Five-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus Williams has been awarded a wild card for next month’s championships.
Williams, who played mixed doubles at the All England Club last year, has not played in the singles event since 2021 but rolled back the years on Monday to beat Camila Giorgi at the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham days after her 43rd birthday.
Williams competes sparingly these days and only played her first tournament since January at a grass-court event in the Netherlands last week before heading to Birmingham.
Her gutsy 7-6 (5), 4-6 7-6 (6) victory over Giorgi in more than three hours on Monday represented a first win over a top-50 opponent since 2019.
Ten singles wild cards have been handed to British male and female players, including Liam Broady and Katie Boulter, while Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina will be involved in Wimbledon after she missed last year’s tournament due to her pregnancy.
Former world number three Svitolina gave birth in October but made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last month in her first grand-slam since becoming a mother.
Svitolina made the last four at Wimbledon in 2021 and could encounter more Russian and Belarussian players in SW19.
She was booed at the French Open after not shaking hands with Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka following her quarter-final exit.
British hopefuls Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Katie Swan, Heather Watson have also been given wild cards.
In the men’s singles Ryan Peniston has received a wild card, along with fellow Britons Arthur Fery, Jan Choinski and George Loffhagen, with the trio set to make their main draw debuts at Wimbledon.
Belgian David Goffin, the world number 124, has been handed a wild card following his run to the quarter-finals in 2022, where he lost in five sets to British number one Cameron Norrie.
The All England Club has one more women’s singles and two more men’s singles wild cards to hand out.
Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Tahiyra is the star name among seven fillies declared for the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot on Friday.
Dermot Weld’s filly was brilliant in winning each of her two starts as a juvenile last season and was a hot favourite to secure Classic glory in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.
She was narrowly beaten by the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Mawj on the Rowley Mile, but went one better in the Irish equivalent and with Mawj not lining up for the rematch due to an unsatisfactory scope, Tahiyra is odds-on to claim a third Group One victory on the penultimate day of the Royal meeting.
Aidan O’Brien’s Irish Guineas runner-up Meditate does take on the Weld runner again, as does Jim Bolger’s Comhra, who finished third as a 150-1 shot in the Curragh Classic.
There was only a short head between Sounds Of Heaven (Jessica Harrington) and Queen For You (John and Thady Gosden) when first and second in a Listed event at York last month and they renew rivalry.
Mammas Girl (Richard Hannon) and Remarquee (Ralph Beckett) complete the septet.
Little Big Bear will be all the rage to see off 13 rivals in the Group One Commonwealth Cup.
Last season’s champion juvenile floundered in a soft ground 2000 Guineas, but showed his true colours when dropped back in trip on a sounder surface in the Sandy Lane at Haydock last month.
Chief among his rivals is Roger Varian’s Sakheer, who also reverts to sprinting after seemingly having his stamina limitations exposed in the Guineas.
It is a similar story for the Beckett-trained filly Lezoo, who won last season’s Cheveley Park Stakes but weakened late on in the 1000 Guineas on her reappearance.
Noble Style (Charlie Appleby) and Shaquille (Julie Camacho) also feature.
Carla’s Way (Simon and Ed Crisford), Soprano (George Boughey) and Jabaara (Varian) are among the leading contenders for the curtain-raising Albany Stakes, while Derby runner-up King Of Steel (Varian) heads a six-strong field for the King Edward VII Stakes.
Arrest, a disappointing Derby favourite for Frankie Dettori, takes him on again.
Frankie Dettori has yet to decide whether he will appeal a nine-day ban he picked up on the first day of Royal Ascot.
The 52-year-old was adjudged by the stewards to have caused interference shortly after the start on Saga in the Wolferton Stakes on Tuesday.
Owned by the King and Queen, Saga went on to finish fifth with the ban compounding a frustrating afternoon for Dettori, who filled the runner-up spot on three occasions.
The suspension is due to run from July 4-12, meaning he will be unable to ride likely favourite Emily Upjohn in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown on July 8.
He would, though, be free to ride at Newmarket’s July Festival as he chases one of the few remaining Group One gaps on his CV, the July Cup.
“I’ve got to consult my legal team and we’ll decide whether I’m going to appeal or not,” Dettori told ITV’s The Opening Show.
“I’m glad that nobody got hurt. It’s one of those things, the bend comes very quickly after the start and it can get very congested at that point in the race, but I haven’t had chance to go through it properly yet.
“I’ll talk to my lawyers today.”
England’s Joe Root has leapfrogged Ashes rivals Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head to top the Test batting rankings.
The Yorkshireman’s performance in scoring a combined 164 runs – 118 not out and 46 – at Edgbaston in the first Test defeat to Australia propelled him five places up the International Cricket Council’s rankings.
Labuschagne dropped two places to third after making just 13, including a first-ball duck in the first innings, with Head falling to fourth despite a first-innings half-century.
Edgbaston man-of-the-match Usman Khawaja, the fourth Australian in the top 10 along with Steve Smith, moved up two places to seventh after scores of 141 and 65.
England’s next-best performer is Harry Brook, who rose five spots to 13th on the back of scores of 32 and 46.
James Anderson retained his place as the second best bowler in the world, despite a disappointing display in Birmingham, while Ollie Robinson moved into the top five with five wickets in the first Test.
Meanwhile, following a thrilling final day at Edgbaston, England and Australia have both been fined 40 per cent of their match fees and deducted two World Test Championship points for slow over-rates.
Despite serving up a breathless finale in which the tourists snatched a two-wicket victory on a see-saw fifth evening, both teams have been punished for failing to get through their overs quickly enough.
Captains Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanctions, so there was no need for formal hearings, the ICC said.
As the match was the first in the new WTC cycle, that means England’s reward for the attacking tactics that moved the game towards its dramatic conclusion despite long rain delays is to sit on minus two in the table.
Australia picked up 12 points for their Cummins-inspired win, so drop back to 10.
All 22 players have also lost 40 per cent of their match fees, which equates to around £6,000 for the English contingent.
Lauren Filer will make her England debut in the one-off Test that marks the start of the multi-format Women’s Ashes after being preferred to fellow seamer Issy Wong.
England have announced their XI, 24 hours out from the start of the Trent Bridge match, with 32-year-old batter Danni Wyatt set for her Test debut after making 245 international white-ball appearances.
Despite being wicketless in a warm-up against an Australia A side last week, England have seen enough from Filer to nudge her ahead of the highly-rated Wong for the five-day fixture.
Filer has taken eight wickets in four matches in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2023 and five in the Charlotte Edwards Cup, and the 22-year-old is set to be thrust into the biggest test of her career.
She was one of two uncapped players named in England’s Test squad with head coach Jon Lewis praising her as a “genuine wicket-taking threat with good pace and swing” and offering a “point of difference”.
Bowling all-rounder Danielle Gibson will have to wait for her first England cap, with the hosts choosing to bolster their batting as they go in search of a first series win over Australia since 2014.
Wyatt has registered in excess of 4,000 runs in the shorter formats in an international career that started in March 2010 – including a 56-ball T20 hundred against Australia in Canberra in November 2017.
She made a quickfire 37 off 46 balls for England A in a practice match against a full Australia side last week.
Team GB’s first male artistic swimmer is thoroughly satisfied to have earned the respect of friends who once asked why he did not just play football like everyone else.
Ranjuo Tomblin is one of 12 British artistic swimmers hoping to top the podium at the European Games this week in Krakow, but the 17-year-old knows he will be making history no matter what the result.
When he and Beatrice Crass slip into the pool for Thursday’s mixed duet technical event, Tomblin will also be making his milestone senior debut with Team GB.
“Definitely my friends at the start were like, ‘Oh, why are you doing that? Why aren’t you doing football, you know, the generic sports?'” he said.
“But as I’ve grown and developed and I’ve got a few medals in the bank, they definitely more respect what I do, now they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a really cool thing you do’.”
Tomblin’s ambitions to erase stigma and stereotype around his chosen sport, once known as synchronised swimming, extend well beyond his circle of friends.
Artistic swimming is, like a duck gliding smoothly across a lake, an illusion of effortlessness when in reality it is anything but. Asked about the biggest misconception people hold, Tomblin’s answer comes immediately.
“That it is easy,” he said. “It’s not easy. A lot of people just think it’s having a play about in the water. It’s really not.”
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Training comprises working on everything from strength and conditioning to flexibility, knee extensions, toe points, breath-holding, swimming, stamina and timing.
Consider the feeling of, as American synchro coach Joyce Lindeman once put it, “running a marathon while holding your breath”.
Also it is set to music, and you are judged on how good you look doing it.
Tomblin spent nearly a decade in gymnastics and it was only by fluke that the woman coaching his “normal” swimming lessons at Atlantis Flamingos also happened to be the synchro coach.
Hearing about his gymnastics background, she asked if he wanted to give artistic swimming a go.
“I immediately loved it. It’s really grown from there,” said Tomblin, though he admits there was an adjustment period, adding: “It definitely did feel a bit weird, especially with the first team I joined.
“There were no boys, it was full of girls and it was a bit awkward and it was hard to make friends, but I feel like after I joined the national squad everyone’s really lovely. We’re all good friends.”
A landmark December 2022 World Aquatics decision paved the way for male artistic swimmers to compete at next summer’s Paris Olympics, which will now allow up to two men in the eight-athlete team event.
Tomblin won silver at the inaugural male free solo event at the 2022 LEN European Junior Championships as well as bronze alongside Cass and, while he is certainly open to the possibility of the team event, mixed duet – appearing for the first time at a European Games – is Tomblin’s speciality.
Mixed duet is not on the programme for Paris, but December’s announcement allowed Tomblin to be cautiously optimistic that his event could feature at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
“When I first heard that, I felt really excited and hopeful,” he said. “Because now they’re like, ‘Oh there’s loads of boys so let’s let them in the Olympics’… then hopefully that will lead towards the mixed duet going into the Olympic Games.”
While records will fall and champions change, there can only ever be one person who does something first, and Tomblin is delighted by the role he could play in ensuring he will not be the last.
“It would mean so much to me,” he added. “I’m working so hard because I’ve seen males older than me, like (Team USA’s) Bill May. I look up to him and he inspires me so much. I’d like to inspire someone – that would feel really nice for me.”
England are waking up to defeat in the first Test against Australia for the third Ashes series in a row.
The tone of the game may have been different, with Ben Stokes’ side making most of the running across five enthralling days to set up a finish, but the end result was the same as 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Australia held the urn aloft in each of those series, flexing their muscles in matching 4-0 wins on home soil and retaining after a 2-2 draw on tour four years ago.
England will now need to overturn a 1-0 deficit with four games to play, but what should they do to make that happen?
Keep the faith in ‘Bazball’
Defeat against their bitter rivals will hurt, but now is not the time to rip up a playbook that has delivered 11 wins from 14 Test matches under Ben Stokes’ captaincy.
In particular, England have proven that their ultra-aggressive batting style can hurt an Australia attack who hoped they would be immune.
They scored at a rollicking 5.03 an over in the first innings and kept it up at 4.11 on a trickier surface in the second and landed important blows along the way.
Scott Boland went around the park for the first time in his Test career and Joe Root’s reverse ramps will have tested the egos of the Australian quicks.
Fix Moeen’s finger or find a replacement
There was always going to be an element of risk in summoning Moeen Ali out of international retirement when Jack Leach went down with a stress fracture.
The 36-year-old last played first-class cricket almost two years ago and his lack of conditioning came back to haunt England when his right index finger blistered then burst open.
He found it difficult to grip and rip the ball from that point onward and was able to offer just seven overs on day five as part-timer Joe Root picked up the bulk of the work.
If the medical staff are confident they can rectify the situation in the coming days Moeen should get another chance at Lord’s, but if there is a chance of history repeating then Surrey’s Will Jacks looks like the next man in and should be called up.
Dial down the declaration addiction
For the second game in a row England have lost a Test match after declaring eight down in the first innings.
New Zealand edged them by a single run in Wellington back in February and now Australia have snuck across the line.
Stokes’ penchant for calling an early end to his side’s run-scoring has been a fascinating facet of his captaincy and at times has worked brilliantly – including three Tests ago in Mount Maunganui.
But pulling out after just 78 overs, the earliest ever declaration in the Ashes, may have been slightly too radical. Root was racing along on 118 not out and it would not have taken him long to score enough runs to alter the final outcome.
Rally around Bairstow
By choosing to drop Ben Foakes, a player Stokes has frequently described as the best wicketkeeper in world cricket, England opened themselves up to criticism. But with Harry Brook undroppable after a prolific winter and the star performer of 2022, Jonny Bairstow, fit again, Foakes was the fall guy.
Bairstow is an experienced gloveman but put down at least three chances that he would have hoped to take, racking up a tab that his dashing 78 in the first innings did not fully clear.
Those who advocate a Foakes recall at Lord’s can think again, with the squad already announced and Bairstow going nowhere.
For now they need to get behind a player who thrives on confidence and certainty over his role. Neither he nor England can afford any more costly slip-ups, but showing faith might be the best way to avoid them next week.
Let Wood make his mark
One thing England lacked in their XI at Edgbaston was outright pace, a quality Mark Wood brings in abundance. With Jofra Archer and Olly Stone both out injured, he is the only man available who can routinely clear 90mph.
He is best used in short, sharp spells and concerns over Stokes’ ability to share the workload may have played a part in him missing out in the first Test. But on a Lord’s pitch that can play flat, he might be just the tonic.
Wood was England’s most impressive performer Down Under in the 2021-22 Ashes and already has Australia’s respect.
After an unusually quiet outing, record wicket-taker James Anderson could be in line to stand down but it might also be possible to lean on Root’s spin and choose a four-strong pace cartel. Either way, it feels like Wood is a game breaker they cannot afford to overlook.
England and Australia have been fined 40 per cent of their match fees and deducted two World Test Championship points for slow over-rates in their thrilling Ashes opener at Edgbaston.
Despite serving up a breathless finale in Birmingham, where the tourists snatched a two-wicket victory on a see-saw fifth evening, both teams have been punished for failing to get through their overs quickly enough.
Captains Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins pled guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanctions, so there was no need for formal hearings, the International Cricket Council said.
As the match was the first in the new WTC cycle, that means England’s reward for the attacking tactics that moved the game towards its dramatic conclusion despite long rain delays is to sit on minus two in the table. Australia picked up 12 points for their Cummins-inspired win, so drop back to 10.
All 22 players have also lost 40 per cent of their match fees, which equates to around £6,000 for the English contingent.
Mark Ramprakash expects Mark Wood to return to the England line-up for the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
Australia won the opening game of the series by two wickets on a dramatic final day at Edgbaston as the hosts failed to break a 55-run match-winning ninth-wicket stand between Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
Former England batter and batting coach Ramprakash, who played 52 Tests, reckons the bowling attack will be given serious consideration by coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
“By and large, England will be happy they played the brand of cricket they wanted to,” Ramprakash, 53, told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“The only thing is, they have asked for quite flat wickets which are batter-friendly which can, to a degree, negate England’s greatest bowler in Jimmy Anderson, who only took one wicket in the game.
“His form will perhaps be a bit of a concern going forward to Lord’s and they will have to make a call on selection.
“It was a big thing for Moeen Ali to come back in but, with the amount of overs he bowled, he ripped the skin off his spinning finger and that impaired his performance in the second innings and that is something they will have to look at very closely.
“I expect Mark Wood to be seriously considered because England need some pace in their line-up.
“It is just injecting a bit of life. If Moeen is struggling, what variety do England have in their attack if the wicket is flat? I do expect Wood to come back in.”
Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill is being investigated on allegations of assault and battery after an incident at a Miami Beach marina, the Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed Tuesday.
Hill allegedly hit a marina employee on the back of the head during an altercation Sunday, according to multiple media outlets in South Florida. No charges have been filed.
The Dolphins released a brief statement Tuesday in acknowledgement of the investigation.
“We are aware of the situation and have been in contact with Tyreek, his representatives and the NFL,” the Dolphins said in the statement. “We will reserve further comment at this time.”
Acquired from the Kansas City Chiefs in March of 2022, Hill signed a four-year, $120million contract extension with the Dolphins.
In his first season in Miami, Hill was selected to his seventh career Pro Bowl after accumulating 119 catches for 1,710 yards and seven touchdowns.
As long as the Los Angeles Angels are in contention for a playoff spot, the team’s front office has no intention of trading two-way star Shohei Ohtani in the final year of his contract.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian fielded questions Tuesday about whether the club would consider trading Ohtani this summer for a hefty return to avoid watching the 2021 American League MVP walk away in free agency in the offseason.
“I think anybody who has watched us play or looked where we’re at in the standings, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we like him and we hope he’s here a long time,” Minasian said. “It’s pretty self-explanatory with where we’re at.”
The Angels opened play Tuesday with a 41-33 record and in second place in the AL West. The club is looking to end an eight-year playoff drought.
Ohtani is in his sixth season with the Angels and will make $30million this year, his last before having the chance to be a free agent.
While Ohtani could eventually sign a new contract to stay in Anaheim, his agent Naz Balelo indicated in February that Ohtani will not sign an extension during the season, allowing him to hear offers from other teams this winter.
If Ohtani chooses to sign with another team, the Angels would receive only compensatory draft picks in return for his departure.
Ohtani leads the major leagues with 24 home runs this season while batting .300 in 323 plate appearances.
On the mound, the Japan-born superstar has a 6-2 record with a 3.29 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 14 starts.
Jordan Spieth won his second consecutive major with victory in the 115th US Open at Chambers Bay, on this day in 2015.
The American world number two carded a closing 69 to finish five under par, one shot ahead of Louis Oosthuizen and Dustin Johnson, with the latter having three-putted from 12 feet when faced with an eagle putt to win on the final hole.
Spieth became just the sixth man after Craig Wood, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods to win the Masters and US Open in the same year, as well as the first player since Gene Sarazen in 1922 to win multiple majors aged 21 or younger.
After three-putting the opening hole, Spieth recovered with birdies at the eighth and 12th and, with Johnson losing a two-shot lead with three bogeys in four holes from the 10th, shared the lead with playing partner Branden Grace.
That all changed on the 16th, where Grace drove out of bounds to card a double bogey and Spieth holed from 25 feet for birdie – only for Spieth to double bogey the 17th after compounding a wild tee shot by three putting from 40 feet.
Oosthuizen had set the clubhouse target on four under after a remarkable six birdies in the last seven holes for a record-equalling back nine of 29, before Johnson then made birdie on the 17th to tie the lead.
After two brilliant shots onto the 18th green, Spieth two-putted for birdie to finish five under and Johnson initially responded superbly with an even better approach to 12 feet, but saw his eagle attempt drift four feet past and miss the return to force a play-off.
Spieth went on to finish second at the 2015 US PGA Championship in August, and has since secured a third major title at the 2017 Open.
Australia drew first blood in the 2023 Ashes as Pat Cummins led his side to a heart-pounding victory over England at Edgbaston.
The first Test of the series swung backwards and forwards for the full five days, before the tourists finally secured a two-wicket win at 7.20pm on day five – 80 minutes after the scheduled close.
Captain Cummins played the decisive hand, hitting an unbeaten 44 in a ninth-wicket stand of 55 with Nathan Lyon. Watching Australia chase down 281 was a gut-wrenching result for an England team that had been responsible for making a result possible in the first place.
A frustratingly placid pitch and two rain-shortened days meant a draw should have been the likeliest outcome, but their rapid rate of scoring – 5.03 an over in the first innings and 4.11 in the second – moved the game forward at pace. Ben Stokes’ audacious declaration to set up the game had a similar effect.
Stokes looked to have set up an England triumph when he defied his long-standing knee injury to remove player-of-the-match Usman Khawaja for 65, but in the end they could not finish the job and will head to Lord’s down 1-0 with four to play.
Selection gamble leaves England in a spin
When England persuaded Moeen Ali to come out of retirement after almost two years as a white-ball specialist, they knew it was a roll of the dice. In the end the gamble cost them during a tense finale as the all-rounder was unable to play a full role due to a painful open blister on his right index finger. He was able to contribute just seven overs at a time when he should have been a key weapon, with Joe Root’s part-time off-breaks accounting for 15. Moeen did manage to dismiss Travis Head, but he was also the team’s most expensive bowler and was a bystander at the business end. Will England double down in the second Test or send for back-up?
Half-chances add to England’s missed opportunities
Wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow faced criticism for his glovework earlier in the match, with four possible chances getting past him. But England saw another couple of fiendishly difficult openings go begging off Australia’s match-winning duo. Root got a hand to a low return catch while Cummins was still in single figures, but could only parry it, while Stokes came desperately close to a sensational take in the deep as Lyon hit out. He leapt into the air and plucked the ball out of the sky, but could not keep it under control as he came crashing to the ground. Had either of those fiendishly hard chances stuck, England would surely have been celebrating at the close.
Australia’s best ever Ashes chasesBig numberView from the dressing roomWhat comes next
While the dust settles on a thrilling week, things are only beginning to get going in the women’s Ashes. Attention moves quickly from West Midlands to East Midlands, with the one-off Test between Heather Knight’s England and Alyssa Healy’s Australia starting in Nottingham on Thursday. For the men’s squads there is time for a few days off before renewing hostilities at Lord’s next Wednesday.
Steve Clarke admits Scotland’s 2024 Euro qualifier against Georgia should have been stopped before Callum McGregor scored the opening goal in the rain-interrupted 2-0 win at Hampden Park.
A heavy rainstorm in the lead-up to the Group A fixture had rendered the match farcical in the opening stages and Clarke and opposition boss Willy Sagnol had flagged up concerns before midfielder McGregor scored in the sixth minute with a drive.
Hungarian referee Istvan Vad immediately halted the game with an announcement confirming an initial 20-minute delay for the pitch to be cleared of water before a pitch inspection.
When play eventually resumed it was over 90 minutes after it had been halted.
Midfielder Scott McTominay added a second two minutes into the second-half with his fifth goal in four qualifiers before Georgia superstar Khvicha Kvaratskhelia missed a penalty in added time.
“That’s when the game should have been stopped,” said Clarke of the period when it was goalless, as he joked, “apart from the birth of my three children it was the longest day of my life”.
“It was pretty obvious from kick off that the pitch wasn’t ready,” he said.
“They have a time limit. You know it is going to dry up, it’s only a shower. A big shower mind you, a heavy shower, but you know it is going to dry up.
“That would have been the logical time to call it or maybe not even start it and just delay the kick off.
“Obviously the who dynamic changes once there is a goal in the game. They want it stopped. We don’t. That’s normal.
“If they had scored they wouldn’t have wanted the game stopped so thankfully it dried up, everybody did their job and the best part is the players did their job.”
Scotland cemented their top spot in the group with a win which confirmed 12 points from their opening four fixtures ahead of the trip to Cyprus in September.
The Scots are eight points clear of Georgia, unbeaten in eight competitive games and are on course for an appearance in the finals in Germany next summer.
Clarke said: “I have to mention the fans, they were magnificent.
“It would have been easy for them to get a little bit down, thinking about going home because the game could have been called off.
“They stayed and every time we went on to the pitch they cheered and got behind us.
“All the volunteers who got the brushes and the brooms to get the water off the pitch, you have to say thank you because eventually we came out with a massive three points, 12 points to lead the group is a fantastic start.”
Sagnol claimed his players had been treated as “objects” as he criticised the communication from UEFA and the decision to play on after both Clarke and himself raised concerns.
The former Bayern Munich and France defender said: “I think everybody tried their best but I don’t know why the game started because after five seconds everyone could see it was impossible to play.
“The fact the referee stopped the game just after the first goal, he put himself under so much pressure.
“He could have stopped after both Steve Clarke and I spoke together and asked him to stop the match before the goal. It was about the third minute. If he had done it at that moment things would have been much easier.
“We both asked the fourth official, he said it’s not possible. The fourth official said ‘we can’t stop the match before the delegate comes down’. Then after that we were told it was the referee that had to make the decision. It was a lot of nonsense and biased communication.
“But we restarted the game as we have been asked – under massive pressure from UEFA, I have to say.
“The only thing in these moments I regret as a manager is the lack of communication. You don’t know why they decide things, they don’t really give you explanations. Then you have to cope with your players, you have to wait and wait and wait and get cold and wait.
“We feel we were considered as objects – ‘shut up and do what we tell you’.”
Sagnol denied his players had refused to come back out at one stage.
“The only thing we asked was to communicate with us, because we had to speak with our players,” he added.
“For example, the last time they came, the UEFA delegate said we had to play in six minutes. How can you say to players who have been inside for 30 minutes, who haven’t had proper dinner for five and a half hours? How can you say that to professional players?”
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