Preston continued their strong start to the season as they claimed a narrow 1-0 Championship victory over lowly Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon.
Liam Lindsay’s header early in the second half was enough to give the Lilywhites their second win of the campaign, with Wednesday tasting defeat in all three of their league games so far.
Wednesday boss Xisco Munoz made four changes to the team that lost 4-2 at Hull, with Liam Palmer, George Byers, Momo Diaby and Anthony Musaba joining the starting XI.
Preston manager Ryan Lowe made just the one switch from the 2-1 win at home to Sunderland, with Duane Holmes coming in for Ali McCann.
The away side had the first chance of the game within 10 minutes when Brad Potts met Kian Best’s pinpoint cross with a controlled volley and Devis Vasquez did well to get down to his right to tip the ball round the post.
Wednesday’s first sight at goal was after Musaba’s run from the right but Juan Delgado could not quite make a telling touch. Lee Gregory then fired his shot from the edge of the box straight at goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.
Will Keane nearly found himself on the scoresheet once more for Preston but his close-range effort went wide of goal in the last chance of the half.
It was the perfect start to the second period for North End as they took the lead after 49 minutes.
Best whipped in a brilliant free-kick from the left and there was nothing Vasquez could do about Lindsay’s bullet diving header.
The Lilywhites remained the better of the two sides after the opener as skipper Alan Browne saw his free-kick deflected just wide of goal.
Arguably Wednesday’s best chance of the second half came as Delgado’s header was saved comfortably, following Akin Famewo’s cross from the left.
The home side brought on forwards Michael Smith, Callum Paterson and Ashley Fletcher in an attempt to bolster their attacking threat.
Djeidi Gassama also came on to make his Owls debut after being signed from Paris St Germain earlier in the week.
However, Preston were completely untroubled by Wednesday in the remaining minutes and saw the game out comfortably to claim all three points.
The victory sees North End rise to fifth but the result sees Wednesday sit at the bottom of the table as the only club in the Championship yet to pick up a point this season.
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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