton's Tony Bloom and Brentford's Matthew Benham, who both came through the betting industry, have their own bespoke data models, which they are extremely protective of. In even more of a shift towards data, Brighton let go most of their full-time recruitment scouts. It naturally led to a fear of jobs being lost and traditional scouting – eyes and ears – which allows assessments to be made of temperament, character and body language, being dispensed with. 'Some clubs are quite siloed. We've got some really clever data people. But then you have still got classic football people who are very good at what they do. But there's that disconnect between them,' Beal explains. 'We've been to clubs where you have the data team on one side of the room and the scouting team on the other. The scouting team wouldn't even talk to us, whereas the head of data is really interested in what we are doing. 'The scouting team is a bit threatened by data. But I just see it as a tool. Ten years in the future everyone will be using these tools – AI across all industries. 'It will be a hybrid role in the future. There will be this middle ground of the really 'footbally' data people and the data-led scouts. I just don't think they'll be separate. You need to do a bit of both because there's so much more data being collected, so many different ways of analysing. Both skills are really important and then it's all about who uses AI best. 'The fact you can analyse so many more players so much more quickly than having 70 scouts across Europe. You can do that at the touch of a button with a much smaller team.' Character studies raise moral questions While Beal and his team crunch the data on how players will play together, there is one area where he is reluctant to predict AI will be used: examining a player's character. 'It's dangerous because of learning biases,' Beal says. 'You can look at the examples of different things that have come out in the media over recent years and certain newspapers favouring certain players. It's dangerous in terms of AI learning those biases. So it might, inadvertently, learn your opinion. If I train AI based on all your articles, it might just pick out things you want it to. That type of thing would come through. 'I would be reluctant to get too involved in that because this is people's lives. It's almost a moral question and it's an interesting area that nobody's really gone into, apart from psychologists and experts in how the brain works. But I am always surprised that clubs don't do more on the cognitive side and almost like a job interview as to how a player fits and their character when you're spending hundreds of millions on players.' So, what is the next step? 'On the performance side it will be almost putting a brain at the centre of everything: using AI to translate data for all staff,' Beal explains. He expects clubs to start hiring chief AI officers which has already happened in the United States. 'We have spoken about this to clubs where we give an AI hub which brings in all their own content and anybody across the club can ask questions around what somebody else knows. So, you're building those efficiencies in to say 'give me a scouting report on this team'. It's a little bit forward thinking and it needs a lot of buy-in from coaches and owners but it's where we think this goes in five years' time.' Your club's ideal signing... according to AI Arsenal: Charles De Ketelaere (Atalanta) Could offer strong value for Mikel Arteta, with his link-up play well-suited to Arsenal's attacking midfield. Aston Villa: Julian Ryerson (Dortmund) Established chemistry from 77 appearances alongside Donyell Malen and Ian Maatsen in a system similar to Villa's. Bournemouth: Álex Remiro (Real Sociedad) A strong replacement for goalkeeper Kepa, offering a good tactical fit and Spanish roots that align well with Andoni Iraola's style. Brentford: Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad) Could help fill the significant void left by Bryan Mbeumo on the right wing Brighton: Eric Smith (St. Pauli) Can offer valuable depth at centre-back Burnley: Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg) A realistic and well-suited option to boost Burnley's attack, with the club lacking firepower last season. Chelsea: Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig) A strong fit and offers both tactical and chemistry alignment with existing players. Crystal Palace: Maximilian Mittelstädt (Stuttgart) Offers an attacking option alongside Tyrick Mitchell, with our AI highlighting strong chemistry fit despite some tactical adaptation required. Everton: Dodô (Fiorentina) An exciting right-back option for David Moyes, with Seamus Coleman ageing and Nathan Patterson out of favour. At 5ft 4in he may need to adapt physically to the Premier League, his talent and energy could add real value. Fulham: Philipp Lienhart (Freiburg) Offers tactical familiarity with Fulham's defensive style and adding depth to a key position. Leeds United: Mads Hermansen (Leicester) A candidate for Leeds' new No 1, replacing Karl Darlow after Illan Meslier was dropped. Liverpool: Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton) Flagged by our AI as a strong tactical and chemistry fit, with Liverpool needing to add depth at centre-back despite the strength of the Van Dijk–Konaté partnership. Manchester City: Aleksandar Pavlović (Bayern Munich) Good back-up to Rodri, offering a better developmental fit than Martin Zubimendi amid City's search for central midfield reinforcements. Manchester United: Angelo Stiller (Stuttgart) A smart addition to bolster midfield depth alongside Kobbie Mainoo and Manuel Ugarte, while providing a long-term replacement for ageing players like Casemiro. Newcastle United: Nico Schlotterbeck (Dortmund) Centre-back option after missing out on Marc Guéhi; a good fit to strengthen the defensive line. Nottingham Forest: Tim Kleindienst (Borussia Mönchengladbach) Can compete with 33-year-old Chris Wood, bringing Bundesliga experience and 17 goal involvements to bolster Forest's attack. Sunderland: Flynn Downes (Southampton) After Jobe Bellingham's departure, a potential signing in midfield. Tottenham Hotspur: Julian Brandt (Dortmund) An attacking option under Thomas Frank, after failing to land Bryan Mbeumo. West Ham United: David Raum (RB Leipzig) Ideal left-back replacement for Emerson, offering strong tactical fit and experience to strengthen West Ham's defensive line. Wolves: Georges Mikautadze (Lyon) Could replace Matheus Cunha, offering depth and attacking quality alongside Alexander Sorloth and Strand-Larsen up front. Deal of the summer – Florian Wirtz to Liverpool Based on simulations, Wirtz's transfer shows promising compatibility metrics with a chemistry rating of 80 and tactical fit rating of 73, indicating strong integration potential with Arne Slot's squad. For comparison, last season's Federico Chiesa transfer rated 66 for chemistry and 65 for tactical fit. Chemistry analysis (Rating: 80/100) SentientSports' simulation predicts Wirtz will develop strong partnerships with key Liverpool players, including Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Dominik Szoboszlai. His German fluency provides immediate communication advantages with five current squad members, while 10 players fall within a similar age range, supporting long-term squad-building prospects. Tactical fit analysis (Rating: 73/100) Playing-style compatibility: Wirtz shows excellent alignment with Liverpool's tactical approach across multiple areas. Both operate at a very high tempo with structured attacking play, favour low directness in build-up, maintain high defensive lines for aggressive pressing, and demonstrate nearly identical counter-attacking and chance creation capabilities. Formation challenges: The primary adaptation requirement involves Liverpool's preferred formations. Wirtz lacks experience in Liverpool's 4-3-3 (58.7 per cent usage) and 4-2-3-1 (36.1 per cent usage) systems, though elite players typically adapt quickly under proper coaching.
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
England star Lucy Bronze gives Lionesses their grit, her nan says
Lioness star Lucy Bronze provides her teammates with the "grit and determination" they need during tough matches, according to her Stapleton said she was incredibly proud of her granddaughter for helping her team win their Euro 2025 semi-final match, which saw England beat Italy in extra 89-year-old said Bronze, who is from Berwick in Northumberland, was an inspiration for her teammates and helped them to keep going during tough matches."She gives them that extra something that they need," she said, adding: "They see it in her and she passes it on to them somehow." Mrs Stapleton said she was "very tense" while watching the semi-final, which saw England take the match into extra time after scoring in the 96th minute. She said Bronze's determination was a trait she inherited from her family."We've all got that drive and determination that means you can't let things happen, you have to make them happen," she said. Bronze's brother, Jorge Bronze, has flown out to Zurich to watch the Lionesses play but said the tournament had not been an easy watch."Tournament football as a family member is not about enjoying yourself, it's always traumatic," he told BBC Radio Newcastle."I think they [England] have tried to keep that spirit of pure trauma throughout in this one."But he said after the Lionesses' turbulent run, he would not mind the tournament ending with a dramatic final."You know what, let's have penalties," he said. "Let's go through it again." Mrs Stapleton does not quite share her grandson's feelings about the final and admitted she was "terrified" for Sunday's game."But if they have a good game, play well and they play together as a team, that satisfies me," she Mrs Stapleton said she would not mind if her granddaughter's team pulled off another close win."I would like to think, that whatever the score is, England get one more," she said."That would satisfy me absolutely brilliantly."England will face Spain in Sunday's final at 17:00 BST. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
