Gareth Southgate labelled Marcus Rashford at the World Cup as a "completely different player" to his England performances during the delayed Euro 2020.
The Manchester United forward missed a spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out in the European Championship final defeat to Italy before a wave of online racial abuse was targeted at Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho.
Rashford appeared out of form following the Euro 2020 heartbreak but impressive club performances for United ahead of the November break saw him secure a place in Southgate's 26-man squad for Qatar.
The 25-year-old scored as a substitute in the 6-2 victory over Iran and celebrated a brace after starting in Tuesday's 3-0 win over Wales to send England through as Group B winners.
That made Rashford the first United player to score three goals at a major tournament for England since Bobby Charlton at the 1966 World Cup, leading Southgate to hail the striker's transformation.
"It has been a challenge for him. I went and saw him before the season and had a long chat with him, he had some clear ideas on what he needed to do," the England manager said of Rashford.
"With his club, he's been happy with his performances this year and it showed on the training ground with us.
"We've got a completely different player here than we did at the Euros, he could have had a hat-trick in the first half as he was getting in all the right areas. He deserved his goals."
No player at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium enjoyed more touches in the opposition box (eight), shots (six) – just one fewer than the entire Wales team managed – or attempts on target (four) than Rashford.
His excellent showing offers Southgate a selection dilemma heading into Sunday's last-16 clash with Senegal, with Phil Foden also scoring after Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka dropped to the bench.
Southgate's decision not to use Foden at all during the drag goalless draw against the United States drew criticism, but the manager welcomed the headache he now has.
"You need goals from all areas, it is a problem for opposition teams if the threat is coming from other areas of the pitch," Southgate added.
"We have talked about that a lot, across the three games pretty much all our forward line have got off the mark with goals or quality assists.
"That is a good place for the forwards to be, they need that confidence, competing for places is where we want to be because then everyone knows they have to deliver.
"You want those sorts of decisions, we need strength in depth. Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips both got minutes, you never know when we are going to need certain players."
England reached the semi-finals at the World Cup in Russia in 2018 before going one better at the Euro 2020 three years later, but Qatar marked the first time the Three Lions have topped their group at FIFA's global competition since 2006.
Southgate remains buoyed with confidence as he believes England are a much-improved side to the one that fell to defeat against Croatia in 2018's last four.
"Compared to Russia there's a different mentality and a different belief," he continued. "In Russia, it was more like could we just win one knockout game, but there's more confidence now.
"We have more experience, I'm not sure if we're ahead of where we were [at the Euros]. But we have achieved our first objective.
"Against Senegal, who have some top players playing in big leagues across Europe, we know on the rankings we will be favourites but they are a very dangerous team."
Premier League MD7: Lucky winners and unlucky losers
There were plenty of thrills and spills across the board in the Premier League as matchday seven ran its course.
Manchester City and Arsenal both had to come from behind to beat Fulham and Southampton respectively at home, while there were eight goals scored as Brentford overcame Wolves 5-3, with six of those strikes coming in the first half in west London.
Liverpool kept themselves ahead at the summit thanks to a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, while Manchester United stopped the rot by holding Aston Villa, albeit they have now tallied up their lowest points total after seven games of any Premier League season.
Leicester City, meanwhile, grabbed their first win of the campaign, while Anthony Gordon endured a miserable return to Goodison Park with Newcastle United. In the final fixture of the weekend, Brighton stunned Tottenham, forging a second-half comeback to win 3-2 at the Amex Stadium.
So, after all that, who were the unlucky, and lucky, teams based on the underlying metrics?
Lucky winners: Leicester City
Leicester finally got their first top-flight win of the season on the board, as they edged out Bournemouth 1-0 thanks to Facundo Buonanotte's excellent run and finish.
But, it's fair to say it was something of a smash-and-grab for Steve Cooper's team at the King Power Stadium. Leicester had just six shots, with only two of those hitting the target, and they tallied up just 0.79 expected goals (xG).
On the other hand, Bournemouth had 19 attempts, creating five big chances (a tally bettered only by Brentford's eight and West Ham's nine this week) and accumulating 2.16 xG.
Bournemouth only have themselves to blame for wasteful finishing – they got just two of their efforts on target – but the Cherries can still consider themselves unfortunate.
Unlucky losers: Newcastle
Determined to impress against his former club, Gordon fluffed his lines when his big moment arrived as Newcastle drew 0-0 with Everton on Saturday.
With James Tarkowski having conceded a penalty by recklessly pulling the shirt of Sandro Tonali, Gordon stepped up to the spot, but Jordan Pickford guessed the right way.
While Everton wanted a penalty of their own in the second half, the Toffees were largely second-best and that is backed up by the metrics. Even discounting Gordon's spot-kick, Newcastle finished with 1.26 xG and 14 shots. The hosts accumulated 0.67 xG and had eight attempts.
Lucky winners: Man City
It's not often that the champions are given a run for their money at home, but Fulham did just that.
Indeed, Fulham finished with 2.6 xG at the Etihad Stadium, the fourth-highest total across the league this weekend, while they created five big chances.
Pep Guardiola has said he is not concerned by Man City's unusually open defence, but he will want to see better from his team in that regard after the international break.
Going forward, City benefited from three excellent finishes - two from Mateo Kovacic and one from Jeremy Doku. Their 1.57 xG came from 20 shots, though they created only one big chance.
Late wickets give England hope after difficult start to Pakistan Test
Three wickets in the final session kept England within reach on day one of the first Test against Pakistan, for whom Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood struck centuries in an impressive start.
The hosts reached stumps at 328/4 in Multan, but things could have been worse for England on a day that started with both teams keen to bat on a pristine surface.
Masood won the toss and elected to bat, and it was his excellent knock of 155 off 177 deliveries – his first Test ton in four years – that helped to put them in a commanding position at 261/1 soon after tea.
England actually made a fast start as Gus Atkinson – playing in his first overseas Test – had Saim Ayub (4) caught behind by Jamie Smith, but if the tourists thought they had an early breakthrough, those thoughts were soon dispelled.
Shafique put a poor run of form behind him with his watchful century, hitting 102 runs off 188 deliveries as Pakistan batted out the best part of two sessions without further loss.
He then fell victim to Atkinson in the 60th over of the day, playing a tired shot straight to England's stand-in captain Ollie Pope at cover, and within three more overs, Jack Leach had the wicket the tourists desperately craved.
Fatigue also looked to play a part as Masood tamely chipped Leach's delivery straight back to the bowler, bringing an end to his magnificent innings.
It was then time for Chris Woakes, who – like the rest of England's attack – had bowled expensively early on, to get in on the act.
He pinned Babar Azam lbw for 30, with a Pakistan review in vain as England gave themselves a chance to attack the middle order on Tuesday, the hosts only adding four more runs before stumps.
Data Debrief: Pakistan's progress slows
Pakistan knew they needed early runs to put Brendon McCullum's high-scoring tourists on the back foot, and early runs are exactly what they got.
Captain Masood led from the front, with his 43-ball half-century being the second-fastest by a Pakistan skipper in Tests, as he bids to halt the team's five-match losing run with him at the helm.
But things became steadier for Masood and his team-mates as the day went on. Pakistan's run rate stood at 4.88 by lunch, 4.48 by tea and 3.81 by stumps. England will hope they have weathered the storm and can go on the attack on day two.
Women's Champions League: Will the English teams crash the Barcelona, Lyon party?
As we gear up for another edition of the Women's Champions League, the excitement around this iconic club competition is as tantalising as ever.
This season's tournament, which starts on Tuesday, brings with it new managers and big moves from some top players, as the best and brightest across women's European football go toe-to-toe.
Sixteen teams have qualified and will now battle it out to be crowned champions of Europe in Lisbon next year.
The tournament will welcome Celtic and Galatasaray, who have become the first teams from Scotland and Turkiye, respectively, to reach the group stage in this current format.
There are also debutants in the form of Swedish side Hammarby, who turned heads in the qualifying rounds by knocking out last season's quarter-finalists Benfica.
After trailing in the first leg, Hammarby managed to claim a historic victory. No team had ever previously overturned a first-leg deficit in a Women's Champions League qualifier.
Barcelona are the reigning champions after they beat Lyon in the final back in May.
The growth and strength of the Women's Super League has been reflected in this year's final 16. With Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City all qualifying, England are now only the third nation to have three teams reach the group stage of the competition, with Germany and France having done so previously.
Europe's best are ready to battle it out, but who are the contenders, and which players could light up the 2024-25 edition?
The main contenders
Holders Barcelona will have a fight on their hands to retain their trophy this season, but they also have a strong chance of making more history themselves.
Barca are striving to become only the second club to win a third consecutive Champions League, and they will also bid to equal Lyon's record of appearing in five straight finals, with the French side having achieved the feat between 2016 and 2020.
Barca grew into a dominant force under former boss Jonatan Giraldez, who is now coaching Washington Spirit.
Former assistant coach to Giraldez, Pere Romeu, will have to see if he can continue the club's quest for trophies, but the bar has been set high by that quadruple last season.
Teams will be looking for the chink in the Catalans' armour. Defensively, Barca were generally excellent last season, though they did have a slight defensive underperformance, conceding 1.6 goals more than would have been anticipated based on their expected goals against (xGA) figures in the Champions League, albeit when discounting own goals, that underperformance dropped to 0.6.
They also had the meanest defence in the competition when it came to clean sheets, keeping six to help them win nine games.
The best sides in front of goal last season were, unsurprisingly, the two teams that reached the final – Barca and Lyon. They netted 36 times each across 11 games apiece.
Lyon, although under new leadership, are the most successful side in the history of the competition, winning eight titles, and they are difficult to look past as the team to beat.
Their free-shooting, free-flowing attacking system under former coach Sonia Bompastor saw them produce a whopping 270 attempts on goal last term, an average of 24.5 per game. Barca (237) were second for shots, and shot conversion rate (15.19%), meanwhile.
Lyon's xG was a tournament-leading 35.4, while Barca's 29.11 ranked second – however, Barca greatly overperformed their xG.
Indeed, their 6.89 xG overperformance was the highest positive differential in last season's competition, proving their finishing was of an exceptionally high standard.
It will not all be about Barca and Lyon, though. Two other former continental champions, Arsenal and Wolfsburg, are sides who will see themselves as ready to dethrone Barca and taste European glory once more.
Wolfsburg are six-time finalists and two-time champions, so they should never be discounted. Nor should Bayern Munich, who have won the Frauen-Bundesliga title in the last two seasons.
Bayern went out in the group stage last season, only winning one of their six games, but they should fare better this time around.
And while they are yet to go all the way in Europe, Chelsea and Manchester City could also be forces to be reckoned with.
English trio to challenge
Bompastor led Lyon to victory as their captain in 2011 and 2012 and as their head coach in 2021, an incredible feat that nobody else has achieved in the tournament's history.
She now finds herself in charge of English Champions Chelsea and will be keen to lead her new side to their first Champions League title.
Chelsea, who reached the semi-finals, had the best shot conversion rate (15.38%) in the 2023-24 tournament, scoring 20 goals from 130 shots.
Bompastor will hope to build on her own success and knowledge of the competition and become the first manager to lead an English side to European success since Arsenal's victory in the 2006-07 season.
Despite winning everything there is to win domestically under previous boss Emma Hayes, this is a trophy that has evaded the Blues and they are desperate for success. They lost 4-0 in a humiliating final outing versus Barcelona in 2020-21.
Serial winner Lucy Bronze has been brought into the Chelsea fold by Bompastor, and a huge factor in that transfer was her experience of Champions League success. The ambitious defender will aim to become only the second player, after Conny Pohlers, to win the competition with three different sides, previously lifting the trophy with Lyon and Barcelona.
City, meanwhile, are appearing in the group stages for the first time since the competition's format was changed in 2021 and Gareth Taylor and his team will be keen to show Europe's best why they have pushed Chelsea all the way in the WSL in recent seasons.
Last season's star players
Kadidiatou Diani was the leading scorer in last season's Champions League, netting eight goals, and she will be as dangerous as ever in Lyon's attacking line.
Those goals came from 4.77 xG — that 3.23 overperformance was higher than any other player in the competition. She was not only the highest goalscorer, but her finishes were a level above what would have been anticipated based on the quality of chances she had.
Ada Hegerberg is the all-time leading scorer in the competition with 64 goals. However, she underperformed her tournament-leading 7.33 xG by 2.33 last campaign, so there's scope for improvement for the 29-year-old.
Despite the xG underperformance, she still tallied up an impressive five goals to finish tied for fifth in the charts, along with Caroline Hansen, Tabitha Chawinga, Marie-Yasmine Alidou and Sam Kerr.
Lyon's Selma Bacha created the most chances in last season's competition (35), registering 4.12 expected assists (xA), though she only provided two assists in total.
Barcelona's Hansen (33) was second-highest for chances created, but led the way for xA (4.66) and assists (five), level with her team-mate Aitana Bonmati and just ahead of Bronze and Roma playmaker Manuela Giugliano (both four).
Between the sticks, St. Polten's Carina Schluter was the busiest goalkeeper, making 43 saves, though Chelsea's Zecira Musovic boasted the best save percentage (81.82%) of any shot-stopper to play at least 90 minutes.
Jennifer Falk, of BK Hacken, was the best-performing goalkeeper when it came to goals prevented, however, conceding 10, which is 3.85 fewer than would have been anticipated based on the quality of shots she faced, according to Opta's expected goals on target (xGoT) model.
The groups
Four groups of four teams will battle it out to reach the knockout stages. There are some top ties to look forward to before we get to the last eight, and undoubtedly there will be some surprises along the way.
Group A boasts two former champions with 10 titles between them in Lyon and Wolfsburg. The two sides have met in finals of the tournament on four occasions, with Lyon victorious in three of those instances.
But Wolfsburg, who thrashed Fiorentina in qualifying, have lost some huge names over the summer. Germany midfielder Lena Oberdorf, Poland forward Ewa Pajor and Netherlands defender Dominique Janssen all exited ahead of the new campaign.
Pajor has made a fantastic start to life at Barcelona, scoring six goals already, and generating the highest xG of any player in the top five leagues so far in 2024-25 (6.56).
Roma will join the two giants from Germany and France. Their best finish in the tournament saw them progress to the last eight on their competition debut in 2022-23.
The group's final side, Galatasaray, battled hard through the qualifying rounds and stamped their mark on the competition by knocking out three-time quarter-finalists Slavia to become the first Turkish team to reach the group stage.
Group B has served up a familiar matchup with Chelsea and Real Madrid being drawn together for a third consecutive year.
Dutch Champions Twente will bring an attacking brand of football to the tournament and should not be underestimated. They scored 20 goals to qualify for the group stages. Debutants Celtic, meanwhile, will also look to make their mark.
Group C could be considered the group of death, with former champions Arsenal, Bayern and surprise package Juventus, who caused the biggest upset of the qualifying rounds, going head-to-head.
The Bianconere became the first team to knock out Paris Saint-Germain before the quarter-finals since Tyreso in 2013-14, ending the dreams of English number one Mary Earps after her big move from Manchester United.
Group D will host the most exciting fixture of the group stages as holders Barca take on Man City in the opening game. The teams have met previously in a quarter-final in 2020-21, with Barca going on to win the tournament that year.
St. Polten have qualified for the fourth time in five seasons, and Hammarby have shown they are not scared of the bigger sides by knocking out one of last year's quarter-finalists Benfica in the qualifying rounds.
The tournament promises to be exciting, with some intriguing storylines to follow from top to bottom.
Will Barcelona win a third straight crown, can Lyon extend their record number of titles, or is it time for an English champion for the first time since 2007? We can't wait to find out.
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