George Russell has said he would welcome the exciting challenge of going up against Max Verstappen at Mercedes.

Verstappen has won 18 of the last 19 races but his future at Red Bull is in the spotlight after his father Jos Verstappen called on team principal Christian Horner to be dismissed.

The apparent division at Red Bull has led to speculation that Verstappen, 26, could leave if Horner remains in his post – and Mercedes have refused to rule out a move for the triple world champion.

A vacancy has opened up at the Silver Arrows for 2025 following Lewis Hamilton’s shock decision to join Ferrari next season.

“This is my third season alongside Lewis, the greatest of all time, and I feel like I have done a pretty good job alongside him,” said Russell.

“So, whoever were to line up alongside me, I welcome the challenge.

“You want to go against the best. I am focused on myself but I believe I can beat anybody on the grid. Having Lewis as my benchmark has been a good benchmark for sure.”

Verstappen’s current deal with Red Bull runs until 2028.

Russell continued: “Any team wants to have the best driver line-up possible and right now Max is the best driver on the grid.

“If any team had a chance to sign Max they would 100 per cent be taking it, but the question is on his side and Red Bull’s side and we don’t know what is truly going on behind closed doors and it is none of our business, but it would be exciting.”

Russell was speaking ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and only a handful of days after Verstappen Snr cast doubt over his son’s Red Bull seat.

Verstappen Snr said: “There is tension here while he (Horner) remains in position.

“The team is in danger of being torn apart. It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.”

Verstappen will face the media in Jeddah later on Wednesday, while Horner, who held clear-the air-talks with his star driver’s manager Raymond Vermeulen earlier this week, will be in Thursday’s FIA team principals’ press conference.

Wales boss Warren Gatland has sprung a major selection surprise by omitting established centres George North and Nick Tompkins from his line-up for Sunday’s Guinness Six Nations clash with France.

But Wales assistant coach Mike Forshaw says both players have “jumped back on the horse” after being left out, with a new midfield pairing of Joe Roberts and Owen Watkin preferred.

While North and Tompkins have 155 caps between them – North is Wales’ most experienced Six Nations squad member – 23-year-old Scarlets centre Roberts will make his first tournament start and Watkin is recalled after featuring against opening opponents Scotland.

“I think it is an opportunity to have a look at Joe,” Forshaw said. “I think Joe was unlucky not to go to the World Cup.

“We just felt if we were going to have a look, this was the game to do it. He (Roberts) is a really promising young 13 going forward, and Owen Watkin has a lot of experience.

“I suppose there is always a risk in every selection, but I suppose we have to be confident in the messages we are giving and the coaching we are doing.

“They (North and Tompkins) are not injured. Nick and George have been spoken to. They firmly believe in what we are doing.

“I don’t think they have been dropped. They have had two games together and they have done extremely well.

“But we have got to see Joe playing, and we are going to see him. We’ve decided to make that switch this week, and we’ve got to back him.”

Wales have lost their last four Six Nations games against France, but they tackle a struggling Les Bleus team defeated by Ireland and one that drew at home against Italy either side of narrowly beating Scotland.

Wales, though, have yet to win in this season’s competition ahead of their final two fixtures against France and Italy, which are both at the Principality Stadium.

Forshaw added: “The two boys were disappointed, but this morning they jumped back on the horse and they were very supportive of Owen and Joe. George is a great man around this environment, and he totally gets it.

“I would be disappointed if they weren’t disappointed. Selection day is always tough because you want to be in the team, you want to play for Wales.

“This morning they were both great. They were down yesterday, which I get because I have been there and know what it is like, but the two boys who have come in they will fully support them.

“It’s just finding out what the next World Cup cycle is going to look like in material and personnel. I think at the end of this tournament we will have a good idea who is going to Australia (on Wales’ summer tour) and then going into the autumn.”

Elsewhere, Wales captain Dafydd Jenkins has been switched from lock to blindside flanker, with Will Rowlands called up as Adam Beard’s second-row partner, while hooker Ryan Elias replaces Elliot Dee.

It will be Jenkins’ first appearance in the number six shirt for club or country, and he takes over from Alex Mann.

Rowlands missed Wales’ opening Six Nations appointment with Scotland after his partner gave birth, and he then featured off the bench in defeats to England and Ireland.

Mann is among the replacements, where his colleagues include fellow Cardiff forward Mackenzie Martin, 49 times-capped Dee and Scarlets scrum-half Gareth Davies.

“I don’t think it is a risk with Daf at six,” Forshaw said. “He is around two very smart back-rowers.

“Will Rowlands played 70 minutes on the weekend in Paris (for his club Racing 92). I saw glimpses of him getting back to his best. I think it is a good fit for us this week.”

Course experience is backed to be Broadway Boy’s key asset after connections elected to take their chance in a red-hot Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Willie Mullins’ impressive Dublin Racing Festival scorer Fact To File is the odds-on favourite for the Grade One event which could also feature previous Festival winner Stay Away Fay and highly-regarded Irish novice Montys Star.

However, the Broadway Boy team feel their top-notch staying prospect has the class to make his mark in a race that trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies has won twice in the past and in which big-race jockey Sam Twiston-Davies won 12 months ago aboard The Real Whacker.

“He will be going for the Brown Advisory,” said Willy Twiston-Davies, who in his role as assistant to his father, plays a key part in readying the David Proos-owned six-year-old.

“The owner came down yesterday and we had a good chat, we both said what we thought and he was very keen for Sam to ride him so that’s the way we decided to go.

“Blaklion and Young Hustler have both won it and of course Sam won the race last year on The Real Whacker, so lets hope we can do it again.”

Despite the stiff opposition, the Twiston-Davies team have never shirked a challenge and Broadway Boy has already advertised his liking of Prestbury Park by winning three of his four outings at the track.

His sole defeat came at the hands of Flooring Porter early in his fencing career, but since then he has downed quality opposition – firstly in a Listed event at the November meeting before returning to see off Grand National hopeful Threeunderthrufive and one-time Gold Cup third Protektorat in December.

Twiston-Davies added: “We believe in our horse and although it looks a good renewal of the Brown Advisory and Fact To File has looked very good, we’ve got very decent course form, he tries very hard and he has a bit of class. Hopefully he will run really well.

“He loves it round Cheltenham and he’s in very good order. His piece of form at Cheltenham at the December meeting sticks out and a lot of novices haven’t reached that level that he has, so we’re very much looking forward to running him.”

France Under-21 international Mathys Tel has signed a contract extension with Bayern Munich until the end of June 2029.

Tel, 18, moved to Munich from Ligue 1 side Rennes during August 2022 and his previous deal was set to run until the summer of 2027.

The French forward won the Bundesliga title in his first season at Bayern and has made 59 competitive appearances, scoring 13 goals.

“This contract extension means a lot to me. I’ve already learned a lot at Bayern, both on and off the pitch,” Tel said on the Bayern Munich website.

“Munich has become a home for me and my family, and the fans are also very important to me. I can’t be the player I am without them.

“When you play for Bayern, you always want to win every trophy. I want to score and set up goals, play with heart and energy for Bayern, and give everything for this club and its fans.”

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Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund feels there is plenty more to come from the young forward.

“The way he already plays at this level at the age of 18 is something special,” Freund said.

“We want the right mix in our squad, and Mathys plays an important role here.

“He knows what makes Bayern tick, feels comfortable and at home here. Now we are taking the next steps together and are looking forward to the coming years with him.”

Luka Doncic does not have answers for the dismal Dallas Mavericks defense, after another of his triple-doubles meant little in a loss to the Indiana Pacers.

Doncic posted 39 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists on Tuesday, registering his 14th triple-double of the season.

The Slovenian is averaging 34.6 points per game this season, and is on course for a career-best PPG return.

Yet in spite of Doncic averaging 37.3 points in the past six games, the Mavericks have lost five of those.

"It doesn't matter," Doncic said when asked about his fine form. "I just want to win, man. That's it."

"I don't know, honestly. We know we got to fix it."

Coach Jason Kidd was equally as frustrated.

"We got the personnel. We got the team," said Kidd.

"This is actually a great test for us to be able to go through a hard time in March because it only gets harder in April and May and June.

"And so this is a great test to be tested in the sense that we're going to let go of the rope or we're going to continue to come to work. Everyone's coming to work. Everyone has the positive mindset, energy.

"Everyone's trying to do the right thing right now."

Kidd put the onus on Doncic's teammates to help out the NBA's leading scorer this season.

"Are we asking too much? I don't know if we're asking," he added.

"This is what he does. He's one of the best offensive players on the planet, and so this is what he does and so we have to help him on that end and we have to also help him on the defensive end. This isn't a surprise, he's been doing this pretty much his whole career.

"He's a walking triple-double. He's doing everything to help the team win. We all have to pitch in and help him."

Jaylen Brown believes the Boston Celtics' defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers was a "mentality loss".

The NBA-leading Celtics threw away a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game, as they saw an 11-game winning streak come to an end with a 105-104 loss.

And Boston can only have themselves to blame, according to Brown, who finished with 21 points.

"I think we are a much better team than we showed today," Jaylen Brown said. "Today was just a mentality loss.

"We had the game and then we got comfortable, so it was more of a mindset thing than X's and O's.

"We've got to just be the more disciplined, the more militant team. We weren't that. Usually, we are that, and we felt that today and I think that's the reason why they were able to get back into the game.

"Our mindset was a little bit too lax, and we were too careless with the ball. We weren't intentional on offense.

"We kind of let guys get to tendencies that we were supposed to take away. We gave up offensive rebounds, stuff that all just comes with mindset."

Coach Joe Mazzulla echoed Brown's sentiment, citing defensive mistakes.

"We've given up offensive rebounds at the end of the shot clock when we were winning," he said.

"I think that, in situations like this, they just become a little bit more heightened and a little bit more attention to detail to them.

"They're the same situations that have been happening. They're just in more of a critical time. So it's a good heightened awareness to them."

Brown, meanwhile, asserted that the Celtics must learn from their mistakes.

"Today matters," Brown said. "Whether everybody wants to throw it away or not, we gotta look at the film and address some stuff, because that matters.

"Your habits are everything. Your mentality is everything. And every game, you can't waste possessions, you can't waste time out there on the floor.

"So, today matters. We need to look at that."

Dean Wade starred for the Cavs, going 5-for-5 from deep in their fourth-quarter revival, finishing with 23 points.

"Rank's pretty high. Pretty high," he said. "It felt good. The rim looked really big."

Scotland centre Huw Jones revealed he was “tempted” by the prospect of a move to France but he ultimately felt that remaining with buoyant Glasgow was the right decision for his career overall.

The on-form 30-year-old was the subject of recent interest from Top 14 side Montpellier and was also linked with Bayonne.

However, he ended speculation about his future last week by signing a new two-year deal to commit his future to Warriors until 2026.

Jones, whose partner is expecting a baby at the start of April, admitted the prospect of following Scotland colleagues Blair Kinghorn and Ben White to France did hold some appeal.

“I’ve said in the past that I’d be open to a move to France, so, yeah, it was certainly tempting,” he said, speaking from the Scotland camp ahead of Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations match away to Italy.

“Like you do with all big decisions, you’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons and all that and I think when it came down to it, it was a rugby decision.

“I thought it would be a shame to pass up what’s happening at Glasgow at the moment. I think since (head coach) Franco (Smith) came in, since I came back to the club (from Harlequins in 2022), I’ve seen a real growth in the squad.

“The way we train, the way we play, I think we’re getting better and better. I think we’ve got a real momentum at the moment and I want to stay part of that.

“We’ve obviously got a baby on the way in the next couple of weeks, we’re pretty settled in Glasgow, we’ve got loads of friends around and my family live just outside Edinburgh, so it’s nice to be staying put.”

Jones will be without his trusty centre partner Sione Tuipulotu for the remainder of the Six Nations after his Glasgow team-mate sustained a knee injury in the win over England a week past Saturday.

Bath’s Cam Redpath is expected to slot in alongside Jones in Rome, although Glasgow’s Stafford McDowall and Northampton’s Rory Hutchinson are other contenders.

“I think we’ve got great depth throughout the squad but definitely at centre,” said Jones.

“I’m gutted for my mate (Sione), but Cam, Hutch and Staff are all really good players. They’ve all played well this season and I think we’re blessed in that position right now.

“Losing Sione isn’t great but with the guys who are able to step up, we can have confidence in them.”

Scotland have won two of their opening three championship matches but their controversial home defeat by France – when they were denied what appeared to be a legitimate late match-winning try – has left them with only a slim chance of catching leaders Ireland over the course of the last two matches.

A rare second-place finish still appears to be well within their grasp, however.

“If Ireland take it out of our hands (by beating England on Saturday), so be it,” said Jones. “We’ve got to focus on what we can control and this weekend we’ve got a massive game, Italy away. They’ll be up for it, they’ve improved.

“Last season was a close game against them and we were at home.

“They’re a threat to what we want to achieve so we’ve got to go there with the mindset of putting together our best performance of the championship so far.

“Against Wales, we just had a good first half and probably the last five minutes. France, again, we probably could have managed it better.

“England was a positive step forward but I think we should be looking to have our best performance now because we’re going to need it.”

Emma Lavelle is ready to let Paisley Park go out in a blaze of glory if he can win a second Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival next week.

It is five years since the veteran claimed the Grade One contest and while he disappointed when bidding for back-to-back wins 12 months later, he finished third in both 2021 and 2022.

It looked as though his best days were behind him when only seventh in last year’s renewal, but he has defied his advancing years with three excellent runs this winter, finishing second in the Long Distance Hurdle, the Long Walk and the Cleeve Hurdle, beaten a head, a short head and a head respectively.

There would be few more popular winners at this year’s Festival than Paisley Park if he can take back his crown on Thursday week and Lavelle could not be happier with his condition.

“Touch wood he’s in very good form, everything has gone to plan with him. He’s in really good order and it’s all systems go for Cheltenham,” she told talkSPORT.

“It’s a massive ask for a 12-year-old, but he’s not your everyday 12-year-old, so who knows?

“I look through the race and I think there’s a lot of horses in there that we’ve met, that we’ve beaten or have just beaten us. There are a couple of new Irish pretenders, (but) I just kind of feel in that race anything can happen.

“It has leant itself over the years to the hardened professional, rather than it being the upcoming young gun that’s done it.

“It puts him there with chance and fingers crossed – he knows his way round there!”

While Lavelle feels Paisley Park is still loving life at a racehorse, she admits it would be a fitting way for him retire if he was to strike gold on return to Prestbury Park.

She added: “If he won it there’d be no question you’d say ‘that’s it’, because I think it would be an extraordinary beginning and end to his career that way having won it five years previous, to come back and do it again would be an extraordinary achievement.

“It seems funny to say you’d retire a horse if it won but you wouldn’t necessarily retire it if it didn’t, but the reality is you’re a long time retired in this game for a horse – he’s 12, but loving what he’s doing

“If it’s the right thing to stop we will and if it’s not and he’s still loving it and seems happy back in work at the start of next season then I’ll probably bring him back for another run, because no horse keeps going for the number of years that he has if it’s not something he enjoys doing.

“He writes his own script, he doesn’t let anyone else do it for him. We’ll let the horse make the decision, he’s the one out there doing it and we’re all just bowing to his greatness.”

Willie Mullins is responsible for nine of the 15 horses confirmed for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday.

The most successful trainer in Festival history has won the traditional curtain-raiser on seven occasions and again holds a very strong hand, with his potential squad headed by ante-post favourite Ballyburn.

Tullyhill and Mystical Power are also prominent in the market and it will be interesting to see how Mullins shuffles his pack, with both Ballyburn and Mystical Power having the option of running in the newly-named Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle the following afternoon.

Anotherway, Asian Master, Gold Dancer, Ile Atlantique, Mistergif and Supersundae are the other Mullins inmates who have stood their ground for the Supreme, with the majority holding alternative engagements.

Gordon Elliott’s Firefox, who beat Ballyburn earlier in the season, is another leading contender from Ireland, with Henry de Bromhead’s Slade Steel and Paul Gilligan’s Kings Hill other possible raiders.

The three British-trained hopefuls are Alan King’s Favour And Fortune, Nicky Henderson’s Jeriko Du Reponet and Tellherthename from Ben Pauling’s yard.

The My Pension Expert Arkle Challenge Trophy has a distinctly more open look to it, despite the fact five of the 15 remaining contenders are based at Closutton.

That quintet includes Irish Arkle hero Il Etait Temps, Hunters Yarn, Gaelic Warrior and Facile Vega, while Found A Fifty (Elliott) and Quilixios (De Bromhead) are also well fancied. The pick of the home team looks to be Joe Tizzard’s JPR One.

The Tizzard-trained Eldorado Allen heads the weights for the Ultima Handicap Chase, for which 43 are still in the mix, with Meetingofthewaters a likely favourite to give Mullins a first ever handicap chase win at the Festival.

Ireland’s perennial champion trainer also appears to hold all the aces in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle, with odds-on shot Lossiemouth the star attraction in a 13-strong field that also includes her stablemates Ashroe Diamond, Echoes In Rain, Gala Marceau and Zenta. Marie’s Rock (Nicky Henderson) and Love Envoi (Harry Fry) look the two most likely to give the Mullins battalion something to think about.

Leading fancies Lark In The Mornin (Joseph O’Brien), Batman Girac (Mullins) and French challenger Milan Tino (Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm) are among 43 going forward for the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, while just 10 are in contention for the Maureen Mullins National Hunt Chase.

The two at the top of the betting are fittingly trained by two members of the Mullins family, with Maureen’s son Willie set to saddle Embassy Gardens and grandson Emmet responsible for Corbetts Cross.

Rangers face Benfica in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 clash in Lisbon on Thursday night.

The Ibrox side resume their European journey as leaders of the cinch Premiership, despite slipping to a 2-1 defeat at home to Motherwell at the weekend.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the challenge posed to Philippe Clement’s men by the Portuguese side.

Form

While Rangers suffered their first defeat of 2024 at Ibrox on Saturday, Benfica were handed a humiliating 5-0 thrashing by Porto at the Estadio do Dragao on Sunday, with the result opening up the Primeira Liga title race. Galeno scored twice in the first half before goals after the break from Wendell, Pepe and Danny Namaso earned the home side their joint-biggest league victory against Benfica, who played with 10 men for the last 30 minutes after Nicolas Otamendi was sent off for a second bookable offence. Having played a game less than their two main title rivals, Sporting are top of the league with 59 points, one above Benfica who are six ahead of Porto.

European pedigree

Benfica broke Real Madrid’s monopoly in the European Cup (now known as the Champions League) when they beat Barcelona 3-2 in the 1961 final in Switzerland. It was the first time in six years the trophy had left Spain and it remained in Portugal the following year when Benfica beat Real Madrid 5-3 in Amsterdam. However, The Eagles have been all out of luck since then. They lost the final in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1988 and 1990 and also reached three UEFA Cup/Europa League finals (1983, 2013 and 2014) before again coming up short. Rangers played Benfica in the group stages of the 2020/21 Europa League, drawing 2-2 at Ibrox and 3-3 in Lisbon.

Manager

German Roger Schmidt became head coach in May 2022. His first season saw the 56-year-old win the Primeira Liga title but that was not his first success in management. Schmidt won the league and cup double with Red Bull Salzburg in 2014, as well as cups with Chinese outfit Beijing Sinobo Guoan in 2018 and Dutch side PSV in 2022. He was also boss of Bayer Leverkusen between 2014 and 2017. It was widely reported that Benfica president Rui Costa was forced to back Schmidt after the German refused to apologise to fans for the 5-0 defeat to Porto – which followed a 2-1 loss to league leaders Sporting Lisbon – and there is no doubt he goes into the first leg against Rangers under pressure.

Players

Benfica have a squad packed with internationals, with Argentina World Cup winners Angel Di Maria and Otamendi arguably the two star names, albeit in the latter stages of their careers. Former Real Madrid, Paris St Germain and Manchester United forward Di Maria is 36, as is former Manchester City defender Otamendi. Anatoliy Trubin is the Ukraine national team’s goalkeeper and left-back Alvaro Carreras is on loan from Manchester United. Fredrik Aursnes is a Norway international, while midfielder Joao Mario and forward Rafa Silva play for Portugal. Turkey international Orkun Kokcu signed last summer from Feyenoord – where he was a team-mate of Rangers striker Cyril Dessers – while they also have Brazilian duo Arthur Cabral and David Neres.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah returned to training ahead of the Europa League last-16 first leg against Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic.

The Egypt international’s presence with the rest of the squad at the AXA training complex ahead of their flight out was more significant in the context of the week, with Premier League title rivals Manchester City due at Anfield on Sunday.

Salah has played just 46 minutes since leaving the African Cup of Nations early with a hamstring injury on January 18.

Those came in one substitute appearance against Brentford in mid-February, after which the 31-year-old was sidelined with what manager Jurgen Klopp said was muscle fatigue.

Jordan Henderson hopes former manager Jurgen Klopp can enjoy a “fairytale” ending at Liverpool.

The German announced his plan to leave the Reds at the end of the season at the start of 2024, bringing to an end a successful nine-year stint.

Henderson, who left Anfield in the summer for a controversial move to Saudi Arabia, was a massive part of Klopp’s success at Anfield, winning eight trophies, including the Champions League and Premier League.

Klopp’s farewell tour has already seen Liverpool win silverware as they lifted the Carabao Cup last month and they are still gunning for the Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup.

And 33-year-old Henderson, who was speaking ahead of Ajax’s Europa Conference League game with Ajax in Amsterdam on Thursday, wants Klopp to enjoy the perfect send off.

“Jurgen has had an amazing time at Liverpool, everything we achieved was because of him,” he said. “He achieved everything when he came in and I just hope the end of the story is a fairytale for him and the boys because they all deserve it.

“They all work so hard, last season was so tough on many different aspects on and off the field so for this season to be going as well as it has, I’m so proud of them.

“I was a captain for a long time there. All of the team still feel like my brothers really.

“To watch them do so well, I’m so proud of how they’re doing and I really want to see them end the season the way they have been playing the whole year.

“Let’s hope they can end the season on a high and win as many trophies as possible.”

Henderson had his own emotional exit from Anfield in the summer, leaving after 12 seasons for a highly criticised move to Saudi Arabia.

His stay in the Middle East was short-lived as he returned to Europe with a move to Ajax in the January transfer window.

But the midfielder, who would certainly have been given game-time owing to Liverpool’s injury crisis, has no regrets.

“Looking back I think it was the right time for me as a player but also for them as a team and for them as a club, as much as that hurt at the time,” he said.

“I was very emotional. Looking back at that period of time now, it is easy to see that it was the right decision made by the manager and the club.

“It was the best decision to freshen things up.”

Henderson’s move to Ajax could keep his hopes of making England’s Euro 2024 squad in tact.

Boss Gareth Southgate watched Henderson’s debut and remains in regular contact but has not given any assurances he will be in the squad for this month’s friendlies with Brazil and Belgium or beyond.

“It was really nice for Gareth to come over and watch the game, it was my debut against a good side,” Henderson said.

“It was good for him to come and watch to see that he’s keeping an eye on me.

“I definitely feel I can offer something to the national team, but I have got to be playing and doing my job here, that is my main focus.

“But of course I feel I can help the squad and the team going forward in the next camp and hopefully in the summer.

“But I have just got to continue to play well here and stay fit and hopefully I will get the opportunity to do that because playing for my country is a huge thing and always has been.”