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• Jarrod Bowen: From Hereford and Hull to West Ham’s humble European hero

  It has been quite a few weeks for Jarrod Bowen – the family man and England international who welcomed twin daughters into the world last month before delivering Europa League Conference success for West Ham.

  Described by his first boss as a “manager’s dream”, Bowen’s last-minute winner in a closely-fought final against Fiorentina on Wednesday night provided an unforgettable end to West Ham’s 43-year wait for a major trophy.

  The 26-year-old, whose partner is reality TV star Dani Dyer, has a down-to-earth demeanour which has seen him become a firm favourite among team-mates and the club’s supporters since he relocated to London in 2020.

  “The best moment of my career” was how Bowen summed up the 90th minute at Prague’s Fortuna Arena when he latched on to a through-ball and beat the press to run in on goal and finish coolly to clinch a 2-1 victory and get manager David Moyes dancing.

  Exactly a year earlier, the former Hereford and Hull player had come off the bench for England in their Nations League draw away to Germany.

  It was his second cap in a number of days following a first international call-up after a fine season for the Hammers.

  The World Cup was in sight for a man who had never been capped at any age-group level, but it was not to be, another career setback that Bowen would use as fuel to keep moving forward.

  “I am disappointed I didn’t go to the World Cup, but three years ago I was playing for Hull City in the Championship. You have to look at it in different ways,” he said after missing the cut for Qatar.

  “It’s about your mindset and the person you are to keep going and know what you can do. It’s just been about keeping going, never hide from it, never slump and keep always looking forward.”

  Bowen featured in every Premier League game for West Ham this season, struggling, as much of the team did, in the early stages of the campaign.

  But this is a forward fired up by unsuccessful trials at Aston Villa and Cardiff, determined to prove he is still worth being in the conversation when Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland pick their next England squad.

  Peter Beadle worked with Bowen in the Hereford academy and took him along for the ride when he was appointed manager of the first team. Bowen’s rise to European trophy success will not have come as a shock to his old boss.

  “He’s done nothing but go from strength to strength since and I’m not surprised one bit,” he told West Ham’s website when Bowen completed his move to the London Stadium in 2020.

  “He’s a very humble human being. He comes from a very strong footballing background with his dad and he’s had a great upbringing. He’s honest and hard-working – a manager’s dream really.”

  Last month Bowen announced the arrival of twin daughters with his partner Dyer, whose actor father Danny Dyer would have been just as jubilant when he saw Bowen run through on Wednesday night to win a trophy for his beloved Hammers.

  Bowen is one of the most popular members of the West Ham dressing room but one of its quieter players.

  However, actions spoke far louder than words when he tucked home past Pietro Terracciano to secure his place as a West Ham hero.

• How do the current Man City side compare to Man Utd’s treble winners of 1999?

  Manchester City bid for a trophy treble in Saturday’s Champions League final against Inter Milan.

  Having seen off Manchester United at Wembley to add the FA Cup to their Premier League title, City can match the feat previously only achieved in English football by their cross-city rivals.

  Here, the PA news agency looks at how this season’s City side compares to United’s celebrated 1998-99 group.

  Team performance

  United lost only three games in their treble-winning season but a remarkable 21 draws in 57 games across the three competitions in question sees City overshadow them in most other statistical categories.

  Excluding the League Cup from both teams’ records and with their 57th and final game still to play, Pep Guardiola’s side have 41 wins (73.2 per cent) to United’s 33 (57.9 per cent), 144 goals to 121 and 25 clean sheets to 20.

  They have conceded only 39 goals to their predecessors’ 56, scoring an average of 2.57 per game and conceding 0.70 compared to 2.12 against 0.98 for United.

  City have also scored four goals or more on 16 occasions, 28.6 per cent of their matches and twice as many as that United side – and they have an unsurprising advantage when the two teams’ top scorers are compared…

  Player stats

  Erling Haaland’s extraordinary 51-goal contribution to City’s potential treble had no equivalent in a United squad that shared the burden much more equally.

  Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole formed a potent front two, Yorke edging his strike partner by 18 league goals to 17 and by 29 to 24 in all competitions.

  Super-sub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored 12 league goals despite starting only nine games and 15 in the three competitions with just 14 starts alongside 20 appearances from the bench. Teddy Sheringham was even more sparingly used, but his four goals included the vital equaliser in Barcelona before Solskjaer’s even-later winner.

  Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs also hit double figures, with David Beckham on nine.

  Haaland won this year’s Premier League Golden Boot with a record 36 goals and will receive the same honour in the Champions League. His 12 goals – including five in a game against RB Leipzig – have him four clear of the pack and no other finalist has more than four.

  He has been backed up by fellow summer signing Julian Alvarez with 15 goals in the league, FA Cup and Champions League, the same as Phil Foden, plus 13 from Riyad Mahrez and double figures too for cup final hero Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne.

  Eight of Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad featured in 50 or more of the 57 games that led to the treble – goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, defenders Gary Neville and Jaap Stam, midfield trio David Beckham, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, and Cole and Yorke up front.

  Just Rodri and Bernardo Silva can boast the same figure for City this term as Guardiola’s famed rotation policy and squad depth shows its worth. Haaland and Gundogan have hit 50 in all competitions, as can Jack Grealish if he plays in Saturday’s final.

• Man City’s holy grail and Pep’s tactics – Champions League final talking points

  Manchester City face Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul on Saturday.

  Here, the PA news agency looks at some talking points ahead of the game.

  City’s holy grail

  Winning the Champions League has been City’s top objective since their takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008 and, after a number of near-misses, it now feels tantalisingly within reach. Beating Inter Milan would complete a mission for the club’s hierarchy, as it would for Pep Guardiola, the man they hired to deliver it. Despite City’s near-dominance of the domestic scene in recent years, and the regularity with which they have reached the Champions League’s latter stages, Guardiola has admitted the club need to win it to truly underline their greatness. On a personal level too, Guardiola has been the greatest coach of his generation but it has now been 12 years since the second of his two triumphs with a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona and it is an itch he needs to scratch.

  Treble bid

  Victory would not only fulfil a long-held ambition for City, but complete a glorious treble, earning them a place in the history books alongside arch-rivals Manchester United as only the second side to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season. United achieved the feat in 1999, at a time when City were fighting for promotion from the third tier. How their fans are enjoying the change in circumstances 24 years on.

  Tactics and form

  City will head into this game against the side that finished third in Serie A as overwhelming favourites. After an inconsistent spell either side of the World Cup, they hit form in the spring to reel in Arsenal at the top of the Premier League and power into two major finals. Their level of performance has arguably been better than anything they have produced before under Guardiola, with some particularly outstanding displays in key games against the Gunners, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Guardiola has often been accused of overthinking and getting things wrong tactically in the key matches, but there seems little reason to deviate now from what has worked well this season.

  No injury worries

  City would appear to have a clean bill of health. There were concerns when Kyle Walker did not appear at an open training session on Tuesday, having been substituted late in the FA Cup final on Saturday, but the player allayed any worries, saying he would not miss the Champions League final “for anything”. Guardiola is therefore unlikely to stray much from the side which started against Arsenal and both legs against Madrid, which was: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Akanji, Rodri, Gundogan, Grealish, Silva, De Bruyne, Haaland.

  Inter’s plan

  Inter will be determined not to make up the numbers but manager Simone Inzaghi probably recognises City are likely to dominate possession, putting his side’s notably tough defence to the test. The Italians will hope to soak up the pressure and catch City on the counter, looking to the likes of Lautaro Martinez, Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku to take any chances that come their way.