England boss Gareth Southgate has expressed his support for proposed changes to 2022 World Cup squads.

FIFA is expected to announce an increase in squad sizes for the tournament in Qatar, with 26-man squads instead of 23 – akin to those permitted at Euro 2020 – expected to be allowed.

Coaches of the qualified nations are also pushing for 15-man benches at the competition after Euro 2020 regulations forced Southgate and other bosses to leave three players out of their matchday squads.

England will begin their 16th World Cup campaign with a first-ever competitive meeting with Iran on November 21, before rounding off their group-stage campaign with games against the United States and one of Wales, Scotland, or Ukraine.

Southgate has now claimed that coaches were "unanimous" in their desire to allow every player in a squad to be in matchday contention in Qatar at a recent meeting, making his strong support for the proposal clear.

"I think what everyone is saying is that if the squads are going to be bigger, then it needs to be a situation where everybody is able to change on a matchday," Southgate said. 

"That was unanimous in the room [at the coaches' meeting]. Whether a bigger squad is necessary... originally that was for COVID-19, there's now people talking about the [impact of] condensed fixtures. 

"I still think it's a bigger skill to pick 23 and to work all that out, but that decision will be made and I suspect it will be 26. 

"But I think everybody has to be available for all the games."

Southgate also highlighted some difficulties of managing a squad at an international tournament, noting the "challenge" of keeping players involved as a reason why some coaches may not elect to take extra players.

"You either get the difficult conversations in the middle of November or in the next few weeks," Southgate added. "That's how it was last summer.

"When you are picking a team, when you've got 11 who are happy and 15 who are disappointed, that's more of a challenge. That's managing. 

"That's why you don't have to take 26, I know Luis Enrique didn't last year [Spain took 24 players to Euro 2020]. That's something we'll have to think about, depending on what the Covid situation is and what our injuries might be."

England are the only European team to have reached the semi-finals of the last two major international tournaments (the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020), and sealed their place in Qatar via a dominant qualification campaign in which they scored 39 goals and conceded just three.

With the final international break of the season done and dusted, it was back to Premier League action on Saturday as teams prepare for the all-important run-in.

Having not had any changes of leader since the turn of the year, it was a novelty to see it change twice in one day, albeit with a familiar look at the end as Liverpool and Manchester City both recorded wins.

Something far less routine happened at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea were clobbered by Brentford, while there was also a win for Wolves against Aston Villa and draws at Brighton and Hove Albion, Leeds and Manchester United.

Stats Perform takes a look at some key Opta facts from a selection of the day's games…

Liverpool 2-0 Watford: Jota the slotter strikes again

It was a nervy afternoon at Anfield as Liverpool looked to leapfrog City to the top of the table.

Despite a determined performance from Roy Hodgson's Hornets, a first-half header from Diogo Jota and a late penalty from Fabinho secured the three points for the Reds.

It sent Jurgen Klopp's men to the top of the Premier League for the first time since December, albeit they were back to second later on after City's own win.

Liverpool are back in the title race after having won 10 consecutive Premier League games, becoming just the second side to embark on such a run on five separate occasions after City (also five).

It was another goal for Jota, his 20th of the season, and since making his Liverpool debut in September 2020, the Portugal international has scored more headed goals (nine) than any other player for a Premier League club in all competitions.

Burnley 0-2 Manchester City: Citizens retain top spot

Despite being displaced by their rivals, City eased to victory against Sean Dyche's side to take back their top spot just a couple of hours after losing it.

First-half goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan saw Pep Guardiola's men to the win, continuing their exemplary record against Burnley.

This made it 14 wins from their last 15 games against the Clarets in all competitions (D1), winning each of their last 10 by an aggregate scoreline of 34-1.

City are the only side yet to drop a single point from a winning position in the Premier League this season, winning all 23 games in which they have led. No side has ever gone through an entire Premier League campaign without dropping points when ahead before.

Aymeric Laporte made his 100th Premier League appearance, picking up his 82nd win – the most wins by a player in their first 100 games in the competition's history.

Chelsea 1-4 Brentford: Tuchel's men toppled

It has been a turbulent time for Chelsea off the field, but until now they had kept their on-field form in check.

Brentford had other ideas at Stamford Bridge as they came from 1-0 down to ease to their first victory in nine meetings against the Blues in all competitions since a 3-1 away win in the top-flight in February 1939.

Chelsea went ahead thanks to an Antonio Rudiger piledriver from 39.6 yards, which was Chelsea's longest range Premier League goal since Frank Lampard against Wigan in January 2007 (45.1 yards).

However, goals from Vitaly Janelt (two), Christian Eriksen and Yoane Wissa turned things around to make it just the second time Chelsea have conceded four or more goals in the Premier League at home to a newly promoted side (also under Thomas Tuchel in the 5-2 defeat against West Brom in April 2021).

Eriksen scored his first Premier League goal since December 2019. He has now been directly involved in eight goals (three goals, five assists) against Chelsea in the competition, with all three goals arriving at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United 1-1 Leicester City: Ronaldo-less Red Devils' top four hopes dealt another blow

It felt like an ominous sign for United when Cristiano Ronaldo was ruled out of their game against Leicester through illness.

Ralf Rangnick's side ultimately rescued a draw having fallen behind to Kelechi Iheanacho's header, with Fred following in from a Bruno Fernandes shot, but it was still two points dropped in the race for the top four.

United have now won just one of their last six games in all competitions (D3 L2), after winning four and drawing three of the seven before that.

Fred is the seventh player to score on their 100th Premier League appearance for the Red Devils, and the first since Marcus Rashford did so, also against Leicester, in February 2019.

James Maddison laid on the assist for Iheanacho, and has now been directly involved in 21 goals in all competitions this season (13 goals, eight assists), four more than any other Leicester player; only in 2017-18 with Norwich has he been involved in more goals in a single campaign (26 – 15 goals, 11 assists).

Mats Hummels said Borussia Dortmund would have to stomach the criticism after a 4-1 home defeat to RB Leipzig that he felt was particularly harsh.

There was evidence to back up defender Hummels' verdict, with Opta data showing Leipzig only shaded the game 0.79 to 1.24 in terms of expected goals (xG), which is a measure of the quality of a team's chances.

Dortmund had 63.8 per cent of possession, and both teams had 10 shots, but Leipzig were far more clinical with the chances that fell their way.

Indeed, 10 shots is the fewest needed by any team to score four goals in a Bundesliga game this season.

It added up to a desperate day for Dortmund, who were playing inside a full home stadium for the first time since the pandemic hit after restrictions were relaxed in Germany.

In-demand striker Erling Haaland, who played the full game, had only one shot and was largely peripheral.

"That's disappointing for us," Hummels said of the result. "We had a lot planned for the crowd here today. The first time with over 80,000 after two years.

"That was a victory for Leipzig today in terms of effectiveness and the exploitation of chances. It was by no means a 4-1 game in terms of performance ratios, but we have to live with the fact that we are criticised for the result because that's the way it is in football.

"I think the people of Leipzig know that things could have gone very differently in the first half. In the end, it's goals that count in football."

Christopher Nkunku, fresh from winning his first two caps for France, scored one and assisted two of Leipzig goals.

He now has 16 goals for the season and 11 assists, which are both team highs.

 

Leipzig have won more points (26) and have a better goal difference (plus 22) than any other side in the second half of the Bundesliga season, and they sit fourth, three points clear of a Freiburg side that lost at home to leaders Bayern Munich.

Dortmund head coach Marco Rose felt Leipzig said his team, who remain second in the table but nine points behind Bayern, "didn't defend well enough".

"Offensively, we didn't finish the attacks enough and thus gave Leipzig opportunities to counter-attack again and again," Rose said. "We have to work on that."

Leipzig boss Domenico Tedesco, quoted on the Bundesliga website, said: "Winning 4-1 in Dortmund is not something that can be taken for granted.

"We played with discipline, won the ball a lot and in the end we deserved a win. We played well on the counter-attack too, so we could have scored one or two more goals in the second half."

Babar Azam hailed Pakistan's "historic" series win over Australia after scoring another century in a nine-wicket victory.

Pakistan bowled Australia all out for 210 before comfortably chasing down their target, thanks largely to the efforts of top-order batsmen Babar (105 not out) and Imam-ul-Haq (89 not out).

Babar also recorded triple figures in Pakistan's second ODI victory on Thursday, and his consecutive centuries proved decisive in the hosts beating Australia in back-to-back home ODIs for the first time since 1982.

Writing on Twitter after his crucial haul, Babar referred to his team-mates as "superstars" and thanked Pakistan's fans for their support in Lahore.

"A historic series win for Pakistan," wrote Babar, who has now plundered 16 ODI career centuries.

"[I] couldn't have asked for more from my pack of superstars, excellent performances from Imam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Haris Rauf.

"To all our fans, thank you so much for your massive support!"

Pakistan head coach Saqlain Mushtaq posted: "This is historical, winning the ODI series against Australia 2-1 at home.

"Some phenomenal performances [were] witnessed by the batsmen and bowlers. Keep supporting our great Pakistan!"

Before failing to remove either Babar or Imam as they struggled with the ball, Australia lost their highest run-scorer of the series, Travis Head, to the first delivery of their own innings, leaving skipper Aaron Finch to bemoan a failure to set their hosts a more difficult target.

"We didn't get enough runs," Finch told reporters. "When you go three down in the first few overs, it's always going to be hard to get a big total."

Atletico Madrid went third in LaLiga after doubles from Joao Felix and Luis Suarez sealed a 4-1 victory over lowly Deportivo Alaves on Saturday.

It had looked like Diego Simeone's side would be denied a sixth straight top-flight win when Gonzalo Escalante cancelled out Joao Felix's opener in the 63rd minute. 

However, Suarez's penalty and Joao Felix's second inside wrapped up maximum points at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Suarez prodded in a fourth in the 90th minute as Atleti moved level with second-placed Sevilla on 57 points, although Julen Lopetegui's side do have a game in hand. 

Atleti thought they had opened the scoring in the ninth minute, yet Thomas Lemar's finish was ruled out for offside.

They went ahead two minutes later, though, as an unmarked Joao Felix superbly headed Sime Vrsaljko's cross into Fernando Pacheco's top-left corner.

Yet a sluggish start to the second half meant Atleti had to wait until the hour mark for another clear sight of goal, Marcos Llorente whipping wide from just outside the area. 

Atleti were made to pay when Escalante stole into the area and headed Edgar Mendez's sumptuous cross past Jan Oblak. 

However, Florian Lejeune's foul on substitute Matheus Cunha and Suarez duly slammed his penalty down the middle.

Joao Felix got his second in the 82nd minute with a venomous close-range effort after Cunha's initial shot had been saved.

Suarez added gloss to the scoreline in the 90th minute with a cool finish after being played in by the hugely influential Cunha.

 

Gary Neville said being left out of a depleted Manchester United attack will have "killed" Marcus Rashford after the Red Devils laboured to a 1-1 draw with Leicester City.

Despite Ralf Rangnick's side being without Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani through illness and injury, Rashford remained on the bench for the first 55 minutes as United's top-four hopes were dented by the Foxes.

Rashford has recorded just four goals and two assists during a frustrating Premier League campaign, making half of his 20 league appearances from the bench.

Indeed, all four of the 24-year-old's league goals this season have come from the bench, a league-high tally, and Rashford was left out of Gareth Southgate's latest England squad as a result of his poor form.

Acknowledging Rashford's recent slump, Neville questioned what being left out of such a depleted Red Devils team said for the striker's role at the club, during a stark assessment of United's display.

"I was struggling with it [the system] before the game, without a centre-forward," Neville told Sky Sports.

"That's killed Marcus Rashford, not playing in that team.

"I know he's been in poor form, I know he's lacked confidence, but for Cristiano Ronaldo to pull out this morning, and then for Paul Pogba to be put in to change the system, not to just put Marcus Rashford in as a straight swap, after he's trained with the players for the last 10 days.

"Overall, there are too many things at this club that are uncertain: talks about Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, Cristiano Ronaldo, Cavani, the new manager, Ralf Rangnick – is he going to be a consultant at the end of the season, or is he not?

"They just need to get to the end of the season, but it isn't going to be easy. Everybody's watching, it's Manchester United and there's no hiding place. It was so flat today."

The interim boss, however, defended his decision to bench Rashford, who did not take a shot after entering the fray as a substitute, and said his selection of Pogba in a more advanced role was a tactical choice.

"The only one [striker] we had was Marcus," Rangnick told Sky Sports. "We knew this morning Cristiano could not play and decided to start Paul Pogba.

"After 60 minutes we made the change and had a central striker on the pitch. It's no secret that he [Rashford] was not full of confidence in the last couple of weeks.

"He was training with us, and in training he is looking well. That was the question yesterday, between Paul and Marcus, and we decided to go with Paul."

United have won just one of their last six matches in all competitions, recording three draws and two defeats during that run, having won four and drawn three of their previous seven.

Thibaut Courtois expects his former club Chelsea to respond strongly when they meet Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, despite their heavy defeat on Saturday.

The Blues were shockingly thrashed 4-1 at home by Brentford in the Premier League, while Madrid claimed a 2-1 win away at Celta Vigo in LaLiga.

Courtois made 154 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea before moving to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2018.

Following Madrid's win over Celta, Courtois told reporters: "Today, winning is important. Chelsea lost at home and they will be very strong for Wednesday. We lack intensity sometimes and Chelsea are good at [exploiting] that."

Though Los Blancos were victorious, they enjoyed some fortune after being awarded three penalties by referee Pablo Gonzalez Fuertes. It was the first time Madrid took three spot-kicks in a single LaLiga game since Opta began recording such data in 2003-04.

Karim Benzema scored two and saw one saved, but it was enough for Madrid to extend their lead at the top to 12 points, and Courtois – who made a spectacular save from an Iago Aspas free-kick in the first half – acknowledged how tough the game had been.

"We have suffered here, all the games I have played here have been very tough," he said. "I don't know if we deserved to win because in the first half I made two saves.

"The three penalties are, there is nothing more to add. The first and the second, yes. Perhaps the third is the one that I see as more difficult from my goal, but if you put your foot in... Today, they call us three in favour, since it had been a long time since they called us three."

Aspas was less than convinced by the referee's performance, saying after the game: "He only needed to call a fourth penalty to take it himself. It seemed that a hat-trick from Benzema was what he wanted and what he was looking for."

The former Liverpool striker did have words of praise for Courtois, though, after the Belgian saved his free-kick as well as efforts from Denis Suarez and Thiago Galhardo, whose header he tipped into the post before it rolled in, only for the goal to be disallowed when an offside Aspas stopped David Alaba from clearing.

"He is the best goalkeeper in the world," Aspas added. "I already said it in the previous one and it seems that he listened to me."

Nolito did find a way past Courtois, but to no avail for Celta, who sit in 11th place.

Ralf Rangnick labelled Harry Maguire's performance in Manchester United's 1-1 draw with Leicester City "flawless" after the defender was booed while playing for England, as Bruno Fernandes suggested the media were partly responsible.

Interim United manager Rangnick also praised the reception given to Maguire by the Old Trafford faithful, with the 29-year-old having been booed during England's friendly against Ivory Coast on Tuesday.

Maguire has attracted criticism for his displays in a United defence that has kept just seven Premier League clean sheets this season, a tally worse than nine other top-flight sides.

Rangnick, however, was impressed with Maguire's solid display against his former team on Saturday.

"The reaction of our supporters [to Maguire] was as it always is," Rangnick told Sky Sports.

"They are one of the best [fanbases], if not the best, in England. 

"Harry played well, he had a flawless game today both defensively and offensively. It was a solid performance from him."

Midfielder Fernandes came to his team-mate's defence, claiming the media's coverage of Maguire's displays could have contributed to the jeers heard at Wembley.

"It's tough that your own country boos you in a game for the national team," Fernandes told Sky Sports. "It's maybe because of the media. 

"It wasn't because of his performance, he played really well in that game. Sometimes the media should think a little bit more when they do things."

Maguire's display may have been perfect in the eyes of Rangnick, but it did not help United claim three much-needed points against Leicester.

Kelechi Iheanacho opened the scoring for the visitors before Fred equalised, though VAR spared United's blushes when James Maddison had a goal disallowed in a game that ultimately finished 1-1.

United have won just one of their last six games in all competitions and are three points behind fourth-placed Arsenal having played two games more.

Rangnick's team are also winless in their last four league meetings with Leicester, having won seven of the previous eight.

Though their chances of securing Champions League qualification look slim, with West Ham, Arsenal and Tottenham all still to play, Rangnick has pledged to fight hard.

"The second half was the better one," he said. "I think for most of the first half we were struggling to find our rhythm, maybe because of the long [international] break.

"The second half was better, but giving a goal away on a transitional moment didn't make it easy.

"I think the reaction after the goal we conceded was good, we came back and scored a goal, then had two or three good moments where we could have scored the winning goal, but we didn't.

"In the end we are not happy with the result, but the second half was okay.

"As long as it [fourth place] is possible mathematically, it is possible. It is our job and duty to do our best to finish on the best possible note."

Iga Swiatek scored a sensational win against Naomi Osaka in the Miami Open final and predicted it would mark "the start of a great rivalry".

A 6-4 6-0 victory for Swiatek means the new WTA number one has won three consecutive WTA 1000 titles, becoming the first player to do so at the beginning of a season.

Saturday's success sealed the 'sunshine double' as the 20-year-old captured the Indian Wells and Miami titles back to back, becoming the youngest player to achieve that feat, and only the fourth in history, after Steffi Graf, who did it twice, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka.

Addressing Osaka, Swiatek said: "I wanted to say I'm pretty glad we could play this match, and I think it's the start of a great rivalry.

"You're really an inspiration and this sport is better with you, so keep going."

Osaka is battling her way back into the sport after documenting her struggles with mental health and depression, and her ranking stood at 77 before this tournament.

She was reduced to tears in Indian Wells after being heckled by a spectator, and the Japanese star, a former WTA number one, referenced that incident in a post-match speech after losing to Swiatek.

Thanking her support team, Osaka said they were "the ones who keep pushing me forward after the things that happened two weeks ago – they're the rock that stays by my side".

Although Swiatek beat her resoundingly in the final, these two appear to be close allies, with a meal they enjoyed together in Australia in January 2020 having sparked a friendship.

"I want to congratulate Iga," said Osaka. "I was just thinking yesterday about when I had that dinner with you in Australia, and watching your journey is really incredible, and I hope you continue having fun. Apparently we're tied 1-1 now."

Osaka, who beat Swiatek in Toronto three years ago in their only past meeting, said her conqueror was "an incredible, amazing person", and assured her own supporters she had been having "a lot of fun".

"I hope I can keep working hard and get more opportunities to be in a situation like this again," Osaka added. "Just to be in the final means a lot to me."

That is both pertinent and refreshing given Osaka's future in tennis has appeared in doubt during the past year.

Swiatek, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength. From her French Open final triumph in October 2020 to this latest win, she has won each of the six finals she has contested. Across the last four, Swiatek has won four 6-0 'bagel' sets.

Doing the Indian Wells and Miami double, after previously taking the Doha title this year, shows Swiatek to be a worthy number one.

"I didn't think that was possible," she told Amazon Prime, assessing her back-to-back wins in America. "I'm trying to see what my limits are, and when I was coming from Indian Wells, I said to my coach, 'Did you ever have a situation like that where a player plays the final at Indian Wells and has to play the next match in three days?'. He said that I shouldn't worry and we can do it."

Swiatek's winning streak stands at 17 matches, her record for the season is 26-3, and she has won 20 consecutive sets. Her new number one status will be confirmed on Monday, when the newly retired Ash Barty is taken off the WTA list, and Swiatek hopes to stay there.

"We're going to see. The end of the season is still a long way," she said. "I hope I'm going to keep doing well with the pressure."

Thomas Tuchel denied Chelsea's upcoming Champions League clash with Real Madrid provided a distraction after watching his team fall to a 4-1 loss to Brentford on Saturday.

The Blues opened the scoring three minutes after half-time through Antonio Rudiger, but a stunning Brentford comeback condemned them to their first Premier League defeat since January 15, as Christian Eriksen and Yoane Wissa added to Vitaly Janelt's brace.

Chelsea's remarkable collapse saw them concede four or more goals at home to a newly promoted side for just the second time in Premier League history, with the previous occasion also coming under Tuchel's management in a 5-2 loss to West Bromwich Albion in April 2021.

With the European champions due to host Madrid in a huge quarter-final contest on Wednesday, Tuchel made four changes to his side, but was adamant that nobody at Stamford Bridge had looked any further ahead than their clash with the Bees.

"We selected the team because we thought it was the best team against Brentford," Tuchel insisted. "Not with half an eye, or one percent of one, on Real Madrid.

"It's more difficult for us than them to play as the underdog and be well prepared for this match. We are well prepared, but had one half of a training session [after the return of Chelsea's internationals].

"It is more difficult, but in the context of all this I am okay with the first half. The half-time speech was like this, a reminder to keep on going.

"We started very well [in the second half]. I did not see the distraction there, so why should we be distracted and think about Real Madrid when we are one goal ahead?

"Maybe it was the general feeling that now we are ahead and have it [which led to the turnaround], and we got punished for that."

Brentford's stunning triumph represents the joint-biggest away Premier League victory managed by a newly promoted team against a side starting the day in the top three of the table, alongside Leeds United's 3-0 win at Aston Villa in October 2020.

Despite accusing his team of having "stopped defending" in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, Tuchel said he would not make a "drama" of the shock result, putting it down as a one-off.

"It seems like it [a blip]," he added. "After so many wins and so many good results, I will now refuse to make a drama out of it. 

"Why should we? Brentford made a lot of the ten minutes we gave them. After the third goal, we had a disallowed goal, a pressing situation against the goalkeeper, and another big chance from Kai Havertz. 

"We missed all three of them and there was a feeling that it wasn't our day, so it's a mixture of everything. 

"We will dig in and try to find out why it was like this. It's hard to take because it's very unusual for us, what happened today. [But] we will refocus on Monday."

A strong bowling performance from Lockie Ferguson saw the Gujarat Titans secure their second win of this year's Indian Premier League as they overcame the Delhi Capitals by 14 runs in Pune.

The New Zealander took 4-28 from his four overs as the Titans kept their opponents well away from their set target of 172.

Their own innings did not get off to the best of starts, with Matthew Wade (1) out in the first over to Mustafizur Rahman as he tried to scoop the ball over his shoulder, but only edging through to Rishabh Pant.

Shubman Gill did lead the way with the bat, though, hitting 84 from 46 balls, accompanied by solid efforts from Hardik Pandya (31) and David Miller (20) as the Titans ended on 171-6 from their 20 overs.

After losing Tim Seifert (3) early on, the Capitals never really looked like reaching the target, with Pant (43) the only man to score more than 25, before he became another of Ferguson's victims.

Delhi suffered their first defeat of the season after only reaching 157-9 from their 20 overs, while Gujarat keep up their perfect start to life in the IPL.

Gill improves on previous outing

Shubman Gill will have been relieved to see his team-mates score the runs to seal the win in their opening game against the Lucknow Super Giants after he fell for a third-ball duck.

However, he more than made up for it here with a tremendous knock of 84, including six fours and four sixes to help his team post an ultimately winning total.

Fergie time for Lockie

Ferguson set the tone by taking the wicket of Prithvi Shaw (10) with his first ball, before also picking up the crucial scalps of Mandeep Singh (18), Pant and Axar Patel (8).

Much like Gill, it was a big improvement from his 0-24 in the Titans' first game against the Super Giants.

Babar Azam scored another century as Pakistan beat Australia by nine wickets in Saturday's third ODI to claim a 2-1 series victory.

The Pakistan skipper registered triple figures in the hosts' thrilling second ODI win on Thursday and followed that up with an unbeaten 105 in the decider at Gaddafi Stadium.

Pakistan bowled their opponents all out for 210 and comfortably chased down their target in 37.5 overs thanks to Babar (105 not out) and Imam-ul-Haq (89 not out).

It marks the first time Pakistan have beaten Australia in back-to-back home ODIs since 1982, and the first time the Aussies have lost successive games in the format since 2020.

Aaron Finch and Travis Head were both removed by Pakistan for ducks and, while Ben McDermott (36) and top-scorer Alex Carey chipped away, the latter could only reach 56.

Haris Rauf in particular impressed with the ball, finishing with figures of 3-39, though Sean Abbott's 49 near the end of the innings did at least give Australia something to defend.

Zakhar Zaman was dismissed by pacer Nathan Ellis in the fourth over, but he had put on 17 runs by that point and Pakistan were 24-1.

Indeed, that proved to be the only wicket Australia managed to take as Babar and Imam-ul-Haq shared a 190-run partnership.

Imam's unbeaten 89 included six fours and one six, while Babar hit 12 fours to seal a dominant victory in Lahore.

Babar leads the way

Following this latest impressive display of leadership, Babar has now registered four centuries and three half centuries from nine ODI innings in Pakistan.

The 27-year-old has 16 ODI hundreds overall in 84 innings, second among Pakistan players only to Saeed Anwar, who has 20 in 244 innings.

Australia struggle with bat and ball

Australia used seven different bowlers through the Pakistan innings and none of them were able to make the key breakthrough by removing Babar or Imam.

The tone had been set a lot earlier in the day when, having been put in to bat first, the tourists lost Head, their highest run-scorer of the series, to the very first ball.

Jose Mourinho confronted a journalist ahead of Roma's visit to Sampdoria on Sunday, saying the reporter "s***" himself in front of him. 

Journalist Alessandro Austini recently criticised Mourinho on Italian radio and the former Manchester United and Real Madrid boss took him to task at his pre-match media conference on Saturday.

Mourinho, 59, said he expected a tougher line of questioning from Austini and accused the journalist of cowering in front of him.

In response to his question, Mourinho said: "I was expecting a much more aggressive question, more negative and violent after I listened to you on the radio.

"I didn't expect such an easy question. My conclusion is that you are much more aggressive and violent on the radio but when you come here you s*** yourself a little bit in front of me."

Roma sit seventh in Serie A ahead of Sunday's visit to Sampdoria, having amassed 51 points from their 30 games.

They are unbeaten in their last nine Italian top-flight matches (W5 D4), winning three of their last four. They last went 10 unbeaten in a row in a single campaign in 2015-16 (17 back then, under Luciano Spalletti).

Iga Swiatek sealed the 'sunshine double' with a trouncing of Naomi Osaka as the new world number one added the Miami Open title to her Indian Wells triumph.

Twenty-year-old Swiatek will succeed the retired Ash Barty on top of the WTA rankings on Monday, and she has reached the top spot for the first time in staggering style.

A 6-4 6-0 victory against former number one Osaka in Saturday's final made Swiatek the first player to win the first three WTA 1000 events in a season.

Those are the highest value tournaments on the tour outside the grand slams, and Swiatek has chopped down the fields in Doha, Indian Wells and now Miami in staggering fashion.

Her winning streak stands at 17 matches, her record for the season is 26-3, and she has won 20 consecutive sets.

Swiatek set the tone for the match when she broke for a 3-2 lead in the opening set, whipping an exquisite backhand winner across court to seize the initiative.

She had a look-in next time around too, with Osaka doing well to fend off a break point and keep the Pole within touching distance.

The first set was secured when Osaka hoisted an aggressive forehand service return long, and that ramped up the pressure at the beginning of the second

In a flash, Swiatek earned herself three breakpoints, and although Osaka saved the first with a drive volley, the Japanese player sent a forehand into the net on the next point

Swiatek was displaying some startling shot-making, and a cross-court forehand winner in the third game was a thing of beauty, helping her establish a double break.

Osaka is battling her way back into the sport after documenting her struggles with mental health and depression, and her ranking stood at 77 before this tournament.

By reaching the final she proved her talent remains formidable, but Swiatek at present is on another level to her tour rivals, and a clinical sweep of the second set was complete when Osaka hooked a forehand wide.

Only three players had previously secured this back-to-back double in Miami and Indian Wells: Steffi Graf in 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters in 2005 and Victoria Azarenka in 2016. Swiatek is the youngest to achieve the feat.

© 2023 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.