Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo slammed Luxembourg's pitch as a "potato field" and also said he had not been fully fit in recent matches after the European champions won 2-0 on Sunday to qualify for Euro 2020.
Ronaldo scored his 99th Portugal goal late in the game, having notched a hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Lithuania three days earlier, but it was far from a vintage performance on a pitch full of divots at the Josy Barthel stadium.
"It's difficult to play on these pitches -- it was a potato field, I don't know how teams of our level are supposed to play on these pitches," he told reporters.
"It wasn't a good spectacle but we did our job... I'm looking forward to my fifth European Championship."
The 34-year-old had joined up with the Portugal squad amid speculation over his fitness and attitude following his angry reaction to being substituted during Juventus' 1-0 win over AC Milan the previous Sunday.
Juve coach Maurizio Sarri then said that Ronaldo had been struggling with a knee problem for some time.
"In the last three weeks, I have been playing with limitations," Ronaldo told a group of reporters outside Portugal's dressing-room door on Sunday. "But there was no controversy -- you [the media] created that.
"I tried to help Juventus. Nobody likes to be substituted but I understood because I wasn't in such good shape," he added.
Ronaldo said he was also "not 100 percent" in the two Portugal matches.
"I sacrificed myself for the team," he said. "We could have missed out [on Euro 2020]. Thankfully, I haven't been injured much in my career but it can happen."
"It's a pain that prevents me from being 100 percent, but I always try to play. They created a big controversy where it didn't need to exist. I'll be back to 100 percent soon."
Portugal finished second in Group B with 17 points, three ahead of Serbia who drew 2-2 with Ukraine.
Ronaldo would become only the second player to score 100 goals by reaching that milestone.
"The 100th goal will come naturally," he said. "Records are there to be beaten and I am going to beat them."
Harry Winks and Mason Mount each scored their first international goals as England beat Kosovo 4-0 in their final Euro 2020 qualifying match on Sunday.
England had already secured their spot for next summer's tournament but the win in Pristina also ensured their place among the top six seeds. England finish top of Group A with 21 points from eight games, their only blip being last month's 2-1 defeat in the Czech Republic, who have qualified as runners-up.
Winks' score came in the 32nd minute off a smart finish from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's pass inside the box.
Kosovo gave England some nervy moments throughout the second half, but late goals from Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford ensured the win. Kane has scored in six straight games for the Three Lions, tied for the longest streak of his career.
Mount got his goal in stoppage time after Kane slipped the Chelsea youngster ball for a simple finish.
Kosovo finished third on 11 points. Their chances of automatic qualification disappeared after a 2-1 defeat by the Czechs on Thursday but they could advance via the playoffs.
The closing stages of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy's league phase were enlivened by a tight race for the Super League and two prominent names making a comeback, Prithvi Shaw and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Sunday was to be the last day of the league stages for all five groups, but reschedules have meant there will be seven matches from Groups C, D and E played on Monday. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super League, to be followed by semi-finals and the final.
Shaw smacks half-century on comeback
Having served out his eight-month ban for consuming a banned substance, Shaw returned to action for Mumbai in the familiar environs of the Wankhede Stadium with 63 off 39 balls at the top of the order in a Group D match. Assam had to bear the brunt of a Mumbai side smarting from a shock defeat against Meghalaya in their last match.
Mumbai piled up 206 for 5 after being asked to bat, while Assam could muster only 123 for 8.
But while Aditya Tare, Shaw's opening partner, was the game's top-scorer, smashing 82 off 48, Shaw was the cynosure. It was his first knock at a representative level since the IPL Qualifier for Delhi Capitals against Chennai Super Kings on May 10.
He came through the test well, though Assam's bowling didn't pose the greatest challenge, hitting six fours and three sixes in his knock. Shaw will now need to build on a successful start to his comeback to challenge for a spot in the Indian team again. In his absence, Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal have established themselves as unquestionably the first-choice openers in the Test team.
Bhuvneshwar makes a solid comeback
Injuries, and team dynamics, have meant Bhuvneshwar has slipped from being a three-format India player to one who is looked at primarily for limited-overs cricket. Even with the white ball, Deepak Chahar's emergence as a swing bowler of considerable skill has meant Bhuvneshwar's absence hasn't quite been an unfillable void.
Before the T20I series against Bangladesh, chief selector MSK Prasad had said, "Bhuvneshwar Kumar might come in the next series."
Bhuvneshwar took some strides towards an international comeback, making a steady if understated return to competitive cricket. He played his second match in three days for Uttar Pradesh, in Group B. His comeback game was against Manipur on November 15 in Thumba, where he took none for 13 in three overs. Against Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, he bowled his full quota of four overs and took 1 for 23.
Kerala made 119 for 8 in 20 overs, before Uttar Pradesh, set a revised target of 44 in seven overs, ended up on 42 for 4, losing by one run. That result had significant ramifications for who ended up qualifying.
Karnataka, Baroda, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Haryana qualify
Karnataka, Baroda, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan have already qualified for the Super League, with Groups A and B having completed all their matches.
Some matches remain in Group D, but Mumbai and Haryana have qualified from that group. Mumbai are on an impregnable 24 points. Haryana have 20, with a match against Meghalaya left. Even if they lose, there is no other team on 20 points. Puducherry are on 16 and can equal Haryana on points if they beat Madhya Pradesh, but Haryana had won their head-to-head match against Puducherry.
Both Karnataka and Baroda finished on 20 points in Group A, having five wins and one defeat each, and sailed through comfortably. The going was tighter in Group B. Tamil Nadu were the group leaders with 20 points, but Rajasthan, Vidarbha and Kerala all finished on 16 points each. They had all beaten each other once, which meant Rajasthan, with a net run-rate of 1.938, qualified ahead of Vidarbha (0.566) and Kerala (0.503).
Two rain-affected matches that were decided by a margin of just one run played a part in deciding the Group B table. Vidarbha had beaten Rajasthan by a single run on November 12 despite Chahar's heroics, and, on Sunday, Kerala beat Uttar Pradesh by the same margin. If Kerala hadn't won, there wouldn't have been a three-way tie and in that case, Vidarbha would have gone through by virtue of having won their head-to-head against Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan did all they could to qualify, destroying Tripura in a nine-wicket win. They first restricted Tripura to just 69 for 7 in 16 overs, and then smashed their way to 74 for 1 in five overs, ensuring their net run-rate would be high enough to take them through in case of a three-way tie - which is exactly what happened.
Group C currently has six out of eight teams on 16 points each, making the race very right. Two Group C games are still remaining. The winner of Maharashtra v Punjab will straightaway qualify, since they are two of the teams on 16 points. Railways, also on 16, will join in if they can beat Himachal Pradesh in the other game. Himachal have only eight points, though, so if they win, it could leave five teams on 16. Punjab have a net run-rate superior to all others, so if they lose to Maharashtra, they'll still be in position to qualify - should Railways lose. The team with the second-highest net run-rate right now is an unlikely one: Chandigarh. It will be quite a story if they qualify.
Jharkhand are on top of Group E, but both Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir are close behind, and the latter two have matches in hand. The next two teams are Gujarat and Odisha, who will also be in action on the final day, which makes Group E's scenario uncertain till the end.
Georgia edged past Alabama to No. 4 in The Associated Press college football poll after the Bulldogs had a quality road victory and the Crimson Tide lost star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the season.
LSU remained No. 1 in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank, receiving 54 first-places votes. No. 2 Ohio State (five first-place votes) and No. 3 Clemson (three first-place votes) maintained their spots. Georgia moved up one place after winning 21-14 at Auburn.
The Crimson Tide beat Mississippi State 38-7 on Saturday, but Tagovailoa dislocated his right hip while being tackled late in the second quarter and is done for the year. Alabama fell a spot to fifth.
Minnesota and Baylor both lost for the first time and dropped in the rankings. The 11th-ranked Gophers slipped four spots after losing at Iowa. No. 13 Baylor dropped one after blowing a 28-3 lead at home to Oklahoma.
Iowa jumped four to No. 19 and Oklahoma moved up two spots to No. 8.
(:11) (Field Goal formation) K.Fairbairn 43 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Right, Center-J.Weeks, Holder-B.Anger.
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Mark Andrews Pass From Lamar Jackson for 18 Yrds, (Kick formation) J.Tucker extra point is GOOD, Center-M.Cox, Holder-S.Koch.
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Ethiopian takes 77 seconds off Joyciline Jepkosgei’s world mark at the Seven Hills Run in Holland
Letesenbet Gidey has won the world cross-country under-20 title twice in the past but on Sunday in the Netherlands she came of age as she obliterated Joyciline Jepkosgei’s world 15km record with 44:20.
Jepkosgei, who won the New York City Marathon impressively this month, ran 45:37 two years ago during a half-marathon in Prague, but Gidey took the mark to another level in the NN Zevenheuvelenloop (Seven Hills Run) event in Nijmegen.
Gidey showed great form in Doha recently when she finished runner-up to Sifan Hassan in the world 10,000m final but her 15km run on Sunday (November 16) shows she has great potential over half-marathon and potentially the marathon.
The 21-year-old won the world under-20 cross-country crown in 2015 and 2017 (pictured below) and took senior bronze in Aarhus in March this year.
She said: “I am so so happy to have won here in a new world record. I felt I was in good form in preparation to the NN Zevenheuvelenloop and my legs felt good all race.
“I was quite surprised to see how much time I was able to get off the previous world record to be honest but I had great legs and it was a really nice race. To finish with this result makes me so proud and so happy.”
Amazingly she covered the final 10km in 29:12, the fastest 10km produced under any conditions and faster than the 29:17.45 world track record held by Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia.
Stephen Kissa of Uganda took the men’s race in 41:49 to go No.7 on the world all-time lists.
WRU member clubs elected Burgess to the 17-strong WRU council and she will now be confirmed on the 12-member board, which directs the governing body's policies.
The WRU also has a nine-strong professional executive board, made up of chief executive Martyn Phillips and leading paid employees including Julie Paterson.
Gareth Davies is delighted at Burgess' move, having previously urged clubs to increase diversity on the traditionally male-dominated governing body council.
"It's a moment we have worked towards and one which we must continue to work towards recreating, again and again, as we strive to increase and diversify the pool of talent which represents our great clubs at board level," added the former Cardiff, Wales and Lions fly-half after the WRU's annual general meeting.
Burgess' role will be confirmed when the new WRU council meets on Tuesday, 19 November.
Speaking to BBC Sport Wales, she said: "It's a really exciting opportunity and I'm really looking forward to taking the role on."
In 2018 Burgess was the first Welsh woman to be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
But she admits while playing she never considered going on to be a governing body official.
"It wasn't something I even thought about all those years ago," said Burgess, who has coached Wales Women Under-20s and Barbarians Women.
"It just goes to show what great opportunities exist, not only for myself but for women in sport to show that it can happen.
"And we've got these role models now that young girls can look up to and think there is an opportunity for me within Welsh rugby."
The Pro14 has agreed a deal in principle to sell a 27% stake of the league to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.
The deal will result in a cash boost of almost £120m to the league owned by the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Rugby Unions.
Each union would have a cash injection of around £35m, with sides from South Africa and Italy also benefitting.
CVC will buy a minority shareholding after agreeing a similar deal with English clubs.
Pro14 bosses have been in long-term discussions with CVC after the firm bought a stake in the Premiership in December 2018, a deal worth more than £200m for a 27% stake.
The Six Nations is already in "an exclusive period of negotiation" with CVC to sell a stake in the game's oldest championship.
CVC would take over the commercialisation of the Pro14 from Celtic Rugby DAC, which runs the league, particularly in the areas of sponsorship and broadcasting.
There has been talk about developing the league from the five countries that already play in the tournament, with the north American market being targeted.
The deal is yet to be officially ratified and approved but news of it was revealed at the Welsh Rugby Union's annual general meeting at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday.
WRU chairman Gareth Davies says private equity would be welcomed: "It is an interesting departure and development.
"It is commonly known that the Pro14 has been in discussion with CVC and it looks like that could be moving forward.
"There are still i's to be dotted and t's to be crossed but that is moving on. That will be an influx of money into Ireland. Scotland and Wales and that is well received.
"Discussions are ongoing and hopefully there will be some extra funds in our coffers. It will come into the Union first of all and we are in discussions with the (Welsh) regions and they will benefit as with others.
"Looking at the Pro14 it is an easier entity to offer a share. In England they have gone directly to the clubs because they are the ones negotiating."
Davies says he is not concerned with losing control of the league, with the Pro14 maintaining a majority 73% stake.
"The rugby element will still be controlled by the Unions and professional team," said Davies.
"Rugby is not always good at working together because there are lots of areas of self-interest.
"It probably needs an external partner to knock heads and to more commercialise what is regarded as an underexploited sport."
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Chase Briscoe clinched Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, as well as fifth in the NASCAR Xfinity Series point standings, with a furious rally back during Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300.
Briscoe actually locked up top rookie honors after stage two, but was running third in the second half of the race when he hit the outside wall in turn one at Homestead-Miami Speedway, cutting a right-front tire on his No. 98 Ford Mustang and putting his hopes of a strong finish to the season in jeopardy.
However, Briscoe, crew chief Mike Shiplett and their Stewart-Haas Racing crew went to work, dug their heels in and patched Briscoe’s car back together in order to give him a shot at redemption.
From there, Briscoe took that shot and ran with it, coming all the way back from outside the top 15 to finish right where he was before his turn-one incident.
Briscoe took the checkered flag third for his 13th top-five and 26th top-10 finish in 33 races this season, a solid record and one that Briscoe was quick to note his appreciation for after the race.
However, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t disappointed in the final outcome at Homestead.
“I felt like honestly, when the green flag pit stop came, I came out right behind (Justin) Allgaier and (Noah) Gragson and lost three and a half seconds to Reddick just trying to race those guys. If you take that away, I think towards the last 10 or 20 laps, I was about eight seconds back,” lamented Briscoe. “I knew I wasn’t going to catch them, so I tried to just save my stuff. If I could have got around Allgaier and Noah quicker, then I could have reeled them in. I thought even with the damage we had a shot.
“A caution would’ve for sure benefitted me, but it would have hurt the 00 (Cole Custer). They were out of tires because of that loose wheel,” he continued. “So he would have ran dead last because he would have had no tires left. I was definitely wanting a caution, but for the big picture for them, I was hoping that we didn’t get a caution. It was weird though; I felt like our car was really good, not necessarily at the beginning of the run, but as soon as it moved all the way to the wall about 15 laps in.
“It just depended on when the caution might have come, if I would have had anything for (Reddick).”
Though Briscoe’s first season produced a win at Iowa Speedway and a playoff berth alongside Custer, his teammate and the championship runner-up, he doesn’t have a confirmed seat for 2020 as of yet.
“I know they’re still working on trying to find funding to make it happen, but as of right now, I don’t have anything,” noted Briscoe, who edged Austin Cindric by just eight points for fifth. “Obviously I was wanting to win the race tonight. I feel like if I had done that, it would have made everything a lot easier. But I felt like we showed speed, and I feel like if we do get to go back next year, I feel like we could be serious championship contenders.
“Hopefully they can iron out everything and we can work together and try to figure something out, but right now they’re still working on all that.”
Asked if he’s optimistic that things will fall into place for him, Briscoe didn’t give a direct answer, but feels like he showed enough this season to earn his place in the Xfinity Series.
“I think it’s day by day right now,” Briscoe said of his situation. “I think one day is a lot better looking than the other. But I feel like I’ve proved enough this year that if they want me bad enough, they’re going to find a way to make it happen. … I felt like the second half of the year I proved that I deserved to be here, and hopefully I showed enough in their eyes.”
Briscoe becomes the sixth driver to win the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series rookie-of-the-year award (2017) and then follow it up with Sunoco rookie honors in the Xfinity Series later in his career.
He joins Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and William Byron in that exclusive club, an opportunity he relishes, even if he felt there’s a lot more he can improve on.
“If I had to rate (the year) on a 1 to 10 scale, I would say it was like a six-and-a-half,” Briscoe said. “I felt like at the beginning of the year, I kind of struggled to understand what I needed in these race cars, and truthfully how to drive them and the feel I was looking for. The biggest thing was that I couldn’t feel the right rear ever. As the season went on, we kind of switched from trying to say do what Harvick ran the year before and what Cole was running and just try to build more of a setup to what I felt better about.
“Iowa was really the first race that we decided to do that, and that was the race we won. It seemed like from then on out, we were a serious contender every week,” Briscoe explained. “Looking back at these playoffs, especially, I felt like we could have realistically won three or four of the races, and weird stuff happened. The Kansas deal … the Roval was one where I think I could have ran down Allmendinger, Dover I think we led the most laps and didn’t catch a caution, and then tonight just getting into the wall.
“I think the end of our year was definitely better than the first part of the year, but overall we definitely have more to improve on and I can get way better as a driver, I feel like. I just need a chance to.”
MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Chase Briscoe has confirmed that he will take part in both the Gateway Dirt Nationals and the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals this winter, with backing from DiaEdge CNC Tooling.
Briscoe, who was crowned at the NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie of the year Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, will return to the seat of his own Chase Briscoe Racing No. 5 for both events.
The Mitchell, Ind., native, who cut his teeth on the dirt tracks of the Midwest before transitioning to stock-car racing,
“I’m really excited about the opportunity we’ve got coming up during the NASCAR offseason,” Briscoe noted. “If anybody watched the Eldora truck race, they saw us have DiaEdge CNC Tooling parts on our truck with ThorSport Racing. I was talking to those guys – they’re based out of Mooresville, N.C. – and first we just started talking about if they could make some titanium parts for my Chili Bowl car, and once they said they could do that no problem, they asked about doing some money stuff, too, to help out.
“So we started talking, and honestly I think within two weeks of first starting the conversation they had struck up the deal to do the Gateway dirt race and the Chili Bowl. It’s a big deal and I’m super pumped.”
Briscoe returns to his self-owned team after a Chili Bowl appearance this past January driving for Boss Factory Racing, under the guidance of noted car owner Steve Reynolds.
He finished eighth in his B-Feature during this year’s Chili Bowl, coming two spots short of a transfer into the Saturday A-Main, but Briscoe is eager to get back into his own equipment and test his skills again.
“I’m just really excited to get back into the midget, in general,” Briscoe said with a smile. “We’re actually going to do a photo shoot, a video shoot with the car next Monday, then we’ll go test out at Millbridge. I’m excited to see how it is. Last year I didn’t run my own stuff, and this year I’m going back to running my own stuff. I feel like I’ve made it a lot better since we made the Chili Bowl (finale) in my own stuff, but we haven’t ran great in the main race in the past.
“Hopefully now, with all of our improvements, we can run a lot better this year and make some noise.”
The Gateway Dirt Nationals takes place Dec. 19-21 inside The Dome at America’s Center, while the 34th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals hits the track at Tulsa Expo Raceway Jan. 13-18, 2020.
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