France slipped to the bottom of their Nations League group with an underwhelming 1-1 draw away to Austria in Vienna on Friday.

The competition's reigning champions have just two points from three Group A1 matches, having lost at home to Denmark and drawn away to Croatia in their opening two games.

It could have been even worse for Les Blues at Ernst Happel Stadion as they trailed to a 37th-minute Andreas Weimann strike until substitute Kylian Mbappe levelled up late on.

With three games to go, Didier Deschamps' side are four points behind leaders Denmark and two behind Austria and Croatia, with only one team advancing to next year's finals.

Patrick Pentz produced a fine save to keep out Karim Benzema in the opening 17 minutes, but France were otherwise frustrated by Austria in the first half.

The hosts probed away and found a breakthrough when Konrad Laimer was played in by Marko Arnautovic and in turn picked out Weimann for a simple finish from six yards.

Arnautovic nearly doubled Austria's lead before the interval after swivelling past William Saliba and getting a shot away, which Hugo Lloris comfortably kept out in the end.

Benjamin Pavard had a long-range effort saved by Pentz and Kingsley Coman blazed over from close range as the inevitable France onslaught arrived early in the second half.

France appeared to run out of steam until Mbappe, brought on in the second half after recovering from injury, linked up with Christopher Nkunku and rifled into the roof of the net.

Mbappe would have snatched a late winner in the final few minutes if not for a fine Pentz save to push his strike onto the frame of the goal from a one-on-one.

What does it mean? France remain winless

Eight months on from beating Spain to win the previous Nations League tournament, France face a battle to stay in the top tier of groups, never mind advancing to the finals.

Les Blues will now likely have to win their remaining matches and hope other results go their way if they are to leapfrog the other three sides in their group and finish top.

As for Austria, they have now won two of their three games under Ralf Rangnick, who has hit the ground running since his disappointing spell as interim Manchester United boss.

France slipped to the bottom of their Nations League group with an underwhelming 1-1 draw away to Austria in Vienna on Friday.

The competition's reigning champions have just two points from three Group A1 matches, having lost at home to Denmark and drawn away to Croatia in their opening two games.

It could have been even worse for Les Blues at Ernst Happel Stadion as they trailed to a 37th-minute Andreas Weimann strike until substitute Kylian Mbappe levelled up late on.

With three games to go, Didier Deschamps' side are four points behind leaders Denmark and two behind Austria and Croatia, with only one team advancing to next year's finals.

Patrick Pentz produced a fine save to keep out Karim Benzema in the opening 17 minutes, but France were otherwise frustrated by Austria in the first half.

The hosts probed away and found a breakthrough when Konrad Laimer was played in by Marko Arnautovic and in turn picked out Weimann for a simple finish from six yards.

Arnautovic nearly doubled Austria's lead before the interval after swivelling past William Saliba and getting a shot away, which Hugo Lloris comfortably kept out in the end.

Benjamin Pavard had a long-range effort saved by Pentz and Kingsley Coman blazed over from close range as the inevitable France onslaught arrived early in the second half.

France appeared to run out of steam until Mbappe, brought on in the second half after recovering from injury, linked up with Christopher Nkunku and rifled into the roof of the net.

Mbappe would have snatched a late winner in the final few minutes if not for a fine Pentz save to push his strike onto the frame of the goal from a one-on-one.

What does it mean? France remain winless

Eight months on from beating Spain to win the previous Nations League tournament, France face a battle to stay in the top tier of groups, never mind advancing to the finals.

Les Blues will now likely have to win their remaining matches and hope other results go their way if they are to leapfrog the other three sides in their group and finish top.

As for Austria, they have now won two of their three games under Ralf Rangnick, who has hit the ground running since his disappointing spell as interim Manchester United boss.

Mbappe salvages a point

Mbappe was taken off at half-time against Denmark last week with an injury that kept him out of the Croatia match in midweek, but he was fit enough to play half an hour here.

The Paris Saint-Germain star's quality told with his strike, making it five goal involvements in his past five substitute appearances for France – three goals and two assists.

Karim kept quiet

It had been a frustrating day for Deschamps' attacking players up until Mbappe's arrival. Antoine Griezmann, the player he replaced, failed to have a single shot.

Benzema, meanwhile, could not find the net from his five attempts, which equated to an expected goals (xG) return of 0.62.

What's next?

France will look for that elusive first win of the Nations League campaign when they host Croatia on Monday, the same day that Austria travel to Denmark.

The Washington Commanders have fined defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $100,000 for his dismissive comments about the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol building and for comparing the insurrection to protests against police brutality.  

Head coach Ron Rivera announced the fine with a statement on Friday, while public hearings are ongoing with the House of Representatives Jan. 6 investigative committee.  

On Wednesday, Del Rio referred to the attack on the Capitol building as a "dust-up" compared to the protests that took place in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd was killed in police custody.  

"I can look at images on the TV [of the Floyd protests] — people's livelihoods are being destroyed. Businesses are being burned down. No problem," he said on Wednesday. "And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we're going to make that a major deal. I just think it’s kind of two standards, and if we apply the same standard and we're going to be reasonable with each other, let's have a discussion.” 

Later on Wednesday, Del Rio issued an apology for his comment.  

"Referencing that situation as a dust-up was irresponsible and negligent and I am sorry," he said in a statement.

"I stand by my comments condemning violence in communities across the country. I say that while also expressing my support as an American citizen for peaceful protest in our country."

The NAACP has called for Del Rio to resign or to be fired.  

Rivera's statement said Del Rio's fine will be donated to the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund.  

"As we saw last night in the hearings, what happened on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an act of domestic terrorism," Rivera said. "A group of citizens attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, and as a result lives were lost, and the Capitol building was damaged. 

"I want to make it clear that our organisation will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the actions of those on January 6 who sought to topple our government."

Charl Schwartzel holds a three-shot lead going into the final day of the LIV Golf Invitational in London after another impressive performance at Centurion.

The South African followed up his five-under opening round by going four under on day two of the 54-hole tournament.

His compatriot Hennie du Plessis is six under with Peter Uihlein two strokes further back.

Dustin Johnson, the two-time major champion and highest-ranked player at the event, is in a tie for sixth at one under.

He is one of only eight players under par after 36 holes, with Phil Mickelson struggling to get to grips with the course.

Mickelson ended the day four over par and, though there is no cut, his hopes of victory at the end of a week overshadowed by his and Johnson's ban from the PGA Tour for joining the controversial breakaway have surely gone.

Top seed Maria Sakkari was eliminated from the Nottingham Open at the quarter-final stage by world number 48 Beatriz Haddad Maia on Friday.

Haddad Maia made it three career wins out of three against Sakkari with a 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory to reach her first WTA semi-final on grass.

The Brazilian will now take on Tereza Martincova, who beat last year's runner-up Zhang Shuai 6-3 6-2, for a place in Sunday's final.

Sixth seed Alison Riske is also through to the last four after recovering from a set down to beat home favourite Harriet Dart 4-6 6-2 6-1.

Riske's sixth career semi-final on grass will come against Viktorija Golubic, who surprised Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 7-6 (8-6) in the final match of the day.

At The Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, second seed Belinda Bencic's participation was ended with a straight-sets defeat to Veronika Kudermetova.

French Open quarter-finalist Kudermetova prevailed 6-4 6-2 in 87 minutes to snap a three-match losing streak against Bencic.

Russian compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova is up next in the semi-finals after easing past American qualifier Caty McNally 6-0 6-1

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka is into her third semi-final in her past five tournaments, meanwhile, thanks to a 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7-5) win over Alison Van Uytvanck.

Shelby Rogers, a 3-6 6-1 6-4 winner against Kirsten Flipkens, awaits Sabalenka in Saturday's semi-final.

Darwin Nunez can be a hybrid of fellow Uruguayan strikers Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, according to a former coach of the 22-year-old.

Nunez has been heavily linked with a big-money move from Benfica to Liverpool or Manchester United ahead of next season, with a reported fee of up to €100million (£85m) being touted.

The young forward produced electric form for Benfica in 2021-22, scoring 34 goals in 41 games in all competitions, including six Champions League goals against Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Liverpool.

Leonardo Ramos coached Nunez during his time at Penarol in Uruguay and told Stats Perform of his belief that, while the player still has a lot to learn, he is showing similar traits to legendary La Celeste strikers Suarez and Cavani.

"Everyone compares him a lot to Cavani," Ramos said. "They have a similar style. It seems to me that Darwin is faster and more powerful than Cavani. Cavani, maybe now he is a more experienced player and knows the moments where to press, when to attack, when to go back, when to be able to play and associate with his team-mates.

"Today, Darwin seems to me to be much more explosive, but apart from that explosiveness, he obviously has already shown unbelievable a scoring ability. 

"It is the same scoring ability that we saw in Uruguay when he was in the bases of Penarol because he scored many goals there. And the truth is that if you ask me about a player who looks quite similar to him, I would say Cavani."

When asked if there were any similarities to former Liverpool and Barcelona star Suarez, Ramos said: "I think he has two parts, it's half-and-half.

"He has the power that Suarez had to go for everything, to go to the clash, to be a fighter with the rival. And he also has the part of Cavani, of being a much more athletic player, more physical, more intelligent, and I think it's a union of those two things that are important.

"Let's see, Darwin is still a very young boy, he has to learn a lot. It is not to discredit the Portuguese league, but [he will be judged] playing in Spain or Italy, which along with England, are the places where he will surely need much more of his characteristics and his strength to perform much better."

Reports suggest that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp sees Nunez as an ideal replacement for Sadio Mane, who is being linked with a move to Bayern Munich, and Ramos can see why the Reds are interested, though does think it could be a bit early for the player to move to such a club.

"Darwin is a player who can help a lot in the recovery of the ball," he said. "With Uruguay, he does it and does it very well.

"Yes, he is a player who has to play near the area because there he is lethal, he has no regard for the opponent, he knows in advance where the ball is going to fall and where the goal is, [but] I don't know if it's time for him to go to Liverpool now. Not because of his conditions, but because [Liverpool] is a very big club.

"There have been players who have been very important in world football who have gone to play for Liverpool and they have failed.

"I think it would suit Darwin, and I have to say that this is just my opinion, it does not mean I am right, but I think that it would be better for him to go to a lower team to gain experience and explode at another time.

"Although the moments are now and Darwin's time is now, so if he goes to Liverpool, it seems to me that if Liverpool takes him it's because they really believe he can work in their team."

Andy Murray claimed his first win over a top-five opponent since 2016 as he stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the Stuttgart Open semi-finals.

Murray started his preparations for the grass-court swing with a run to the semi-finals of the challenger at Surbiton.

He knocked off seventh seed Alexander Bublik to reach the last eight in Stuttgart but a meeting with the top seed and world number five represented a much more imposing challenge.

It was one the two-time Wimbledon champion rose to emphatically, winning a first-set tie-break and then claiming the second set in comfortable fashion to cement a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 win, gaining revenge for his contentious five-set defeat to the Greek at last year's US Open.

Murray's previous win over a top-five opponent came in the ATP Finals six years ago, when he defeated Novak Djokovic in a year that also saw him win Wimbledon.

"I thought I did well. He served unbelievably in the first set," Murray said in his on-court interview.

"I felt like I had very few chances, but when he was creating chances on my serve, I stayed strong.

"I played a really solid tie-break and in the second set, once I was in the rallies, I felt like I was dictating a lot of the points. It was a good performance."

Murray is up to 53rd in the live ATP rankings and is bidding to get back into the top 50 for the first time since 2018. 

Standing between him and a place in the final is Nick Kyrgios, who was 7-6 (7-3) 3-0 up when Marton Fucsovics retired from their quarter-final clash.

Matteo Berrettini beat Lorenzo Sonego in three sets, while Oscar Otte won by walkover against Benjamin Bonzi.

At the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in 's-Hertogenbosch, Daniil Medvedev saw off Ilya Ivashka 7-6 (10-8) 6-4.

Medvedev, who will soon return to world number one when the ranking points from the French Open come into effect, sees the grass-court season as a chance to cement his grip on that spot.

"I don't have many points to defend on grass and I have some to win, so hopefully I can play well, starting here," said Medvedev. "Every round is points and the higher you get, the more you need to step up."

He will face defending champion Adrian Mannarino in the semi-finals, while second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime is into a last-four clash with home hope Tim van Rijthoven after beating Karen Khachanov. 

Stephen Curry will not have any minutes restriction in Game 4 as the Golden State Warriors bid to level the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

Curry suffered a foot injury in the Warriors' 116-100 defeat in Game 3 at TD Garden on Wednesday.

The two-time MVP had insisted he would not miss Game 4 and head coach Steve Kerr confirmed Curry will be available for the entirety of Friday's critical clash.

"He's feeling well, just went through shootaround. He said he's ready to go," Kerr told reporters.

The Warriors trail the series 2-1 and will have history against them if the Celtics claim a third win in four.

Only one team in NBA Finals history has come back from a 3-1 deficit to prevail, the Cleveland Cavaliers famously doing so against the Warriors in 2016.

Curry has scored 26.8 points per game so far in the postseason. He has averaged 31.3 across the first three games of the Finals.

Jack Grealish has "learned a huge amount" at Manchester City, according to England manager Gareth Southgate.

Grealish became the most expensive player in British football history last year when he moved to City from boyhood club Aston Villa for £100million, but only recorded 10 goal involvements in his first season at the Etihad Stadium (six goals, four assists).

He made 39 appearances in all competitions (31 starts) for Pep Guardiola's side, but did create more chances from open play (76) than every other City player apart from Kevin De Bruyne (94).

The 26-year-old came off the bench for England on Tuesday and impressed as the Three Lions were able to force a late 1-1 draw against Germany in Munich.

Speaking ahead of his team's next Nations League clash with Italy, Southgate told a news conference he has seen improvements in Grealish since his big money move to City, where he won the Premier League title.

"It's important for all of our players that they feel that they understand how we want to play," Southgate said. 

"We give them a structure and we prepare them for the games, but within that, with their own talents and their own, we want them to come out. That's what makes the difference in the games.

"Jack had a fabulous impact on the game when he came on [against Germany]. I know he enjoys his football with us, but he also enjoys his football with his club, so I think it's important to say that. He has learned a huge amount being part of a team that has won the Premier League, which is massively important to him.

"He's a player we love working with. He's got a great mentality, a great character and I think he is a really good guy to have around the group. He has that joy having a football at his feet, which adds so much when you see players in training every day."

England will face Italy in a rematch of the Euro 2020 final on Saturday, and Southgate said the fact the game will be played behind closed doors at Molineux thanks to a ban imposed by UEFA after crowd trouble at Wembley before last year's final is an "embarrassment".

"If it is an embarrassment, it is for England as a country," he said. "A lot of the people that caused the problems I'm not certain were football fans.

"We spoke enough about it, we spoke about it after the final and when the punishment was first given, what I will say is the vast majority of our fans who travelled to Germany on Tuesday behaved brilliantly, a big thank you to them because maybe people were thinking something different but there were a huge majority who were a credit."

The England boss is expected to rotate his team as he looks for his first win of the Nations League campaign, and Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse is hoping he can take his chance if he is one of those fringe players selected.

"The manager highlighted before about seeing certain types of players in different types of games and hopefully if that opportunity comes then it's a good opportunity for me to showcase what I can do against a high level of opposition," the free-kick specialist said. "It will be a good opportunity to hopefully get some minutes.

"Everybody here is in the squad because they perform well for their club - and you can see that in training. The level is so, so high and having missed out on the European Championship squad, that was a big hurdle for me to overcome.

"I see this as a new challenge now, a new opportunity and I think that has given me a bit more of an incentive heading into this World Cup announcement that I want to be there, I want to be part of this fantastic group and hopefully replicate the success we had."

Bryson DeChambeau has become the latest high-profile player to shun the PGA Tour and join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series.

The 2020 US Open winner, who has eight PGA Tour titles to his name in total, joins the likes of Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson in switching to the rival circuit.

DeChambeau's involvement was made official on Friday by LIV Golf, which launched with its first event on the outskirts of London on Thursday.

His first appearance will be in the second of the eight-series event in Portland later this month.

LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman said in a statement: "Bryson DeChambeau is an exciting addition to LIV Golf's supercharged style of play. 

"He is passionate about the sport, innovative in his approach and committed to pushing the boundaries in pursuit of excellence.

"He's not afraid to think outside the box and supports our mission of doing things differently to grow our game.

"The power and energy he brings to the course will deliver added electricity to our competition in Portland and beyond."

DeChambeau is currently 28th in the world rankings after slipping out of the top 10, where he had spent most of the past two years, due to a niggling injury issue.

The American missed the cut at last week's Memorial Tournament and will now be blocked from competing in any further PGA Tour events, likely including next week's U.S. Open.

That comes after the Tour confirmed on Thursday that all players competing in the opening event this week, and any who play in future events, are indefinitely suspended.

DeChambeau is the eighth major champion to defect to LIV Golf, along with Sergio Garcia, Johnson, Mickelson, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

Chile's appeal to have Ecuador disqualified from the World Cup in Qatar has been rejected by FIFA.

The appeal was made on the basis of Ecuador selecting an ineligible player during their qualifying campaign.

Football's world governing body opened disciplinary proceedings last month following allegations that right-back Byron Castillo is Colombian and not eligible to represent Ecuador.

Castillo made eight appearances for Ecuador in their South American qualifying campaign.

Chile, who failed to qualify for the World Cup, lodged a complaint, but FIFA confirmed on Friday that Ecuador will keep their place at the World Cup, which starts in November.

A statement on FIFA's website read: "The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has rendered its decision in relation to the potential ineligibility of the player Byron David Castillo Segura with regard to his participation in eight qualifying matches of the national team of the Ecuadorian Football Association (FEF) in the preliminary competition of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

"After analysing the submissions of all parties concerned and considering all elements brought before it, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to close the proceedings initiated against the FEF.

"The Disciplinary Committee's findings were notified today to the parties concerned. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the parties have 10 days in which to request a motivated decision, which, if requested, would subsequently be published on legal.fifa.com. The present decision remains subject to an appeal before the FIFA Appeal Committee."

La Roja, who finished seventh to miss out on a play-off spot, would have taken Ecuador's place had FIFA disqualified them. 

Ecuador will face hosts Qatar, Netherlands and Senegal in Group A.

Federico Chiesa is relishing the chance to link up with Dusan Vlahovic at Juventus next season, with the winger confirming he is on course to return to action in September. 

Italy international Chiesa has not played since sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Roma in January that subsequently required surgery.

The 24-year-old, one of the stars of Italy's triumphant Euro 2020 campaign last year, is back in the early stages of training but will not rush his recovery programme.

"My dream is to return as soon as possible, but there are schedules to be respected," he said at a Save The Children event in Turin on Friday.

"The Juventus medical staff have been fantastic, helping me with everything. Now I have started to run and make changes of direction.

"By the beginning of September I hope to be ready, but let's see if we can shorten the times a little. We have to make sure there are no relapses."

Chiesa made 18 appearances for Juventus in his second season with the club prior to being struck down by injury, scoring four goals and assisting two more.

His injury coincided with the signing of Vlahovic, whom he previously played alongside at Fiorentina, though the pair have yet to play together in the Bianconeri strip.

Vlahovic arrived in Turin with a big reputation and reached double figures for goal involvements in his 21 outings for Juve in the second half of last season.

Indeed, his 10 goals and assists combined were at least two more than any other Juve player between his debut in early February and the end of the campaign.

"We've already paired up and he is someone I get on with very well on the pitch," Chiesa said of Vlahovic. "He's a friend off it and that only makes things better on the pitch.

"I can't wait to play with him and provide him with some balls to score a few more goals."

Chiesa's injury lay-off was also a huge blow for Italy, who suffered a shock qualifying play-off defeat to North Macedonia in March to miss out on Qatar 2022.

And with Italy having failed to qualify for successive World Cups for the first time, either side of winning the European Championships, Chiesa accepts changes are required.

"[Roberto] Mancini and those who work with him know better than me. But we need change, new and fresh players," he said. 

"We also need to change the Italian system, because the truth is that we are behind the other nations. The coach is right, the players in Italy don't play.

"Is the problem that there is no talent or training? We have to start asking ourselves these questions and change our mentality a bit. I think Mancini is the best person for the job.

"He did it after the first collapse by taking us to the top of Europe after missing the World Cup. So Mancini is the most suitable person. 

"In my opinion training is fundamental. When I grew up in Fiorentina's youth sector they taught the basics; now they think about the result."